Christmas Day 2013

Sigh. I'm rarin' to post about some different things for the new year, but I realized I never did chronicle our Christmas Day! Just so I can remember a few things whenever I get around to making the digital scrapbook, here's a quick rundown of our special day...

As has become the tradition--out of necessity since we nearly always seem to have a mess-maker toddling about the house--Ted and I brought out the presents and stuffed stockings after the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve (considerably later than we would have liked, due to the service we attended, but it was worth it!). I think it's probably one of their favorite things, to come downstairs Christmas morning and see how "magically" everything has appeared, even though we don't do Santa.

The littler three kiddos had plasma cars waiting for them under the tree, so of course they began to break those in immediately! We passed out stockings and opened the goodies inside first. Zaden promptly began a breakfast of chocolate--I think he mowed through every single piece that was in his stocking before we realized what was happening! We got each of the kids (minus Seanin) a new Veggie Tales DVD; it had been awhile, so there were a number that hadn't yet made it to our collection. (As an aside these didn't cost us any "real" money; we purchased them on Amazon, where we use our Discover cashback bonus for nearly everything we purchase. Woohoo for "free" stuff!)

Then, while the kids started watching one of the new DVDs, Ted and I got breakfast ready. I think we made sausage and eggs and fruit salad, but my mind is already going blank, lol.

After that, we gathered around the cleared-off table with our two copies of The Advent Book and read through all 25 pages. Then Ted led us through the Lord's Supper, since the book ends with John 3:16 and allows a great opportunity to remind ourselves why we celebrate Christmas. I loved having communion together, our first time to do so on Christmas Day, but I think we should do it every year!

The kids made their usual "cozy spots" in the family room, and once we were all settled, the girls passed out the gifts. Amazingly, we were able to take turns this year! We thought the younger boys would have a hard time waiting, but Lucan did a very good job...of course, it helped that he got engrossed in playing with each new item he unwrapped, lol. And Zaden was so excited by it all he just went along with the flow.

It was a wonderful, wonderful time! The gifts were all well-received and so special. Charis knitted teddy bears for all her siblings, socks for me and Ted (with a note to Ted that she WILL make him socks but needs to measure his feet first!), and a phone cozy for Grandma J. She also crocheted a blanket for Grandma. She has been a busy gal! The boys received a lot of books in series they both enjoy (hooray for the thrift store!) and of course Legos. One of our favorite family gifts is the What's in the Bible? DVDs that we ordered. We've been meaning to check out Phil Vischer's new project, and I'm so glad we did! They are excellent!

The kids enjoyed their gifts for awhile until we were ready for our big meal (ham, homemade macaroni and cheese, modified green bean casserole, homemade yeast rolls, and pistachio salad). We stuffed ourselves and spent the rest of the day enjoying games, reading, napping...at some point we got out Jesus's birthday cake and had that. And in the evening we watched a new movie (Despicable Me 2) and ate popcorn made with the new popper Ted and the kids got for me.  At some point we finished off our advent calendar, too, but I can't remember when in the day's events that came, lol.

All in all, it was a wonderful, blessed day, and we were so grateful to be able to share it with Rhonda!

Christmas Activities--2013

1. CANDY KISS CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN
We got this idea from Lisa Whelchel's book The ADVENTure of Christmas, and it was our first year to do it...and it won't be the last! This simple thing was a huge treat for the kids, a fun way for them to greet each new day. We laid out a long strip of plastic wrap on the table. The kids picked out 25 candy kisses (I got several different holiday bags) and laid them in a row. We folded over the plastic wrap and tied curling ribbon between each kiss, then taped the chains to the doorway to the kitchen. Each morning the kids got to cut off a candy kiss!

Lucan and Zaden got chains, too, but we made them after the boys were in bed.

2. CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING AT JFC-NAPLES
We attended the tree lighting ceremony at the NATO base, where we enjoyed lovely weather unlike last year when everything was moved inside due to rain. We heard the Navy band and then visited inside with some friends, which helped offset the disappointment at the fact that we missed out on the Italian hot cocoa, which was all gone by the time Ted got to the front of the line! Boo!

3. HOMESCHOOL CHRISTMAS PARTY
I was a bit stressed about this event, but thankfully a dear mom friend told me to just show up--not to bring any food or worry about craft supplies, just show up with the kids, sit in the corner and feed the baby, and let them take care of everything. So I did! Ted left that morning for a 5-day trip to Germany, and we had had a very full weekend right before he went, so I wasn't even sure I felt like dragging everyone to Support Site for an event. But it all ended up being just fine. I didn't even attempt to finish any schoolwork in the afternoon once we got home! And the kids enjoyed the time with their friends, and I enjoyed the time to visit with my friends, too!

4. PWOC CHRISTMAS PROGRAM
One of the evenings Ted was gone to Germany we went to SS for a potluck dinner and Christmas program. Arden and Charis had speaking roles in a short drama, and Lucan played a sheep while Kenna sang in the angel choir.

Arden is on the far left, Charis on the far right, with Lucan directly in front of her.

5. CHRISTMAS COOKIE BAKING
I don't do roll-out cookies every year, but this year we did. Because we didn't go crazy with the baking this year, it was not as stressful as it could have been. :-) We did the roll-out and baking part one day, then frosted and decorated another day. We let the kids have their own plates of cookies to decorate and--theoretically--eat. But, ahem, we discovered Zaden on MULTIPLE occasions helping himself to other people's cookies. Sigh. We need to get smarter about this next year...

6. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN SALERNO
The city of Salerno is known for its light displays. We went last year with the K family and this year with the B family--so thankful for good friends to make memories with! Rhonda flew in from Colorado on the 19th, and we waited until she got here because Ted noted that she really enjoys lights at Christmas. We were blessed with fabulous weather and a lovely time together in this town along the Amalfi Coast.

7. CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE
Ted played guitar with the praise team, and Charis and Kenna participated in a worship dance presentation that was just lovely. Rhonda and I sat in the balcony with the boys and enjoyed singing carols and watching the loved ones who were part of the program. Seanin made it almost all the way through the service, but he and I ended up in the nursery, where he got a fresh diaper and dinner!

Christmas Season 2013: Traditions & Priorities

The whole family in Salerno to see the famous Christmas lights.

Every year I try my best to plan ahead and make sure we have time to enjoy and appreciate the various activities and celebrations of the Christmas season. And every year Christmas seems to come sooner than I'm ready for it, leaving me vowing to do even better the next year. But this year I'm giving myself a special gift: permission to enjoy what we DID do rather than be regretful about what we did NOT do. Permission to remember the positive experiences with fondness and joy and shrug off the negative with good humor and grace.

Did we get to everything on my Christmas to-do list? No.

Did we remember our Savior and actively seek to honor Him this month? Yes. Did we do that perfectly? Definitely not even close, but I have to believe He smiled at our attempts!

Since I haven't blogged about our personal activities this month, I'm going to capsulize the highlights with a few pictures (more are on Facebook), probably in a separate post. But one thing I wanted to note because it's a great step for me as a wife and mom is that I found myself making conscious decisions about more of my activities this season. I attribute this mostly to the study I had the privilege of leading this fall, A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George. We spent quite a bit of our discussion time considering priorities and choices, and I felt so blessed when I realized I was making seasonal decisions based on what God has been teaching me through the book, Scriptures, and class discussions. What a blessing to have a group of women who sharpen and encourage one another!

So even though we can't usually boil things in life down to a single either/or, it really helped me to frame choices in this manner to myself. EITHER I can do this, OR I can do that, but not both. Which one do I choose? Which activity helps me keep my priorities in order?

Some examples of how this worked out practically for me:

• Instead of getting up early to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast (as I had been hoping to do), I got up early and spent extra time cuddling in bed with my hubby. (We had enough sweets in our stockings!)
• Instead of stressing out about making everything from scratch (which I truly do prefer), I took some shortcuts, like canned frosting for the Christmas cookies and a box mix for Jesus's birthday cake. Not as healthy, but the kids didn't care, and it makes it easier for me to resist eating the goodies myself, ha! 
• For Christmas dinner, I ended up not even making ANY potatoes! I had tried to decide on one of 3 different recipes, none of which were make-ahead options. By the time Christmas Eve drew to a close, I had prepped homemade mac-and-cheese and a yummy green bean casserole, plus 2 dozen yeast rolls. Rhonda made the pistachio salad, and Ted was prepared to oversee the cooking of the ham. So I decided...we don't NEED potatoes! And you know what?! Christmas dinner was quite filling and we still have leftovers! It was nice to not do any cooking Christmas Day and have the prep work on Christmas Eve not be as taxing, either. 
• As above...I ended up not making any Christmas pies, either. Not my choice...I would much rather have homemade apple or pecan pie than a box-mix birthday cake for Jesus, but truly...do we REALLY need that many desserts on a day when the kids are already pumped with candy and cookies?!
• We said no to excessive gift-giving. There were some items we had in mind for the kids and ended up not pursuing. A good percentage of the kids' gifts were thrift store items (hooray for Hardy Boys and Warriors books and super-hero costumes!), and the older kids made gifts for each other while the younger ones used AWANA bucks to purchase gifts for others. The verdict? Tobin summed it up beautifully: "This was the best Christmas EVER!" I don't think they minded not having big bucks spent on them!
• We said no to perfectly wonderful activities when they fell during busy times. Sure, the Air Force Christmas party was a blast last year and we would have loved to have attended again. And the dinner for local orphans was certainly a worthy cause and would have been a blessing to be part of personally (we DID provide food to be served for it, just didn't go ourselves). But we had to save our sanity and made tough choices as a couple and as a family, and our season was the richer for it. 

Some things we did do, if imperfectly:

• As we do every year, we pulled out our Advent book and Advent calendar, tools that allow us to remind the kids of the different parts of the Christmas story and remind all of ourselves that the reason we do any of this stuff is because of Jesus. We may not have gotten to them every single day...but we read the pages and did the activities often enough that the younger ones got the gist!
• We did do some favorite holiday baking, but only two kinds of Christmas cookies.  Good heavens, I'm realizing we didn't even do fudge or peanut butter balls! But how freeing to realize that NO ONE HAS REVOLTED because of the lack, ha!
• We chose a few seasonal activities and enjoyed them thoroughly (parties, outings, etc.).
• We did even begin a new tradition--a candy kiss countdown to Christmas! It was a very simple thing that the kids absolutely loved, so I guess we need to plan on doing it again next year!

Next I'll post on our activities with pics...not sure when that will happen, since all of Italy appears to be online now and everything is running slow! But at least I have a note to myself that the world will not come to an end if we don't do everything in December that we think we need to do. We had a wonderful, blessed Christmas, and part of the blessing for me came in consciously relaxing when things weren't going as perfectly as planned!

Christmas 2012

Whew.  I can't keep up with everyday life, let alone blogging about it!  Here's my attempt at describing our festivities and celebration of Jesus's birthday...

Sunday, December 23
During the service at the base chapel our 4 older kids participated in the Christmas pageant, which was a short but sweet description of "Christmas in a Word," with Christmas being an acronym.  Tobin and Arden were soldiers; Kenna was an angel; and Charis had a couple of narrations along with being one of the Marys.  What's Christmas without an adorable, kid-filled pageant?!

Christmas Eve

Let's see...finished wrapping presents, prepped a bit of food, played games with the family, took a nap, went to the Christmas Eve service at the base chapel.  During the service our family got to participate in a meaningful time of remembrance for those who were killed in the terrible tragedy in Connecticut.  A man read the names of each victim, which were written on paper angel ornaments, and we hung them on the tree. There were several families who helped with this, and it was a sad and sober time as we prayed for the families and friends who have experienced loss and begged God for His tender mercies as He reveals His glory in the midst of all of this.  (To read Charis's thoughts on the tragic events, please visit this blog entry.)

Ted and I took turns holding Zaden, as there was no nursery or child care for the evening.  The kids did pretty well, but by the time we got to the end--the traditional "Silent Night" sung as we light candles--let's just say we were having a not-so-silent night in our pew!  Zaden was done for the day, and Lucan was yowling after holding the candle a bit too close to his nose when he was huffing and puffing trying to blow the flame to make it dance.  Sigh.  Well, just keeping it real, folks!  I'm sure it wasn't all that quiet the night Jesus was born!  (I speak as a mother who has delivered naturally a couple of times, albeit minus the animal attendants.)

Ted herded children to bed once we arrived home while I sneaked over to a neighbor's house to pick up the beanbag chairs we had purchased for the kids.  There is literally NO place in our house to hide something so massive (5 beanbag chairs take up a LOT of space, let me tell you!), so we kept them in the Suburban until the appropriate time Christmas morning.

Christmas Day
Our day began a BIT earlier than planned...the 3rd floor balcony door (the one with a broken latch) blew open at around 6:30 a.m., setting off our house alarm.  Ted and I were sure it was the boys, waking early and throwing open the shutters!  But they were bleary-eyed and indignant at having their sleep interrupted (not that that prevented them for being prepared to jump like maniacs through the house once they realized it was actually CHRISTMAS MORNING!).

We made the kids stay in bed (or at least in their rooms) until 7:00, so we were MOSTLY ready for them!  We do stockings at our house first, then breakfast.

Breakfast consisted of sausage and eggs along with the most amazing cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten.  When reading the instructions on the Pioneer Woman's blog, I was laughing out loud, so I figured this particular concoction was worth a try!  We all agree it is a keeper of a recipe (although I did use about half the butter and half the sugar in the rolls themselves!).  Lucan mowed through most of his stocking contents as part of breakfast, too.  Even Zaden got in on some candy action, failing to remove the wrapper of a candy cane kiss before attacking it!  Good thing it's hard to swallow foil...

Following breakfast clean-up, we read through the Advent Book and did our Advent Calendar.  (New this year: an additional Advent Book so we don't have to fight over turning the pages and opening the doors!)

Zaden thinks he's participating, too!  Love it!

For the Advent Calendar, we shut the kids up in the kitchen so Ted could read the story with them while I frantically grabbed the beanbag chairs from the Suburban and brought them in.  The big reveal happened next and was our segue into family gift-opening time!



I totally forgot to get a picture of our little Italian tree with the gifts under it! So here's a shot with it all naked underneath. We opted, as usual, for a real tree...yes, it was overpriced...yes, we should probably just purchase a fake, pre-lighted tree...but it smelled amazing and was our contribution to the Italian economy!  What cracks me up is that you purchase them here with the big bucket containing the ball of roots!  That worked just fine for us, as we didn't have any of Ted's tools for slicing the bottom of the trunk neatly to fit into a more traditional tree stand.  So we just left it in the bucket!  You'll notice it's a little sparse; we left all our ornaments in storage, figuring we could make and/or buy more here.  Well, our plans to make ornaments kind of fell by the wayside, but we scraped up a few here and there, and the kids enjoyed the red lights and the star at any rate.

 A few pics of kids with presents...

Lucan loves the sticker book from Grandma J

New Lego set for the boys

Kenna is pretty in pink in her new Hello Kitty robe and scarf from Afghanistan!

Charis made hats for EVERYONE!  Zaden doesn't have his hat on, but he does have his adorable little sneaker booties on that Charis crocheted!

No pattern at all for the tam Charis made me...she just did it!  That girl is amazing!

And a video of Zaden with one of his presents because he's just too darn cute:


We had a leisurely afternoon, enjoying presents and naps (watching the new Veggie Tales episode The League of Incredible Vegetables was a hit!), and then we went to the R family's house for heavy appetizers and visiting.  It was so nice to not worry about doing a big meal!  Our family contributed hummus and flatbread, veggies and dip, and tortilla chips with Hot Mexican Dip.  There were also meatballs, crockpot beans, deviled eggs, chicken bites, fruit salad, jalapeno dip, shrimp cocktail, and tons and tons of desserts.

Truly, a very joyous, memorable Christmas!  The day after was just as wonderful, with Ted having the day off to stay home and play games, watch movies, and eat our huge, yummy meal with us!  Our roasted turkey with homemade gravy and mashed potatoes turned out better than I think I've ever done--and I didn't even have a mom or mom-in-law here to help!  Maybe I've finally learned how to do the holiday cooking thing, LOL!  Sweet potato and green bean casseroles completed the sides, along with our "pink fluff" salad that Charis made.  We've been munching on leftovers all week, which is a Christmas gift to myself, ha!

We hope your celebration of our Savior's birth was also wonderful and meaningful!

Air Force Christmas Party

Ted's work party was held at a beautiful Italian restaurant on a Friday evening.  It didn't begin until 7:30 p.m., so we hired a babysitter for Lucan and Zaden.  I'm so glad we did!  It turned out to be a very long evening, as we didn't get home until midnight!  But it was so. much. FUN!

Getting there, however, was an adventure all on its own.  We had our first experience with the GPS going psycho on us and sending us up steep, narrow paths.  It was dark and raining, and we missed a turn before we realized what had happened.  We were on a dirt road with no end in sight and no way to turn the Suburban around, so we had to go back almost 200 yards.  I stuck my head out the window to help guide Ted, as there was NO light at all and the rain made it very difficult to see.  We finally reached the "road" where the GPS said we were supposed to go and blindly followed its directions.

Bah!  Worthless directions they were!  The stupid thing led us up and up and around and around until we had dead-ended in a family's back yard!!  We worked at backing the Suburban around so we could retrace our steps and found a couple of wondering Italian guys coming outside to see what the heck was going on!  They helped guide Ted into making the turnaround, and then we crept back down, adding a few more healthy scrapes to the sides of the Suburban as we made sharp turns that were easier to make going up than down!  Ted went back to the main road, where the GPS calmly "recalculated" the route and took us straight to the restaurant on nice, NORMAL, wider, well-lit, main streets.  What the heck?!  Why didn't it take us that way to begin with?!

We were only a few minutes late, hardly even worth calling "late," considering our harrowing adventure minutes before.  The kids were ushered to a play area, though Charis chose to stay with us and ended up sitting at our table rather than at the kids' table.  We settled into our seats and began visiting with those around us.  I met a delightful young wife whose husband and Ted already knew each other, and the two of us enjoyed visiting throughout the evening.  They have one little 3-year-old girl who is just precious.  She cleaned her plate--we were amazed at her persistence and capacity to consume so much food over the course of the evening, but then we learned that someone had told her Santa wouldn't come unless she ate everything on her plate...so...!

The first food didn't appear until nearly 8:30, but then it just didn't stop coming!  Appetizers, soup, pasta, more pasta, meat/potatoes/veggies...at each course I was sure we'd be getting dessert, but no, it was more FOOD!  And it was all AMAZING!  So while our first Italian ristorante experience was actually in Capri, this was our first REAL, sit-down, multi-course, Italian RISTORANTE experience!  I loved it, even though I truly hated to see the uneaten food go to waste. :-(  (It's considered rude to ask for carry-out containers; they simply whisk away your plates when you're not looking, it seems, and return with a new plate of different yummy food!)  The dessert was some kind of amazing creamy goodness with chocolate and coffee sprinkles, all covering a sponge-cake that positively dripped with rich coffee and who knows what else.  Oh, my!

During all the feasting were various games and giveaways, interspersed with musical numbers from a talented musician (and a bit of dancing from a major who apparently likes to entertain others!).  Ted and I each won a bottle of wine (I picked a lucky chair with a "wine" tag taped underneath, and he knew a trivia question).  I also won a flash drive, which I may very well take to the NEX and exchange since we don't really need another one, and at the end of the night I won one of the big prizes, a fancy, expensive purse that I would never in a million years even think of purchasing!  It actually is practical, though, being waterproof, and with this being the rainy season, I can put it to good use!  The name brand means nothing to me, as I have never heard of the brand before even, but I'm thankful nonetheless for a surprise blessing.  (Indeed, many surprise blessings!)

The kids were in and out, trooping outside to play with the teens the restaurant had hired to keep kids occupied and coming back inside to eat more food.  (Their dishes were different from ours--definitely more kid-friendly, but still way different from fries and McNuggets, LOL.)

Toward the end of the evening "Santa" made an appearance (Ted's boss was the lucky "winner" who got to don the outfit!) to give gifts to the children.  Our kids had no idea that we had been in on the Santa plan and were surprised but delighted to hear their names being called.  We had decided to get them all slippers, as they had been saying they wanted/needed some with our hard, cold, tile floors.  (Tobin had even been known to steal mine from time to time!)

This is the best reaction we got--Kenna's face!

All in all, a very enjoyable evening and a fun Christmas event we'll remember for a long time.  In fact...I think I'm already looking forward to next year's Air Force Christmas party!

Tree Lighting Ceremony at JFC

Yesterday afternoon families were permitted to take tours of the new Joint Force Command buildings at the new NATO headquarters.  (The old headquarters building is pictured at the end of this post.)  The move to the new place has been over a decade in the making...there is a fun story (well, fun for those who aren't involved, I'm sure) about the yellow house that sits, empty, on JFC property.  Because it took so long to get everything in order, someone built a private residence there before the gates/fences were erected.  Once everything was put together, it became apparent that there was a family living on government property!  They had to move away, and there the house sits...inside the fence!

Anyway, we were excited for the opportunity to tour the building where Ted works.  As you might guess, this is not an everyday opportunity, LOL.  The building is still fairly sparse, but a number of offices have already made the move, and it is a much nicer place, owing no doubt to the fact that it is decades newer than its older counterpart!  We even got to see the "situation room" that looks very much like scenes from movies!

We also toured the wedge-shaped building next to Ted's building, which is the large Community Center.  It will be wonderful once it is completed!  There will be a miniature "commissary," post office, fitness facilities, swimming pool, cafeteria, etc.  So nice!  At the old JFC headquarters there were all these amenities, but they were spread hither and yon.  It was never worth it for me to make the trip down there (the old place is south; this is just a few minutes north of us) to shop.  But it WILL be nice to do so in the new place!  They say January or February it should officially open.

After the tour we enjoyed music from the Navy Band, seeing our friend "Tuba" (guess which instrument he plays?!), Italian cake, and real hot chocolate--I mean, REAL!  Oh, my, deliciousness in a cup!  It was raining, so the ceremony was moved indoors, which was nice since all 6 kids were with us, but not nearly as impressive as the real tree lit up outside.  Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable outing.  We went home and had a couple of hours before we left for the Air Force Christmas party that night.

Beginning to Look Like Christmas...

Zaden gets introduced to our kid-friendly nativity set!  I LOVE this thing and wish I had bought a dozen sets at that craft sale in Ohio so very long ago!  It is simply precious, and I'd love for all our kids and nieces and nephews to have their own.  Sigh. Maybe one day I'll make them for our grandkids...

We all agree: this is the PERFECT place for our stockings!  (You can see from the picture of Zaden that it would be difficult to fit 8 stockings on that fireplace mantle...)

Ahem.  Kenna got a hold of the camera, but this is a precious picture of Lucan in Dad's Santa hat!

Christmas Day

Considering the head of our home is on the other side of the world, we had a very wonderful, blessed Christmas!  As hard as I tried to get up really early, I didn't actually wake until about 6:30.  By the time I finished nursing Zaden, I was hearing footsteps on the stairs...and Tobin came marching down, ready to begin the festivities!  (As an interesting side note, he was the last one awake the night before, having raced down the stairs to look at a clock to see what time it was!  I sent him to bed at 11:30 pm, so who knows how long he was awake after that!)

While I had managed to get the stockings stuffed before Tobin arrived downstairs, I had done nothing else.  So, as I have been doing a lot this year, I took a deep breath and released all my preconceived ideas of how the day should go.  Really, who cares if Mom gets a shower before present-opening time anyway?!  Tobin was more than happy to help me carry gifts from my bedroom to put under the tree, and then he was off again, storming into his siblings' rooms and waking them up before I even had a chance to put the tea kettle on so I could get some caffeine in my system.

I managed to hold everyone off until around 8:00, which was when Ted had thought he would be able to Skype.  (He got the whole day off for Christmas!  Woohoo!)  I ended up letting the kids open their stockings after they were all cozy in their spots in the family room--complete with big, fluffy pillows (an early Christmas gift I got them), stuffed animals, blankets, miniature Christmas trees, and who knows what else, probably a partridge or calling birds or something.

One smart thing I did was to forget about planning and cooking a fancy breakfast.  Instead, the kids got breakfast in their stocking, a variety of fun snacks from Trader Joe's, including kettle corn, fruit leathers, dried mango, and gingerbread cookies.  Along with hot tea (which I finally did get to make), it made for a fun and easy breakfast.  By the time we were finishing that, Daddy called!  We set the computer up in the dining room and read the story that goes with our Advent calendar, allowing everyone the opportunity to place Baby Jesus in the manger at the end.  Then Ted prayed, and then we settled back in the family room for gifts.  I tried placing the computer in one corner of the room, and I think Ted was able to see fairly well.

And the next hour was just chaos!  So much for opening presents one at a time, in order from youngest to oldest!  Before we could blink, Lucan had ripped off the wrapping paper and opened Charis's present from Clint and Ski!  I realized something was wrong when I saw a purple watch in the box!  Our gifts included items that were delivered anonymously, but I suspect came from a support squadron on base or something, since the note was "to an airman's family" thanking us for our service and sacrifice.  They had our names written on the gifts, and really, whoever did the shopping picked some great stuff!  The kids really enjoyed what they received, and I guess they figured you can't go wrong with lotion and fuzzy socks for Mom. :-)

Since Lucan had no concept of waiting his turn for gift opening, things sort of fell apart from there, so I just did the best I could as far as keeping track of who got what from whom.  By the time the frenzy was over, the house got really quiet as kids played with new items!  Ted was able to be on Skype with us for about an hour and a half!  I hope it wasn't too depressing for him to watch all the commotion from the other side of his screen; I know it certainly helped us feel like he was still a part of our special celebration.

We had a simple lunch of leftovers, and I finally got a shower while the older kids tried out their new Wii game from Joel and Sarah.  We also did some activities from our church's "Hope-full" box that they had handed out to each family; there were some fun things in there to help us keep the day focused on Christ, including a "Born to Die" ornament, coloring pages, word searches, a DVD, conversation starters, and other activity suggestions.

After attempting to give Lucan a chance to nap (ha), we loaded everyone up and went to Shane and Denise's house for a big feast.  Shane, or Toupe, as he is better known to his Air Force friends, was Ted's boss both at Nellis and our first year back here in Ohio.  They are wonderful friends who adore having kids over (they don't have kids of their own yet), and our kids enjoy going to their home.  When they invited us for Christmas dinner, we were all very happy to say yes!  Denise and her mother-in-law had an amazing spread for us, and Shane and his brother fried two turkeys and also had a ham prepared.  There were potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole with orange zest--yum!, green bean casserole, corn, cranberry-apple casserole, and probably other stuff, too.  It was all so wonderful!  And, as you can see, Flat Daddy made an appearance at the table with us!  Also in the picture is a single guy, Sgt. Walters, whom Shane and Denise invited as well.

Patty, Shane's mom, had bought a bunch of activity kits to give to the kids.  Now we know where Shane and Denise get their generous spirit!  Charis was in craft heaven, and Kenna adored spending time with "Grandma Patty" working on a sticker book.  Lucan spent most of the evening playing with a Fisher Price tractor with animals in a trailer, and I reveled in the time to visit and relax and watch the kids enjoy themselves.  I brought our Advent Book along, since we just had not had enough time to read it at home, and we read through that with Denise and Patty.

We headed home around 8:00 that evening, loaded down with tons of leftovers--I haven't had to cook all week!  From start to finish, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.  Obviously the only thing that could have made it better would have been having Ted with us, but considering the circumstances, we really did have the best Christmas possible.  "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

For more Christmas pictures, go here.

Christmas Vacation

We are having way too much fun during this week with Ted off work and Rhonda with us.  On Monday Charis, Rhonda, and I did some shopping...Charis wanted to use the Michael's gift card that Grandma J had given her for Christmas, and I had a J.C. Penney's gift card from Grandma Shirley for my birthday that I wanted to try to use, since I never go to the mall as a general rule!  Charis found much to her liking at Michael's and happily returned with a bag full of new items to craft with, and I scored a big griddle for our family's pancake mornings (among other uses, LOL)!  It was on sale for $30, regularly $50, and with my gift card and tax, I ended up paying a whopping $6.94.  Woohoo!  We hope to talk Ted into making pancakes tomorrow morning so we don't have to wait until Sunday to see how it works!

Yesterday Ted and I escaped went out for a much-needed date!  The last one we had was in October when my parents were here.  We were hoping to go out for my birthday around Thanksgiving time, but our sitter had company that week and ended up not being able to get away to help us out.  So we were thrilled when Rhonda said she wanted to babysit so we could go out.  FINALLY we enjoyed seeing the new Harry Potter movie, which was very well done.  Though it's been over a year since I last read the book, it seemed like they did a very good job of sticking to the major plot points and staying true to the characters and themes.  We can't wait for the next one to come out!  After the movie (which was an early matinee), we went out for a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and returned home to find Lucan napping and everyone else watching the end of the Polar Express.

Today pretty much everyone played Wii this morning (as they have a LOT this week, LOL) while I escaped to my stamp room to work on some projects.  Now it's afternoon nap time, and I'm uploading some pictures to Facebook and getting ready to head back downstairs to work some more.  Leadership is in just a couple of weeks, and I don't want to leave my swaps to the last minute!

Tonight we're eagerly anticipating the opportunity to see the new Narnia movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, another Christmas gift from Rhonda.  We have a sitter for Kenna and Lucan and are pumping Kenna up for her fun night with Miss Rachel!  The older kids are beside themselves with excitement...as am I!  Hurry up, evening, and come!!

As much as we are trying to be relaxed and laid back, the week still seems to be flying by already.  Sigh.  Guess we'll try to enjoy this break from reality while it lasts!

Celebrating Jesus

After a lovely Christmas Eve service at our church last night, we managed to get the kids tucked in bed and QUIET before too long.  We had unsuccessfully tried for a last-minute Kroger run, having run out of tape for wrapping presents, but unfortunately, everything was closed up for the night.  (What, no one else runs out of tape the night before Christmas?!)  Actually, I'm more prepared than that, just not, apparently, that organized.  I had purchased an 8-pack of refills for my tape dispenser, and we had just finished the first roll.  But I can NOT, for the life of me, find where the other 7 refills are.  Sigh.  On the plus side, the school desk in my room is now spic and span...

Anyway.  After the kids were in bed, dreaming of sugar plums fudge, Ted and I made our way to the play room to set up a plethora of Playmobile toys, which I had gotten for a mere $50 from a homeschool family who was selling a collection worth hundreds of dollars.  I honestly had no idea what all we were getting; it just sounded like something Kenna and Lucan might like for Christmas.  I made the purchase probably two months ago, and when the lady came by the house to drop off the sets and collect her money, I was overwhelmed with the sheer amount of STUFF that came into our garage!  The lady was so generous to sell all that to us for such a low price!  I was so excited when I saw everything.  We haven't really purchased anything like it for the kids, although one of the boys got a pirate set a few years ago for a birthday.  Ted and I hid the items in one of the basement storage areas that the kids never go into, and when we set everything out in the play room, it took up a respectable amount of space!  This was the year for used gifts, apparently, as we also purchased a used Wii system (see previous post!). 

Ted and I woke at 5:30 to make sure we had everything in place.  Lucan and the girls were up before Tobin and Arden, amazingly!  I couldn't believe we had to wake them at 8:00!  I had homemade frosted cinnamon rolls ready, and we also had fresh kiwi and scrambled eggs with sausage.  We had a wonderful breakfast, letting the kids open their stockings at the same time.  Then we put candles in the cinnamon rolls and sang happy birthday to Jesus, because I just ran out of time to make Jesus' birthday cake (which was supposed to be a cowboy cake at the kids' request).

After breakfast was cleaned up, we read through our Advent book and prayed, and then the kids passed out gifts from our extended family members.  So, we opened the presents from my parents, Joel and Sarah, and Clint and Ski.  Then we told the kids there was a surprise from us in the basement, and they all trooped down and were duly surprised and delighted with what they found in the play room.  Among the Playmobile sets we purchased were a Roman arena/coliseum, pirate ship, airport and airplane (complete with baggage carousel!), Noah's ark, a jungle/zoo, log cabin...and too many animals and people and accessories to count!!  ALL the kids were overjoyed, and even Ted got lost in the mechanics of all the things!  What I love is that there is something for ALL the kids, from 21-month-old Lucan to 10-year-old Charis!  (And 34-year-old Ted, LOL.)

During the ruckus, I slipped away and went to my stamp room to spend a happy 2 hours listening to RadioU's Christmas program on my laptop and playing with some new stamps and accessories from the upcoming Occasions Mini-Catalog.  I designed a new card and then made a dozen thank-you cards...seems I'm always needing those!

Then it was time to put Lucan down for a nap.  We fed him a light lunch (most of his meals have been light this week--I think he's popping another tooth or two) and put him down for a nap.  Then we had cheese and crackers and grapes while watching The Sign of the Beaver, a movie picked by the kids.  Tobin found it when we were at the library last week, and as we had recently finished the book as part of our history studies, we thought it would be fun to watch it come to life.  The kids chose that over Polar Express, which we had borrowed from friends, which was fine with us.  The movie was very well done; a few changes from the book, but they were true to the spirit of the novel and the characters, and I thought the changes emphasized the themes nicely.

When the movie was over, Ted woke Lucan up and took him, Kenna, and Arden to the airport to meet Grandma J!  Tobin and Charis stayed home and helped me clean up our mess from the morning and finish setting the table and preparing our big meal, which we ate nearly as soon as Rhonda walked in the door, as she had had a direct flight all the way from Denver!  We enjoyed a yummy ham, which I heated in the crock pot, and pineapple sauce to go with it; plus cheesy hashbrown potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, and garlic carrots.  After our meal was cleaned up, we did the gift exchange with our own gifts plus Grandma J's, saving the Wii surprise until the very end.  Kenna was happy to play with her new kitchen set, which Charis scored for $5 at a garage sale this summer!  It has a refrigerator, stove, and sink/dishwasher, in three separate pieces, plus a (brand new) tea set.  So while the older folks were busy with the Wii, Kenna was happily making and serving tea and dessert over and over to anyone who would take them!

So the rest of our Christmas evening has been full of silliness, laughing, desserts, and fun.  The kids are now being herded to bed, and I can actually see my family room floor again, LOL. 

I love Christmas, and I love the chaos that comes with sharing it with children!  (Although I did love the quiet moments I was able to share with Ted before anyone else was awake!)  I loved watching Lucan wander around in utter delight, squeezing his new stuffed animals and playing with whatever he saw that caught his fancy.  I loved watching Kenna find her surprise in the "Harry Potter closet" in the basement.  I loved Tobin's look of combined disbelief and utter joy when he realized he was holding a Wii remote.  I loved hearing Charis jump around in excitement when she read my note about ordering her own "Hand Stamped by" stamp.  I loved Arden's big bear hugs and heartfelt "THANKS, MOM!" 

Tomorrow I will love bundling everyone up and going to church to celebrate again the birth of our Savior with our church family, and then I will love coming home to leftover potato chowder (from our Christmas Eve dinner), a nap, and playing the Wii.  I love that my husband is HOME with our family this year, and I don't take that for granted anymore...not when we could very well be on opposite sides of the world in 364 days!  I love that the kids were almost more excited to see us adults open the gifts from the kids than they were to open their gifts from us.  (Of course, it helped that my sweet children gave me the movie Despicable Me!) 

Most of all, I love the fact that God, in His infinite mercy and grace, left the splendor of heaven to come to earth, arriving in the most humble environment amidst extraordinary fanfare.  I'll never get tired of the Advent story, and I'll never tire of waiting for my Savior to return again--this time as a King!

Wii Wish You a Merry Christmas!

I sit down to write after a thrilling game of bowling, in which I scored the highest I ever have in my life and thoroughly trounced the competition--Charis, Tobin, and Arden.  No, we didn't go out to a bowling alley on Christmas day; we're playing our new Wii!

Ted and I had been discussing for awhile the pros and cons of getting a Wii for the family in lieu of Christmas gifts.  On the one hand, we are strangely averse to screen time at our house in general.  (And by "we" I mean "we parents," of course.)  I much prefer to see my kids reading or doing some creative play than sitting in front of a computer or television screen.  But on the other hand, a Wii is so interactive!  We've been jumping and running all over the place the last couple of hours!  And the whole family (minus Lucan, who was very much ready for bed) is talking and laughing together.  This is no ordinary computer game, as I'm sure many other families have already discovered!  I must confess that the possibility of Ted being deployed for a year also factored HEAVILY into this decision, as I am well aware of my limitations and the need we will all have for some space!

So anyway, when I saw a post on our homeschool message board that a family was selling a Wii system along with a few games, I jumped at the offer.  Since she had posted at 1:30 a.m. and I was up at 5:30 a.m., I happened to be the first to respond.  We got the system plus the original Wii Sports, Outdoor Adventure plus the pad that goes with it, and Fitness Coach (which I am looking forward to trying out in an effort to lose all this holiday fudge-pudge).  We did have to locate another remote, but Ted did some Amazon magic and got what we needed.  All in all, we spent less on everything than if we had simply bought the system new, minus any games or pads, so we feel pretty good about our purchase.

We saved the Wii surprise for the very end of the day.  (I'll blog about our whole Christmas day in the next post.)  We gave the stockings back to the kids with various components inside each stocking.  On the count of three, we had them pull out what was inside.  They looked a little puzzled at first, and then we said something like, "Do you think maybe we need something to make all these things work?"  The look on their faces when they realized what was going on was priceless!!  There was much jumping and dancing around, quite a few "Woohoos!", and lots of hugs and "Thank you, Mom and Dad!"

Setting up the "Miis" was an adventure in and of itself, and we laughed ourselves silly picturing Arden with a beard and Grandma J bald.  We've all had some turns, and although some kids have been miffed now and then with what they felt was an unfair decision as to whose turn it was to do what, for the most part the kids have been good sports and are having a ball.

I think Wii made the right decision. :-)

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

My parents drove to visit us last Sunday and survived lots of snow on I-70 plus a multitude of vehicles reluctant to drive more than 35 mph. After an exhausting day of travel, they were greeted enthusiastically at the door by Charis and Tobin, who had managed to keep themselves awake, and of course Ted and me. Everyone else quickly crashed, but I enjoyed a few hours' visit with Mom and Dad all to myself. I knew I'd have to share them later, LOL.

Monday was a family day, so Ted was off work. It was a GREAT time of hanging out (kids in their pajamas, grown-ups in their comfy clothes), playing games, eating good food, and visiting. Of course Grandma and Grandpa brought presents, so we opened those and played with new stuff. :-)

Tuesday was Mom and Dad's 37th anniversary. I made a special breakfast for them, and then since Ted was at work the rest of us piled in the Suburban and drove to Ikea. It was Mom and Dad's first time to the store, so we thought it would be fun to show them around. (Plus I wanted to get more chairs to go with our dining set since we had received some Christmas money!) Well, everyone else in Ohio apparently thought it was the perfect day to shop at Ikea also. Sigh. One thing I've learned about myself in the last decade is that I do NOT like being in crowds of people, particularly when I have to push a cart or a stroller or keep track of anyone else besides myself. I feel very closed in and claustrophobic. So, though Ikea is one of the few places in the world where I actually enjoy shopping, our outing on Tuesday wasn't the most enjoyable for me. Still, we did get Swedish meatballs, so that outweighed the cons quite a bit, LOL. Kids ate for free, which probably explained in no small way the vast crowds, not to mention post-holiday shoppers were out and about spending gift cards like there was no tomorrow. Go, people! Stimulate the economy! Just don't stop right in front of my stroller!!

Our shopping spree ended on a somewhat disappointing note as we learned the Lingonberry ice cream was unavailable. Bummer. Ah, well, we got our 4 dining chairs to complete our set (one dozen chairs, all of which can fit around our Ikea table!) and came home to find Ted already in the house. Woohoo! Short work day!

After breakfast the next morning, Mom and Dad had to head home to 'Sconsin. It was a short visit, but a very good one. I so enjoyed being able to relax and visit with them when the kiddos were in bed. I don't think we did as much of that when we were at their place over Thanksgiving--I think our lack of sleep there caused us to crash pretty much whenever the kids did! But we had fun reminiscing and laughing together. I'm so thankful we live closer to them than we have for the last 5 years so that we can get together more often.

To see more photos of our time together, go here.

Christmas Tidbits

1. The song for our neck of the woods was "I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas." I woke at 5 a.m. to a howling wind that was knocking our winter welcome sign on the front door so loudly I thought a neighbor had come calling. The little snow that had accumulated was gone, but there was plenty of rain to take its place.

2. Joel and Sarah have given the big kids their own little Christmas trees in past years, so after breakfast they each brought the trees and blankets to the family room. The passing out of the presents included placing their gifts under their own trees. It was cute.

3. In an effort to encourage Kenna to stop backsliding in her potty training efforts, we bought her two packs of big girl underwear. She was so excited she immediately went to the bathroom and put some on. Since I had wrapped each package separately, she later went to the bathroom to change to a new pair...or so we thought. Turns out she put ALL SIX pairs of underwear on at the same time, as we found out later!

4. Charis was so excited to give the boys the gifts she had bought them--light sabers! She spent $11 of her own money in addition to the amount we had budgeted for the kids to shop for one another. I was glad to see the boys were so appreciative...not so excited to see what objects in the house they will break with their new weapons of mass destruction.

5. My gift from Ted: tickets to see Wicked when it comes to our area next spring. To help pass the time, I plan to read the book first. Can't wait!

6. Lucan was a bit nonplussed by all the extra stuff in the family room. He sat on my lap during most of the unwrapping phase, either playing with my Santa troll earrings or sucking on the ear of his new rabbit from Grandma J.


7. One of Charis's favorite gifts was a "new" pair of rollerblades! She has outgrown her roller skates and has wanted blades ever since trying them at homeschool skate day. I found these for $10. They are adjustable for sizes 2-4, so they should last Charis awhile, since she is barely a size 2 now. No, I am not ashamed to purchase used items for Christmas presents! As I told Charis, it allowed us to get additional gifts for her rather than paying $100 for a new pair of rollerblades. She heartily agreed it was a good deal. I love having a thrifty daughter!


8. Once the boys opened their Mega Blocks King Arthur ship set, we pretty much lost them for the rest of the day. Ted, too.


9. One of my favorite gifts--the picture Charis drew and watercolored for Ted and me. It's the two of us, as you can clearly see by Ted's hair!


10. I also had an "awww" moment when I read the poems Charis wrote for each of us on the back of our picture--click on the image to see a larger version of it, and you should be able to read the words.