The Christmas Flu (bah humbug!)

There is a serious lack of Christmas photos on my camera this year. Things didn't go exactly as planned as the achy/fever flu wiped out Mommy and then Mady.

The big kids had a wonderful Christmas (we went old school this year...race track + art easel). Matt also came out a big winner with his shower radio courtesy of Ella and the Bauer Elementary Secret Santa Shop.

Mommy and Mady's Christmas looked a little more like this:

I stayed home with her last night, so we missed the party at Matt's parents' house. I've never had a sick kiddo on Christmas before, although I think every mom has a holiday flu tale to tell. I have reluctantly entered the ranks, and I hope this is my one and only story like this to my credit.

The upside? No letdown. Poor little pumpkin hasn't even opened her gifts yet.

Hope your Christmas was a little bit quite a bit merrier!

Advent.

It's Advent season and we're ready to snuggle in, slow down, and prepare our hearts for what's ahead. I love hearing what others are up to during this season - some are turning off the TV, some already have their Christmas shopping done and wrapped up, some are finding ways to journey through the season together, as a family or community.

We're trying Truth in the Tinsel this year, an ebook/devotional I spotted in the blogosphere somewhere, somehow. We'll be reading a passage each day, talking about it a bit, and then crafting a little ornament. I retrieved my craft supplies from the basement storage room (no small feat at this phase in the game), took a trip to the Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby, and I believe we're in business. I'm excited to try it, and I really hope this will help shift the focus to Him, rather than retail America.

I'm also reading 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess right now with a community of people organized by my friend Lisa, and that's been an interesting contrast to this season of stuff. I've wanted to read the book for a while and I kept waiting for the "right" time. This book club opportunity popped up and it's turned out to be exactly the right sort of time to think about and challenge the way we relate to excess (so far we've read the chapters on food, clothes, possessions, and media).

An Advent Prayer
by bleedingoutloud

Holy Christ, we acknowledge all that is broken in our world and in ourselves and we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Come into the cracks and crevices and rifts in our community. Into the violence and the homelessness. Into the anger and divisiveness. Into our losses and lack. Into marriages and relationships that have grown cold. 

Bring peace. Bring wholeness. Bring healing. Bring hope. 

We wait. We watch. We live with anticipation because in you, Christ, we believe God has come among us and has begun putting the world back together. And we trust that You will come again and finish the work You began. 

Holy Christ, hear our Advent prayer: Come, Lord Jesus! Come.

Christmas close-up {2011}

Remember how your mom insisted on a Christmas picture each year?

It used to drive you nuts, right?

I get it now. I am that mom.

In spite of my better judgement, every year I insist on a sibling shot in front of the tree. The results include various levels of success:

{2010}     {2009}     {2008}     {2007}

I've learned a few important lessons: 

corral the kids immediately after church while they're still (somewhat) put together, release the notion of a perfect shot, remember that 2 year olds are wild cards, and let everyone have a turn behind the camera.

The results of our 2011 Christmas mini-shoot:

Not too bad, but I bet we can do better.

Big brother temporarily disappears, leaving a pair of sweet sisters.

He's back! And these two are old pros. 

All together again...

I didn't know it at the time, but I think this one is our winner!

(Mady wasn't letting go of that notepad...someday it will remind us of her "tenacity" at two)

Cutting my losses. Time to move on.

Daddy always makes us laugh, but Mady wants OUT. Now.

Dylan's turn as photographer.

Mady's turn.

And Ella catches a sweet moment.

Until next year!

{Linking up to party of four's Christmas picture party}

Christmas Break To Do's

I'm a little rusty at being a full-time mom to three kids now that Dylan is in school full-time and Ella is in school part-time.

It is with a mixture of excitement (lazy mornings! cuddly kids in fuzzy PJ's! no schedule!) and trepidation (bickering! cabin fever! no schedule!!) that I approach this year's Christmas vacation.

I'm not really a "project mom" but I'm willing to make an extra effort in the name of surviving - and enjoying! - our extended time together.

Thank you, Pinterest, for sponsoring Christmas Break 2011/12.

On the docket:

• Homemade bird feeders
• Christmas-themed reading and writing
• Gingerbread houses
• Easy Christmas crafts
• Paper snowflakes
• Sun catchers

And no worries, we'll be lucky if we accomplish one thing off this list but there's no harm in aiming high.

How will you be spending your extra kid-filled hours?

Christmas tree picture {the REAL story}

How hard can this be?

Mady's not happy...Dylan looks like a pirate...

Cute, but baby sister is MIA

Now it's all falling apart...

Everyone look at the camera (preferably at the same time)!

Thought this was going to be the money shot but Mady's head got in the way.

Ahhh...finally! 

{Except that was the first picture I took. Guess I should have quit while I was ahead!}

What are you willing to go through to get that classic Christmas shot?

Christmas-ing, Part 1

The Christmas season is upon us and we had with a busy weekend last weekend beginning with our small group Christmas party. We enjoyed lots of laughs during our annual white elephant exchange. Our small group is so very important to us - these dear people are like family at this point and we have all been through so much together. We love being able to celebrate this time of year with them and we look forward to growing old and gray together as long as they will continue to have us.
Saturday night we went to the Jen extended family party at my parents' house. Here is my Grandma and her 14 great-grandchildren...the newest one is 4 days old in this picture and there is one more coming soon (my cousin and her husband are looking forward to picking up their daughter from China sometime early next year).
This is always a busy time of the year for us and we are trying to be intentional this year about slowing down and remembering what Christmas is really all about. We have been opening a different Christmas book with the kids for the 12 days of Christmas and it's been a great activity with the kids - it allows us to slow down at least for a few moments each day and talk about the Christmas story with Dylan and Ella. We will be delivering some Christmas gifts to a needy family later this week as well with our small group, and we tried to involve the kids in picking out gifts from the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog (Dylan picked baby chicks, Ella picked dairy animals and Mady picked feed a hungry baby for a week :) )

What ways is your family celebrating Jesus this Christmas season?

Christmas

Here is the obligatory Christmas post...I'll keep it brief since it was probably a much more fascinating event to me than to you. We had a wonderful Christmas the year. The kids are at fun ages. We're beginning to start family traditions, and the kids are able to grasp the real meaning behind Christmas. We are blessed to have all of our family close by, but that also means lots of parties - six this year plus our own Christmas morning "party". Highlights include Dylan shouting "Jackpot!" when Matt's grandparents gave him a remote control Nascar car and watching the joy on Ella's face as she helped various Nana's hand out Christmas presents (she is our little "giver" - usually very happy to share and help someone else out). Oh, and the best Christmas gift ever: the kids and I gave Matt a weasel ball.

This past weekend, we de-Christmas-ed the house...only 361 days until Christmas 2009!

Christmas party #2

Our kids, and Ella in particular, have a sort of love/hate relationship with dogs. Since we don't have pets, they are both fascinated and terrified of them at the same time. At the Austin Christmas party last night, Ella got pretty brave with Gracie (Aunt Yesenia's doggy). Of course, Ella made sure Daddy stuck close by.
Here are a couple more shots from the night. Matt and Dylan after snowmobiling at Uncle Brian and Aunt Janet's. That was Dylan's first time and pretty brave of him to try it too - I'm sure riding with Daddy helped with that :)Uncle Chad, Ella & Tiger.

friends, fun & animal parts

Last night we had our small group Christmas party. We have been together for six years now and every year we do a white elephant exchange. I think last night's was the most hilarious yet - we seem to be getting real good at picking out awful gifts. Two years ago a new sort of tradition started when the Chapman's brought a deer leg lamp as one of their gifts. I was the lucky one who got to open it, and I'm not sure if the picture does it enough justice. It was quite literally a deer leg that had been cut off of Bambi and turned into a lamp - wired and ready for a lightbulb and everything. It was the most amazing/disgusting white elephant gift ever (and no, I didn't keep it to re-gift. It was really that disgusting).
So then last year Curt thought it would be hilarious to bring an alligator head (again, just a sawed off animal part) and rig it up so I got to open the dead animal thing. Anyway, I knew this year that I needed to find some sort of animal part to bring (it's getting pretty strange, isn't it?) I was talking about this with my parents one night and my dad said "Hey, I have two dried piranhas" (you know...because you can't just have one, you've got to have two). He very generously gave one to me and I had the pleasure of watching Charissa (the girl who brought you the deer lamp) open it last night and then her husband ended up with it at the end of the night. Finally...justice (or maybe that's revenge??)There were many other strange, strange things that showed up last night. It reminds me of how very weird these people are but also how much I love them all. They have become like family to us and I can't imagine going through life without them.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

We finally got our Christmas tree up yesterday. We went all crazy and put it up in a different room this year. It's a tad smaller than usual because Matt and Dylan picked it out earlier this week and they claim it looked much bigger in the dark. Either way, we are officially Christmas-y around here now.

done!

As of yesterday, I am officially done with all of my Christmas shopping (insert gagging sounds here). I really hate doing things last minute - I was that dorky kid in school who always had homework done ahead of time - and now I can actually enjoy the weeks leading up to Christmas instead of feeling frantic. Our Christmas cards have arrived, and even my homemade gifts are made. I just need to get up there and wrap gifts one of these days. And dig up some killer white elephant gifts for our small group Christmas party (right, Bethany?)

Cookie Day

Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Deck the halls.