christmas eve

christmas eve is probably my favorite church service of the year. our sanctuary is gorgeous with the trees and the poinsettias, with ALL 4 advent candles lit AND the christ candle in the middle… it probably helps that this is the church I grew up in and I remember waiting for all that stuff as the season progressed, and how exciting it always was when it FINALLY got there. And then there is the music. growing up as the kid of the organist, who did christmas eve “right”, I have high standards. we MUST start with “oh come, all ye faithful”, and we MUST end with “joy to the world”. the church is always packed, so the organ is played at full blast, with all the extra bells and whistles. it is unbelievably awesome. deanna, our new organist, does not disappoint. the music is always wonderful. near the end (right before ‘joy to the world’), we always turn the lights down and sing “silent night” by candlelight. I don’t know what it is, but I have NEVER made it through that without tearing up.

the last couple of years, shane and layla have been involved in the special music for the service, singing and playing handbells, so it has been just micah sitting with dave and i.

here is the mass choir number, “calypso lullaby”. layla is the shortest singer, second from the right. shane is playing bells in the middle of the 3 boys in the back row of ringers.

“Calypso Lullaby”

and afterward, when we’ve hugged everyone we only see a few times a year, found all of our family members, and made sure no one has chocolate on their face, we take a family picture by one of the christmas trees.

merry christmas! what a special reminder, every year, of the fulfillment of God’s promise to forgive our sins and bridge the gap that sin has caused to be between us and Him – to restore us to Him, so that we can live as His people.

“holiday with lights” at wild waves

every year, in december, our local theme/water park gets all decorated up in christmas lights and opens the rides in the evenings. I went once, when I was in high school, but the park was much less “six flags” then, and I haven’t been back since. a friend of mine won some tickets to this from a radio station and wasn’t going to use them, so she offered them to me! I was so excited! I knew that everyone would have a blast (hard to find, with our 8 year age span). we didn’t tell the kids where we were going, but told them to bundle up good!

the view of the park walking in.

ferris wheel.

cars.

motor boats.

hopping kangaroos.

frog hopper.

airplanes.

scrambler.

we had a few ‘minor’ issues… micah really wanted to go on the kangaroo ride, but wasn’t tall enough. and there was this kiddie train ride and he decided he wanted to ride in the engine. 2 other kids were ahead of him in line, and they got there first. I thought he might slug them! but instead, he rode in the caboose with layla and cried the whole length of the ride. sheesh. then he didn’t want to do anything. the rest of us were definitely not ready to go home, but I didn’t want to have to deal with sad, pouty micah the whole time either. dave was brilliant and took him back to the train ride, where he successfully got to the engine, rode the train, and was happy as a clam for the rest of the evening… go figure.

we all rode the scrambler repeatedly. that has always been my favorite ride. there are also the ‘paratroopers’, which layla and shane rode together, and then at the end, layla and I ran back up the hill so I could have a chance to ride. that ride has been there forever, and it was one of my favorites when I was a kid. (I was disappointed that the hamster wheel ride was gone, though.)

the downside of going on a saturday night was that we had to share the park with teenagers who were making out in line, whiffs of pot smoke wafting from the bushes, and a drunk guy barfing when he got off of the ride we were about to get on. (I would recommend going on a week night!) but, we all had a really good time, nobody froze, and we were able to plunk kids right into bed when we got home.

{shane is such a good sport} ^^^^

week 51 in pictures

almost done!

sunday: shane, micah, and I went down to my parents’ new house to get it ‘ready for christmas’. we put up their tree, and got out all the other decorations. this ceramic tree was made years ago by my aunt and uncle and I love it beyond what words can describe. putting the lights in it has always been my job, but I decided to let them do it this time. LOVE.

monday: layla, enjoying a math exercise that involves pattern blocks. she was in heaven.

tuesday: finally getting all the christmas cookies baked! (as it turns out, bad dog ginger ‘helped’ us eat them. grr.)

wednesday: ginger, blending in with all the other dogs…

thursday: zoners, enjoying some hot chocolate while watching the polar express.

friday: we had to go down to my parents’ house to clean up some packaging from the tv stand that dave had assembled for them the night before. shane, of course, devised a way to get all of them, plus our recycle and garbage cans down the road in one trip.

saturday: we were gifted some tickets to the ‘holiday with lights’ at wild waves. it was so fun to ride all the rides in the dark, while the park was all lit up for christmas.

I also have a big collage with the pics from our night there.

and some skinnies: 1. micah and ella playing a duet after church. 2. layla, showing off her insanely long check-out receipt at the library. 3. dave, modeling awesome fashion sense (and micah’s tie).

 

{book shots will be added later}

week 50 in pictures

sunday: layla, posing next to her gingerbread house before tearing into it.

monday: first OFFICIAL day of homeschooling (after finally getting ALL of our curriculum items). actually, this is well after our ‘school day’ was over. they wanted to hang out in the school room and work on stuff at their desks.

tuesday: (this picture will be added at a later date)

wednesday: sunday school children singing at the advent service. shane did not sing, but played handbells.

thursday: micah’s preschool christmas program.

friday: white elephant gift exchange at the MOMS Club “ugly sweater” christmas party. I came away with 6 mini bottles of liquor! awesome!

saturday: after tragedy struck on friday night, when my little tree suddenly toppled over and broke my absolute favorite christmas ornament (boo hoo), I was able to get it all properly reassembled after borrowing a better tree stand from a friend. 

and some skinnies to stick in center slots: 1. shane, (mostly not visible) ringing handbells wednesday night. he’s directly behind the guy in front in the white shirt. had I known that was where he was standing, I probably wound have sat someplace else. 2. after a pantry-raiding incident involving the dog and a canister of cocoa powder, we found ourselves in need of a GOOD spot cleaner for our cream-colored carpet. ::sigh:: 3. toby, in a strange position. 4. the (awesome) tacky veggie tree that lindsey brought to the ugly sweater christmas party.

  

{book shots will be added later}

week 49 in pictures

sunday: bird layla drew on the magnadoodle at my parents’ house.

tuesday: layla decided that it was picnic weather (cold, rainy, windy) and prepared a picnic for micah and herself.

wednesday: opening up the book for the day. (last year, before I packed away the christmas books, I wrapped them and put a number on each one, to be opened like an advent calendar – one each day.) the kids take turns opening them.

thursday: I spent my evening painting underwear on barbie dolls. 5 of layla’s barbies are now sporting shiny, nail polish undies.

also thursday: christmas baking has begun! layla and micah helped me mix up butter ball and cut-out dough. the next night, micah and I mixed up gingersnap and peppermint shortbread dough!

friday: this is what the top of the fridge looks like. the only way to keep ginger from wanting to play CONSTANTLY is to hide the tennis balls.

dave, trying out lesson one of our new saxon math curriculum.

also saturday: we took a trip downtown to see the trains at the center house, ride the westlake carousel, and do other such christmassy stuff. it was super fun. we started by parking at lake union, walked over to the seattle center, and looked at the trains.

then we went out and walked around the space needle a bit…

then we rode the monorail over to westlake center. 

we saw the macy’s star.

rode the carousel.

then we went into the mall and grabbed a snack (while I did some secret santa shopping), and then headed to starbucks for some hot beverages. this is shane, enjoying his FIRST latte! I’m so proud.

then we headed over to check out the window display on the other side of macy’s where the trains are, and then headed to the street car to get back to our car.

those pictures will go into a design G insert.

and then there are some skinnies for center slots. 1) putting lights on our mini REAL tree for the family room. 2) layla as mater. “I’m mater. like ta-mater, but without the ta.” 3)I walked into the bathroom and found this. 4) when we got home on saturday, we discovered that ginger had eaten, yet another, loaf of bread.

  

{book shots will be added later}