goodbye, emma

Our beloved cat and family member, Emma, passed away in our arms this afternoon.

Emma joined our family seven and a half years ago after she was left during the night at the animal shelter. Once we met her she instantly became our baby and gave us immeasurable love and joy. We always said she was our firstborn. We couldn’t have asked for a better big sister cat for Zuzu.

Some of you know that especially over the past few months Emma had numerous medical complications. Then in early November she was diagnosed with diabetes and subsequently stopped eating. She amazed us with her strength and although we will feel an enormous hole in our little family, we are glad she is now at peace.

We will always remember when Emma would:

• snuggle under the covers with Ty on chilly mornings
• lick Jenn's hair during the night
• faithfully sleep with us every night
• nap in cuddle caves around the house
• lay in the windowsills in the summer
• perk up when she saw squirrels and birds outside
• get a sudden burst of energy playing with a toy mouse
• bat food and twist ties around the kitchen floor like a hockey player
• nestle under the Christmas tree every year
• cuddle up with us when we felt sad -- somehow she always knew when we needed some extra love
• be amazingly patient while Zuzu touched her, played with her food, or splashed in her water dish
  

Emma, may your blanket keep you warm outside where you’ll always be near the birds and the squirrels and never far from our sight. – love, jenn, ty & zuzu

christmas could be different...

for the last several years, we've been wanting to create a christmas experience for ourselves (and now for our little zuzu) that focuses more on jesus - and his coming to earth to show us what he and the rest of the trinity is all about - and less on buying and receiving. honestly... it's not easy and we've made very little progress.

this christmas, however, we're needing to seriously cut back - due to a number of unexpected expenses over the last year or so - which actually ends up helping us to step closer to our goal of spending less time and money buying and more time enjoying the true spirit of the season with our family, friends, and community.

this year, jenn and i rented and watched "what would jesus buy," a documentary that takes an entertaining look at the current consumeristic condition of christmas in america and encourages us to envision what christmas was like "before all the shopping began." if you really think about it, i'm betting that people weren't feeling an emptiness, a void, that could only be filled by material goods. imagine the activities that might have been happening in place of the craziness and busyness of shopping, the buying, and the getting.

recently, i discovered the following video on a couple of friends' blogs and it really struck me as something which captures the hopes i've had growing inside of me, more and more, year after year, christmas after christmas. it's an idea worth spreading, so i thought i'd pass it on.