Christmas is coming!

Yes, the holiday season descends upon the hooligan household, bringing with it recitals, concerts, advent readings, colder weather (some years anyway), Christmas lists, parties, and waaaaayyyy too much food. Every time I venture out into the big bad world of *shopping*, I do penance for not having it all done by the end of November. Oh well. I'm at about 50%, so there is hope. Ben's and Cami's recitals are done; both hooligan children performed respectably on their respective instruments. My mother got to see Cami play her violin for the first time in over a year, because the hooligan grandparents were "home" in Africa for all last year again, running a guest house for the mission agency they were with for 25+ years while I was growing up. Grandma was definitely impressed by Cami's progress over the last year. She is playing really well for only having had lessons for just under 2 years (if I do say so myself). Grandma enjoyed the recital far more than Cami enjoyed playing for it, I'm sure, but thats the stuff of life.
Ben barely managed to sing in his choir for the Christmas concert at church this last weekend after having a nasty cold that made him miss the dress rehearsal. Fortunately he was well enough to make the performances, and the kids only sang 2 of the songs anyway. The concert was beautiful. It always puts me in the Christmas mood, and reminds me - again - of why Christ came. All it did for Ben, I'm afraid, was culminate about 4 days of being a total slug with his disease, which made today, Monday, a school day, a bit.....shall we say....more distasteful than average for him. But we persevered!!!
Today was also the last PE coop class of the semester. It was a free play/party day, marred only by Ben having to spend the first 15 mins time-outing in the car to atone for his bad attitude of last PE day (Mom supervised the kickball game & made the ultimate parental faux-pas of calling her ds "out" at first base.....oh the depths of hooligan humiliation!!!! Being called out by your MOTHER!!). Not being one to let such a parental blunder go unpunished, let us just kindly say that he provided himself another wonderful opportunity to experience the Lord's discipline and learn Godly wisdom. *cough*. Nuff said. It was a great afternoon, Dear Hooligan Son was a model of obedience (at least for those 2 hours), and it was a fun way to wind up the semester.
So it's feeling like Christmas, which makes it difficult for all the little & not so little Hooligans to focus on schoolwork. Santa-Mommy must always grab that jolly little whip from the bottom of her sleigh and crack it nice and loud to keep the little reindeer-hooligans flying! Aside from the whip cracking, though, we are again enjoying all the reminders of our Savior's great love for us. He has blessed us SO much this year, as he always does, through good times and hard times, joys and sorrows. He is truly faithful to our family of sinful hooligans (smile), and He is our daily Prince of Peace.