So this is Christmas

We ate a late lunch today - roast, mashed potatoes, green bean casseroles, cranberry sauce, french onion soup, rolls and two kinds of pie. It was quite an ordeal to put together, even with the help of the whole family. It was nice, though, to be busy and productive. And I was doing just fine until I hugged my father and he whispered "I love you."

Then I fell apart. I walked quickly to the kitchen to clean up (and escape the tears choking my throat) and the only thing I could think was "this day is terrible - my daddy has cancer and my husband is in jail."

This Christmas sucks.

In the last two days I have helped to lead three church services and sung countless carols extolling God. I have prayed, spoken, sung, pondered and given thanks for God's Advent into the world. But really, today still sucks.

Instead of rejoicing in a full house, I am brought low by Cliff's absence. Instead of commiserating over swollen bellies, I am fretting over my dad's dwindling appetite and his few painful bites of food. Instead of peace, I feel brokenness.

If there is a part of the Christmas story that I feel closest to right now, it is the slaughter of the holy innocents. My family has been ravaged and now we are struggling to find consolation in the aftermath. I don't feel the peace of God's presence. I don't feel the joy of angels or shepherds. I don't feel the awe of wisemen. I feel the desperate confusion of the mourning mothers and fathers of bethlehem - shocked at their ripping loss.

So this is Christmas - this year at least. About the only thing I DO have hope for is that 2012 and all it entails will be better than 2011. And that next Christmas I will feel the presence of Emmanuel.

But this year?

Not so much.

A Birthday Party

Though Gareth actually turned 1 on April 19th, we celebrated his birthday on Saturday, April 16th to make sure all of our families could be there.  I think its a bit silly to have themed birthday parties for 1 year olds, as they will have no recollection of the event, but when asked what the theme would be, I always replied: Crawfish.

That's right, Gareth's birthday party was a crawfish boil.  That's what you get when you marry into a cajun family.

So without further ado, a collection of pictures from the birthday party.  Thanks Jenny Dougherty for taking such awesome pictures.

Yes, Gareth is holding a live crawfish.  He was totally unfazed by them.

Gareth & Grandpa

Gareth loves his cousin Aubrey

And his cousin Granger

Nan and Gareth share a dance

The whole gang!

Mom, Dad & The Boss

Eating cupcakes is serious business

But Gareth likes to share

Grandma comes to the rescue!

Hooray for birthday presents!

Thanks to all of the great presents that Gareth received.  We are blessed by the love of our family and friends!

A Place Called Terrible-Land

Life has been....

Severely Complicated for the last several months.

And by Severely Complicated, I mean that there have been lots of tears, lots of prayers and so many unanswered questions that sometimes I'm not sure even the ground is really solid.  We're living in a place I like to call "Terrible-Land."  "Terrible-Land" looks the same as "Life-is-Normal-Land" except that we now know so much more clearly what instability, vulnerability, fear and trembling, and terror mean.

It sucks.

I can't really be anymore specific for legal reasons.  YES.  IT'S THAT KIND OF SEVERELY COMPLICATED.

So why do I bring it up at all?  Because we need your prayer so desperately.  Because your support keeps our fears at bay.  Because I just can't keep it all bottled up all the time.

So here is how you can pray for our family during this sojourn in Terrible-Land.

1).  Pray that we would feel the peace and provision of God in every moment
2).  Pray that we would remain healthy and strong to weather the unending storm that we are living through
3).  Pray that God would bring about miracles for us
4).  Pray that we would be a witness to God's love throughout the pain
5).  Pray however the Holy Spirit leads you

"Fear not, I have called you by my name and you are mine. When you walk through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers, they will NOT overflow you. When you walk through the fire you will not be burned nor will flames scorch you... for I am the Lord your God the Holy one of Isreal, your Savior!"

Isaiah 43:1-2

Cousins

Gareth and Tristan finally met.  What cuties!

Believe it or not: Gareth is already one month old!

Wow.

It's been one month since our son was born.

One month filled with joy, surprise, heartbreak, despair, love and fear.  

Thank you once again for all your prayers, love and friendships.  You've made this month easier for all three of us.  We're looking forward to our future with anticipation and hope - sure that God is with us!

We love you Gareth Alexandre. 

Introducing

Congratulations to my (Elizabeth) sister Arwen & her husband Paul!
Their baby boy, Tristan Ripley Rimmer, was born yesterday at 6:19am.  He was 6lbs and 19.5 inches long.

Gareth is excited to share lots of fun times with you - we can't wait to meet you beautiful boy!

The Baby Shower

Wow.  Thanks to my family, my church and friends for making this event so awesome.  We got so much great stuff and we're ever so close to having the nursery finished.

On a related note, baby clothes are very small.  Hard to believe!

So, without ado, here are some pics of the baby shower on March 13th.  You'll see I'm very, very pregnant at this point. 
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What we did in October

So, imagine my (Elizabeth) surprise when I learned that my dearest husband Cliff had never been to the TEXAS STATE FAIR.  He's a natural born citizen of Texas and I'm not, and I'VE been many times.  Scandal.  So this year, we decided to take a trek up to the DFW and go visit Big Tex at Fair Park with my parents.

Big Tex says hello.  He's not shy!

I know that there are games and concerts and all sorts of attractions to see at the Texas State Fair, but we really wanted to go because of the FOOD.  The FRIED FOOD.  (This is the part where my sister-in-law Tiffany shudders.  She has a masters in nutrition.)  We were psyched.  We figured that since we'd be walking all day and sharing food between the four of us, that it couldn't be that bad.  As my mother said "We're practically virtuous." Truth.

So weren't we thrilled when we discovered that the Texas State Fair had CHALLENGED US TO A DUEL! They must not have ever met my husband, because he is ALWAYS up for a duel.  The terms were this:

Eat this list of food (pictured below)

1. Fernie's Deep Fried Peaches & Cream

2. Deep Fried Butter

3. Country Fried Pork Chips

4. Fried Peanut Butter Macaroon

5. Green Goblin (?)

6. Sweet Jalapeño Corn Dog Shrimp

7. Texas Fried Pecan Pie

8. Twisted Yam on a Stick

We also added: 9. Chicken Fried Bacon

The challenging part?  Don't Barf.  What do you win?  EVERLASTING GLORY.  I assume anyway.

Of COURSE we were up for the challenge!

I don't exactly remember what order we did this in, but you get the picture.  Below you'll see the DEEP FRIED BUTTER.  You may be thinking "gag, Elizabeth.  I saw that Simpsons episode where homer started his own religion so he could stay home on Sundays and eat a stick of butter wrapped in a waffle, and it wasn't pretty."  True, but this was not so...animated.  Taste-wise it was like the Best, Buttery Biscuit you have EVER had in your WHOLE life.  It was delicious, bar-none, our favorite dish of the whole day.

Fried Butter = Delicious.  Don't even argue with me because I'm sure God eats these in heaven.  

Below is the Deep fried Pecan Pie.  It tasted exactly as it should and sharing one between the four of us was a wise choice because it was very sweet.  My note in the program was "yum!"

Why yes, I will have some pie!

I know this didn't come next, but I have to write about it.  This was the "Green Goblin" and it was a pepper, stuffed with shredded chicken and guacamole, battered, deep-fried and then covered in Nacho Cheese.  I was 11 weeks pregnant at this point, so this one wasn't easy for me.  The description turned ME green. But, it wasn't half-bad.  Cliff and my mother really enjoyed but I think my dad and I were just kinda weirded out that somebody fried guacamole.  Way to ruin a healthy fat!

There's probably a horror movie named after me!

Our next challenge-food reminded me of Thanksgiving.  It was a yam, cut into twistys (technical, I know) then deep friend and covered with cinnamon-sugar.  I'm not a Yam person, but this was actually pretty delicious.  It ended up tasting like Yam-chips.

I was healthy...and then I came to the fair.

Next up is the Sweet Jalapeño Corn Dog Shrimp.  This was an odd one.  The Shrimp were covered in some sort of Jalapeño jelly and then battered in corn-dog breading and fried.  It tasted...okay?

If there was a kick-ball team of fried foods, this one would be picked second-to-last.  Poor shrimps.

Below you will see the Big Tex Choice for Best Tasting Award Winner, Deep Fried Peaches and Cream.  This was really good.  The peaches were perfectly ripe, the batter wasn't too thick and the cream added a perfect little side of creamy.  I still liked the deep fried butter better, but this was still great.

I'm fruit! I swear I was nutritious once!

Below are my least favorite of the evening (though to be fair, Cliff liked them both).  I can't really tell which is which, but one is the Deep Fried Pork Chips and the other is the Chicken Fried Bacon.  I could only do a bite of each of these and then I turned green and got queasy.  Cliff loved the Chicken Fried Bacon.  We all thought the Deep Fried Pork Chips were overrated.

Fried Pig, Version 1

Fried Pig, Version 2.  

You are probably thinking, WAIT!  WHAT ABOUT THE FRIED PEANUT BUTTER CUP MACAROONS?!  Sad to say, we didn't get to this one.  We tried!  But when we got in line for this delicious item, they were OUT.  OUT!!!  I still think we deserve a win on this challenge because it wasn't OUR fault that we couldn't eat the macaroons.  It was the Fair's fault.  

What say you?  Were we victorious?  Or were we defeated soundly?

Here's What We've Been Doing

Hey gang.
It's been awhile, but I do keep promises.

Cliff graduated last Friday - it was awesome.

Here he is before the ceremony...

And now...walking in:

And walking out! Graduated!

His parents,

brothers, sister-in-law, niece, grandpa and great-aunt and uncle were there.

As were my parents and brother. See?

Also in attendance: Gray-ham and The Cachinnator.

Also graduated:Mr. Chris Moore

Sarah Rochelle & the Bentleys

Ms. Van Morris

Here's a picture of us just for kicks. Just one more year!

We then headed over to Cliff's grandpa's house for celebratory barbecue.

Looks fun, yeah?

I'll post pictures from Ren Faire later