For those who don't get one in the mail... here is a {virtual} Christmas card.
Have a WONDERFUL Christmas tomorrow! 💖
Dear Ones~ December
2020
Merry
Christmas!
What a surreal year it has been,
wouldn’t you say? I mean…Covid19, a
shutdown economy, farmers dumping milk and slaughtering pigs while food pantry
lines are miles long, toilet paper hoarding, mask-wearing, never seeing smiles,
displaced children, school closings, churches shut down, abortion clinics not,
riots, looting, death, destruction of property, election mayhem…even Aunt
Jemima was cancelled. We have had a good
solid 9 months of humbug. 2020 stink,
stank, stunk.
This isn’t going to be a very uplifting
Christmas letter…. or is it?
😉
1 Thes. 5:16-18 tells us that we
are to “Rejoice
always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s
will for you in Christ Jesus.”
No time to be grinchy- there is too
much to be thankful for. Once you start the counting of blessings, it is hard
to stop! Here is just a sampling of things
to be thankful for from each of us from this past year.
Moses is still alive though he is a magnet
for trouble, is fearless and a Sneaky Pete! (an exhausting combination.) We
watch him every second and I still had to call poison control twice in
one week for this dude. Ingesting gross
things is not the only thing this boy does in his free time. He also enjoys sneaking out of doors and
windows and is abnormally attracted to shiny, sharp objects. I am thankful that the Lord has even the itty-bitty
babies in His Hands- because Moses needs that (and I need to KNOW it!). He is almost 15 months old and still only
really says the word “Mama”, so he wins the award for slowest talker in the
Newman house. He knows plenty of signs
to help him communicate though, which helps.
Imagine! A quiet
Newman! 😉 He
walks backward when feeling defiant (Whaaat?), dances to any tune he hears and still
has delightfully squeezable thighs.
Ineke is turning five a few days before Christmas
and I do not wonder at the gifts she will get- she is all about unicorns, mermaids
and princesses…the little girl trifecta.
She asks every day to “do a hard thing” which inevitably involves my
oversight and lots of messes to clean up.
She is creative and clever and rambunctious and feisty- and she has the
twinkly eyes to prove it. She has a
sharp mind; she asks deep questions and makes observations that I wouldn’t normally
associate with a four-year-old. I love
watching her face as she watches movies- because she feels very deeply
and wears openly her joy or sorrow.
Judah is 10 and is most often seen around the house
wearing soldier-sized military clothes that are a tad too big for him. He loves to play with the G.I. Joes that Matt
played with when HE was a boy. Judah draws wonderfully intricate pictures-
mostly of soldiers- and loves to read and write- mostly about wars and weaponry. I am thankful for this interest and passion while
being simultaneously thankful that he has been shielded from the destruction
and pain real wartime brings. Judah also
enjoys helping Matt on his building projects- just last weekend he helped Matt
bury electrical cable to the Timber Shed. Matt couldn’t have done it without him.
Adele just turned 12 on Thanksgiving Day and you
wouldn’t believe the difference a year has made! Last year she looked like such a little girl
in pictures and this year she is quite the young lady. She
likes being curled up with a good book (Favorite book of the year : The
Winter King by C. Cohen Current read : Heidi by J. Spyri ). She also enjoys drawing at the table, going
for walks, wearing pretty dresses, writing letters to penpals, and knitting on
the couch (she just finished knitting a beautiful cowl in just a few days! I
try not to be jealous of her skills). She
joins Moses in the ‘quiet’ department and is perfectly at ease, even by herself. This is a wonderful quality to have-
contentment comes easily to those lucky sorts!
Andrew is my 14 year old naturalist~ he is most at
home in the woods. He enjoys taking my
camera out with him to ‘shoot’ things- as is evidenced by the sheer volume of
photos on our computer of sunsets, trees, geese, beaver dams and deer. Of course, he enjoys the other sort of
shooting too - he continues with his record to score a buck on the second day
of hunting season for the fourth year in a row now. Andrew also traps- in fact, he got two
muskrats a couple days ago. I look forward
to seeing him tan those hides instead of storing them in my freezer. 😉 He decided to take on the maple syrupping endeavor
this spring (almost) single-handedly and wound up with a gallon or so of
delicious maple syrup for his efforts.
Of course, he continues to be a huge help with the farm chores and cow
milking and is such a hard worker that even neighbors have asked for his help
on projects like pruning orchards and picking potatoes.
Corynn is
now 17 (gulp!) and brings such exuberance to this house that I have forbade her
to leave it until she is at least 35. (She
thinks I am kidding- but she is wrong.) She
got her drivers’ permit, a bit late due to Covid and a Mama who wants her
little girl staying little- and wound up getting a little blue ‘Smurfmobile’ to
drive around in even before getting her license. Corynn continues to find (and bring) joy in
and through her art. This year, she
collaborated with someone to illustrate a privately published picture book
which was a new and exciting (and sometimes stretching) opportunity for her. She enjoys running (particularly with
friends), playing guitar (particularly FOR friends) and writing letters (to
-you guessed it!- her friends). I love
watching the mail because even her envelopes and those of some of her penpals
are works of art! (I try not to be jealous of her mail.) She makes me feel better by feeding me warm
cookies from the oven and giving huuuuge hugs.
Matt still has a job- unlike many people at the end
of 2020- and that is something we do not take for granted! “Business Matt” is capable, intelligent,
professional, handsome (is that sexual harassment?) and as busy as ever. “Farmer Matt” is reliable, strong, talented, industrious
and… as busy as ever. Matt and the boys spent many a weekend
working on his parents’ Lake Cottage project together this year. He sided his Timberframe shed this year and
ran electricity to it. Matt built
bunkbeds for the girls’ room, built a pig pen and ran fencing, built a deer
blind with Andrew and many other projects, both necessary and
superfluous- he just can’t stop himself!
That he has the strength, talent, motivation, and means to do such
projects are also gifts we do not take for granted!
As for me, I am thankful that we have been relatively
unaffected by all the Covid craziness. I
am thankful that my children have been homeschooled for so long that it just
seems natural to stay home and learn that way, that we don’t enforce masks OR
social-distancing in our home, that the children have space to roam free
instead of being cooped up indoors, that Matt is still working, that we are all
healthy, that we have like-minded friends who share in our struggles and joy,
that we are able to worship each Sunday, that we have food on the table, clothes
on our backs and even presents under the tree.
I know that there are many who are
not as insulated from the shockwaves of all that 2020 has brought with it-
whether trying to readjust to new work, new schedules, homeschooling, having
children home, financial struggles, family struggles, health problems or fear,
isolation, depression, worry or stress… these people weigh heavy on my
heart. Please know that I truly am praying
for this nation and for all of those who are struggling right now. We all need a bit of saving, that is for
sure- but the wonderful news is… we were given a SAVIOUR!
Whatever the Lord has in store for
us in 2021, we know that He will work it together for our good and His
glory. May we all remember that the joy
of the Lord is our strength! So give
thanks, we do. Pray continually, we shall.
Rejoice always, we will! I hope that you will do the same and that the
Lord will bless you all abundantly in this new year. A very MERRY Christmas to you all!
With lots of love to you and yours…
from me and mine! Rebecca et al.
