Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We've enjoyed the mellowest Christmas ever, with quiet, agreeable kids all day. A string of late nights are finally catching up to our kids. Or maybe they're slipping into a sugar induced coma. Either way, it's been a lovely day.

Gibson was not so quiet on Christmas Eve, demanding attention while Becky was trying to make dinner. She finally found reprieve by giving him half a pomegranate to play with. He really enjoyed digging the seeds out and eating them.


We try to do a Nativity play on Christmas Eve with mixed results. This year, only Sophie and Abe were willing to participate. Sophie was the angel and Abe was a shepherd, leaving Becky to play Mary, Joseph and the sheep. Sophie ended the play by singing "Silent Night" while holding a lit candle, simply beautiful. All the kids joined in singing "Joy to the World" after Helen put Baby Jesus in our porcelain nativity scene-- a definite parent payback moment.


A typical sight on Christmas day-- Sophie sitting somewhere reading. In the photo, she's lounging on the remains of our Christmas Eve bed. Every year, our family sleeps by the Christmas tree all together on Christmas Eve. This has gotten a lot more comfortable now that we have a fold out bed.


More reading. We've enjoyed being together and sharing all day.

Christmas snuck up on us this year, but Brandan still found time to make two cool wooden toys for the kids. He made Helen a 3D version of Connect 4, with wooden beads that slide onto dowels mounted on a block. Helen stayed in her pajamas all day, even when we went for a walk to look at Christmas lights and when she dressed up like a ballerina.

Brandan and Helen finished making the game together by painting half of the beads in bright colors. Sophie painted Helen's face with face paints in a rare moment when she wasn't reading.

Brandan made Abe a 3D puzzle from a beautiful piece of walnut. He used a router and a sander to carve valleys and hills into the piece of wood. When the pieces are scattered, it's a challenge to get them back together again.

We leave tomorrow for a trip to San Diego and will post again when we get back.

21 December 2008

We've had snow every day this week with zero accumulation on the valley floor. It's like living in a snow globe, with none of the negative attributes of snow. Here's Sophie trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue while wearing her nightgown and flip flops.


Monday was the only day with enough snow to build a snowman. Strangely enough, it was not the day school was canceled. That was Thursday. The forecast was for lots of snow, but it mostly rained. The forecast spooked the school district into closing. The snow in the photo had all melted by noon on Monday.


We put together a gingerbread train this week. We pulled a frightening amount of candy out of the pantry to decorate it with. Each person decorated a train car, except Helen who wanted to decorate the witch's house from Hansel and Gretel. "But this is the nice witch who lets Hansel and Gretel water her plants and flowers and then they go inside and have hamburgers and french fries for dinner."


We corralled Gibson in his high chair with a limited amount of frosting and candy. We don't have a photo of the finished train-- it's all about the process (and the candy) anyway.

Brandan's medical assistant gave us a puzzle which we've been working on for a few days. We haven't seen one like it before. The pieces on the outside are big and then get smaller as you move to the middle, designed so that all ages of a family can work on it together. It's hard to walk by the puzzle without stopping and trying to fit a few pieces together.

It's the season for shipping packages which means bubble wrap! The kids enjoyed hopping on some scraps Sunday morning.

No photos here, just news-- our family sang a duet with another family (well, 13 people total, hardly a duet) in our ward's Sacrament Meeting Christmas program. We sang "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem." The kids looked super cute, although we're not sure anyone beyond the organist could hear us.

14 December 2008

Gibson had a pretty awful earache last weekend that caused his eardrum to burst. He was miserable for a couple of days and only content on Brandan's lap. Thank goodness for antibiotics! He's got his game back and is running circles around us now.


We had our first snowfall of the season on Saturday. Where? Can't you see it piled up on the stairs? The snow is at least 3 or 4 snowflakes deep.


A couple of years ago, a secret Santa left a cute nativity set on our doorstep for the 12 days of Christmas. The kids like moving the pieces and it gets rearranged several times a day. The pieces, made of plastic molded to look like painted wood, are perfect for little hands.


This time, Abe creatively moved the stable outline to the front of the display to make a doorway for the stable.

Helen likes to arrange the pieces crowded close around Baby Jesus, each figure touching him, if possible. This might not be an artistic arrangement, but we love the idea of Jesus right in the center of attention, all eyes on Him, and symbolizes our best hopes for Christmas.

7 December 2008

Sophie, Abe and Helen each have an assigned night of the week to help cook dinner. They like cooking and Becky likes the company. Helen's night is Monday. In the photo, she's sauteeing onions for meatloaf, one of her favorite dinners.


We haven't seen Rudolph, but someone stuck a Santa hat on the baby elk statue in our neighborhood.


December brings back so many fun traditions, like our Christmas advent calendar. We loaded it up with lots of Dove chocolates, milk and dark. The chocolate wrappers each have a message printed inside, targeted to middle-aged women, that say things like "Find a quiet moment in your day and savor it." The kids really like reading the messages, however inappropriate to their ages. Every pocket is crammed with chocolate, so if you stop by, we can certainly find you a piece.


Yardwork slows down in the winter, but never really stops in the Northwest. We did a little weeding on a clear day this week. Here Abe admires a particularly large thistle.

This photo was taken at 2 am on December 6, just after St. Nicholas made his annual visit and filled our shoes with candy. It really disgusts St. Nick that our kids prefer super sugary American candy to European chocoloates. Luckily, they're young and their tastes will mature. In the meantime, they enjoy their M&Ms, Nerds and marshmallow Christmas trees.