25 December 2011

Merry Christmas! We have a few photos of our week and lots of photos of Christmas to share. On Tuesday, we went with a group of friends from church to the VA hospital to give a Christmas concert. All of the children sang, most played the piano, 3 played the violin, 1 played the guitar and 1 played the ukulele-- a talented group. The concert was during the veterans' dinner and they seemed to appreciate the music. They applauded louder than any other audience we've seen this season.

Brandan's clinic closed early on Thursday for their staff party.  Brandan called to invite us to come see the big surprise-- his office manager had arranged for an Elvis impersonator to perform at the party.  Several women in the group nearly swooned.  This is the same Elvis who did such a good job in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat this summer and our kids were happy to see him again.

It's not often you can get your photo taken with Elvis and Santa at the same party.

Sofi made a purse for a friend for Christmas this week.  She got the fabric for the body of the owl from a jacket she bought at Goodwill and the rest of the fabric from leftover scraps.  Her project turned out pretty cute.

For Christmas Eve dinner we used the crocheted tablecloth Brandan and Sofi brought back from Ireland this summer.  It's the first time we've used it-- it's almost too beautiful.  

After dinner we had our Christmas Eve program.  Helen was the narrator and an angel for our nativity play.  Sofi was Mary and Gibson was Joseph.  Brandan, Becky and Abe were innkeepers, shepherds and wisemen.

Helen wanted a photo to show her angel wings.

After the nativity play, each person shared something with our family.  Helen and Becky read Christmas stories.  Abe and Sofi played the piano.  Brandan shared photos of the earth from outer space and from the Hubble deep field project and talked about the condescension of God.  Gibson jumped up and down, clapped his hands and yelled, "Merry Christmas!"

  

This is a photo of our family room about 6:30 am.  Brandan and Becky were awake, but the kids were still wrapped up cozily in blankets.  We let them stay up as late as they liked on Christmas Eve, so they slept until about 7 am on Christmas.

Here's the same spot about an hour later as the kids unwrap their presents, stopping to play with anything that catches their fancy.

Brandan ordered a giclee of Becky's favorite painting by Minerva Teichert.  To make it extra special, he built a frame for it out of solid walnut.  We'll hang this in our bedroom-- so beautiful.