Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I love the Christmas season. It’s so cool how we celebrate the end of one harvest season concurrently with the beginning of a new one. I love the length of the holiday. For our family it begins before the end of November and continues into mid-January. I love cooking, and eating, and gathering with family and friends to celebrate our love and appreciation for each other. I love the joy in giving and receiving gifts and observing the thoughtfulness in both the giver and receiver. I love looking back over last year’s struggles and triumphs and stopping to give thanks for them all. I love the celebration of Christ’s humbling Himself, enduring the struggle of life with the worst of us. I hope that 2017 has been a wonder-filled year for you, filled with trials and triumphs alike.
As of this year, we officially have three teenagers in our home. Our youngest daughter Rose (13) is maturing quickly while still enjoying her childhood. She’s very close with a neighborhood friend who is two years younger than her. Bebe helps Rose retain her youth. I love how she’s so easily at rest in this season, yet she’s beginning to surprise me with her increasing maturity. Although she’s a young woman who still says little, her thoughts are significant, as she’s beginning to speak and act with clarity. She has good insight into others’ thoughts and feelings, and shows maturity in enjoying others’ differences. A wonderful helper around the house, Rose is an organizer, decorator, shopper, baker, and diligent student. She’s quiet, cheerful, sensitive to the feelings and needs of others, and generally happy to pitch in and help. She still clings to her mom and loves to cuddle. I am thankful the Lord gave us a good cuddler.
In the fall of the year, Elizabeth began teaching again within our local homeschool community. She had taught for many years until the last few, when the growing needs of our family began pressing and I asked her to take a break. Teaching is something Elizabeth seems compelled to do. She has a special gift for leading children and helping them to dig a little deeper to find themselves. Teaching is a vulnerable profession. It requires a lot of love, devotion, and sacrifice. I have enjoyed again hearing the stories of the many personalities in her classes; their struggles and accomplishments, their apathy and joy. I appreciate the increase they give Elizabeth when they begin to recognize and pursue their talents.
Grace has begun to pursue new ground as we dropped her off at UNC Chapel Hill in August. I think we were all patiently looking forward to this transition in her life, and ours, without really knowing what to expect. It’s been interesting to observe the change that has come with this new season. We are somehow changing, though I’m not exactly sure how. There is both loss and gain in paring down from three to two adults in the house again. Grace has begun her new challenge with grit and determination. She, like her mother, lives fiercely vulnerable and has poured all of her efforts into her classes, often draining herself, leaving little margin. I am amazed at her diligence and pray for her protection as she learns to navigate the perils that come with fearlessly expending herself.
David continues to grow and mature. He’s taller than me now. He’s doing well with school, excelling in math and, most enjoyable to me, he seems to truly appreciate his mother’s literature class. Elizabeth challenges all of her students and she expects no less from her own. David is learning how to love his mom and appreciate their differences, while respecting her efforts to shape him into a responsible young man. Outside of school, he continues to be involved in a FIRST Robotics club as the lead electrical team member. He enjoys tinkering and teaching others. He is a natural leader, though he shys from overt recognition. Close to achieving his Eagle Scout rank, this fall David completed his Eagle Project by planning and supervising a reclamation of overgrown, non-indigenous gardens in our local bird sanctuary. David thrives in community and loves being a host in our church’s youth group. He balances well the gregarious aspects of his personality with his inner geek.
For me, 2017 has been a year of patient harvests. After five years of persistent plodding from ground zero, my work with Edward Jones has finally turned the corner of profitability. It has been a ‘long and hard row to hoe’ and I’m thankful to have some relief. I’ve learned a lot over the last five years and know better why the mother bird kicks her young from the nest. Through the trials I’ve discovered the beauty of humility and the rescuing love of a strong and faithful wife and children. I’m thankful that the Lord has a sharp chisel, that He is delicate, patient, and merciful, and that His desires are greater than mine.
We hope that you are also enjoying the challenges and rewards of your life and family. It’s a beautiful journey, often clarified in the struggles. May the coming year be fruitful for us all. Regardless, we pray that each of us will be faithful to the season at hand, recognizing and giving thanks for His gifts, both in the storms and the harvests.
Merry Christmas,
Briggs, Elizabeth, Grace, David and Rose
