This Christmas season began with the Christmas Festival. (again, as in the past several years) For the past two it has begun months in advance with weekly Choir Practice. I was particularly excited this year, since Amanda was asked to play the French Horn in the Orchestra for Festival as well, so I knew we'd be in it together.
Then the first week of Dec, began the big work of setting up for the Live Nativity, I have only a small role in the overall grand scheme of things, but the week we spend putting things together is a busy one. I'm grateful for those who helped me out with childcare, and rides to activities, etc. while I did set up. I was glad when Bill got back home on Thursday to help out. I'm also grateful for the opportunity I have had to be involved in some small way.
Story about dear friends at the Christmas Festival
Festival is a LOT of WORK, for a LOT of people, but I LOVE starting out the season bringing the spirit of Christ and the REAL meaning of Christmas to the forefront of things. Years ago I began collecting nativities, by now I have quite a few. I love all the Nativities at the Festival and I really LOVE the one's that are truly unique! It was so fun to walk through and see quite a few new one's I hadn't seen before! I also enjoyed seeing some favorites back at the festival again.
This year the Christmas season has also been busy planning a wedding for next month. We drove to Tuscaloosa for one bridal shower, and then last week we had one here. We've been ordering things, and running around town getting things pulled together. In the middle of all of this craziness, it can make people a little bit crazy as well... we've had a little of that too.
This year we got an apartment for Bill"s parents to stay in and decided it would be best to do Christmas there. This way it'd be easier on Grandma & Grandpa. They arrived last weekend and are staying here for a month. We wanted to make things easier on them, and our house isn't exactly set up for someone who has trouble walking, let alone can't climb stairs and all our bedrooms are upstairs. We also thought they might appreciate having someplace they could get away from us a little bit for some occasional peace and quiet every once and awhile. So, we got an apartment for them for the month. The kids have been fighting over who gets to stay overnight with them since they arrived... so much for all their peace and quiet. They do have two bedrooms, so that their is room for the grandkids to stay over.
As we prepared for the gift giving we joined the craziness of holiday shoppers, with last minute trips to the mall and other stores. We plan each year to scale things back, and to calm things down, but somehow in an effort to 'be fair' to everyone... somehow things often get out of control and things go overboard! Then Grandpa and Grandma came to town, and they added to the Christmas gift giving overload... Grandma had dolls that she had collected over the years, and picked one special for each girl. Rebekah's was a Bride doll. Dolls were fine for the girls, but for Liam, not so much. In the end, he got another Wii game - the new Disney Mickey Mouse something or other. Then Grandpa went on his splurge - the girls each got a pair of UGGs Boots and for Liam??? A driving 4 wheeler! He LOVES it!!!!!!
Chris and Rebekah got to share Christmas eve and Christmas morning with us, and then they packed up and drove back to Tuscaloosa for Christmas part 2 with Chris's family.
For Christmas Eve we had our traditional Bethlehem dinner where we eat on the floor by candlelight, and we eat simple foods somewhat like they might have had back in Bethlehem all those many years ago. We eat cheese and crackers (we do Brie), and Hummus and Pita bread. We eat simple fruits - grapes and we like apple slices and oranges.
also eat fish, which for us, we cook some salmon.
The kids have now all grown up with this tradition in our family for the past 8 years or so, and it is something we all look forward to every year:) This year we decided to invite the sister
missionaries and our friend/adoptive brother, Caleb over to join us.
After dinner Dad (where ever he may be) reads the traditional story of Christ's birth from the Bible. It's a great way to remember the true meaning for christmas. Then afterwards, everyone helps clean up the food and waits anxiously for their one gift. Each year we like to give the kids a new pair of pajamas on christmas eve, that way the next morning everyone has nice, new, cute pajamas for our Christmas pictures. Then one by one, each member of our family takes a turn un-wraping their gift. We got the Sister missionaries Alabama pajamas to always remember us by. And for Caleb, we set our pride aside and even purchased a pair of Auburn pajamas:(
We sent the kids home, while we stayed behind to finish "Christmas prep". Then because, of the time and our need to salvage as much sleep as possible we decided to stay the night. And of course, as promised by the kids, they arrived promptly at 5:45 ready and anxious to begin the day. *keep in mind we had just gone to bed an hour beforehand*
Bill, with Liam's help, passed the presents out one by one, in order to make Christmas last longer than 10 minutes. So we all enjoyed watching each other open gifts. We finished around 8:30ish. The morning was spent enjoying our new possessions .
At one point the family got a new Book - we all took time as Bill read the story to us.
Thankfully, God blessed us with a wonderfully, beautiful White Christmas. Thus, the afternoon was spent in plastic bags and socks, enjoying the Winter Wonderland.
The plastic bags started with Sariah. Unaware of the snow, she had worn her UGGS that morning. UGGS are very expensive and damage when wet, to say the least. She wanted to play in the snow but her shoes kept her from going. She did try bare-feet at one point in the day, but as you could have guessed- that lasted about 57 seconds.
So she decided to wrap a plastic bag around her boots (to protect them). But instead of wrapping one plastic bag around each boot, my genius daughter proceeded to step completely into one bag and hop around the yard. This was quite amusing:-P
Then Hannah, wanting desperately to sled, took a plastic bag to use as her sled.
Sariah, wanting to join in, grabbed a second plastic bag and hopped up the hill (falling in the process). Then, to her credit, she made a hole in the bottom of the bag and wore as a "dress", using the handles as straps over her shoulders. it barely covered her backside, let alone her legs but she did manage to slide down one time.
No one had appropriate snow-ware, including: gloves,
jackets, hats, boots, etc. So they improvised. Amanda and Hannah wore layers of their new Christmas socks for gloves.
Marissa tried plastic bags on her hands? I don't know what she was thinking...
Then they proceeded to build a snowman. The snow was great, despite the fact it was a mere 2 inches. So, as they rolled the three balls needed to build a snowman, they collected various pine needles from the ground layer. They found it quite difficult to lift the second ball of snow (for the belly) above the third, as packed snow becomes very heavy. But Sariah came to their rescue- in Grandpa's shoes might I add.
Towards the end I joined in, using my serious snowman building skills to my advantage;) In reality, I just added a new fresh white coat of snow to cover up the dirt and pine needles to the best of my abilities.
Since Grandma and Grandpa are not permanent residents here, Sariah scrounged a few items for the face. Lettuce for hair, grapes for the eyes, a small carrot as the nose, and 5 slices of apple for the
smile. Hannah broke some branches off a small tree for arms. Amanda's contribution was adding womanly curves to Lucille's figure. Lucille being the snow WO-man.
For pictures sake, I loaned my scarf and ear muffs to Lucille. However, the ear muffs made her look a bit like a snow bear.
To make things simple for Christmas dinner, a couple of years ago we adopted something from one of Bill's childhood friends. Christmas Taco's. They match the color scheme also. Red and Green.
At the end of the day everyone was satisfied and happy with their Christmas. Snow continued throughout the day and again the next morning. We were told church was cancelled for the next morning so we had big sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Merry Christmas everyone!
ps. and a Happy new Year!
