Christmas Day

Here are pictures from our Christmas Day. This is the day we opened stockings and the gifts from our Folding extended family. It was time to open the Hexagon gift!

It is the game Blokus and it is fun and challenging. A brain game that is neither numbers nor letters/words, nor cards. We've been reading about it for years in homeschool/educational recommendation lists/catalogs.

We gave the children $5 each to spend at the Dollar Tree to purchase a stocking gift for the four other people who live in this house. They had a BLAST with this....

Here is Jeremy opening the stocking gift Justus got for him. Stretchy-plastic body parts. Eew!


Jeremy's stocking gift from Natasha: a whole set of plastic spiders, and plastic spiders on plastic webs. GROSS.





They know how I hate spiders, so they secretly placed them all in places where I would find them unsuspectingly.

Here is Natasha in shock about her stocking gift that we were able to get for her, a couple months ago, actually. It's an inexpensive digital camera that we bought used, from church friends. BIG, BIG, BIG HIT.


Justus's stocking gift was also a HUGE hit, and was also purchased used. It's a hand-held video game player.... It has a screen, so the Screen Time rules apply to it as well as to the TV/computer.


Elaine got Justus a woodworking set. I don't have a picture of the gift she gave to N, which was a cross-stitch set.


For my stocking Jeremy bought two pairs of the GORGEOUS Christmas/winter earrings Jennifer made in December! We tried to take pictures, but they didn't turn out very well. First one: rather 'antique'/designed tall, thin, evergreen tree with black bead on top.


Second one: Snowman! Black top hat, green scarf. Very sparkly. :)


We played Blokus in the afternoon.

Christmas Eve

A few of you will know how utterly and extremely significant it is that I am posting a Christmas Eve blog before my sister!!!!!! Two things on this, tho'. 1.) She's out of town (otherwise you can be guaranteed that she would have beat me to it.), and 2.) Don't get the idea that this means I'm caught up. (Although with this blogging so much easier these days ... -eye roll- ... I just MIGHT actually feel caught up pretty soon!!) I still need to hem Justus's dress pants, and Natasha's as well, I have laundry to do, kitchen work to do, papers to sort, and cobwebs to attack.

But those things can wait while I share for a second. Here, in no particular order, are views from our Christmas Eve fun.

Sketchbook and "N" monogram magnet bookmarks. This is one of Natasha's prettiest smiles I've photographed in a while. Her eyes are weird, but ignore them; just enjoy that smile -- no strangeness!!

Natasha taking in her Oil Paints and Instruction set!

Why our children get excited about school books is beyond me, but hilariously wonderful.

[Yes, I know the date stamp was wrong. Gr. I've fixed it....]

Oh, more excitement about the oil paints set.

Figuring out the Gift catalog situation. They are very excited about this, and are having a tough time deciding between Apples to Apples Bible Edition or the self-contained tadpole environment, "Planet Frog". Somehow I expect we will be learning a lot about frogs very soon.

Silly face to show his happiness about a Lego Mini-Figure.

We still haven't figured out why Sydni chose, wrapped, and sent this gift to Jeremy. Note his puzzled brow.
Justus taking in the interactive science books.

I TOLD you it's inexplicable how much our children like their handwriting books!! ??! Seriously!

Technology has come a long way from the LeaPads of just a few years ago!! WWWOW. And, an extra set of earphones 'gifted' for use with these books was just the ticket to take Justus into his own non-fiction science world until ... April, probably.
We usually make and decorate sugar cookies in the first or second week of December. Not this year! We got it done on Christmas.Eve.

Here are my four favorite decorated cookies that didn't get eaten. Clockwise from top left. Justus used a saguaro cookie to make a rocket/plane. Natasha made a Tarzan. Jeremy made a zombie cookie, and Justus used the tube of white, leftover from Natasha's birthday cake, to put spines on a saguaro I frosted.... There were other wonders, most notably a hugely-bearded Santa (back to the tube of white), made from an upside-down Christmas tree cookie.
Our children were gifted the game Blokus for Christmas but I had to wrap it. The box is a HEXAGON!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

First, the aforementioned project Natasha is working on, to write "I will obey my parents" so many times.... She has to do it neatly or she starts over. She is doing that very well! She's fitting 30 sentences on a page, to simplify the counting. See anything wrong with her work?

After years (a decade?) of waiting, Mom has replaced her sewing machine. The business she runs, "Sewing In My Home," requires amazing feats, and she's got the skills to handle it all. However, owning one of the new machines will broaden the services she can provide her customers. Additionally, her old machine is so old that every time she needs a part replaced they say, "You're lucky they had this part; they're not making parts for these machines anymore." She was coached that she really needed to find a new home for her old sewing machine to force the issue of her learning to use the new one, so ... (drum roll) ... she gave that machine to US!!!! Well, I basically asked her to. :\ True, she could have sold it to a stranger, but how much nicer is it that in its retirement, the machine she used to sew innumerable items in service to her family can continue its service therein! -wait, was that sentence botched or well-built? Eah, leaving it. (! lol) Wow, it's comfortable to use this high-quality machine on which I learned to sew. And now, a second generation of young ones can learn to sew on the same machine. I took a picture of its new home for you, Mom, during its first project in Iowa, hemming jeans for Justus.

[For the record, there is some discussion and frustration about what to do about the sewing machine cabinets. Mom kept the one for this machine because she doesn't yet have the one for her new machine. However, it's not working well for her. And, the cabinet in this picture is for my old machine (which is in the garage waiting its turn in the budget to go get repaired), so it's not a good fit with this machine. If I fold out the left portion of the table, Mom's machine just falls right through! :( It's a compromised sewing situation, but still a DREAMMM. I'm so thankful.]

While I was taking pictures in the family room, I shot the other wall that has a map on it as well. In perfect timing, these great, laminated wall maps were given to us (used, of course, by a homeschool family that is through with them); you see, we signed up with 49 other homeschool families to do a 50-states postcard exchange this year! So, when we've received a few postcards, we take the Vis-a-Vis pens downstairs and let the children label the map. They think it's a blast. I laid on the top of that center cushion the cards we've received but haven't yet posted. :)

Justus's Scouts troop caroled on Tuesday at the VA Hospital. Justus appeared to be having no fun at ALL. Later we asked him if he enjoyed it; he said it was fine! Jeremy said, "Then why did you look so serious?" Justus said, "I was concentrating!" This picture doesn't even include all the singers!! I couldn't get back far enough in the room to fit everyone in!! In this picture Justus and Brandon are toward the left in front of the lady in the pink shirt.

Here's a closer shot of them; sorry the zoom on this camera compromises the light situation.... And yes, the kid beside Justus has blue hair. He's a decent kid, who has blue hair....
There is something funny going on in our house. Because we are not bound, scripturally or familially (made up a word), by the date of December 25th to celebrate Christmas, we have all decided to save our Christmas money 'til after Christmas, to take advantage of the after-Christmas sales. It's weird but fun, for this time. And if we like it we may do it again! We kinda get two Christmases this way...? On Christmas Eve the Four Fab will open Free extended family gifts that we have received (wow! thank you!). On Christmas morning we will open stockings with Elaine and open Folding extended family gifts we have received (wow! thank you!). So Jeremy gave each kid $5 to spend at the dollar store to buy a $1 stocking gift for each of the other four people. Oh, and I bought each child a roll of dollar-store-wrapping-paper to wrap his/her gifts. This is turning out to be hil-larious! The gifts they chose.... *sigh* Some of them won't even fit in the stockings...?! Or, I'm also told that they would have, but they couldn't figure out how to wrap them, so they put them in boxes to wrap ... that won't fit into the stockings. Oh, what a riot! XD It's so silly in a celebratory way!! LOL!! At any rate, Justus finished wrapping his gifts the other night, and I found them placed carefully in this pile. And, yes, the gift on the top left says: "From Justus To Dad's Mom". Huuuh? lol!

Here is the wrapping job Natasha did for my stocking gift from her.
And now. More drum rolls.... This morning the doorbell rang and on the front porch stood a smiling man who could barely hold this monstrous basket of goodies. Fruit, coffee, nuts, sausage, cheeses, fancy cheese dip, crackers, appetizer olives, and candies galore! We have never received something like this, and I'm completely blown away by the generosity! The note reads: "Merry Christmas - We appreciate you and everything that you do for our congregation. With love -- ..." and I'll let the givers remain anonymous in this extremely public setting. Just ... CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??! WWWWOW.

Next comes the snow. And I have yet to make my traditional Christmas sugar cookies for the decorating fun our family still seems to enjoy.... So, it's shaping up to be a beautiful, cozy holiday for us. I sincerely hope yours is, too, though I do have to coach my attitude this time of year because the pain of missing you all is remarkably sharp on the celebration days I used to spend with you. Counting my blessings.... There are definitely enough to distract the mind and ease most of the emotional discomfort.

Tree & Camp Book

I forgot to post a picture of Natasha's birthday cards. :) Each one meant a great deal to her, yay!

Natasha 'gave up' her camp notebook and journal from Bible camp this year. She has enjoyed them occasionally through the past six months, and is now through with them. I'm taking pictures to record and share some of the pages that interested me most.

See if you can guess what it is about the following picture that cracks.me.up.

Wow. God giving a "thumbs up". Okaaay!


Each page in the notebook was blank on the back. Needless to say, by the end of her week at camp, every blank page was covered in art. Here are some examples.





(We were in the throes of reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, so discovering this picture of a centaur in her Bible study notebook is not at all a surprise to me. Just the girl's imagination at work....)


After a, maybe six month(?) hiatus from Legos, for the past few days N & J have been designing dudes. Each kid's guys make up his/her army, and they have agreed (shocking) upon an amount of power for each guy, as well as which kind of attack he does that costs his opponent how much in 'health', like a video game, except with manipulatives (Seems so backwards to me, ha!!). See how each kid has a paper? That is where the record is kept (a chart) of each attack, so they can do the math(!!) to figure out which guy is going to win the battle.... [Are these children related to me?? 'Cause ... I would NEVER a.) think to do this, or b.) want to! lol]

Look, that spot of clear desk there...? I haven't seen it since the fire. It is rrrreally good to see it again. True, there's still a 1/4" stack to deal with, below my Bible. I'm getting to it. :) Also note my nice, quilted coaster, made by my mom. :) I use its blue twin on my nightstand. Also *huuuuge sigh* note the black notebook standing on the right. That is the story recipe book Natasha wrote and illustrated for the Free boys this time LAST YEAR, that I have yet to copy and ship to the four locations in mind.... *sigh* It sits in a place of priority, but gets postponed and postponed.... -argh
Here is our tree. Our same old trusty fake tree that we like so much; we think this is its sixth year in service to us, ha. Instead of trying to cram onto it every last one of the ridiculous number of Christmas ornaments we have (most came from our families of origin the Christmas before we got married), this year we agreed to use the white lights [There are three color wheels that allow us to choose each year what color lights to enjoy.], and only the ornaments that are significantly white, off-white, gold, silver, and clear. It is a nice change.

Shamelessly copying my sister's adorable blog idea, here are close-ups of some of my favorite ornaments hanging this year. This one was made by my aunt Patty years ago. A hazelnut!!



No idea where this one came from, but I like its daintiness, and the idea of combining Christmas ornaments with a seashell. :)



Aww, from Natasha's first Christmas when she was 9 days old!
These guys are really difficult to see; they are cuter when NOT hanging on the tree, actually.... They are penguin snowman musicians (saxophone, violin). The base white ball is attached loosely through the middle of the torso, so they 'dance'. Where they came from I know.not. :(
That is Jeremy when he was maybe 6. Awwwwwwwww!
Made by my mom.
Made by my mom.
Sorry for the bad picture here, but this is a huge, fabulous Father Christmas with fruit and a little snowman in his hat.
This is from Jeremy's childhood. The dude is ceramic and his hat is knitted. It's old and cute in a '70's sort of way, and I very much enjoy things that give me a bit of connection with Jeremy's yesteryear; he gets to know a lot more of mine than I get to enjoy of his because of ... tons of things, actually, including my memory compared to his, and my desire to remember/know things from our childhoods, and my inclination to communicate what I do know/remember about mine, etc.
This flower is just luscious to me, and the North Pole candy cane is another made by my mom.
We have two ornaments that were gifted to us for our first Christmas together. This one made the cut this year. :) It is fancy and wedding-ish, which got rather old by the end of 1997, but is a dear reminder now. I LOVE MY HUSBAND MORE EVERY DAY, and rejoice that we are days from celebrating our 14th Christmas together. ~warm fuzzies~