On The First Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me: A Totally Tubaular Christmas

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With Ken and I both having to work late tonight, we decided to kick off our 12 Days of Christmas celebration with the midday festival of all things tuba at:

Tuba Christmas!

Over 100 tuba players ranging in age from 11 to 96 gathered to play Christmas carols as the audience sang along in a manner of good cheer at First Baptist Church in downtown Nashville. The instruments, which represented the entire tuba family, literally made the pews rumble from the volume. So, an unexpected benefit of the event was a pew-massage!  

Tuba Christmas has been a holiday tradition since 1974, and local tubists gather at locations across the country. Chances are, there’s an upcoming Tuba Christmas near you!

We plan to make it a part of our annual tradition!

Happy first day of Christmas!

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On a Wing and a Helicopter

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Our friend Michael Waller introduced me to the musical stylings of Wing a few years ago. How does one describe the music of Wing? I find the best description is merely to say that it is indescribable. The level of her professional talent is astounding, and unforgettable. Some might even say it is life-changing. While Wing covers many other artists’ works, when she comes up with her own piece of work, it is indeed a piece of work.

Michael shared this soon-to-be-classic Christmas carol with me, and I knew immediately that I could not keep it to myself. And thus, I introduce to you “Santa Claus on a Helicopter.”

Thank you, Wing, for bringing so much laughter-to-tears into this Christmas season.

Coming Soon: The Jewett Twelve Days of Christmas

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So, our children are in an orphanage in Africa and we’re really not sure where we are in the process of going to get them because we are still waiting for our court documents to be translated.  Our usual annual Florida vacation has been cancelled. The rest of our family is far away.

It’s been a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year.

Ken came up with the idea to celebrate Christmas a little differently this year by creating our own Twelve Days of Christmas, not with gifts, but with events.

We’re going to choose 12 free Christmas activities or events, one for each day leading up to Christmas, to take part in as our way of celebrating Christmas this year. Nashville has so many great free Christmas activities this year– tours, parties, concerts, plays etc.– we have much to choose from. And we may have to get a little creative, but that’s okay! If you have ideas, we’d love to hear them!

So, starting Tuesday, December 13th, join us for the Jewett Twelve Days of Christmas!

Adoption Update

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We got some additional information on our kids today, including their birthdates (which I can’t share) and a bit of their background of how they came into care (which I also can’t share).

But what I can share is that we officially know how old they are. Emmanuel has had a birthday since his referral and is now 5 years old. Rose won’t turn 4 for quite a few months. They are almost exactly 18 months apart in age.

This information makes me feel better on several different levels. Of course it feels great to know when our kids’ birthdays are. I’m also even more glad that we can keep them together, especially being so close in age.  I had also been wondering about the paucity of information known about them, and if that might slow down the process. Now that I know there is more information, I have hope that our adoption process can continue to move forward.

So, while we’re still waiting for our court paperwork to be translated, at least we’ve received some news!

Hoops that Help Another Adopting Couple

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Our friends Jonathan and Jessica have been huge supporters for us in our adoptive process. We’ve known them since Ken’s RD days, and they are such an awesome couple who have a tremendous heart for orphans. Though they’re adopting from another country, Ethiopia, we’re on the same jorney, and their support for us has been invaluable.

Now we hope to return the favor . . .

Lipscomb University has an amazing program this year for their basketball season. They are selecting an adopting family for each home game to receive a grant from all the ticket sales of that game. Jonathon applied for this Adoption Rally, and they were selected!

They will get all the ticket proceeds from the game! That is ALL of the proceeds. Not a portion. All of it.  The game they were selected for is Saturday, December 3 at noon! They will be recognized during halftime and award their grant then!
Here is a link to order tickets online or you can get them the day of the game! http://lipscomb.streamlineticketing.com/web/section.asp?eventId=82  If you around Nashville, it would be a great event to take part in!

Even if you can’t go, would you consider buying tickets? First of all, it lets Lipscomb know that what they are doing for adoption is awesome! Most importantly, it will go to a great couple as they seek to follow God’s call to adoption!