Christmas Morning

Having had a late night between church and wrapping duty, we had instructed the kids not to wake us before 6:00 a.m. – especially since Dad had a church service to lead.  Jay & I didn’t get to bed until a little after 2:00 a.m., but believe it or not the kids didn’t get up till 7:00 a.m.

Now that they’re older some of the excitement has worn off.  Which is some what sad, but then again we do enjoy our sleep.  They know Santa is coming, but they also know now that they’re older, Santa doesn’t leave as much. When they were little it was amazing how much Santa could bring them, but now their requests are a little pricier.

 

Each year the kids pick out their Santa paper – so when he arrives he can wrap all their gifts in their individually selected paper. We’ve accumulated quite the paper stash over the years, but we try to recycle it by wrapping their gifts from Mom & Dad and their siblings.

Once we all made it downstairs, their presents were distributed.  This year Mackenzie picked out some really cute owl paper and her other gifts were wrapped in last years Frosty paper.  Zack picked out a really cool black and white snowflake print for Santa’s gifts and we recycled Star Wars for his other gifts.  Well, Kassi she picked out yet another Tinker Bell print on a turquoise paper and we used the red Tinker Bell from last year.

Kassi’s

Kassi saw this pillow pet and WANTED it! So Mackenzie and Zack wanted to get it for her. After much searching I was able to locate it, and she was very excited when she opened it.

As I mentioned earlier, now that the kids are older their requests are pricier.  Luckily Santa was able to get Kassi this really cool camera.  Kassi loves taking pictures and she she would like to explore the field of digital photography.  Her point and shoot camera takes some neat pictures, but it is old and a DSLR would be much better.  However, those DSLR’s are extremely pricey.  So, Santa found a really cool hybrid. 

I hope her Christmas was a pleasant surprise with her new boots, pillow pet, sing-a-ma-jig, and her new camera. 

Zack’s

What do you get a kid that really only likes to game and whose birthday is in December?  Zack is at that age where he isn’t afraid to ask for money for his birthday so he can save up to get what he wants.  That’s exactly what he did.  He’s been sitting on a stash of money/gift cards for a while anxiously wanting to buy what he had saved up for.  Luckily we have a rule – no buying anything from October till after Christmas.  That way we don’t have to say ‘No, what if Santa brings it?’ or ‘What if someone else gets that for you for Christmas?’  It’s worked out great and no one ever tries to convince us otherwise.

I know. I know.  It’s a toy gun.  I’ll be honest, I am not a fan of toy guns. It’s too bad that over the years guns and gun play just aren’t the same as when we were little.  We have never encouraged nor bought any form of a toy gun.  However, the girls – with Dad’s selection – gave Zack two Nerf guns, and by the way, he and Mackenzie have been having a great time shooting each other.  UGH!

If Santa would have wrapped Zack’s gift as is, there is no doubt he would have guessed what it was before even ripping the paper.  So, Santa decided to play a game or trick on the boy.

This box was inside that big box.

Oh wait . . . there’s another box inside that one.

Oh yes, another box.

Oh, there it is.  The thingy he’s been saving for and Santa beat him to it.  He was so sure he wouldn’t get it for Christmas and so wanted to bend our rule. 

Mackenzie’s

She was so excited about her monkey pillow pet. YAY! Way to go Kassi and Zack.

Mackenzie is the artsy kiddo.  She loves crafts.  But what do you get that kid that has a closet and bins full of felt, buttons, foam, pipe cleaners, glue, and glue sticks?  Well, Santa brought the perfect thing . . . a big fancy sewing machine. 

I am pretty sure Santa did good!  The kids have been very busy with their new ‘toys’.  Kassi has been busy taking pictures. Zack has figured out how to use Facebook on his Nintendo 3DS.  Mackenzie has been busy sewing. 

Christmas Eve services

This was our first Christmas with our new family at Saint Paul Lutheran Church.  Jay was beyond excited – he LOVES this season, for more than one reason! 

We were excited too as our family joined us for the evening.  Jay’s parents and his brother’s family joined us for dinner before service and then attended church with us.  It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to attend Christmas service with family. 

We weren’t sure what to expect since Saint Paul has two Christmas Eve services – one at 7:00 p.m. and the other at 11:00 p.m.  We attended the first service and the Church was full – 140 joined in the celebration.  It was a very nice service and Jay loved the candlelight part.  He said we need to see it from his point of view – from the alter. 

After church, we talked a while with members and then home for our Christmas Eve tradition – opening gifts from afar.  Since we were still recovering from illness, we didn’t all go over for the second service.  Mackenzie wanted to go and she did. 

We had heard that attendance for the later service is small enough to have the service on the alter and the members sit in the choir loft.  So, Kassi and I sneaked over and caught a glimpse.

The church looked really nice at night.  I tried to catch it, but this photo just doesn’t do it justice.

Kassi and I tried to be as quiet as could be so no one would notice us taking pictures from the coat room.  It was really neat to see them all gathered in the choir loft.  Knowing there would be a few from the earlier service, Jay had another sermon prepared.  There were 28 at this service – some who had and some who had not been to the earlier service. 

We are thinking about starting a new tradition next year.  Since there are two services, we are thinking about having an open house between services.  We’ll see what next year brings.

Eve tradition

Several years ago we started a simple tradition on Christmas Eve.  My family is out of state and they ship the kids’ their gifts.  So on Christmas Eve, after attending church they open their gifts.

This year they opened all their gifts from afar – from the Schmitts and the Mitchells.

They were excited about their new things and the gift cards!  Thank you for thinking of them on this holiday.

Passing our Time

Believe it or not there has been illness in our home – and it WON’T go away!!

It all started the first week of December with just your basic common winter cold.  CRUD!  But by mid Dec. it morphed into something that just keeps hanging on.

We were suppose to host an open house in our home for our congregation on Dec. 18th, but as the date approached individuals were displaying a variety of symptoms.  So, on the 17th I took Kassi & Zack to the urgent care and Jay went to the ER.  Their symptoms had ranged from an unbearable sore throat to fever to body aches to head aches to chills – a whole gamut of things.  I was starting to get a sore throat and had some other cold symptoms. 

All their strep tests came back negative.  The pediatric doctor went ahead and put Kassi & Zack on antibiotics in case they had secondary sinus infections.  But the doc Jay saw said it was viral and would have to run its course. 

A decision was made to cancel, at least to postpone to a later date, our open house.  Which was good because by the eve before I was running a fever and by Monday I had a major ear ache – to the doc for me to find out I had an ear infection with a bulging eardrum.  I spent the week with the whole list of symptoms. 

While Jay & I were laid out recovering & once the kids started feeling better this is what they did . . .

Glad they get along so great!!

And I am glad we were all sick together. Now, hopefully we’ll be good for the rest of winter.  A couple of us are still fighting the cold symptoms, but hey that’s all part of this crazy winter cool then warm weather. 

I believe we are on the upside of this.  I think all the kids have rebounded, but Jay & I are still suffering from the common cold crud.

Holiday Celtic Ball

It is so hard to believe that Kassi is a junior in high school this year.  Where does the time go???  I remember high school and the dances!  There was prom, homecoming, and many others. 

Yes, she is a junior, but wait she is a homeschool junior.  Do homeschool high schoolers get to do the same things kids who go to school get to do?!  YES!!  Just because she is homeschooled doesn’t mean she misses out on other activities. 

Last year was Kassi’s first opportunity to attend a couple different formals.  Each of the co-ops we attend had formals last year.  They were both very different from one another, but it was an opportunity for the kids to dress up & have an evening of clean fun.

Well, we have heard about this really big formal – the Celtic ball from other homeschoolers, and Kassi wanted to go.  So, she talked with a friend and got the registration info & we signed her up for the second annual holiday ball. 

The best part . . . we didn’t have to go look for a dress!!  While we were traveling in October, we visited a store and they had all their formal gowns clearance.   After last year’s experience with finding gowns for the two formals and knowing she would be attending at least one if not three or four within the next year, I decided it best served to not wait to find a gown.  So, she saw a couple of different gowns & after trying them on she picked one.  The best part was the cost.  The gown originally cost $130.00 and it was marked down to . . . $15.00.  Yes, you saw that correctly 1-5, fifteen dollars.  YAY!! even better.

Here she is all dressed up. 

Go figure . . . would she go anywhere without her Chucks?  In her defense they did recommend wearing comfy shoes.

When Kassi received her registration confirmation she was #144.  Wow! there were at least 144 attending the ball.  She went in the afternoon for three hours of dance lessons, and when she came home she said there was over 180 registered for the dance.

She spent the evening dancing line dances, box dances, and other dances with friends – old and new.  She had a great time and is already looking forward to the Celtic ball in the spring, which she was told there are 50-100 more that attend the spring ball. 

I am so thankful for the families that put together these wonderful activities and events for our homeschoolers!

Our First Church Christmas concert . . .

It is only the first weekend of December and the busyness has begun.  The weekend started off with a holiday formal for Kassi (that post is to come) and ended with a holiday concert. 

Last night was our church’s 10th annual Christmas concert.  Being our first holiday here, we didn’t know what to expect – only what we had been told.  At church yesterday morning – which Kassi & I were unable to attend because of our weekend delivery, our second load of papers weren’t dropped until almost 9:00 p.m. on Fri. night which set us WAY behind for the weekend delivery.  Anyway, they announced to arrive early to get a seat.

They weren’t kidding!!!  People started arriving around 6:00 p.m. & the concert didn’t start until 7:00 p.m. By 6:40 p.m. there were NO seats. UGH!! We were still expecting the arrival of some friends, and we couldn’t save seats for them any longer. :(

The concert featured our church’s choirs – adult, teen, & children’s; several performers, and Logan Elm Advanced Choir. 

Our church choirs started the evening with their performance.  It was a pleasure to see three siblings – not our kiddos – share their musical talent as they played their instruments together.  There was a family that performed and I believe I heard this is their tenth year. 

Of course, I had to have Mackenzie play.  So she performed a piece with her violin teacher, who also happens to be the retired pastor from our church . . .

 

I know, we can’t see her face.  I was doing good to get her up there.  She loves to play the violin, BUT she doesn’t like to perform in front of people.  All we can do is to continue to encourage her – oh yeah, and make arrangements for her to play. :)

She wasn’t the only one from our family to get up, apprehensively, and share with the audience . . .

 

Kassi and her friend, Emily, both take lessons from the same vocal teacher and attend co-op together.  They do a wonderful job together.  It’s funny because Kassi too doesn’t like to sing in front of people, but put her in a play and it isn’t a big deal.  So I asked her one day why she gets nervous when she sings and not when she’s acting.  Her response, “When I’m in a play I am not me. I am the character I am playing to be. But when I am singing – it is ALL me.” 

Regardless of the girls’ nerves, they did a wonderful job in front of a packed house.  :)  The whole concert was lovely.  It was very nice for all the performers from near & far to share their gifts with our community, and it was awesome to see the church that full of people!!  Now that we know what to expect, I can’t wait until next year’s concert.