O Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving came a bit late this year, so as I saw a lot of other friends and family do, we decided to get our tree out a few days early instead of waiting like usual. 

We opted to try a new space for our tree this year too, choosing to position it in the corner of our formal living room rather than in the upstairs landing or nook where the kids often play. After shifting a few pieces of furniture around, we figured out how to make it work and Dave hauled in the box so we could get started.

The kids were so excited to help with the process. Even Reid, who I'm sure can't remember last Christmas and has no idea what we were about to do, jumped right to see what everything was.

Caleb, on the other hand, has a memory like an elephant and knew exactly what steps we needed to take to get this baby up and lit.

We didn't put any ornaments up that day, but you can tell by the looks on their faces just how excited the kids were anyway.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we got to help put up another tree; this time at Granny's. Having been through such a rough year, Granny wasn't feeling much in the mood for Christmas and decided she didn't want to decorate. If you know my grandmother, you know that this is definitely not like her, so my cousins Stacey and Allison planned a decorating party at her house to help her with the task and bring a little holiday spirit. They invited anyone in the family who wanted to come to join them, and since Dave had a big project to work on that day, it was a good distraction for us to get out of the house.

The kids just liked playing together...

Do you like Hadley's holiday placemat blanket?

...while the grownups got started. Allison was the only one of us who really knew what she was doing as she began shaping and assembling the tree. The rest of us just took our cues from her. Granny's tree was not nearly as easy to put up as ours was either. We debated throwing it away and chipping in to buy a new one part way through, but we got the job done...we may have to hunt the after Christmas sales for next year though!

It was a challenge trying to figure out how to get all the lights to work.

Stacey left the tree to us while she took care of the rest of the house. Boy, does Granny have a lot of nutcrackers!

Our biggest mistake of the day was not keeping Granny busy. She was in the kitchen loading the kids up on ice cream! Surprise, surprise!

After their tummies were full of sugar, the little ones got a chance to help with the decorating too. They took their job seriously, especially Hadley.

Reid ended up being the entertainment. Stacey put some Christmas music on her phone and little biggity britches got a hold of it. He danced and danced, stealing everyone's attention as he showed off his moves. And boy does he have them!

Meanwhile, our tree was still sitting undecorated at home. We decided not to get out much for simplicity's sake this year, but we finally did pull out a few items including the Little People Nativity set, a couple wreaths, and a box of ornaments for the tree.

Having already gotten good practice at Granny's earlier in the day, the kids went to work diligently filling the lower branches with the "safe" ornaments I handed them while I placed the breakable ones up higher. Typically I skip the fragile ones all together now that I have kids, but since the tree was in a low traffic spot this year, I thought it would be okay to add a few things up top.

Caleb grabbed his coon skin cap Aunt Courtney gave him - a favorite accessory lately.

Caleb asked to put the star on top.

Ever since we put up the tree, Hadley kept saying, "I have an idea - a star." I don't know how many times over the course of that week she reminded us that our tree needed a topper, so it didn't seem quite fair to me that her older brother got to put the star on. However, she found another star ornament and was very satisfied to add that to the top with help from Daddy.

It's interesting to see how kids just embrace Christmas traditions with excitement rather than questioning why we do silly things like putting up a giant tree and hanging things all over it. When you stop and think about it, I guess it's kind of funny how we embrace them too, but it sure is fun.

Reid was such a busy boy. He'd start off doing one thing and then was in to another. He pulled more ornaments off than he helped I'm sure, but I enjoyed his enthusiasm.

While it wasn't perfect, our tree turned out to be a right pretty even if the lower branches were a little overcrowded. I just left it the way the kids did it for the most part and they rearranged things several times throughout the month as they've continued to enjoy the ornaments.

The kids loved the colored lights...

...while Mommy preferred the white ones. At least we bought a tree that can give us the best of both worlds.

Other decorations that reappeared included "The McKinstry Family Snowball Fight in a Bucket" I ordered last year and...

...those crazy little elves. The kids and I had a lot of fun playing hide-and-seek with these guys. We do them a little differently than most families because the kids know they're pretend and I let them be part of the game. In our house, they aren't spies, just silly little friends who show up in December for some fun.

Caleb really got tickled over the girl elf hiding her eyes and wanted to know why the boys weren't covering theirs too.

One of my favorite things to pull out at Christmas time though are the kids' Christmas clothes. I love to "decorate" these little cuties in their holiday duds. Trying to get all three of them to actually look at the camera so I can capture their cuteness...that's another story...

Well it's only hours before these three will wake up to see what's under the tree so Mommy better quit blogging and get to bed. Goodnight, sleep tight, and Merry Christmas Eve.

Shirley Jo McKinstry

December 11th was a hard day for our family as we learned that we'd lost Dave's mother to her battle with cancer. 

For the past year and a half, Shirley tried to battle through the horrible disease attacking her body, struggling with sleep deprivation and daily physical pain. After countless chemo treatments, dialysis multiple times a week, a round of physical therapy, trying several medications, multiple surgeries, and quite a few hospitalizations, she finally decided a few weeks ago that she no longer wanted to accept medical intervention. It was hard for her loved ones as they tried to grasp the finality of that decision, but Shirley said she was at peace with her choice and was ready for God to take her home.

Born on June 18, 1950 in Harrisburg, IL to Quentin and Louise (Wesley) Swan, Shirley was an only child and the apple of her parents' eyes. 

She considered herself privileged to have been raised in a Christian home and became a follower of Christ in 1958 at the age of 7 1/2, baptized in a creek shortly after her conversion.

A very smart little girl, Shirley excelled in school and even skipped a grade in her elementary years. She later went on to earn degrees at Southeastern Illinois College and Southern Illinois University.

In college she met and fell in love with Wayne McKinstry, and they were married on December 28, 1974.

Out of that union came two children, Amy and David. Though she'd been a math teacher up until that point, Shirley chose to put her career on hold to stay at home with her little ones until they were school age.

From Amy and Dave's academic accomplishments to their musical interests to their parenting skills, you could tell she was proud of the people they became. Most importantly, Shirley was blessed to see that they'd both developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ just as she and Wayne had guided them to from infancy.

Even before we met, she was giving me one of the most priceless blessings by doing a wonderful job raising that little boy on her lap to be the incredible man he is today.

The real fun began in 2006 though when Lydia was born. Shirley was proud of her kids, but she was especially proud to be a grandma.

Did she ever love that girl!

All dressed up in theme, Grandma was happy to be at Lydia's Laura Ingallas Wilder birthday party.

Four generations

Two years later, Luke arrived!

Grandma enjoyed computers and started these youngsters early with a game she designed.

She loved to hear what the kids had learned about recently.

She loved to make Bible games for children and her grandkids got the benefit of her creativity.

Then came Caleb...

Caleb's baby dedication 

Last summer she was so proud that Caleb could count to twelve as they went one by one down the line of Little People. Being such a math enthusiast, she was definitely pleased when we came to visit recently and he did math problems for her in his head. 

 ...and Hadley...

I found this on Shirley's Facebook with a comment about how Grandpa must have gotten mixed up and forgot to capture her face. I love though that we have a close up of her hands holding our baby girl.

Watching the Ferris wheel at Scheel's

...and finally Reid.

Grandma was feeling so poorly when Reid arrived, she wasn't up for any pictures. Though I wanted one so badly of the two of them together, we'll just have to settle for this family picture taken the last time we were all together. You can't see Reid, but he's there - right in his mommy's tummy.

As a math teacher, piano teacher, Vacation Bible School director, children's Sunday school teacher, children's director, and tutor, she touched far more children that just her own and her grandbabies. "I consider working with children to be the most meaningful and lasting," she wrote when she drafted a short autobiography to be used for her funeral service prior to her passing.

Throughout her life she was a member of six different churches, serving in various capacities such as in the roles of being a WMU director, committee worker, and pianist (along with the assorted children's ministries mentioned above). Serving God was her life's mission. 

Math was also a passion. She taught at every college in the Springfield, IL area and even did some tutoring on the side. It frustrated her when people gave her favorite subject a bad name or suggested it wasn't an area where females typically excelled. She spoke up on these topics on more than one occasion in hopes that this viewpoint would change over time.

Shirley had so many talents. Just to name a few, she could sew and cross stitch as well as play the piano and the accordion. She was also computer savvy and creative. For a while she worked as a computer trainer, and later when she found herself out of work a for a while, Shirley created a website called Grandma Mouse with all kinds of learning games for children as well as a variety of baby showers materials. She even began to sell some of these on Etsy as time progressed. While she tried to develop a business selling such materials, she always tried to offer all of her Bible games for free and eventually began submitting materials for ministry-to-children.com. 

Not long ago when preparing for her heavenward homecoming, Shirley began to write a short overview of her life that I have been able to pull from to write this post. The final thing she wrote was this: "Since I have always enjoyed learning and teaching, what I look forward to most about heaven is learning the new things God has for me to learn there." While her family and friends will miss her deeply, I have to smile when I think of all her heavenly Father must be teaching her now and the great joy she'll have learning in his presence. 

The world was better because she lived and we are grateful to have been a part of her life.