Christmas Program 2010

The kid's Christmas program was last Sunday night.  Callie said a welcome poem.  She was sooooo nervous, but did a wonderful job!!  My camera didn't record the first couple of words. :( 

Simon says a small part...

The older kids and teen choir.

A very happy Callie!!

Seth, still not able to open his mouth all the way, but sang his best.

Poor Samuel, this was the best shot I got of him.....one eye peeks out between the angels!!! :)

Simon

The younger class singing Away in a Manger.

A beautiful solo....

Chocolate Chips on the floor....I think NOT!!

A short story.........

Mommy goes into the kitchen and a 10 year old boy comes running out of the music room.  His mouth is STUFFED full of something.  She asks what it is….the boy holds up a finger suggesting she wait until he has finished chewing up his food.  This makes the mommy slightly perturbed.  He can talk with his mouth full of food any other time.  She is suspicious of WHAT is in her son's mouth.  She demands that he tell her NOW!!! 

“It’s just a few chocolate chips.” The boy tells his mommy. 

“WHERE, did you find them?” asks the mom. 

The guilty looking boy replies, “I found them on the floor.”  

Hmmmmm…..methinks the boy did NOT find them on the floor!!  Finally the truth comes out.  The boy had been hiding a bag of chocolate chips in the attic stairwell.  This makes mommy mad and sad!!!  Punishment follows and the sneaky boy is sent to his room.  Apparently he worked on this sweet card of apology and placed it in his mommy’s kitchen where he was so sure she would find it later that evening.  She did not.  This made the boy very sad. 

He thought to himself, "What kind of mom doesn't find the apology note from her son?" 

For you see, the VERY sorry boy put it right outside her music studio where she would see it the minute she finished teaching lessons.

The mommy found the sweet card during the day while the boy was at school.  It made her smile.  She thanked her son on the way home from school later.  He was glad she finally found it and has no more plans to hide chocolate chips EVER again!!

 This was ALL the money he had leftover after Christmas shopping for his brothers, sister & Daddy!

The same evening the chocolate chips went missing(and before I knew he had made me such a sweet card), Simon sewed his sister a nightgown for her doll.  He did a great job!!  Although I'll have to admit, I was just a bit scared when he used my serger for the first time!!!  Callie was beside herself with excitement for she knew that Simon was making her a Christmas gift and she wasn't allowed in the room! :) 

Here is Simon, with the Christmas gift he made for his sister.  She's going to LOVE it!!!

Choosing to see the positive.....

Usually Callie has to start in on her school work first thing in the morning.  Today, with Samuel being home from school, they were begging to play outside.  I gave in, and off they went.  Much to their delight they found that the water in their pool was frozen and had such great fun 'skating' on it!!  I enjoyed watching the fun from the comfort of my warm living room!!

Here is a short video clip of their fun....at the very end Samuel starts getting a little wild in his attempts to skate and Callie ends up in tears!!!  Don't worry...she's a-okay now!! :)

Oh....you might want to pause my playlist over to the right before playing the video.

I just love how a child can take something that looks ugly and dirty(the swimming pool full of dirty water that should have been emptied out and stored away) and turn it into something full of joyous fun!!!  I so wish it was easier for us as adults to do that.....You see, I have been looking outside my window at the kiddie pool saying to myself, "girl....that pool should have been stored away....it looks so junky outside and is just cluttering up the backyard......"  Now, my kids have made me realize that it's a good thing it got left outside this year!!!  It will be a fun backyard winter kid-sized ice skating rink!!!

My prayer for today is that God will help me to look at the upside of things....for Him to show me the positive in things....to help me find the things to be thankful for in each and every situation. 

Fruitcake & First Snow

Making fruitcake is NOT an annual Christmas baking tradition!!!  This is a once every few years thing I do.  On the spur of the moment, late Monday night, after a wild & crazy evening of making gingerbread houses(for which I still haven't blogged about), I declared Tuesday evening to be fruitcake making night!!!  I make a quick run to the store before picking the kids up on Tuesday to get the last few items we needed.  Here it all is ready to chop......Doesn't all that fruit look yummy!!!  I had wanted all the kids to help, but they took one look at all that ooey-gooey sticky fruit and ran away!!!  Seth was the only one brave enough to stay and help....

 All the fruit FINALLY chopped!  Seth is pouring the liquid ingredients over it....you can tell what he thinks of the mess!! :)

 This is a mix-with-hands project.....

 At this point Seth took over the camera and took probably a dozen or more pictures of my hands.....I won't bore you will them all.....

 And for all of those gasping at my bare hands touching the food....yes, I washed them first!!! lol

 At this point, my hands/fingers were exhausted!!!

 All mixed up....now to wash this goo off my hands!!!!

 All that hard work paid off.....beautiful fruitcakes await us for later!!

While I was talking to my sil on Skype, Callie took a break from her school work to play in the first snow of the season!!!  She was throwing little snowballs at the window where I sat. 

 Scooping up some snow off the hammock pillow that still hasn't made it into the trash can!!! It was damaged this summer and needs to be thrown out.  It did make a great place to scoop off some snow though!!!

 Wiping off all the snow.....

On a side note.....her brothers were sooooo disappointed when they got home from school and all the snow had melted!!!  They didn't get to enjoy playing in it!! :(  I'm sure they're will be plenty more a-comin'!!

Advent: The Candle of Peace

Late last night, after our annual Christmas Celebration Supper, we came home to have our second Advent reading and candle lighting.  It was Seth's turn to do our reading and light the Candle of Peace.

Then, it was time to hide the nativity pieces for the week and hunt for them in the dark with a flashlight! Please excuse all the busy-crazy-no-time-for-cleaning-last-week-clutter in the background of the pictures!!! My house is VERY real right about now!!! :)

Last week, it was youngest to oldest, in the hunt for the nativity pieces.  This week, we declared the oldest would go first!!! :)  Seth found one of the angels.  And yes, we really are in the DARK, with just a flashlight......I took pictures with FLASH nearly blinding us all in the process!!!

I LOVE this picture of Simon searching for the elusive donkey.....Do YOU see it?

He FINALLY found it!!!!

Finding just the right place....

 Samuel spotted the second angel right away on the MESSY computer desk!!!

 I snapped this picture JUST as his angel tumbled down from the roof.  He needed just a bit of help to get it to stay!!

Callie was soooooo excited to FINALLY search for her piece...she was just a bit miffed that she was LAST this week!!! :)

What it REALLY looked like while searching for nativity pieces....

Callie puts the little shepherd boy outside of the stable.  The kids are already asking what pieces will be hid next week!!!

Second Sunday of Advent

Candle of Peace.  We'll relight the first candle of Advent, the candle of hope.  Then we'll light the second candle of Advent, which is the candle of peace.  This candle helps us remember that Jesus was called the Prince of Peace.  He wants us to learn how to live together in peace with each other.  That means not fighting with our brothers and sisters or hurting someone else's feelings.  As we think about Christmas, let's find ways to be kind and loving to other people.

Bible verse for today. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."  Luke 2:14

Prayer. Dear Jesus, we want to be kind, helpful, and caring to other people no matter who they are or what they look like.  Teach us how to live in eace every day with our family, friends, and everyone we meet.  Amen.