Christmas 2008

Farmboy and his brood



YIKES! Kume gets a real kick out of these guns. Hey, honey, remember you have Barbies over there, and an American Girl doll, and a purse, lip gloss....Seriously, I get a kick out of it.



We do have to admit we have the kids trained well. They KNOW we are night owls, and have no morning bird qualities whatsoever, so they do a decent job of waiting to start the festivities. Starting the late-morning fun....



Yeah, I know. I said we would NEVER get a game system in our house. But everyone says that these truly are family friendly, and not too addicting. We'll see. The kids are THRILLED I got talked into this one by sweet Farmboy.



Wii Boxing... ages 5 and up:



Okay, if you don't know what these Perler beads are, you must get some for your kids. Our kids have spent hours and hours and hours making these, all the kids. From age 12 to 5, they enjoy them. Our downstairs tree was almost completely decorated with their creations. Jambo got about 11,000 more, since we have gone through the first 15,000 to 20,000. Just DON'T spill them.



HAPPY NEW YEAR May we all be open and available to step out of "safe" to whatever God is preparing us for this year. Like describing Aslan of Narnia, God is not safe, but He is good.

Z in concert

Z makes us smile. She is such a free spirit, and definitely marches to the beat of a different drummer. She also is developing her piano skills and is becoming such a treat to listen to. I think she got a major charge from the comments of several people after the concert. They called her "phenomenal", and that she "blew them away." We are proud of her, and both like to claim dibs on where the musical talent came from (although I'm pretty sure we ALL know it's really from me....).

Addition to the post - Farmboy style:
Upon request... Here's a video of the Mad'ster performing at the elementary school Christmas program. Yes, we still call it the Christmas program in our town (not the ~Holiday Festivus gala event~) and we sing Silent Night and all that. I wonder, even in the wonderful little conservative community we live in, how long that will last. The music teacher allows anyone daring enough to play their instrument (maybe 600+ in attendance.) Sometimes you get a third grader plinking out "Joy to the World" with a single finger. It's fun to see the kids progress. Here's Mads [Z] 5th grade performance.

Let it snow and snow and snow....

So, as we are currently under a blizzard warning, I am pretty confident we will have a white Christmas.

Usually we all LOVE snow days, but this past Friday was the kids' last day of school before Christmas break, so besides our middle schooler, who no longer has parties, the kids were all excited about the big shin digs, and DID NOT want a snow day. The twins were having a Pajama Christmas party, so were pretty jazzed to wear their PJ's to school and Zgirl and Action were excited about the pizza and sub sandwich parties, plus all the cheap, pointless trinkets they get to bring home and dump on the floor. But, early Friday morning came with a dumping of snow, so alas, we had a snow day.

Thankfully, Saturday was clear, so Farmboy and I got to hit the mall, along with everyone else in West Michigan, and get almost all of our shopping done.

I was looking forward to Sunday, the last Sunday before Christmas, a time to sing some of our favorite Christmas caroles and just be with other believers, as we all truly get the awesomeness of this season and feel so privileged to spend some time honoring our Lord at this time. Well, we got another dumping last night, and ALL today, so our church, and pretty much all the churches in West Michigan, were cancelled. Bummer....

Okay, tomorrow I have a hair appointment. Short hair gets "puffy" and quite unattractive when not taken care of, so....the storms better be calming down by then, because this is serious stuff.

Finally, the twins had their first Christmas concert at school. They stood next to each other, but by the last song, Kume was there, while Jambo was somehow behind her. Knowing her, she just may have been attempting to steal all the limelight. They had a blast.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Everytime I think Third Day is just too cool, they go and blow me away again with more awesome stuff.

THIRD DAY - MERRY CHRISTMAS:



Here are the lyrics if you are interested:

There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for momma's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
There the forgotten are

But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
Make angels in the snow

But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
And we celebrate his perfect gift of love
He came to earth to give his life
And prepare a place for us
So we could have a home with him above

It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas

Paperwork FUN

Really, I am serious, this is kind of fun. I am a list maker, and SO enjoy checking things off my list. So this kind of stuff is just made for my personality. For those of you who have adopted, you know what the paperchase is all about, but for those that haven't, it is a list maker's dream. Gladney has been careful to make sure to give us many, many, many lists to check off, recheck, rip up, make a new copy, spill coffee on, lose, make a new copy, check off some more....

I am seriously exhilarated to be making some progress in this process. And, yes, so far the rumors are true: Second time around is easier. We are just about Gladney approved. Honestly, if we weren't approved this would be one ticked woman. But, we will jump through whatever hoops to bring our little one home. We are also hoping Gladney/Natalie approves our homestudy, like, yesterday, so we can submit the thing to CIS to wait some more.

Oh, and the twins got their first taste of snow. Loved it, but keep wondering when it is going to get warm again. Yeah, me too....