Macaroni Angels and a Boil Water Order

Wednesday January 4, 2012


I’ve wanted to write about both of these things for several days. I had an epiphany while driving home from school today – I suddenly realized how these two things are like.

I love my macaroni angels. You see the front above. I love the back, too, where the childish scrawl says “Andrew,” followed by the date in my hand.

They’ll hang on my tree until they fall apart. Right alongside the posterboard cutout of a stable with a bit of real straw stuck to it…and a Baby Jesus with stick arms and legs in the manger.

I have a friend with a designer tree. It’s lovely. Ever year, its beauty takes my breath away. But try as I might, search as I will, I never see a single macaroni angel hanging there. And I think of mine and smile.

Because my tree? Its beauty doesn’t take your breath away; its bits and pieces represent moments that took my breath away.

Beauty in imperfection. Love in the making.

Our Christmas Eve was kind of like that. The day was busy. We have a Christmas Eve birthday boy in our family, so the Eve is busier than ever. The mom in me tries to make his birthday as special and separate as I can. His celebration at lunch is followed by family Christmas Eve dinner, then the opening of family Christmas gifts.

Having a technical husband and son who work in churches is not unlike any church staff family. Christmas Eve service? Multiple services? They need to be there. So we juggled that as well on Christmas Eve.

We enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner together and two left to work another service, with a promise to return to open family gifts afterward. I started cleaning up the kitchen and suddenly the power dipped and then went out…kind of. Long story short, we lost half the power in half the house. I couldn’t see in the kitchen to do the dishes, but I did notice the water had slowed to a trickle.

I abandoned the dishes and sat by the tree (where the power was still on). The birthday boy and I did some last-minute wrapping and had a good conversation. By the time my husband and son got home, not much had changed. Still half power; still no water.

We opened presents and enjoyed the evening. The water was back by 11 PM, but since there was a boil water order, we couldn’t use it for much. The power can back on at 3:30 Christmas morning.

I’ve learned (often the hard way) not to expect the perfect Christmas, and I’m not on the hunt for the perfect New Year, either.

For the imperfection, the simple, the human, and even child-like all frame my need for Someone greater.

My macaroni angels and my boil-water-order Christmas both remind me.

It’s not about perfection, but the beauty in the imperfection.

It’s about the love in the making.


Linking up today with Laura at The Wellspring for Playdates with God, Jen at Finding Heaven Today for Soli deo Gloria, and Jen, whose button you see below. Click on over and come along with us!

Family Blessings: Friday's Fave Five

Friday January 7, 2011


Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for hosting Friday’s Fave Five. It’s a great opportunity to share our favorites of the week. If you’d like to join in, just visit Susanne and get the details.

Here are my week's blessings:

1. Being here! I'm ever-so-glad to be back. I can't wait to hear from all of you and visit you, too. I wrote about that earlier this week, and things still haven't slowed down enough for me so I can take a leisurely visit with you -- but I'm hoping for some time this weekend.

I really have wondered and thought about and prayed for so many of you. I'd hear on the news what was happening somewhere and think, "That's near my blog friend!"

2. A wonderful family time. This holiday was a little different than we'd planned (you can read about that here), but it was wonderful in its own way. Someone had other plans than mine, and I was reminded that where He guides, He provides.

3. Little Aiden. Oh, the precious times with that little grandson! We got him one of those recordable storybooks and I recorded Grandmom reading to him. He just listened, big-eyed, when I held him and played it. My son and sweet daughter-in-law were so flexible, too, about bedtimes and Grandmom cuddling time and everything. This is where I should insert a picture, but we're a bit technologically challenged right now... I promise to get one up soon.

4. Uncles and brothers. So neat to see the brother bond between my boys. There are great pictures of three of them clustered around their oldest brother who is holding his son Aiden. They'd sit and watch him (and comment on the amount of drool a baby generates), they'd steal him from me or his Grandad from time to time, and they even took some crazy brother / uncle pictures with him. (They look crazy and silly; he looks a little stunned and a lot entertained.)

5. A precious quote. I do love a good quote, and there was no better one in the last few weeks than this one, from my mom. If you read my earlier post, you know she began our visit in the hospital and came home a few days later. She wasn't feeling up to hostessing as she usually does, so guess who took over? Actually, everyone pitched in, from grabbing the phone for her to filling her car up to running to the store for her to wrapping gifts for her...you name it. Our last night there, we all gathered around the big oval table and grabbed hands as we usually do as one of us voices the blessing. At my mom's, we usually alternate and she always tells us who she wants to pray. As we're waiting for her to name someone, my mom just dips her head, so we do, too. That's when we hear her say:

"Father, if I were to count all my blessings tonight, these children would go hungry."

I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I added my own silent thanks for such a mom.

So good to have you here again and I can't wait to hear from you and reciprocate. Here's hoping your last several weeks have been filled with joy.

One of the Best Gifts

Monday, December 20, 2010

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:

the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

(Burton Hillis)

Enjoy!