Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!




Here are some pictures of our gingerbread train. We didn't get out the camera until after Stacey, Kaylee, and Brianna had already headed home. Too bad. Probably my fingers were too frostingy. Their train was cute too. Not to mention how cute they are! At least I have some little girls for nieces even if I don't have any for daughters.

I couldn't resist putting up the picture of Cole hugging me even though I look like I've been cleaning and baking all day. Well, that is what I was doing, so I guess I can look like it. We sure did have a lot of fun!

I didn't get any pictures last night at our holiday "special dinner" either, but we had a great time. You can't always cook, bake, serve, refill glasses, clear dishes, clean messes, and click pictures all at once. Well, maybe you can, but I find it tricky. We enjoyed the good food and the great company. We should keep this tradition more often, I think. We also sang Christmas carols to our heart's delight, which is another of my very favorite things in the world. We are busy having a merry Christmas, and we hope you are too!
Posted by at 1 comment:

Monday, December 17, 2007

Can't Wait for Christmas!







Remember feeling so excited that you could hardly stand it as Christmas Day was approaching? As a kid, I invented a ritual called "wiggles and squiggles" which was performed as I was being tucked into bed on Christmas Eve. I would snuggle under the covers, pull them over my head, and then flail about wildly. It was a terrific way to give voice to my excitement. Not really a terrific way convince my parents that I was ready to fall asleep so Santa Clause could come, but they didn't mind.

As a grown up, the countdown to Christmas is an endless to-do list that involves not just a little stress. So this year, in an attempt to make sure to include some excitement and magic on my list, I told each of the kids they could choose a favorite tradition that we would strictly uphold. Of course we would decorate the tree and hang stockings without anyone choosing it as their special tradition, but everybody got to choose one extra of the kind of things we don't always get around to. Luke chose to have a "special dinner" where we use the nice dishes and invite guests and drink sparkling cider from goblets. Cade chose to make a gingerbread creation--instead of a house we are making a train this year. All aboard! And Cole chose to keep the tradition of reading a Christmas bedtime story every night throughout the month of December. (Well, I sort of helped him choose that one...it's my favorite, too. But he doesn't let us skip a night!)

So far things are going well. Three is a manageable number of projects for me, and three is a great number of kids to make happy. It's been fun to have them in on the planning and carrying out of the traditions as well. It helps them see that these type of projects do take planning and forethought, but it also helps get them excited as they anticipate their turn. Friday is our designated gingerbread day, and cousins are coming to help! Can't wait to make a big frosting mess! Just in time to clean it all up before our special dinner on Sunday evening.

And of course, I'm looking just as forward as they are to see what Santa will bring. But the part I love is to watch them discover what good kids they must have been! I got an Amazon.com package in the mail today. The box was quite a bit bigger than I expected for the price I paid. Can't wait for Santa to come!

But then again, there are times I wish the magic of Christmastime would linger a bit longer, and not just so I can have time to finish all the stuff on my to-do list. How December flies by when you are no longer under the age of ten! I love the yummy scents, the baking, the hot chocolate in mugs after playing a little too long in the snow, the friendly greetings, the warm wishes, the memories, the nostalgia. The closeness of family and old friends. Giving to neighbors and strangers too, and remembering the reason we celebrate Christmas at all. Feeling the reality of Christ's life a little more deeply, feeling faith and hope burn a little more brightly. These are the parts of Christmas I want to hang on to and not let go.

Can't wait for Christmas to come! Hope I don't have to let it go.
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Cade

Crazy C Alphabet A Damaged D & Elephant E C.A.D.E > Cade Cade (_-<^>-_) Cade (-}[+ < - > +]{-)

1/1=2/2



one two skip a few ninety nine one hundred skip some more two hundred and four. Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp (Singing alphabet) Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz. Did you here me sing?Maybe you didn't.But bet you did. 1+2=3. 3-2=1.3x3=9.2/2=1/1..100.%.2=0.5.

by Cade



That was all Cade's writing there. Can you tell that his favorite color is green? And he loves math. He shared some of his favorite equations with you. He also loves how smart he is. We love how smart he is too. And how much fun we have with him.

One interesting thing about Cade is that he loves healthy food. He is my only child who will eat tomatoes. This summer he learned to love loaded hamburgers from the barbecue. While his brothers eat hamburgers with cheese and ketchup only, he found out how delicious onion, tomato, and lettuce can be. (Pickles, not so much.) Also he checks food labels! My first grader checks food labels! For such things as sugar and fat content. He pays most attention to how many grams of sugar are in a food, and makes choices based on this. He likes Corn Chex instead of Trix for this reason. Also, he chose his instant oatmeal packet flavor the other morning based only on which flavor had the least amount of sugar, rather than which flavor sounded most appealing to him, and all of this with no prompting from me. I asked him if he wanted Cinnamon Roll, Apple, or Maple, and then he came and started comparing grams of sugar. Wow. Well, I'm glad he is excited about being healthy. Maybe he knows he needs all the vitamins he can get if he's going to ever reach 5 feet. Cute guy got some shorty genes to deal with. Says Cade, "I might not be the biggest one in my class, but I might be the healthiest." True, he might. (He already knows he's the smartest...there's no might about that!) He just informed me that his teacher is probably smarter, but he is the smartest kid. There's no arguing with that, huh?
Posted by marianne007 at 12:19 PM

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)