In the Moments Before

The gingerbread house my husband so bravely decorated with three little boys:

At 9 pm on Christmas Eve, I was just beginning to wrap presents. What was I thinking? (Maybe that wrapped gifts wouldn't survive my two-year-old anyway...)

But I finished and was in bed by midnight. Not bad.

The boys helped wrap their gifts to each other. They started at 8 pm. I'm teaching them how to make their deadlines.

O Holy Night

I grew up playing with a wooden nativity puzzle just like this one my dad made for my boys. I love the simplicity!
The first nativity set we purchased after we were married:

These few pieces are all that remains of another childhood nativity set:

And my absolute favorite Christmas hymn, simply and beautifully performed by a favorite artist:

Merry Christmas!

From Our Family to Yours!!

The Holly Bears the Crown

The holly and the ivy,

When they are both full grown,

Of all trees that are in the wood,

The holly bears the crown:

O, the rising of the sun,

And the running of the deer

The playing of the merry organ,

Sweet singing in the choir.

~Christmas Carol

Morning White

At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;

But like of each thing that in season grows.

~ William Shakespeare

The Long Winter

And other magic...

Oh, Levi

Even at a very young age, the photos snapped of Levi at the beach rarely show his feet touching the ground. I love watching the delight he expresses (running or digging) at the beach. I hope he never loses that!

(Levi watched me wet the jumbo pretzels before baking so that the salt would stick to them.) Mom, that one's already been anointed with water.

(Levi glanced at the skirt I was wearing. It had a pattern that resembled chain links.) Mom, you could dance in Les Miserables with that skirt. (Apparently as part of the chain gang, LOL!)

(We were heading into Safeway and Levi mentioned that he should have brought Moby Dick with him. I was completely at a loss trying to figure out what Moby Dick had to do with grocery shopping.) Uh, Starbucks?! (Pointing at the attached coffee shop. He must think me very dim, but I still couldn't figure it out. Either I need to hide the Illustrated Classics from him or I have some serious reading to do. Who knew there was a character named Starbuck in Moby Dick? Not I.)

This room has a makeover!

(Of a box of doughnuts.) I'll just hold it and look at the contents.

The track diverges.

Mom, why are you astounded?

Lukie has snow in the house! Lukie, dispose of it!

(As he sits down to a breakfast of pancakes, his favorite meal.) I wish Narnians ate pancakes. I think High King Peter would have liked a good meal.... Maybe he could have taken some provisions from England.

Mom, could you coax Lukie to eat his soup?

Crane Camoflage

Descends the Snow

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of

her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

Silent, and soft, and slow

Descends the snow.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Entering 'Narnia':

How long do you think it will be

before Leif follows?

Books Galore

(Maybe this post should be titled 'Heidi's Addiction.')

Levi said the funniest thing the other day. It was something along the lines of, 'I've run out of books to read.' Granted, this boy is a voracious reader, but I have something to admit to you. I have an addiction. A book buying addiction. I've had it for many years. It will take a long time for Levi to get through the books I've purchased.

His comment did inspire me to share the book collection with y'all, though. Below is what I would lovingly refer to as 'the book tower.' It is the main collection of children's books (picture books, anthologies, easy readers, first chapter books, up to young adult fiction). It resides in the boys' bedroom and is within reach of Levi's bunk. Unfortunately, it is also within reach of Leif, who happens to enjoy stripping multiple shelves of books onto the floor.

(As a side note, the bookcase is very firmly bolted to the wall. This is very important since the boys like to use it as a ladder to reach the top bunk. Thank you, Dad, for making it so sturdy. It has lasted twenty years, so far!)

It seems as if I need to weed out the collection or find space for a second bookshelf. (Or stop buying books, heaven forbid.)
This next picture shows the incredibly distressed bookshelf of incredibly distressed board books. They have been, ahem, well loved. By you-know-whom.
And then there are the 'school books' in the 'school room.' I'm ordering (well, wish-list type ordering) custom built bookshelves to fill this space floor to ceiling (and all the way to the window on the right). Dad? Dad, are you there?

On the left, we have reference type books on the top shelf and four shelves of history and literature divided by time periods.

The right shelf holds a wider selection of Childcraft Encyclopedias, Math, Language Arts, Languages, Art, Music, Geography, Bible, and miscellaneous. The bottom shelf is full of science books. (Hmmm. Now that I think of it, I have a drawer full of beginning readers in the school room, too.)

The books we are currently using for lessons find their way to the stacks on the desk behind the couch along with library books and videos.

Our Christmas books are currently living in a basket on the ottoman.
And on the little table next to the couch.
And the music-related Christmas books are living on the piano with Levi's lesson books.
Just for fun, my 'pretty books' are on the shelf near the kitchen, along with cookbooks, decorating books, coffee table books, and gardening books.

But where do The Count of Monte Cristo, Pride and Prejudice, Ender's Game, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and Uncle Tom's Cabin live? Maybe in another installment...

The nursery shelves held books galore!

Books cluttered up the nursery floor!

And in the bedroom, by the bed,

More books were waiting to be read!

Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales

Of dragons, gypsies, queens and whales

And treasure isles, and distant shores

Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,

And pirates wearing purple pants,

And sailing ships and elephants...

~Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory