Friday, December 30, 2011

    
Nines' Feast...

This is my wife, my bride... the woman I adore.


She is truly one of a kind! I know you already know quite a bit about my sweet wife from reading her blogs, but let me just tell you a few things about her.


She is a tireless worker. Nina sets her hands to serving her family and others. As some may know, this has been a fiscally challenging year for us. Besides the quilts that she makes for her loved ones, she set about filling the tree with gifts for everyone made from her hands and heart. She made wonderful, soft flannel pajama pants for me, dresses  and Maggie bags for Eva and Bekah, a quilted travel bag, scarf and an embroidered notebook cover for Laurie, embroidered notebook covers for John and Jacob, a travel bag and scarf for Mary, a quilt for Lupe, a picture frame with several pictures of the family for Dan and Joe, pillowcases for Paul and John... and countless other things for many others. I know I am leaving out many other things she has made for other loved ones, but I hope you see my point. Besides these gifts she spends a uniquely special day with each of the kids preparing their feast. She plans the meal with the kids ahead of time. The day of the meal begins with a lunch with Mama, at a restaurant of their choice, shopping for the meal items and gifts, and coming home and preparing the meal. I participate in only one meal... my own, after which I am exhausted and need a day or two to recover, Nina does this with each member of our family and stays as excited and interested in every precious event.


Nina has the most unique, special way of looking at things. She enjoys and savors the simple blessings God gives us. Her ideal day is being at home, enjoying her family, soaking in the beauty of God's creation around her house, and being able to create something beautiful from the fabrics she collects. But the unique way she has always approached pleasing God is what astounds me most about my wife. Nina has the ability to look at each segment or element of her life and seeks to do that in the way that is most pleasing to God. She does this, I believe, without bias. It doesn't matter if everyone else has always done it a certain way, she will- to the best of her ability- go about trying to do it the way she believes that is most pleasing to God. It shows her special faith and trust in God, and her strength to do what she believes is right- that amazes me.


My sweet bride is able to see with much more clarity than most of us what things are really important and what things are less important. And I love her for that. She inspires me to be the man she deserves. I am her biggest fan, and the most blessed man I know!


Now I'll let my sweet wife describe her feast. I love you, Nines. I love all of you, and I love you to pieces!


Blush blush blush,,,

He forbade me to edit that so it'll stand, though honestly, I do believe he's biased.  Which is a good thing, I suppose, in one's spouse.

I fixed a country "feast."  I'm not a good cook, but I know how to fill a bunch of hungry folks.  I fixed a couple pork roasts in advance and had them in the freezer so all I had to do was pop them in the crock pots on my feast day.  (I don't mind being sequestered with one of my sweet children, but I'd rather be with my family than all alone in the kitchen.)  I pulled the pork and we had some plain and some BBQ.  There were green beans, baked beans and baked potatoes. There were two trays of summer sausage and cheese with crackers for the appetizer and iced tea to drink.  Since I had a country theme going, I found these silly rubber hillbilly teeth- you know with missing teeth and rotten teeth.  Just some goofy fun for their gifts.  I made homemade "cookies and cream" icecream ahead of time, also.  The reaction to the icecream was surprising.  I just didn't expect such...enthusiasm. But they loved it and that's the end of our seasonal Feast Days!  Thanks for joining us!    

6 comments:

julieQ said...

A truly lovely post...you are both so very blessed with each other...Happy New Year guys!

Sarah said...

I would like to edit YOUR portion - you are a GREAT cook. Your feast sounds wonderful!

Did you straighten your hair for the picture? It looks great! Not enough RED in it though!

Love you and miss you!

Pamela (Peni) Teel said...

So glad Bill ordered no changes in his description of you!! And Sarah is right ... you are a GREAT cook.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful tradition with us...I always hate to see it come to an end [sigh]. Love you so! mama

teelduo said...

I'm with Sarah, I wanna edit your cooking description! SILLY WOMAN!! So who got to go to lunch with you on your feast day? You go all alone? I love you sweet sister of mine.

Unknown said...

lovely! what a wonderful write up

Julie in the Barn said...

What a perfect post to end the annual Feast saga. I always love reading about the Feasts and seeing your family grow and change. Happy New year, Nina, to you and all your family. May 2012 bring health and happiness to you all.