A Christmas Poem

The Christmas Story

a poem by Michelle Widman

Joseph and Mary

Had all they could carry

Traveling to their home town.

They hadn’t said no

When the king said “Go!”

They agreed ‘cause he had the crown.

They couldn’t win

at the local inn;

It was already overflowing.

With a need for haste,

There was no time to waste.

Then Joseph heard cattle lowing.

They found a stable --

No telephones or cable --

All Mary needed was a bed.

Without a frown

They settled down,

“And just in time,” Mary said.

Because Mary knew

that their baby was due.

Mary knew what He’d do, too.

In a dream

she’d seen a gleam.

An angel had come

to visit her some.

He’d said,

“You’ll have a boy,

but don’t name him Roy.

Jesus He’ll be,

And perfect, unlike you and me.

He will suffer

In the end.

The laws of justice

The people will bend.”

Jesus was born

That very night.

Also that night,

Some shepherds had a fright.

But not for long,

‘Cause there was a song.

The angels came

To sing Jesus’ name.

The shepherds started to spread the news

IT’S THE COMING OF THE KING OF THE JEWS!

. . . . Then Herod the king blew a fuse!

Herod wanted to rule!

He was ready to duel.

He ordered, “Kill that Child!”

In a rage, he was wild!

Meanwhile, other kings --

They came from afar.

They brought precious things

They followed a Star.

Herod decided to become their “friend,”

Though he plotted Jesus’ end.

Of harm to the baby there was no mention.

He told no one of his intention.

He said, “Go find Jesus,

Lying in a manger,

And give Him your gifts.

There is no danger. . .

. . . But return with haste.

There’s no time to waste.

Inform me where the baby is hidden.

Now go and do as you were bidden.”

Then in a dream

The kings were told,

“Go give Jesus

The frankincense, myrrh, and gold . . .

. . . But you do not know

The King’s wicked plan.

He is a very evil man!

To King Herod

You have nothing to say.”

And those wise men did obey.

This little poem

Ends right here,

Though Jesus lived

For many a year.

In the end

He suffered and died.

Then the laws of death

Were defied.

But that is a story

For Easter-time.

Thus endeth

My little rhyme.

Since July...

It's been quite a long time since I've blogged, so here is a wild overview of the last few months.

In August, Jack got a big boy bed in preparation for Henry's needing the crib...

He still won't get out of bed until we go into his room and get him. I guess we trained him well with the crib!
In September, we got a Henry...In October, we visited the pumpkin patch on the windiest day in history. Hay can really hurt at 40 miles per hour! Jack chose a bumpy pumpkin...Also in October, our Henry learned a new trick: the smile!


ALSO in October, we celebrated Jack's 2nd birthday, a little late. He enjoyed his tractor cake!

In November, we went to the Sand Francisco zoo with Bryan, Rebecca, and Addy Hart... My favorite animal was the grizzly bear. Boy, are they huge!

Jack liked feeding the ducks the best.
Also in November, we took some pictures for Christmas. Click on this picture and LOOK at those eyes!
In December, we kicked off the Christmas season with an open house Christmas party, and we counted 77 friends and family who attended! We had a great time and ate a lot of great food! We did NOT take pictures to post.
After Christmas, we plan to go to Tahoe with my parents for New Year's weekend. I WILL try to take and post pictures of that trip!
Merry Christmas to all, and happy New Year!

Independence Day and Cowboys

On July 3rd we went to "The Singing Flag" in Concord, where Calvary Temple in Pittsburg puts on a patriotic program followed by fireworks. It was a fun show, or would have been if Jack had been old enough to pay attention and if we had really been able to see from our spot. Maybe next year. During the fireworks, Jack needed to hide under the blanket and cry, but to his credit, during the real 4th of July fireworks the next night, he only needed his ears held and eyes covered by the blanket. No crying! We made progress! I guess he figured we survived the first night--maybe we'd be okay for the next night too!
Here's the only 4th of July picture we took:

When we went to Oklahoma in May, my Great Aunt Louise bought a western shirt for Jack, and my Uncle David bought him a pair of boots to match. So cute! We had a photo shoot with the outfit today. Here are the two best pics:

My sister-in-law Pamela had her baby on Monday evening, 7/6/09. Riley Grace weighed 7 lbs., 13 oz., and measured 20 inches long. To my annoyance, I forgot my camera when we visited them Tuesday evening. I hope to visit them again soon so I can take (and post) pictures of my new niece and her cute family!

Catching Up...June

Continued from "Catching Up...the Month of May"


Early June brought a shower for Pamela... (even though I am the one holding the balloons!)

and then VBS, which was too busy for me to stop for pictures.

We did have some time in there for a little fun:

Jack in our papasan chair, learning how to relax...

Our 105 degree day outside cleaning blinds and doing yard work, during which Jack decided he'd rather sit in my soap bucket than in his little pool...

And the next day in the Gallegos' pool (ah, relief!). Thanks, Gallegos!

Finally, on the last day of June, we visited the Jelly Belly factory with our MOPS group!

Here are Jack and me in our factory hats. Jack did really well leaving his hat on during the tour when I told him that "the people" said we have to leave it on. He even got a little worried when it accidentally fell off, saying, "Uh-oh! People! On!"
(He also is very compliant to sit in his car seat when I tell him that "the police man said no no sitting in the back seat." He's definitely learning to respect authority!)


Jack was a little afraid of this Jelly Belly "guy" on our way in to the tour, but I got him to stand for the picture after the tour with Ashlyn and Caden Fox and Maddie Storrer. Hence the worried look!Jack was very excited to go see this "big balloon guy" outside, but when we came close, he was very wary and didn't want to leave my side. I convinced him to go hold Maddie's hand for the picture, and if you look closely, you can see that Maddie was very zealous about her role as protector!


Upcoming events: the arrival of Riley Grace Brown, any day now! and a week of Junior High Camp at Koinonia, beginning on July 18! After that, we find ourselves with a month or two "off" from any plans, in waiting mode for Henry William Widman!

Catching Up... the Month of May

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted a new blog! A lot has been going on in the last few months...
Jack and I went to Oklahoma with my mom in May...

...after which Jack got the flu and slept the morning away on the couch. He never falls asleep anywhere but his bed!

We spent Memorial Day at the Savianos', where Jack got up the courage to go down the bouncy house slide by himself!

Joah and I spent the last weekend in May away from Jack for the first time, first at Koinonia for counselor training, then in Santa Cruz for an extra night. Here we are on the pier by the Boardwalk:
To be continued...

This is for you, Charissa...

We had our "big" ultrasound today. And the verdict is...
It's a boy!
Joah and I were both "feeling" girl, but we were wrong. (Goes to show you can't trust your feelings!)
So now comes the tough job of picking a name. We already had a boy name picked for Jack, so that was an easy one. Feel free to suggest boy names for the middle name William!

Jack loves his helmet. Not so much his clothes, at least on this day...

He's also working on his "big smile". I'm not sure how he learned to smile on command--I certainly didn't teach him. But somehow he learned how to be a ham all on his own... imagine that!
We're also still glad to have Lulu back. It's hard to get a good picture of a cat, but I did that day:

I don't really like this picture, but I thought I ought to post a pic of the prego pair, where Pam looks all cute and I should have worn something different on Easter Sunday! Pamela (my sister-in-law) is due in the end of June, and I'm due early to mid-September.
We find out the gender of the baby on Wednesday (4/22), and we're so excited! Last time, with Jack, we already had a boy name all picked out and happily got to use it. This time, we've kicked around a lot of names for both genders, but we haven't landed on any we both like yet. We'll see... At least our options will be narrowed by half this Wednesday!

Finally, A Few Photos

Here's Jack at Jeremy and Julie's wedding in January. He had fun playing in the Sunday school room beforehand.

Despite the fun Sunday school room, this was kind of a crabby day. Jack stayed up front with Joah during the ceremony for as long as it took for everyone to get up the aisle. Then it got boring and I had to take him to the back.

Here is Jack's new favorite activity: skateboarding with his "howt" (helmet) in our driveway.

Jack and Joah spent a while digging a hole in the backyard for a transplanted flower, and Jack is showing me his dirty hand. This is the same day that Lulu escaped. We'll have to be more careful next time we're playing in the backyard!
In other family news, Joah caught his hand in a saw at work on Wednesday, resulting in 8 stitches and a few days off work. We're hoping he can go back on Tuesday, but we'll see what the doctor says at his follow-up appointment on Monday.

Good News!

Good news for the Widman family: (or at least for the mom of the Widman family...) our wandering kitty Lulu has been found and returned to us, thanks to some attentive girls down the street!
I'm glad she's home, and I think she is too, now that her bath is over!

Happenings

Well, I haven't been very good at picking up the camera lately, but I suppose I can blog about what we've been doing.
Just over a week ago, our kitty Lulu slipped out the door without our knowledge and disappeared. We haven't seen her around, so I assume she's enjoying herself, wherever she is. We've been leaving food out at night, but I've seen two different cats eating it, neither of whom were Lulu. She may be gone for good. If you see our kitty, let us know!

I think the word has spread far and wide, but in case you didn't hear, we're expecting a new Widman this September. We're hoping for an 09/09/09 birthday because that would be awesome.

Joah's brother Jeremy and his new wife Julie have been staying with us since Thursday, which has been a lot of fun. They were married in January in North Carolina, so today we had a reception here for California friends and family. Most of the Gentry (Joah's mom's) side of the family showed up, and many of our church friends came as well. The food was delicious and plentiful. The leftovers in our fridge will be quite enjoyed.

Jack is very into his "howt" (helmet) lately--his bike helmet which my parents got for him--and especially likes to wear it to "eet" (skateboard) with Joah. Sometimes Joah holds his hands and lets him ride "by himself", and sometimes Joah will skateboard holding Jack, which is a really fun ride! They've made visits to the park and the post office that way. He also enjoys wearing his "howt" to ride his "ah-ee" (bike (tricycle)), but he can't quite grasp the concept of pedaling yet, so he'll climb on, push with his feet a little, climb off, push from behind, climb on, turn the wheel, etc. Maybe by this summer he'll actually go somewhere by pedaling!
Another current obsession of Jack's is to drive a car--any car, toy or real. The very best is when he can have the keys and stand in the driver's seat of one of our real cars and push every button, turn every knob, and pull every lever, which we don't like to let him do because he really yanks on the levers (I think a turn signal lever would be hard to replace). However, if we're ever having a tough day, I can take Jack out to the garage, open the driver's side window, let Jack go to town (figuratively, not literally) in the car, and I can sit in my camping chair and read my People magazine next to the car. That's good for at least 20 minutes of entertainment for both of us!

I think things will slow down for us, now that Jeremy and Julie's reception is over. It seems like we've had one big event or another to plan for since Christmas, so I'm ready for a few quiet months. Perhaps we'll finish painting the house, and perhaps I'll even plant something in our yard. You never know what some schedule-free Saturdays might bring!

A Language Only a Mother Could Understand!

Wow! It's been more than a month since I last posted! The last few months have been crazy! We had Christmas, then Tahoe, then North Carolina for Jeremy and Julie's wedding, then we came home and Jack was sick, then I got it from him, then we moved, then we had Winter Dinner at church, which ate up every waking hour for a week. Now, finally, things have settled down a little. I have a husband who is kind enough to empty the dishwasher and refill it while I catch up on e-mail and this blog.
Jack is developing a language for himself that Joah and I can somewhat understand, based on context... here is a pronunciation guide of Jack's words:
o (short o)= hot
a (short a) = hat
ee=keys or toy or kitty or cookie or eat or teeth (or brush my teeth)
i (long i) = eye or outside (when accompanied by a doorknob turning motion) or drive or light (though light has a separation, like "ah-ee")
bew=bear
ew=sticker (if pointing to hand where the WalMart ladies put smiley face stickers) or upstairs or downstairs or ear or hair or yucky (if drawn out like eeew)
ba=up (if arms are raised) or grandpa or Bob (the builder)
ma=mom
da=dad
dowwww=down (his favorite after nap time)
ow=out or nose (though "out" is separated, like ah-oo)
oo=shoe
mo=moon
ba ba =bad bad (referring to Lulu the cat)
uh-oh= uh-oh or milk (I have no idea how uh-oh became milk. Did he drop his sippy one too many times?)
yeah=very well pronounced yeah
no=no
He also has a variety of animal noises and other sound effects (instead of saying "ball", he has a throaty sound effect, somewhat like a gun shooting sound, and a throwing motion to go with it).

We really need to work on the consonants. Yesterday we had a really hard half-hour after his nap when he kept saying "ee, ee, ee, ee!" and I kept trying to feed him a snack or let him chew on his toothbrush, but he was seeing my keys on the couch and wanted to play with them. A simple K sound could have solved a long and frustrating ordeal! I hope those consonants develop quickly!

So next comes Jeremy and Julie's reception in March and increasingly intense VBS planning, but the coming few months should be nothing like the busy-ness of December through now. Hopefully I'll have time to post some pictures in the near future!

Over New Year's week, we went to the cabin in Tahoe with my parents and grandparents. We enjoyed the snow and the time we had relaxing together!

Each day, we took a trek down to the (frozen over) creek where there's a great sledding hill. On the way the first time, Papa gave Jack a ride on the icy street.


If you know Jack, you'll expect that he wasn't content to sit and be pulled for very long.


Jack loved sledding with "Da", learning the exclamation "Whoo!", which he used after each run and when he saw other sledders take a ride!


Cute Buddy!

While we were in Tahoe, we learned that the bank wants to close on our house by January 9, when we'll be in North Carolina for Jeremy and Julie's wedding, so our loan officer is scrambling to get things together by Tuesday the 6th before we leave. This is going to be a VERY busy month!

Christmas '08

The Widmans' Christmas was wonderful, filled with fun and family... we spent Christmas Eve at Papa and Neenee Brown's house, buried in presents (lots of presents and lots of big presents), and Christmas day at my parents', aka Pa and Grammie's, with Grandma Carol also there.

At Papa and Neenee's house, Jack was very interested in the balls on the tree, since our tree held no balls within his reach. Of course, several of the balls ended up on the floor, with hooks still on the tree.

On Christmas morning, he forgot this was on his head for a while.

Papa and Neenee Dean gave Jack a tricycle, which he enjoyed in Pa and Grammie's house on Christmas day (see his excellent parade wave technique), but then was put away for a while, and should be just about perfect for him when the weather warms up in the spring. Thanks, Papa and Neenee!


Hope everyone's Christmas was great!