27 December 2015

Christmas vacation started on Monday for the kids.  They used some of their time to make presents.  Helen made a dog toy for Brandan by threading a tennis ball onto a long braid made from an old t-shirt.  We don't have a dog, but at a recent emergency response training meeting, Brandan learned you can distract an aggressive dog with a tennis ball.  Helen gave Brandan the toy for his CERT pack.

 Abe tie dyed t-shirts for everyone.

The sister missionaries joined us on Christmas Eve for dinner and our family Christmas Eve program.  Sister S. played Gib's cello (she left her own cello at home when she came on her mission) and Sister D. told jokes.  Gib surprised most of us by playing the Star Wars theme on his cello instead of a Christmas song.  The other kids played Christmas music and Brandan and Becky shared scriptures.

 The sisters had to leave for caroling with their zone before we acted out the nativity.  Gib was an angel this year.  He led the singing, too.

 Brandan was the shepherds and the wise men-- he added a gold cord headband to transform his costume.  Helen was a very sparkly Mary.  Abe was Joseph, Sofi was 3 different innkeepers and Becky was the narrator.

 This is the photo we'll add to our collection of nativity photos-- one for each year since 2002.

 This is the remains of a delicious feast.

 After we cleaned up, the kids each claimed a spot in the family room to sleep.  Sofi took the couch.  Becky thought Abe, Helen and Gib's beds looked like small rafts.  Brandan built a fire in our stove and we were very cozy.

 More delicious food-- ebelskivers for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Lily got kale in her stocking.

 Everyone wore their tie dyed t-shirts from Abe on Christmas.

We made reservations to go snowshoeing at Crater Lake the day after Christmas.  We had a lot of rain this week which means snow in the mountains so Becky called ahead to make sure the park was open.  The ranger assured her the park was open and the snowshoe hike would run on schedule.  He did not tell her (maybe he didn't know?) that the last few miles of highway before we got to the park were closed.  Our snowshoe adventure was foiled!

Instead, we pulled into a snowy campground and went for a walk through the woods.

 This is Helen making a snow angel.

 Sofi and Joey got stuck in a drift.  The snow was dry, soft, thick and powdery.

 All of the kids fell back into the snow together.  They had a soft landing.

 Two days before Christmas, Gibson slipped outside and hit his ear on a cement wall.  He needed 4 stitches to close the gap on the rim of his ear.  He's healing quickly.

 Pretty Sofi.

 Sofi invented a new game-- kicking the bases of the trees to create little avalanches of snow as the branches shook.  Abe is kicking the tree in this photo.

 This is Sofi with a face full of snow.

 The kids finished up their thank you notes on Sunday afternoon.

 Abe started a new puzzle.

 This is our Christmas countdown for this year.  We went back to our original countdown.  Long ago in 1996, Becky made 24 ceramic ornaments to represent 24 scriptures about the Savior.  Linda let her use her supplies and fired all of the ornaments.  Becky wrapped them up and gave them to Brandan.  He opened one a day throughout the month of December and hung them on our first Christmas tree. (We were in Finland our first Christmas and did not get a tree.)  The ornaments are very breakable so we haven't gotten them out in a very long time.  The kids are old enough now to trust with breakable objects.  Abe, Helen and Gibson enjoyed seeing the ornaments for the first time.

20 December 2015

Gib and Helen's teacher planned a special all day field trip for her class this week.  Becky came along as a chaperone.  The class dressed in their Christmas best.  They started with a tea party at the Fairy Godmother's Tea Cottage.  The fairy godmother gave them a short lesson on manners before they had tea.  The most important rule: Be Kind. 

 The kids feasted on yummy finger foods and their choice of pear-vanilla herbal tea or hot chocolate.  Some kids mixed their tea and hot chocolate together.

 As they left, the fairy godmother gave each student a special cookie decorated with a ballerina or a nutcracker.  From the tea cottage, the class walked to the high school where they watched select scenes from The Nutcracker ballet.

 Sofi joined us at the ballet.  When the show was over, we ate lunch in the high school cafeteria.  The lunch ladies reserved a section of tables for the elementary students and served chicken nuggets, spaghetti and nachos to be especially kid friendly.  This was Sofi's first time eating lunch from the cafeteria.  Helen and Gibson liked saying hi to Sofi's friends as they came to get lunch.  

Back at their own school, Becky noticed Gib was using the bench he made for a chair.  There aren't many classrooms that will let you bring a homemade chair to school. 

 Brandan's office held their Christmas party at an ice rink this year.  Brandan, Helen and Gibson went.  The rink has walkers to help beginners skate without falling.

 After some time to build their confidence, the kids could skate without the walkers.

This is another fun photo from the party.

Helen and Gibson played some Christmas songs for their class on Friday.  It was also pajama day at school.

 We played two more Christmas concerts today.  Helen and Sofi tried a duet of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" this afternoon.  They liked it well enough to play it tonight.  This is a photo of their 2nd time playing together ever.

 More duet fun with Helen and Gibson.  So far our concerts go something like this -- Abe starts out with a beautiful piano arrangement of the "Coventry Carol". Gib plays "Away in a Manger" and "Good King Wenceslas" on the piano.  Helen plays the violin.  She knows a lot of songs, but she limits herself to 1-2 per concert.  Some favorites are "Feliz Navidad," "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," "Mary, Did You Know" and "Winter Wonderland."  She has a lot of piano selections to choose from, too.  Favorites this year are "What Child is This," "I Saw Three Ships" and a swinging version of "Jolly Old St. Nicholas." Sofi plays "I'll Be Home for Christmas" on the piano.  We end with Helen and Gibson's duet of "Joy to the World."

Last week Brandan was released from our stake's high council where he served for almost eight years.  His new calling is high priests group leader for our ward.  He loved being on the high council.  But he's looking forward to a calling that combines family history, ministering and teaching.

13 December 2015

Helen and Gib's teacher wanted a pair of risers for the kids to sit on.  The risers would take up less space than having kids sit on the carpet.  Sitting on risers would also allow the kids in the back to see over kids in the front.  Miss Jenny decided rather than have an adult build the risers, the class would build them together.  They started by building small paper models.  Helen is holding one of the early designs. 

 The class used the small models to narrow down their design ideas.  They decided they wanted three steps.  They also wanted to be able to move the risers so the finished design would have to fit through the door.  Next, the class built full size models.  They tweaked their plan several times before moving on to building with wood.  This week they finally put the bleachers together with parents' help.  The whole process has taken 3 months and the whole class has learned a lot about building along the way.

 Miss Jenny let Gibson have some of the scraps.  He screwed them together to make a bench.  It was cold in the garage so Becky let him work in the mudroom.

Gibson earned 3 belt loops this month towards his wolf badge.  The cub scout program changed a lot this year and Gib likes earning belt loops.

 Sofi took photos at our ward Christmas party on Friday.  

 This is Abe being goofy while he waits for his turn to get his photo with Santa.

We played our first Christmas concert tonight.  All of our kids have been practicing Christmas music since October to get ready.  Last month our ward was split and is now about ⅓ smaller than it was before.  Tonight we played for dear friends who are no longer in our ward.  Visiting with them reassured both of us that we will stay connected even if we don't see them on Sunday.

Gibson dressed as Secret Santa for the event.  In case you're wondering, Secret Santa looks very similar to his Halloween spy costume.

6 December 2015

Becky almost decided not to set out our kids' nativity this year, thinking they were getting too old to want to play with it.  Later she found the pieces arranged with the animals standing on the people's heads.  They're not too old, after all!

Brandan and Helen put together a presentation on eyes and taught a short lesson in Helen and Gibson's class on Wednesday.  Helen colored a diagram of an eye to use in their presentation.

Helen and Brandan planned lots of "eyes-on" demonstrations during their presentation to teach the students.  Gibson and Ava are staring at each other's eyes.  They learned every person has a unique iris pattern.

In this photo they are learning about the eye's blind spot.  Each piece of paper has a small picture of a dog and a turtle.  By covering one eye and moving the paper slowly away from their noses, Gib and Ava watch the turtle disappear.

Friday was an inservice day for teachers.  Brandan took the day off and we drove to Sunset Bay on the Oregon coast.  Sofi had to stay home because of her college physics class.  The rest of us had a great weekend exploring Sunset Bay.

We liked watching big waves crash over the rocks at the mouth of the bay.  By 4:30, the sun was already going down and we headed to our campground.

It rains year round at the coast.  Camping in the winter in the rain did not sound like fun so we tried yurt camping.  Yurts are circular walled tents.  Here's a photo of the outside of the yurt.  Brandan is getting a fire going so we can cook dinner.

Here's the inside.  Although the yurts supposedly sleep 8, there are only beds for 5 people.  The beds are bolted to the floor so it would be hard to find room for 3 more people to sleep.  We also had a small table and 2 chairs.  The yurts have electricity and heaters.  We were very cozy.

A bridge next to our campsite led to the tent campground.  It was closed to campers for the winter and our kids used the whole area as their playground.

After dinner we drove to Shore Acres, a botanical garden located on the cliffs above the ocean.  The gardens are lit with hundreds of thousands of lights for the holidays.  We enjoyed walking around the gardens on a surprisingly pleasant night.

This is a photo of Brandan cooking pancakes on Saturday morning.  Although the forecast called for a 100% chance of rain on Saturday, it didn't rain while we were there.

We hurried home on Saturday for a couple of recitals.  The first one was Music at the Mall for Helen and Gibson.  Helen played "What Child is This" and "I Saw Three Ships."  Her piano teacher, Marsha, turned pages for her.

Gibson played "Away in a Manger" from memory.

Then he played "Away in a Manger" and "Jingle Bells" as duets with Marsha.  This was Gib's first piano recital and he played like an old pro.

 After the piano recital, we drove to the Festival of Trees where Helen was scheduled to play the violin.  One of the trees was themed "Monsters University."  There was a cut out ID card to play with.

 Here's Helen with her ID card.

 Helen needed to be to the festival early to get ready to perform.  While we waited for the performance, Gib tried out the teddy bear hospital in the corner of the display hall.  

 After Gib had taped up his teddy bear's broken leg, he had a chance to vote for his favorite Christmas tree.  Gib picked this Star Wars themed tree.  Many of the tree's ornaments were made on a 3D printer.

 Finally Helen got to play!  Helen's new violin teacher, Faina, leads a violin ensemble.  Faina directs the older group and one of her former students directs the younger group which Helen plays with. This is a photo before they played, while their director decided where to place everyone.