The Holy Spirit came last night and spoke to my husband. We were just getting packed up to leave to go look at Christmas lights. He said, "You know, wouldn't it be neat to go and give a Christmas card to the people that have to work on Christmas Eve?" And although we didn't really have a plan as to how to do it, we decided that it was something from God and we would carry through with it. So we packed up Kyleigh and all our spare Christmas cards in the car, and I wrote them while Matt drove around looking for places that were open. (This was all around 9:30 or 10:00 last night.)
The cards said:
"This is just a silly card to cheer you up while you work on Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God bless you. Our family will be praying specifically for you tonight as you work."
(We also put the name of our church and its phone number on the back.)
All in all I think we dropped off a little more than 10 cards and we didn't get home until close to midnight. But it was fantastic.
When we got to our fourth place, it was my turn to go in and hand the attendant the card. There was a line of about 3 people ahead of me. So rather than cut in line, I just stood and waited my turn. When I got up to the man, he said, "How can I help you?" And I said, "I don't need anything. My family just wants to wish you a Merry Christmas since you have to work on Christmas Eve! May God bless you!" and I handed him the card. His eyes welled up with tears and he said a broken "thank you, Merry Christmas." It was awesome!! A few times when Matt went in to give the card it was to "rough" looking men. They looked at him kind of funny, but then when they understood he was just bringing them a gift, they got a look of gratitude on their faces and every one of them shook his hand. Another place we stopped looked pretty scary. The cashier had a long line of really rough looking people, all buying late night booze and liquor. Matt just marched right in, up to the front of the line, handed the card to the cashier with our little spiel and turned to the line of about six people and said "Merry Christmas!" and got six Merry Christmases right back!
Next year we've vowed that we'll have our cards prepared ahead of time, possibly with some homemade cookies or treats. By that time Kyleigh will be walking, and she can help us hand the cards out. The year after that, we'll take homemade pictures that Kyleigh drew/colored in addition to our cards.
It was so amazing! Thank you Jesus, for this opportunity.
Merry Christmas everyone! God bless us all!
Monday, December 25, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Kyleigh's First Christmas Eve!
I can't believe it's already Christmas! It's really exciting! Of course Kyleigh has no idea what Christmas is, and she'll probably be eating her wrapping paper tomorrow morning instead of furiously ripping it off her presents, but that's alright.
It doesn't really feel like Christmas. I'm not sure if it's because Matt and I are just starting our new lives together and haven't really established a tradition, or if it's because I'm away from Texas (where I've had Christmas for the 22 years before I was married), or maybe because I didn't have time to put up a lot of Christmas decorations this year. Or maybe it's because the movies "Scrooged" and "Mickey's Christmas Carol" aren't on! Can you believe that? I think I've watched those two movies for YEARS every Christmas. It's tradition! We checked our cable and neither of them are on. *sigh* Oh well. I'm sure by next year, when Kyleigh knows who "Santa" is, and knows that wrapped presents contain something she'll like, Christmas will be much more exciting. By that time she'll be walking and talking up a storm! Yikes!
Well, we're about to go drive around and look at Christmas lights! (That's a Christmas tradition in the Donaghey family that we're going to make a tradition for Kyleigh!)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! :)
It doesn't really feel like Christmas. I'm not sure if it's because Matt and I are just starting our new lives together and haven't really established a tradition, or if it's because I'm away from Texas (where I've had Christmas for the 22 years before I was married), or maybe because I didn't have time to put up a lot of Christmas decorations this year. Or maybe it's because the movies "Scrooged" and "Mickey's Christmas Carol" aren't on! Can you believe that? I think I've watched those two movies for YEARS every Christmas. It's tradition! We checked our cable and neither of them are on. *sigh* Oh well. I'm sure by next year, when Kyleigh knows who "Santa" is, and knows that wrapped presents contain something she'll like, Christmas will be much more exciting. By that time she'll be walking and talking up a storm! Yikes!
Well, we're about to go drive around and look at Christmas lights! (That's a Christmas tradition in the Donaghey family that we're going to make a tradition for Kyleigh!)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! :)
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Kyleigh's capabilities and other cute things ...
Kyleigh is officially 5 months old. 5 months and 2 1/2 days to be exact. Here's some things that she does that astound her parents and just about the most adorable things we've ever seen:
She sticks her tongue out as far as possible and goes "aaahhhhh" like she's at the doctor. (This feat is most amusing when she has a spoonful of peas in her mouth.)
When she gets happy or excited about something and she's laying on her back, she furiously kicks her left foot. (Just the left one.)
She eats virtually everything she can get her hands around. One of her favorite things to eat is her mommy's glasses, but a close second is her daddy's fingers.
Sometimes she'll get bored of laying down and will fuss and cry until you come over and help her stand up. (She'll continue to cry if you pick her up because she wants to stand up.) It's her favorite new trick.
We already gave her a slice of lemon once while we were out to eat one Sunday after church. She had an immediate love/hate relationship with that thing. She couldn't wait to get it into her mouth, but once she did, she'd shudder and made a face. She would stick her tongue out while making a "sour" face and say "uuuuuhh". It was hilarious. The table next to us had two senior couples who thoroughly enjoyed her lemon experience also. :)
Kyleigh is bald. And not just a little bald, but pretty much completely bald. There's a few hairs here and there, but they're very small and light colored. She's adorable, but her big ol' head is just so BALD! I have to make sure she's dressed in lots of pink and flowers when we go out, or else people always think she's a boy.
Her first word is "boo" and she says it a lot. We always say to her "I love you" and "ahhh-booo" when we're playing with her, and she seems to mimic the intonation we use on those when she says "boo". It's so cute!
She seems to be a night owl. She fights sleep at night (Wow she's stubborn - I have NO idea where she gets that from. Must be her father's side of the family!) Her silliest time of the day where talks and laughs the most is at night.
She can almost sit unsupported. She only needs a tiny bit of support. She can't pull herself into that position yet, but if we sit her up, she can stay that way for quite some time.
Matt and I always remark on how sweet of a kid she is and how blessed we are by such a wonderful child.
My continuing prayer for her life is that she is a blessing to everyone she meets, mirroring God's love and grace in all her actions towards others, so that they may see and have no question as to Whom she belongs.
I love being a Mommy. Thank you, God, for this opportunity.
She sticks her tongue out as far as possible and goes "aaahhhhh" like she's at the doctor. (This feat is most amusing when she has a spoonful of peas in her mouth.)
When she gets happy or excited about something and she's laying on her back, she furiously kicks her left foot. (Just the left one.)
She eats virtually everything she can get her hands around. One of her favorite things to eat is her mommy's glasses, but a close second is her daddy's fingers.
Sometimes she'll get bored of laying down and will fuss and cry until you come over and help her stand up. (She'll continue to cry if you pick her up because she wants to stand up.) It's her favorite new trick.
We already gave her a slice of lemon once while we were out to eat one Sunday after church. She had an immediate love/hate relationship with that thing. She couldn't wait to get it into her mouth, but once she did, she'd shudder and made a face. She would stick her tongue out while making a "sour" face and say "uuuuuhh". It was hilarious. The table next to us had two senior couples who thoroughly enjoyed her lemon experience also. :)
Kyleigh is bald. And not just a little bald, but pretty much completely bald. There's a few hairs here and there, but they're very small and light colored. She's adorable, but her big ol' head is just so BALD! I have to make sure she's dressed in lots of pink and flowers when we go out, or else people always think she's a boy.
Her first word is "boo" and she says it a lot. We always say to her "I love you" and "ahhh-booo" when we're playing with her, and she seems to mimic the intonation we use on those when she says "boo". It's so cute!
She seems to be a night owl. She fights sleep at night (Wow she's stubborn - I have NO idea where she gets that from. Must be her father's side of the family!) Her silliest time of the day where talks and laughs the most is at night.
She can almost sit unsupported. She only needs a tiny bit of support. She can't pull herself into that position yet, but if we sit her up, she can stay that way for quite some time.
Matt and I always remark on how sweet of a kid she is and how blessed we are by such a wonderful child.
My continuing prayer for her life is that she is a blessing to everyone she meets, mirroring God's love and grace in all her actions towards others, so that they may see and have no question as to Whom she belongs.
I love being a Mommy. Thank you, God, for this opportunity.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
I never realized how quickly life goes by ....
I guess you never fully understand how fast time goes by until you have a kid. Kyleigh is like a living reminder of that now. I can't believe how big and strong she's getting! And I swear I was just posting something on here about a month ago, but apparently it's been about 3 1/2 months. (oops!)
Kyleigh's almost 5 months old now. It's amazing. It seems like just the other day she was smiling for the first time, and now she's playing with her toes and eating everything in sight (well, putting everything in her mouth, anyway).
She LOVES her Daddy. We apparently chose her middle name very appropriately ... Abigail = "the joy of her father". She squeals and shrieks and laughs when his face is in her line of sight. She likes me too, I suppose, but I'm not nearly as exciting as her father is. :)
I'm blessed beyond measure. (My dad always says, "Better than I deserve") Kyleigh is such a joy! She's an all around good kid, and it seems like she's always happy. Matt is so good with her. I'm pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully he took to this whole "fatherhood" thing. He is a fantastic father. He adores his daughter, and it shows. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful partner to raise children with.
Parenthood has its definite struggles, but WOW it's certainly worth it!
Our two dogs have adjusted very easily to having the baby around. They're not jealous and they pretty much give her space. Kyleigh always seems to be interested in Ranger, but he's not really so excited about how she pulls his fur and bats at his nose, so he usually goes to find somewhere else to lay if we put her near him.
We're thinking about moving down to the Amarillo, Texas area at some point. Hopefully we can do that before Kyleigh gets too much older.
We're still working with Calvary Chapel church, and God is blessing us there. I'm working at State Farm and Matt's managing GNC. We are certainly "better than we deserve".
Better go get to some housecleaning! Ky's sleeping and Gloria's coming over tonight to watch her so that Matt and I can go do something together. I think we're going to go bowling. :)
Kyleigh's almost 5 months old now. It's amazing. It seems like just the other day she was smiling for the first time, and now she's playing with her toes and eating everything in sight (well, putting everything in her mouth, anyway).
She LOVES her Daddy. We apparently chose her middle name very appropriately ... Abigail = "the joy of her father". She squeals and shrieks and laughs when his face is in her line of sight. She likes me too, I suppose, but I'm not nearly as exciting as her father is. :)
I'm blessed beyond measure. (My dad always says, "Better than I deserve") Kyleigh is such a joy! She's an all around good kid, and it seems like she's always happy. Matt is so good with her. I'm pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully he took to this whole "fatherhood" thing. He is a fantastic father. He adores his daughter, and it shows. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful partner to raise children with.
Parenthood has its definite struggles, but WOW it's certainly worth it!
Our two dogs have adjusted very easily to having the baby around. They're not jealous and they pretty much give her space. Kyleigh always seems to be interested in Ranger, but he's not really so excited about how she pulls his fur and bats at his nose, so he usually goes to find somewhere else to lay if we put her near him.
We're thinking about moving down to the Amarillo, Texas area at some point. Hopefully we can do that before Kyleigh gets too much older.
We're still working with Calvary Chapel church, and God is blessing us there. I'm working at State Farm and Matt's managing GNC. We are certainly "better than we deserve".
Better go get to some housecleaning! Ky's sleeping and Gloria's coming over tonight to watch her so that Matt and I can go do something together. I think we're going to go bowling. :)
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