Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

This past Saturday and Sunday evenings our church had its Christmas play. It was so much fun for Nathan and I to be in and really enjoyed the other people in the cast. I am releived to have a break, though, as things get busy for Christmas. Below is a snapshot from our play. Nathan is second from left and I'm wearing the startled expression third from right.

 The cast and choir after our performance on Sunday.

 The major downside was the HEAPS of stage make-up. I wear a little make-up sometimes, but I really don't have much time to wear it regularly. The layers and layers I put on don't show up well in the picture, but it was significant enough that Katie called me Barbie all weekend. But, as Dad said, I would probably be Barbie's mom, since Barbie didn't come along until the 60's and the play was set in the 40's. =p There was also gallons of hairspray invovlved, but really it was great to be in the play and dressing up was pretty fun, too.

However, as soon as I got home I reverted to this. Welcome back 2011!!

 For Christmas Eve we went to Grandmother and Granddaddy's house for dinner. What a pretty table!

 Grandmother loves these little wooden characters. She has them all over the house. =)

 Christmas Day we woke up to find a very unusual wrapping job. Any better suggestions on wrapping a laundry basket?

 Katie and her new sign language book. She's already farely fluent in my opinion, but she doesn't think so.

 Daddy's presents consisted of lots and lots of books.

 Ben got The Blind Side, one of his favorite movies, can't you tell?

 Nathan got  a new shotgun. He was very impressed.

 Ben's new coveralls. He grows out of stuff so fast! Katie and I are starting to get hand-me-downs. =)

I got a laptop for school next year, as well as a few CD's and calanders. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Notes on how to get your neighbor's attention

In order to protect our blueberry crops from freezes in the spring we invested in row covers. These are basically heavy, white, sails that we spread over the bushes. Last spring we tried them out, but unfortunately the wind was up and it went crazy. Children age 17 and under were randomly lifted off their feet by large billowing sheets of Remay. Dad spent all day complaining about how little we weighed. Oh well, you can't have everything you want. Dad's kids will certainly never play in the NFL. =p All of the pictures are what Mom took last year, as opposed to this afternoon, when we tried again.


 Ben fighting the wind last spring.

 Aw, aren't they sweet?

We pinned it down with sand bags. Good grief, those things were heavy. Thank goodness Dad got rid of them this year and glued a string into the edge to tie down to the  fence.

The wind picks up and we clamber for out spots.

 It really does work, though. Under the canopy it was several degrees warmer than outside.

Nathan, the smallest of all and therefore the human being most likely to learn to fly. =)

Decorations

I thought that I would show you some of my favorite Christmas decorations today. This is our buffet and advent wreath. This year we have started doing a sort of family devotions every night possible. We light the advent wreath and read some Christmas Bible verses. Sometimes we sing a carol or two. I really enjoy this and I hope we keep it up in years to come. =)

Here is our living room. Mama brings out Christmas blankets every year.

Last year Mom got the clever idea to write holiday messages with Scrabble pieces.  The one on this cabinet simply says, "Merry Christmas".

And the tree. By far my favorite of the decorations, this lights up our living room every night. Christmas lights are some of my favorite things. =)

Over the years we have amassed MILLIONS of ornaments with four children and two Sunday School teachers in the family. This one comes from an adorable set that Mom has hanging on our jade plant. =P It's a small cross-stitched square of a busy little person running home piled up with stocking stuffers. While we have many ornaments that are cute, I particularly like these ones.

Even in the winter we have gorgeous sunsets. Ben called me out a few days ago to catch this one.

Alright, now for what has been taking up so much of our time for the last couple of weeks. Nathan and I are in a Forties Christmas play this year and, of course, this includes lots of hair and make-up experimenting for Mom and me. Nathan lucked out. =) Last night I put my hair up in pin curls and today Mom and I worked with it to get this final result. I'll have to say it I'm pleased with it. It looks forties to me. Does anyone with a little more experience with forties styles want to comment on our job?

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, now that I have covered the past week, I'll talk about today. We got our Christmas tree from a neighbor and decorated the house. In the past we haven't decorated this early, but our more recent trees have lasted a LONG time; past Valentine's Day. We have started putting them up earlier so that we can enjoy them during the Christmas season instead of Easter. =)







This is Nathan, Katie, and my work. I love getting ready for Christmas. =)

 Alright, on a different note. Ben and I discovered the weirdest thing today. These photos are of the lilac in our backyard. That's right, it's leaves are out. Poor thing, it is totally clueless. We just marvelled at how long it's lasted. We've had several hard frosts in the past week, but the leaves are fine. It was nice to see something green again, though.

Have a lovely day!!

The Knee-High Variety

The Saturday that our Thanksgiving company left, Mom's brother came with his two boys, Nixon and Jeb. They both love Ben and stayed with him all day.

 He's a lovely influence. =p

 They wrestled in the yard. All three of them lpve this. =)

 Nixon won. =)

They all had a big day. Ben went right to sleep that night. =)

Grateful Heart

This Thanksgiving I was particularly reminded of how thankful I am for my family. We had a large majority of Daddy's family stay at our house over the holiday; 29 people ate dinner with us and 25 were staying at our house. This is the complete bunch, which runs the whole gamut of ages. We had a wonderful time watching movies, playing Nerf in  the barn and catching up. The weather was wonderful, so we got to be outside a lot. =) This picture is at our church, were we ate dinner. Our house was just too small.

Parcheesi was a favorite. Katie is the unfortunate blur, then Patience, Ben, and Mercy.

Nathan and Clark.

Sorry that I don't have more pictures, with the amount of people in the house I misplaced my camera. 

Happiness

Happiness is when you give a gift to someone. It is when your car stops beside the road and someone picks you up. Happiness is when you have joy. It is when your cow has a calf. Happiness is when you get your hay in before it rains. It is when you tractor starts when it usually doesn't. Happiness is when you get to drive the golf cart. It is when you get a 100% on your work. Happiness is when we go to the sale barn.
-Lyndon Yoder, 4th grade

I was looking for a paper I had written when we used to go to the Mennonite school. Mom and I were flipping through an old newsletter and found this by a boy in Katie's class. Is this not priceless? I have such sweet memories of those years. =) I will leave you to determine for yourselves who the kids are in this picture. See if you recognize any of them.

Smelly

Anyone hungry? Today I cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer. This is a singular event in itself for many households and I'm sure most of you are used to the sensation of pulling out SOMETHING that has been tucked into some corner for months. Something that you just don't know what it is or where it came from. I had one of those experiences when I pulled this glass jar out of the freezer. It is a stinkbug, in case you can't tell. When we saw it Mom and I went off about Ben's tendancy towards cruelty to animals etc. etc. (Which is not really true, btw.) We made plans to confront him, and eventually did. But no, we were mistaken. It wasn't him, why would he freeze a bug? Good question. Finally I asked Dad if he knew what it was. And yes, my FATHER froze a bug in a jar for months. We can't get a motive because he doesn't remember why. 

 The new van! It's used, but still in very good shape.

 Surprise, surprise!! The other new car. =)

 A VW Rabbit, isn't it great? It is supposed to be for me, I think, but I've only driven it once. It's a standard, so it may be a while yet.

 Mama's birthday was Wednesday. We usually do fruit platters for birthday breakfasts. They are  a hit all around.

 Daddy was in charge of the fruit. That is his area of expertise, anyways. =)

Final bit of news. Katie dropped a piece of firewood on her foot yesterday morning, so she's rather incapacitated. It is very large and purple. She'll be on crutches for at least a couple days. It's not broken but Dad says the tendon is damaged. Worst case scenario is that she'll be hobbling around over Thanksgiving when the cousins are here. Hopefully she'll be fine by then.

New Ride

This week has been fairly low key, which is nice. The only major thing that stood out was the new van that we got last Saturday. Our old one was having some problems, so we decided it was time for a change. I'll get pictures soon. For right now I need to go help mom with something. =)

The Big 12

For those of you who don't have kids living in the house anymore, maybe this post will be a small reminder of the big fun and insane BUSINESS of birthday parties. Nathan turned twelve last week and we had seven boys at our house Friday night; all between 9 and 12.

 Every one of these boys lives in mortal terror and admiration of Ben. He is their absolute hero and model but I have to say something about the fact that he can beat all of them put together in any game of football, wrestling, or snow balls.

 The day was spent going from the wii, Lego's, and outside.

Mom made ice cream cake at Nathan's request and it was amazing! She pulled off two cakes, one sherbet and the other chocolate mint ice cream. It was as good as it looks. =)

 Friday night we got about three inches of snow, which caused a fair amount of excitement at our house. For the first snow to come this early was great.