Christmas 2012

When West thought we weren't looking he tried sneaking candies from the advent calendar. I think Silas was right behind him, ready to climb up on the table himself and Ruby also was thinking about it. Trouble times 3!

Reading with Grandpa

Ruby ready for her Christmas party with her mom. Unfortunately her mom never showed up for the party hosted by DHS and so she had to come back home. Thankfully she is young enough that she didn't realize what happened but my heart breaks for the older kids there whose parents also didn't show.

Mira on stage during the Christmas pageant.

A favorite gift for Mira: a sewing book and a box of fabrics and embellishments

I think Ruby thought her dolly crib was for her instead. She piled all her gifts in it and then laid down on top.

Opening stockings on Christmas morning.

Duplo Legos from Grandpa Ben.

On Christmas Day: 4 generations. Shane with his mom and grandma Lenora and our kids

Making gingerbread cookies on Christmas Eve

Christmas is always a three day celebration full of family, way too much good food and worshiping our Savior. This year, we began on the 23rd, the 4th advent Sunday, with a traditional "Lille Jule Aften" dinner of Danish ableskiver and lots of cheese crackers and other snacks. We had eagerly anticipated the arrival of Uncle Dale, Grammie and Grandpa and once they arrived the party began. Shortly after our early dinner we all headed out together to our church, Emmanuel Bible Church, to watch Mira and Annah perform in the children's Christmas pageant. They had been rehearsing for this pageant for months now and it was the first time I had seen the performance. Wow, was it amazing! The musical was so good, the message was perfect and the girls, who both had main parts and solos, were so great! It was such a special night and I'll never forget it.

The next day, Christmas Eve, Shane rose at 5 am to put the turkeys in the smoker while I headed to spinning class. Afterwards everyone gathered around the dinning table for Grammie's monkey pod bread and an egg casserole. We talked about the exciting day ahead and then the morning was spent in preparations. Last minute gifts were wrapped, gingerbread men were made and decorated, dinner rolls made and put out to rise and then in the afternoon everyone - Mimi and Chip included - piled onto the couches and watched The Nativity Story; the movie. Afterwards the girls and I decorated the tables, put on our Christmas dresses and lit the candles for our Christmas dinner. 15 people (including Lissa's David who came all the way from Scotland) gathered around two long tables in our dining room that night.

Dinner was followed by the girl's playing their piano songs from their Christmas recital, everyone singing carols together in the living room, Chip reading the Christmas story from Luke and then cookies, traditional Danish rice pudding, cheesecake, fudge and gifts were exchanged until almost midnight. Although none of us there that night have much money to spend on Christmas gifts, I love that we all still take the time to make or put together a simple gift for each person there. There is no name drawing even though that would make things easier for sure. For us it isn't about extravagance but just honoring and acknowledging each person with a little something. Mira and Annah worked carefully all month to make their gifts and I've been knitting, crocheting and sewing like crazy all month to get mine done. A gourmet chocolate bar, a hand knit washcloth, homemade granola, a box of special tea; all little tokens we exchanged with each other there. Some of my favorite gifts were a set of wooden spoons Darell carved for me and a set of crocheted place mats my MIL Linda made for me.

On Christmas Day we awoke at 7 am to open stockings and have a special baked French toast together. Mira, who received a coveted face painting kit, spent the day painting everyone's faces. The little ones opened their remaining gifts and we prepared a big smorgasbord. Shane's grandma Lenora and Red also joined us. Everyone contributed a few things and there was so much good food.

One other highlight from the week, which I forgot to get pictures of, was the night that the girls, West and I went caroling together with Mimi and Chip up and down Third St. People loved it and it was so much fun to do together. Oh and one of my other favorite parts of this Christmas season was our morning family devotions. For the month of December we put our regular devotions on hold and do a special Jesse Tree devotional during breakfast with special ornaments that go along with the daily readings. Being able to teach the children about how the coming of Christ was anticipated and prophesied from the beginning of time and talk about it with the kids was so special. It also gave us all time to turn our hearts and thoughts to our Lord and thank Him for the gift of Jesus.

silas

walking!

Willamette Holiday Party

We had so much fun at the annual Willamette University holiday party. The chocolate fountain is highly anticipated every year and it didn't disappoint. This year we took just the three oldest and it was so much fun. We all grabbed one of the decorations, a pomegranate, on the way out and enjoyed it for breakfast the next day.

girlfriends

our Annah Pearl turned 8 on the 8th!

Last Saturday we celebrated Annah's 8th birthday with the traditional birthday donuts and brunch. Annah opened a gift she has been wishing and hoping for for many, many months: roller-skates! She was so excited. Grammie and Grandpa came just before lunch and babysat the younger three children for the afternoon so Shane and I could take the girls to the Nutcracker in Portland. We were able to get an amazing deal on tickets through a homeschool group and it was so exciting to walk around the city together and then go to the Keller Auditorium for the ballet. We had a little trouble getting out the door as we were all overtired and we also had a sad moment when we had to throw away full, just purchased cups of fancy Starbucks drinks because they wouldn't let us have them in the ballet lobby. But aside from those things we had such a good time being with just our two girls. Afterwards we came home for cake and ice cream with Grammie and Grandpa as well as Mimi, Chip and Sasa. Nothing was better for Annah then having everyone there together.

On Monday afternoon Annah had a few girlfriends over for a birthday party. She wanted to have a Wizard of Oz theme so we decorated the house with rainbows, ate rainbow cupcakes, had a Dorothy Beauty Parlor, watched a clip of the Wiz of Oz movie while making candy/snack necklaces and played some games. Annah loved every minute of it!

advent and preparing for Christmas

A couple weeks ago, on December 1st, we drove out to the girls' piano teacher's (Tracie) tree farm to pick out a Christmas tree. We enjoyed a weekend of decorating, baking and celebrating advent with the lighting of the first advent candle and a little hot chocolate party. Church on Sunday was magical with the addition of many fresh trees lining the sanctuary and beautiful Christmas carols sung together.

We always have lots of people here for Christmas and we usually exchange handmade gifts with both sides of our families who spend it with us. So this month has been oh, so busy as we sew, bake and make lots of sweet gifts. The girls are taking it especially serious with detailed lists of what they are making for whom, what supplies they need and weekly deadlines of what to make. I'm enjoying all the crafty fun along with the girls and am so thankful to spend my time at home with them making meaningful gifts instead of hitting up the stores for "just the right thing". With five children, 3 of them 2 and under, I don't have as much time to make the beautiful things I wish I could make, but I am learning to be okay with that. :) I downsized my original plan of making mittens for everyone and am now just trying to finish up two pairs of super soft wool mittens for the girls.