Merry Christmas! Love Sebastian

A long, long time ago, before he was born, I wrote a letter to Sebastian. In that letter, I talked about how Tim & I had decided to keep a running tab of all the purchases we made for Sebastian each year, and at the end of the year, make a donation in his honor to an organization that provides care for children around the world. I have to admit that I don’t do a great job of keeping a budget or documenting finances, but this is something that we took seriously, so I tried to keep up with it as best I could. After some research and deliberation, Tim & I decided to contribute a percentage of the purchases we had made for Seb to World Vision. We believe in their ministry and know that the money we shared with them will be put to very good use. We also tried to be intentional about which categories we selected to direct the funds we were contributing. Sebastian played an active role in the selection process, too! We showed him pictures of different children, projects, ministries, etc., and if he laughed or smiled, it seemed like it was a good fit!

Here’s the list of things that Sebastian gave as his Christmas gift to the children of the world in 2009:

• Clothing for Children
• Orphans and Widows Fund
• Clean Water Fund
• $350 Worth of Necessities in the USA (through matching gift donations from corporations in the USA)
• Education for 1 Child
• Bicycle for a Girl
• Provide $490 Worth of Clothing (through matching gift donations from corporations in the USA)
• 2 Soccer Balls
• Art and Music Instruction
• Bed Nets for a Family
• Help for Children with Disabilities
• New Mother and Baby Kit
• Immunizations
• Provide $490 Worth of Medicines (provided by co-sponsoring pharmaceutical companies)

These are all things that we have been or will be able to readily provide for Sebastian, so we wanted to share them with others less fortunate. Our hope is that, over time, Sebastian will develop a deep understanding of the worlds’ needs and grow a passion and love for the children of the world. Our prayer is that we will continue to be able to model this for him. Tim and I have both experienced poverty and the tremendous need that exists around the globe, and we feel compelled to give of our time and resources in order to help to bring equality and basic needs of life to others. We’re already praying about and planning our first family missions trip for later this year.

Sebastian also had the chance to prepare school kits for Mennonite Central Committee with his Grandma. This is something that she does every year with each of her grandchildren at Christmastime. And even though Sebastian is the youngest of them all, he really enjoyed stuffing those bags! (Never mind the slobber-drenched onesie he’s wearing – that’s just part of normal life around here.)

Many thanks, by the way, to Sebastian’s aunt, Tia Lydia, who made the Christmas card with Sebastian at the top of this post. It was such a special surprise to find that in his bag when he got home from her house his last visit before Christmas! It sounded like he really got a kick out of his first painting experience! Sebastian is so fortunate to spend quality time with his aunt and each of his grandmothers. We are incredibly BLESSED and THANKFUL for their presence in his life and the CARE they provide for him.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! LOVE SEBASTIAN

Baby’s 1st Christmas and the holiday in review…

It’s been a wonderful holiday season for us! Last year at this time, we only dreamt of what it might be like to have a child at Christmastime. A year ago I was just starting to feel Sebastian’s movements inside my belly… the awe and wonder of a baby growing on the inside have now translated into the awe and wonder of a baby growing on the outside. He brings us such JOY! Our happy, healthy, smiley baby is really the best Christmas gift we could have hoped for – we are so BLESSED and have so much for which to be THANKFUL!As to be expected at this age, he experiences pretty much everything via his mouth, and opening his gifts was no exception. Many thanks to all our family for the generous gifts. Sebastian is a happy lil’ camper and is totally enjoying all of his new toys. We still have presents under the tree for him, because we have found that any more than one or two gifts a day is a bit overwhelming… and we’d like to extend his Christmas for a little while longer. We actually haven’t done any gifts for the past two days, and Sebastian certainly doesn’t seem to mind. :)He had a great time dressing up like a miniature Santa… followed by an elf. Grandma and Grandpa were excited to be able to share some of the Christmas cheer with our little Santa/Elf/Baby… never mind the runny nose! And Seb had lots of fun exchanging presents with his cousin (and helping open others’ presents, too!). This year the cousins all exchanged names, and Sebastian and Gabe both had each other’s names. One of the gifts that I was more excited about giving this year was an album that I had made for Tim’s mom from the pictures of our trip to the Outer Banks. Each of his siblings contributed photos, plus I managed to sneak some off of my M-I-L’s camera, and it turned out to be a wonderful collection of photographed memories. It was a fun surprise!

View Full Album

Sebastian even got to spend time with his second cousin, Blake, who’s just two months older than him, but about 5 pounds and 2 inches bigger (note the two happy twin grandpas holding their newest grandbabies). And… he got to hang out and play with his cousins, Isaac and Lauryn, who love to make him laugh. Sebastian just giggles and giggles anytime they’re around. They were kind enough to share their rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” on video. If you pay close enough attention, you can hear Sebastian trying to sing along in the background.



I received a Flip video camera for Christmas (very, very cool and exciting!), which gives me the ability to film videos in a super easy fashion… so stay tuned for more videos to come! Aunt Bev’s been asking for the videos…And one last shot – Grandma Judy with her kiddos. I think I see some resemblance in the genes of these cousins!Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone!

Christmas JOY!

We had full days over the Christmas week, with something to do and somewhere to be every- single-day for 8 days straight! Fortunately we managed to squeak in some rest and relaxation time amidst some wonderful moments with our families.
Our nieces and nephews are such a joy to watch grow up, mature and develop each of their personalities a little bit more. They are each soooo different, and each wonderful. They're all loving and affectionate, well-mannered, and respectful (I'm sure this is how they are always behaved in their own homes, too!). Our youngest niece, Ella, is almost three, and really starting to come out of her shell and warm up to us now. She's so fun to watch and so full of energy! I don't know that my brother ever expected to have his sister reincarnated in his own daughter, but I see little glimpses of myself as a child in Lauryn each time I see her!
We had some time to celebrate Christmas while Jill & Daniel were still up north before heading back to Florida. We also had some time with my parents, and with Tim's family, including all the siblings and their kids. Before Christmas, we attended the annual "Zimmerman Family Christmas," which is Tim's maternal side's gathering of anywhere from 130-160 people (yowsers!). We had a much smaller gathering of the Johnsen family after Christmas, with my dad's siblings and just a few of the cousins.
I think we were both very thankful for the peace, quiet and soft-sung worship that we were able to experience (albeit only for an hour and a half), while we soaked in all aspects of the Candlelight Christmas Eve Service at our church. With all of the hustle and bustle of the season, it seemed like just what we needed to help us inch our ways a little more into the Christmas spirit... the real spirit of the season! We've celebrated the birth of our King and Savior - the greatest gift of all!
Here's a sampling of our photos to share the memories of our Christmas joy! We are abundantly blessed!

A dancer or a soccer player?

As we sat at dinner at Taj Mahal (one of our favorite restaurants, where we are "customers for life") on Monday night with several friends, I felt a rumble or a tumble in my belly... I said to my friend "I think I might have just felt the baby move." And she promptly replied, "Or that's the Tikka Masala you just ate!" I didn't feel anything on Tuesday, but Wednesday brought a few strange, yet fascinating sensations in my womb. Yesterday, however, was a day full of wonder and awe, as I sensed movement -clearly other than my digestive tract- several times throughout the day. This really is an incredible thing! I never imagined how amazing it would actually be to realize and feel that there's a tiny little human being developing and growing inside my body. It's indescribable, I think, and until you've experienced it yourself, you really have nothing to compare! I'm not sure if we have a dancer (salsa, of course) or a soccer player in there, but if this early movement at 18 weeks and 4 days is any indication of their energy level in the future, we'll be busy!

On another note, we finally got our tree decorated, and it looks beautiful. We had quite a time getting all of our lights to work... it's so strange how you can put them away one year, totally working fine, and pull them out the next, only to find that half the lights are out?!? Ugh! Anyways, my very patient and diligent husband got them all in working order, and we're a little more in the Christmas spirit every day.

Full of Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a very full holiday and weekend, but it was great. I was the rounder all week at the hospital last week, and on call on Thanksgiving Day, but we managed to squeeze in two turkey meals with both of our families. We enjoyed a wonderful time with our parents, siblings and nieces and nephews. I managed to get a photo of the feasting table at my parents' house, but forgot all about it at Tim's parents' house. By the time we got to Tim's parents' house, I was very tired, and the tryptophan was kicking in - I think it took over my photo taking natural tendencies! Friday night we headed downtown to enjoy the Mayor's Christmas tree lighting, a tuba Christmas concert, a walk through Central Market, and a meal at one of our favorite locales - Spyro Gyro. Yummy Greek food! Steve, Isaac and my parents met us down there, while Traci and Lauryn stayed at home nursing a pending cold in my niece.

We had a fun outing on the Saturday after Thanksgiving with my parents, brother and sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. It's beginning to be a tradition now to go to Frysville Farms to get our Christmas tree. We pick out our favorite concolor fur, get some hot apple cider and meander in awe through the aisles of pointsettias. The kids spoke to Santa, ensuring him that they were very well behaved, and each getting a toy in return. And to top it all off, we had a horse-drawn hay wagon ride through the tree orchards. Now we can enjoy the aroma of our citrus-smelling tree as it pervades the living room!
We have so much for which to be thankful. It's so easy to forget that in the midst of how busy life gets, what's going on around us with war, bad economies, global warming, worsening crime, etc. and seeing the sorrow of so many others around us. We have a warm house, good food which is abundant, good secure jobs, wonderful family, health, love, education, our faith, terrific friends, a baby growing inside of me and each other. We are blessed! Thanksgiving shouldn't be just a single day, but a way of life... everyday.

Our tree topper - the perfect blend...

I was having a horrible time trying to figure out how to format the photos on our entries, and it was getting frustrating enough, that I decided just to add a separate -brief- entry to show off our wonderful tree and the dove tree topper we used. Some day maybe I'll learn a little more about html and be able to put the photos where I want them, instead of where some little computer blog elf decides they should go.

Finding the perfect Christmas tree...

It was a beautiful Saturday morning (a week and a half after Thanksgiving), when my parents called to find out if we'd like to join them for tree hunting... We said "sure" and finished up our lazy morning routine before heading out -- we don't get too many lazy Saturdays!

We all fit in my dad's pickup truck (Tim & I in the children's seats in the extended cab), and my parents in the front. We made the journey up to Frysville Farms, where we meandered through several trees, looking for the perfect one for our home, our first Christmas together as a married couple. We settled on a beautiful concolor fir, which comes highly recommended by my parents, because of it's lovely citrus smell and sturdiness of the needles, which don't fall off much (hooray!).

The tree stands beautifully in our living room, and it only took us about three weeks before we put the lights on, then another two weeks to put the decorations on. Fortunately, the Friday before Christmas we put the decorations on the tree - a moment of feeling as though we had accomplished something, but also a moment of sadness, as we were unable to locate Tim's box of decorations. We are living in chaos, surrounded by many boxes on all three floors of the house, the basement, and the garage. It's possible that Tim's decorations may be yet-to-be-discovered, but we fear that they may have been destroyed, and thus thrown away, by the restoration company that cleaned out the flooded basement at Tim's old house. We realize that they are just material things, but for Tim, they hold many memories of his childhood as well as gifts he'd received while travelling all around the world in his work with YES (through Eastern Mennonite Missions) and Global Disciples. We still hold onto the hope that one day, when we are at a much more organized time in our lives, we may locate that box of Christmas ornaments, to allow the memories to live on.

One last thing about our tree - I found a gorgeous tree-topper at Ten Thousand Villages, that seemed (at least to me) to be the perfect compromise for us as a couple, now living under one roof and blending almost 70 years of joint history prior to our marriage. It's a dove, made in the Phillipines, out of silver dollar-like pearly, iridescent glass with silver trim. Tim grew up in a star topper family, and I grew up in an Angel topper family, so this beautiful symbol of peace is just the perfect thing for us, our tree and our home!

Enjoy the photos of our tree hunting with my parents.