A Day of Christmas Joy

Christmas morning.

I made Land of Nod Cinnamon Buns. Russ made eggs and sausages. All washed down with OJ. YUM!

Stockings in PJs. (Lola stole Mommy's Twizzlers.) Lola went down for a morning cat-nap. Got dressed for our day. Opened a few gifts. A couple minutes of playing.

Tried to make the 1 hour task of getting out the door take only 15 minutes. Failed. A few melt-downs. But we managed to drive two country miles down the road and arrive at Bambi and Poppy's house, where all my family was assembled.

Sugar Plum. Or Bon Bon. Take your pick.

It wouldn't be Christmas without Holly and Ivy:

Passed out all the gifts.

Opened one at a time.

Played with Daddy's new toy while dinner was being readied.

Set the table after the front living room was disassembled and turned into a dining room.

Ate spiral ham, cheese potatoes, bread dressing, yams, broccoli salad, creamy lime jello salad. Washed down with mango-apple sparkling cider.

Spent the evening working on dishes, puzzles, napping, guitar playing, and eating pie.

Ended the day on a fabulous NOTE.

Sang along with Ilex on the violin, Drake on the keyboard, and Casey on guitar. While the little people put money in their open cases...

A beautiful day wrapped up in a sparkling bow.

Lola St. Lucia

Making Applesauce-Cinnamon Ornaments

And a fabulous mess.

Nativity in the Digital Age

A Fun Time Was Had By All

We had a fabulous St. Lucia Celebration with my family. Lola was beautiful in her debut role as St. Lucia, but so much partying wore her out. I'll share more photos soon.

Lola Toes

Life, Startling Life

After I put Lola to bed for her morning nap, I got busy making Orange Cardamom Bread for our (belated) St. Lucia Day celebration tomorrow. Leif never leaves my side when there is cooking or baking going on. He was reading the recipe, pouring, stirring.... and kneeding his own little tiny loaf of bread. I adore his cheerful spirit and his little boy hands.

Luke joined us a little late, but he really gets into his work. Baking=sprinkles in his opinion. I think he had more sprinkles than dough. And more flour on his face than on the counter.

I think bread exists to remind us to live slow. I should have listened. I really can only accomplish ONE thing each day. But I forgot.

Where was Levi? He was in the living room listening to an audio book. His hands have to work while his imagination is engaged....

And Little Miss Lola Angel? She was taking a 3+ hour nap. After she woke up and had a snack, I couldn't help taking a gazillion pictures of her. (See the slideshow.)

Leif was trying to be helpful and get her to smile. It didn't work. The boys knew I was distracted, so they brought in all their pillows and blankets and were building a 'castle wall' on the other side of the bed.

This might have been the point when I thought, hey, it would be fun to document our day, today! Which is probably precisely the moment the day started to tank.

I ended up with a disaster zone of a house (remember the boys helping make bread in the kitchen? and building castles in the bedroom?), one hundred things on the do-right-this-second-to-do-list, a baby who needed attention, boys who needed parenting, a shirt covered in spit-up, a massive baby-diaper blow-out (and subsequent baby bath and 30 minutes of scrubbing out the brand-new white outfit and bouncy seat cover), piano lessons, ten projects left undone (wasn't I the ambitious one?), and a hubby finally home who had to rescue me (and figure out where to get dinner....).

So, now it is almost 10 PM. I shouldn't be going to bed, but I'm going to anyway. And maybe a miracle will happen and the house will have sorted itself out overnight. And all the to-do list will still get done before my family comes over for dinner tomorrow. Anyone want to place bets?

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

~Emily Dickinson

A Few Moments With Lola

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Whaaa! It isn't working for me. I guess you have to click on "Picnik Show" at the bottom if you want to see the slide show.

O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!

Yep. Still Here.

Blogging. I was on a stupendous roll, wasn't I? Sssssssssssssss. That's the air whoooshing out of my tires. I still have lots to say (when do I not?), but I've been swamped AND really sick. Appointments, painful sore throat for a week, photo sessions, holiday celebrations, fever of 103, to-do list, antibiotics, boys, baby, hubby at home. Some days I don't know which end is up. Or whether it is AM or PM.

Suffice it to say, I'm still here. I'm not abandoning my little corner of the blog world. I'll be back shortly, but quite possibly sporadically through the end of the year. Or maybe with really short posts. We'll see. I hope y'all are having a positively LOVELY advent season!

Christmas Around the World

Christmas is a beautiful season of celebration. I love the comfort of familiar traditions, but I also enjoy discovering new ways to share the delights of the season with my children while learning about the world around us.

We read stories, listen to music, and research online to discover how families in other countries celebrate Christmas. Often, we are inspired to go a little further, such as learning how to fold origami cranes with which to decorate our tree.

While we’ve enjoyed our brief ‘visits’ to other countries, three celebrations in particular have become family traditions that we look forward to every year.


I'm over at Simple Homeschool, uh, last week. Head on over to read the rest.

The Karstens Family

Are you tired of photos, yet?

I HAVE to share my beautiful sister and her lovely family.

She Makes My Heart Sing

Fourteen pounds of pure sweetness.

That's more like it.... Second time's a charm. Still no smiles on camera, but we'll get there.

Here's a few of 'the girls' goofing off in front of the bathroom mirror:

The B Family ~ 2010 Edition

Just an itty-bitty sneak peek for my friend, Aimee. We had so much fun doing a family photo session last year, she decided to try it again. A tad bit colder this year...

Fine Arts ~ Hallelujah!

Artist: Botticelli

Learn about Botticelli and his painting, Madonna and Child, here at Garden of Praise.

Composer: George Frideric Handel

Printing: Meet George Frideric Handel at Making Music Fun.

Listening to: Classical Kids: Hallelujah Handel!

Reading: Hallelujah Handel.



Sharing: The Handel's Messiah: Family Advent Reader. (More about this here.)

Singing:

Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kindom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!

Watching: 650 singers burst into Hallelujah as part of a Random Act of Culture.

Christmas Poetry:

A Christmas Carol

by G. K. Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,

His hair was like a light.

(O Weary, Weary were the world,

But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,

His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the Kings,

But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,

His hair was like a fire.

(O Wear, Weary is the world,

But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,

His hair was like a crown,

And all the flowers looked up and Him,

And all the stars looked down.

Two Months

Two months. Golly. Can you believe it? I'm still in baby heaven. And that's a good thing. But I'm also still struggling with my perfectionist tendencies. Lola was two months yesterday, but a mini photo shoot just didn't work. She wasn't having it. The light wasn't having it. I wasn't having it. Something.

Today she looked so darn cute. I was changing her diaper on my bed this evening and thought, who cares if I don't have beautiful natural light and the bed is covered in laundry? I'm gonna take some pictures, anyway.

I was going to post them without editing, but I couldn't stand it. And then I didn't really like the editing. But I'm going to get over it and post them anyway. Instead of cleaning my house which looks like a tornado hit it...

This girl is a serious one. She does smile when she's in the mood, but it is almost impossible to capture it on camera. She loves to sleep, but only swaddled in her carrier. Ironically, she doesn't particularly like to be out and about in her carrier and has such short happy awake times that we just don't go anywhere. I desperately need some groceries. The boys had chips and cheese for dinner...

I'm dying to know what she weighs... I'll find out tomorrow at her doctor's appointment. Any guesses? ETA: 13 lbs 14 oz!

First Burger

We love to eat out. LOVE to eat. Especially out. Between the job situation and the baby situation, eating out hasn't been as high on our list the last couple months. I won't pretend we haven't been relying (heavily) on prepared foods or take-out, but dining IN occasions have been sparce.

So it was a big treat for the whole family to head to the old downtown district and eat at First Burger. It is one of my favorite places! A lovely, bright, clean, colorful space with great food. The decor is a mix of bold graphic design, retro, industrial, and American farm. Super classy.

First Burger features natural, local ingredients. The burgers are fabulous (I had a LOADED one), as are the sweet potato fries. The food is a great value for the budget-conscious, as well. What a bonus!

The restaurant was packed over the lunch hour, but I managed to snap this shot of the family while the two tables behind us were in transition...