Christmas Celebrations #1

Warning : This contains a lot of pictures that are not all in chronological order! :)

I decided to do two posts of the rest of our Christmas highlights and celebrations. We have had so much fun this year and are already looking forward to next year and all of the new fun things the boys will be doing then.

This is Jason's grandpa with Jacob and Rylan. Our boys are SO incredibly blessed to have 3 living great-grand-parents. All 3 hug them, sing to them and shower them with love every chance they get! Jacob really does love Papa even though he is screaming. I think we interrupted a riveting game of "drink from the empty cup" to take the photo!
One of the most fun things we did while "up north" was to ride the Polar Express. I always read the book to my class and usually teared up by the end. It was a magical train ride full of singing, dancing and a million photos! This is Justin, Karyn and Evan - Jason's brothers family.
Our boys were a little too young to fully appreciate just how NEAT this train ride really was, but they still had fun dancing to all the songs. But Jason and I fully appreciated every minute.
At the end of the ride, Santa came strolling down the center aisle as we all sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." I seriously got a choked up! Karyn said she did too, so I did not feel as silly. It was so magical to see Santa and have him walking down patting all the kids on the heads. Jacob and Rylan looked up at him is awe.
This is how we spent Christmas Eve... at the Pediatricians! Jacob had a fever all day Saturday and Sunday so when we got home Monday we went in to the office. It was a mad house. Turns out it was just a high fever virus - not an ear infection like we were all predicting. And the fever finally went away by Wednesday morning. For all you in the medical profession - thank you for loving your patients enough to work on holidays and calm down scared mommas and daddys!
Two weeks before Christmas, Jason's company had a fancy dinner that spouses were invited to attend. So we got fancied up and headed to the big city for a very swanky meal. My steak was $45...yes, $45 and it was fabulous!!! Jason's was about the same and we both got dessert too! Thanks to the company for a fun night out! Plus it was nice to meet most of Jason's team along with his boss.

Two Sundays ago the young family group at church hosted a Christmas luncheon for the older members of our congregation, the Lights. The fellowship hall was decorated beautifully and the soup, salad and dessert were devoured by all! It was nice this year that our family had 4 generations represented! The boys were in the nursery during the luncheon, but we brought them out for a photo. The younger men served the older couples and then they played several games of bingo.
Here is Rylan again chewing on the Nativity sheep. I added this photo to talk about our Wednesday night church service. Our youth minister created a quiz, much like "Are you Smarter than A 5th Grader?" about the birth of Christ. You got to work with your family to answer the 19 questions and then he gave us the right answers. Sadly, Jason and I only got 10/19. His point was that you must always check the Bible to know if you have the right answers. Sometimes you rely on tradition, or Hollywood, or books to get your information, but the Bible is our ONLY true source. He also strongly encouraged us all to read the Bible every day with our families to equip us all with scriptural basis for our beliefs. Thanks for an excellent lesson MK!!!
I could not resist bragging on our adorable niece, Evan! She is the best baby!!! Her pretty blue eyes are full of excitement and her face is always ready for a heart melting smile. Her two dimples are so cute! We love you sweet Evan!
This is before opening gifts up north. The kids would not cooperate for the perfect photo in front of the presents. Even though the perfect photo never happened, we still had lots of fun and many wonderful gifts were exchanged. Thank you sweet family!
Next time will be Christmas at home... watch out, I took 244 photos in 2 days!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours...Merry Christmas!
(more pics coming soon!)

Christmas Spirit #3

The Gingerbread Man pillow! When I was about 7 years old, a dear family friend made me this gingerbread man pillow. Every December, Mom would get it out and I would cuddle with it while I went to sleep. I read books to the G-bread Man, sang songs with him and even tried to feed him cookies! Now the time has come for me to pass down my beloved G-bread Man pillow to Rylan and Jacob. As you can tell, they already love him and are showing him their bellies (their newest trick!) Thanks again Nelda... I bet you never dreamed this pillow would get so much loving!

Christmas Spirit #2

The Little People Nativity Set! Rylan and Jacob got some Mardel gift cards for their birthday and I was saving them for something special. Then I saw the nativity set and I knew this was the perfect thing to buy with the gift cards! So last week we went and got it. This is how it looks with the people all perfectly placed. Every night before I go to bed, I get to play with their toys as I pick them up. Anyway, we decided that the donkey has a WILD mane, but other than that the set is adorable and perfect for little fingers.I have read them several different illustrated accounts of the birth of Jesus. Of course, I know they are not picking up every detail, but they are being exposed and that's all that counts. So several times a day we sit in front of the toy box and use the Little People to retell and act out the account. We have Mary and Joseph walking down the road and stopping at the stable. Then the baby is born and appears in the manger. Then we play with the sheep for a while and have the shepherds come visit the new family. Then we get the three wise men and talk about the gifts they brought to Jesus.
Rylan's favorite part is rearranging the pieces.
Jacob's favorite part is pushing the angel down to play a song.

And they both love to chew on the sheep!!! :)
The birth of Jesus is a very special event. It signifies the arrival of God's Son on earth. We believe that we should celebrate Jesus every day of the year, and not just on Christmas. But when all the world is talking about Jesus, we want to join in and tell them about our best friend and Savior. And as much fun as we have with the Little People and as cute as the boys are playing with it, the real lesson is that God loved all of us enough to send his son to this earth so that one day we could be in heaven. So, even though there is "holiday busy-ness" we encourage you to take a minute and thank God for sending Jesus to the earth and to keep worshipping Him each and every day of the year, not just at Christmas.

Christmas Spirit #1

I have been late in posting things we are doing to celebrate Christmas, so I will try to be better in the next few weeks. This Monday night we went to visit Bethlehem. One of the local churches presents "A Walk Through Bethlehem" every year. It is really elaborate - complete with live animals, dirt raods, hay, beggars asking for alms, people saying "Shalom," the three Wise Men showing you their three gifts to baby Jesus, rope makers, potter's, sweet treats, cheese makers, fish salesmen and more.

While we were waiting in line to enter the town, there were many live animals to pet. We saw a camel that was much taller than I expected. The boys each pet the goats and sheep. Rylan was a little hesitant to touch the sheep, but did with a little help from Mommy. Jacob on the other hand was not afraid at all! We also saw a donkey walking around the town.Here is our group. We met for dinner at a new seafood joint that was quite tasty and then we headed over to Bethlehem with Scott, Holly and Annelise. Annelise is 4 and she was full of wonder and awe of each little detail. It was exciting to see her learn and to think of our boys and how they will react each year that we go to Bethlehem.
Bethlehem is open only one weekend and we chose this date to see on of my former students in action. Sweet Abigail is now in 4th grade and working the potter's wheel. It was so exciting to see her and to see how much she has grown up since first grade.

Jacob and Mommy tried to make a pinch pot at the potter's wheel, but he was a little more interested in eating the clay!

At the very end of the town path there is the stable with Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. He was a real baby. Walking through the town and then seeing the baby Jesus really made you feel like you were there 2000 years ago. It is our plan to go to Bethlehem every year and teach the boys first hand about life in Bible times and show them the true meaning of the season.

Celery and Remotes

The boys and I had a very fun day together. It began by running some errands, one of which was Wal-mart. I am that crazy mom who talks to her kids the whole time and points out things of interest on every aisle. As we were in the produce area I let them touch almost everything we were buying - avocados, bananas, tangerines and celery. They were especially intrigued by the celery and the leafy part at the end of the stalk.

So tonight before I chopped the celery with my most favorite Pampered Chef tool - the Food Chopper - I let the boys play with a stalk of celery. They felt so empowered and like such big boys! Their eyes lit up and they touched every centimeter of their stalk. They of course licked it too. After re-washing it, I chopped it. They squealed in delight as I pounded the Food Chopper. I can't wait until they are strong enough to use the Chopper - they will love it!And yes, they still love the Jumper-Roo and Exosaucer! They sit in them almost every time a meal needs preparing.
Then after supper the boys were running around the den. Their new game is to find the remote or phone, steal it and run away. They totally know they are not supposed to and have quite guilty faces. I tried to capture the guilt before the run in the photos below.

And one more thing, they are both waving like crazy - hello, good-bye, etc. We were in the front yard today and the school bus drove down the street. Jacob squealed and waved like a mad man at the bus. It was really cute.

Thanks for sharing in our normal day. With all the holiday madness, it was nice to have a day where celery and remotes were the highlights!

They're eating what?!?!?!

TOMATOES!!! As my sweet friends know, Jason and I would not touch a tomato with a ten foot pole, but at the encouragement from a few birds, we gave the boys tomatoes. And they loved them!!! I guess Jason and I will have to become adults and eat the tomatoes along with our sweet boys.
Rylan was lounging as he enjoyed them and Jacob was grabbing for more off my salad. The days of saying "hold the tomatoes" are gone!

Disclaimer: We have never said that tomatoes are yucky in front of the boys. And we intend to give them other things that we think are yucky so that they will not be scarred and try lots of good things.

What things do your kids eat that you don't like?