We put the creches out tonight. In classic Burk fashion, there’s more than one of everything, so we have the moss-covered manger with the Raphael-esque bisque figures, the little wooden one, a cheesy china blue one, and the plastic Fisher-Price model. Ellie and Sophie were so excited to help. They were free to arrange them all. After my little elves had long gone to bed, I walked through the dining room and saw their work..no graceful semi-circles of adoring beasts and shepherds all facing outward, with kings approaching in tasteful order, well-paced and wise from afar, no status-driven staging of figures…. Nope, just fistfuls of shepherds and sheep, a goatherd, the drummer boy, a miniature Santa Claus, and good ol’ Melchoir, all swarming the baby Jesus. They stand so close together, huddled in tight. Why the other figurines are touching the Baby Jesus! I fight the urge to move them out a bit, space them better…. In a child’s eye, I thought. In a child eye, we all get to see. In a child’s eye… we are already there.

I have been close to the manger all year, in this, a very happy and blessed year for us. We celebrated 10 years of marriage in June, and the birth of a baby boy in September. What hilarity, to be having a baby one month and turning 40 the next. Nothing put me back in the hair dye aisle at the grocery store faster than that! But I must admit William is the best birthday present I ever got. He continues to be oversized (10.5 pounds at birth!) and is filled with wonder, intensity and joy. His proud papa bought him this new-fangled Euro molded seat thing, that looks like a potty only there’s no potty part, it’s just for sitting. And so there he sits, planted in his “Bunbo” atop of the counter or right smack in the middle of our table watching us eat (infant centerpiece, anyone? It’s the latest!). You would think a three-month-old wouldn’t track much at his first Christmas, but this sweet boy seems fascinated with the tree and the lights, the pretty music and all of the bustle and activity. Even at this young age he has perfected that “aw geeze” eye-rolling grin directed at his sisters and their latest trick du jour.

Of course, the girls are wild about their baby brother, finding him more interesting than a pet and a fine distraction for Mommy so they can make the wild rumpus. Our other adventure this year has been home-schooling Ellie, while Sophie attends her last year at a 3-day church preschool. First grade in the utility room is going pretty well, with lots of multitasking to fit it all in. We ignore the phone and the breakfast dishes and manage to put in a couple hours each day, with Ellie “reading” to William throughout the day whenever I sits down to feed him. Thursday is field trip day with Daddy. So far, they’ve been tadpole fetching, park-hopping, museum-crawling, and zoo-visiting, with some science experiments and two intensive art courses (one on color and one on perspective–You go, daddy!) thrown in. Last week I came home to a two-and-a-half foot tall gingerbread church under construction. Apparently, this was a lesson on dimension and architecture. Mostly we are enjoying the pace of life that home-schooling affords, and the freedom to travel. We go to NC about every other month to visit cousins, and in November I boarded a train to New Haven (8 hours!) with all three kiddos. What a wild ride that was! Ellie is enjoying her first year of Brownies (last week they sewed fleece blankets for babies in shelters throughout Richmond), and both girls attend dance class and a music class. They continue to dress up, although not so much as lavish princesses anymore. We dress like unit studies: Nomads, Egyptian goddesses, Indians. The default, which I had nothing to do with, continues to be “poor people in the woods.” So Ellie wears a pillowcase with holes cut out for her arms and legs and Sophie, a white undershirt and a scarf tied around her waist. Perfect. Looks like I can slash the dress-up budget for ’07!

Our church family continues to take care of us in so many ways–sending us off to a bed-and-breakfast retreat, and welcoming baby William with such love and enough clothing to outfit three of him. In this year of anniversaries, Creator celebrated its 40th with a special service and visit from the Bishop. Bill is, as always, busy with the ups and downs of parish life. His interest of late? Geothermal energy, “green” living, and working out at the gym. His next house, he assures me, will be a subterranean bunker with a “man” room. He takes his inspiration from some guy in a magazine who dug for 28 years a 45-foot-deep hole in which he constructed a three-story basement under his otherwise sedate, normal looking residential home. All this, just to make room for an odd ugly lamp or a piece of furniture I won’t allow in the house? Seems I can keep him too busy to break ground on that project! Lately, for example, he has been rebuilding a hand-me-down play structure we pilfered from (no, NOT the dump!) our neighbors. I know in a twinkling, little William will be eating sand out of the box and falling off swings, trying to keep up with his sisters!

And my hobbies? Well, you know how it is. I am knee-deep–no, neck-deep–in the business of making a home and raising a family. The days FLY by. All my visions of French lessons and teaching Ellie to sew and baking with Sophie dissolve as an under-napped infant lets his howler go full-tilt. Some days it’s all we can do to get through the math book and finish a load of laundry. But that’s okay. Because I’m realizing, from where I stand I can finally see. I got a front row seat. Hope you and yours enjoy all that is miraculous about this season, and that you are enjoying the life, health, wonder and peace of Christ-mas. It is only God’s.

See you at the manger.

Jenny and Bill