27 December 2009

We ended our first trimester of Monday School with the kids presenting the special projects they've been working on. Abe studied wild cats and made this poster with some of the facts he has learned.

Sophie, Rylee and Zach studied cooking and for their final project, they made dinner for us. They made lasagna, salad and a scrumptious triple layer chocolate cake. Rylee and Zach's moms joined us for dinner and we enjoyed getting to know them better--two great families.

We were serenaded by a bevy of beautiful carolers-- the Young Women in our ward. More importantly, they helped whittle away at the mountain of goodies Brandan's very generous patients gave him for Christmas.

Saturday we headed up in the mountains for some snow and sunshine. Helen discovered her inner dare devil. She started out going over a snow jump about 6 inches away from the jump. With no momentum, she'd get stuck on top of the jump and need a push to get over it. By the time we left, she started high on the hill above the jump, sat on her saucer criss-cross applesauce, closed her eyes and hurled down the hill, laughing as she hit the jump and launched into the air.

It was faster to tow Gibson up the hill than to wait for him to climb up by himself.

Sophie veered off track at the end of a run and had the choice of hitting a tree or a bush. She wisely chose the bush.

Abe in snow heaven.

Here's Gibson on a solo run. Such a beautiful day-- blue skies, tall pines, the best of Oregon.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you! We've had a quiet and cozy holiday, just the way we like it, beginning Thursday night with our Christmas Eve celebration. We can't imagine a sweeter Mary and Joseph than this pair.

Here are 2/3 of the cast for our nativity play. Sophie was the narrator and the angel. Helen was Mary. Abe was Joseph. Brandan and Becky were innkeepers and shepherds and wise men. Gibson was Brandan's understudy, popping in and out of the action as it suited him. The sweetest line of the play came from Helen. When Innkeeper Brandan invited Mary and Joseph to stay in his stable, Helen said, "Let's take it, Joseph," in such a tired little voice, you could believe she had walked all the way from Nazareth.

Our Christmas Eve dinner has evolved over the years until now we think we have the perfect menu: individual pot pies, roasted brussels sprouts, citrus salad and bacon wrapped dates. No one ever has room for dessert, but we make one anyway. This year it was a gingerbread cake. We always use the crystal Brandan bought in Finland at the end of his mission. Wise beyond his years, he left the reindeer skins (the more typical missionary souvenir) in Finland where they belong and instead came home with beautiful goblets and bowls. Brandan lit a small bonfire's worth of candles. We have really loved lighting candles every evening this December.

We all slept under the Christmas tree and after presents and breakfast Christmas morning, the kids piled the blankets and pillows together and spent a couple of hours watching the BBC miniseries, Planet Earth. We particularly liked the part about the snow leopards in Pakistan.

Later in the day, Brandan and Abe played a few games of Stratego, a fast moving game that's sort of like battleship without the ships. Here they are getting ready for another round.

A few days before Christmas Sophie said, "All I want for Christmas is a hunk of blue cheese." Really? "Well, no," she said, "I want other things, too." Here she is with the wedge of cheese she got for Christmas, a very nice buttermilk blue.

We've eaten a lot of good food the past two days and the refrigerator is full of lovely leftovers.

Here's Abe enjoying some Ebelskiver pancakes for breakfast. We've never made Ebelskivers before and they were delicious.

Another treat today has been talking to our family far away. We love holiday phone calls and can't wait to see you all soon.

20 December 2009

On Monday the Activity Day girls had a roller skating party and it was cheaper to pay for Sophie, Abe and Helen to roller skate than to pay Sophie to babysit. This was Abe and Helen's first time roller skating and they had a great time. Abe thinks he fell about 50 times.

On Tuesday Sophie's school had their winter music concert. Sophie sang in the 6th grade choir and played the clarinet in the beginning band. School band is such a bargain. For the price of renting an instrument ($16 a month), Sophie gets free lessons 4 times a week. The photo is of Sophie warming up her clarinet before the concert.

Not many people take on new home improvement projects in December, but Brandan recently got started on some bunkbeds for Sophie and Helen. He's talked to them to get their ideas, looked at plans in magazines and added his own ideas to come up with truly unique beds. The beds will look like a 2- story cottage when they're finished, with a bed on each level. Brandan always loads his own wood so he can pick out the best boards. The kids enjoyed pretending the cart was a pirate ship.

Here's the framed in structure. The beds will be built in place. Becky loves built-ins because it reduces the amount of floor space to clean.

We let Sophie and Helen choose whatever color they wanted for the interior of the cottage. They picked orange, or to be more specific, "Exotic Bird." The kids helped Brandan with the first coat of paint.

Hard to believe from this photo, but the kids got surprisingly little paint on themselves and no paint where it wouldn't clean up. All this graffiti has now disappeared under a solid coat of orange, but it's fun to see the project in process.

Incidentally, the screams of horror you hear are from our builder. The same one who tried to talk us out of large windows in our family room (Where will you put your big screen TV?) and a wood stove (Nobody wants a real fireplace anymore.) Orange built-in bunk beds might give a realtor an eye twitch, if she made it past the climbing wall in the stairway. If you left it up to builders and realtors, the world would be taupe. Hooray for some creativity and color!

13 December 2009

The highlight of our week was definitely attending the temple with Sophie as she went to do baptisms for the first time. We went with a small group from our ward, mostly teenagers. Sophie was baptized for 4 of her own Danish ancestors. One of her ancestors shared her birthday, only born 101 years earlier. It always feels like a privilege to be in the temple, and we felt it such a blessing to share this experience with Sophie.

Helen has been busy making presents for Sophie. She works on them while Sophie is at school, then wraps them in bits of this and that before putting them under the tree. We love these beginning expressions of love and generosity.

Brandan scored this sequined, lace patterned newsboy cap at a white elephant gift exchange. A woman at the party explained the origin of white elephant gifts: In old Siam, the royal family would invite possible rivals to a special dinner where they would treat the rivals to a sumptuous feast. At the end of the feast, the guest would be presented with a very special gift-- a pure white elephant. White elephants were considered sacred and could not be used for work. It would then be the guest's responsibility to feed, house and otherwise care for the white elephant for the rest of its life.

On Saturday, Sophie played some Christmas music at the mall. In the past the mall has arranged for a grand piano for the piano students to play. Blaming the poor economy, they brought in a keyboard this year. Sophie adapted quickly to the awkward feel and sound of the keyboard during the first song she played and played her 2 songs with beautiful phrasing and expression.

We made pinatas at the end of November for a special advent calendar for our family. Inside each pinata is a candle and a scripture about Jesus being the light of the world. Gold paint and hot glue turned the pinatas into ornaments for our Christmas tree. Each night we break open a pinata, read the scripture and light the candle. We started December 1 by lighting one candle on a tray. Tonight we will light 13 and we'll continuing adding candles until we have 25 to light on Christmas.

The idea for lighting candles was pure inspiration that came as we thought about how to celebrate Christmas this year. The tiny flames are mesmerizing and we all gather around the table after they're lit. Light is a beautiful symbol of Christ-- inviting, life-giving, revealing, comforting, purifying.

And you can see in the photo that Sophie has claimed Brandan's hat, saving him from a lifetime of feeding and caring for it.

6 December 2009

Happy St. Nicholas Day! This morning the kids woke up with candy in their shoes, a German tradition we have no real claim to except that it's really fun to wake up and find candy in your shoes. St. Nick suspected Brandan would prefer a book by a favorite author for a treat. And don't worry about Becky's shoe not being out-- St. Nick left the extra candy (Lindt balls and mini Toblerone) in the pantry for her.

We decorated for Christmas this week, including setting up the tree. Acquiescing to the reality of a busy 2 year old, we didn't put anything breakable on the tree and pared down on decorating the rest of the house. Gibson rearranges the decorations constantly.

We decorated gingerbread houses this week, too. This is earlier than we usually make them, but our ward was having a gingerbread house contest at our ward party which we entered. Each of the kids decorated their own little house. In the photo, Sophie is hurrying to practice the piano so she can join the others.

We didn't win any prizes at the party Friday night for our little village. This is what it looked like by Saturday afternoon. By Saturday evening, the last few remains were thrown away.

Here's a photo of the kids dressed for church this morning. Helen and Sophie were delighted with their Christmas outfits. Abe and Gibson-- not so much. They were good sports (almost) about sitting still for a group photo.

We're looking forward to a month of Christmas wonder-- traditions, treats, surprises, lights, music, stories. December would loom dark and dreary without this time of celebration. Although Jesus was born in the Spring, we remember his birth in the darkest time of the year. This year we especially love the carol In the Bleak Midwinter. It's an old carol, but it's new to us and beautifully expresses faith and hope in Christ in a cold and suffering world. You can find a great arrangement with the lyrics here .