Celtics 100 - Jazz 91

Thanks to our friend, Neal, Wayne and Thomas were able to go to the Celtics game last night along with Neal and Aaron. Thomas had a great time.  I think his expression in the photo says, "I'm out of adrenaline."  The boys got home late and Thomas went straight to bed. He woke up early this a.m. and said to me, "Mom, I had so much fun last night." When asked what he liked best about the game, Thomas said, "When the Celtics scored 100 points."   Thanks, Neal!

Nativity Photo Essay by Wesley and Caroline

Ice Storm '08

Look what we woke up to this morning!  We could hear some snapping and crashing last night, but slept through the ice storm. This morning the trees are still covered in ice and you can still hear snapping and crashing from the upper limbs falling down.   You can see branches down all along our street and in nearly every yard.  In the center of the photo you can see that our grill was crushed.  The tree trunk to the right of the grill was uprooted and the top of the tree can be seen up close right outside our kitchen window....

Thankfully no windows were smashed.  We were without power last night so I got to bed at a decent time.  The kids are home from school today...Christina and Thomas are thrilled, Grace- not so much.  We'll have some fun and hope that we've seen the worst of the ice storm.

ADDENDUM:

Wayne took the following photos.  We were without power for several hours, so I'm just now able to add them here.  Pretty amazing.  We've never seen anything like this.  The sun is out now and everything is melting.  Icicles are showering down like rain.  Branches are still breaking and falling here and there.  We've got a fire in the fireplace and the kids are "cleaning the playroom."  We all cheered when the power came back on, let me tell you!  I need to melt chocolate to make my cake bites!

PS. Cheri, do you recognize Wayne's tan coat in one of these photos? It's the one John gave him ages ago...LOL!

The Code

I recall a moment one Christmas morning long ago when I realized my parents were pretty darn smart.  Now that I am a mom of 5, I realize more and more that they were down right geniuses in many respects.  You see, no matter how hard I plan ahead, Christmas morning arrives, tags fall off of gifts and for the life of me I can't remember what is for who and what what is!  This confusion has resulted in a few awkward moments & unwelcome frustration, and yet with 10 kids my parents always seemed to have things under control (I just heard a roar of laughter from near and far)!

Back to the Christmas when I smiled on my parents....I found their cheat sheet, a seriously amazing cheat sheet detailing their Code.  On this cheat sheet was a list of everyone in the family.  Next to each of our names was a dot, or dots.  Those dot(s) identified our gifts.  I looked under the tree, and if there wasn't a gift tag, no worries because the code was there.   Two green dots- Becky's gift.  No shaking or partially unwrapping to jog the giver's memory.  There was a code, an ingenious code.

This year I came up with my own code.  It's called everyone gets their own wrapping paper.  I love the durability of packing paper, so I used a big roll of it to make wrapping paper.  I painted green stripes for T, green dots for W, red dots for CE, and red hearts for G.  Nina gets wrapping paper I had from last year.  Family gifts are a different wrapping paper from last year.  No cards needed so far.  I can tack them on Christmas Eve.  Next year I might just use different ribbon and keep the paper plain.

This is my "code" and I'm sticking to it!  I like it better than my Plan A which was: Take a large black Sharpie and write directly on the gift.  Do you have a code or do your gift tags magically stay on gifts 'till Christmas?

Thanks, mom & dad...you really DID know a thing or two and I really WAS paying attention!

Happy Gifting & MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Kindness & a few mommy notes

I set up my favorite nativity today, or gave it a new home I should say.  This is the nativity that my mom made over easily more than a years' time.  It's a treasure.  I remember seeing her working on it many a night when I went in to say good-night.  She loved it.  I get to love it now.  I would really like to find an appropriate setting for it though.  My mom displayed it in a basket with pieces of pine, but I don't have a basket the right size.  This IKEA tin bin will do for this year, but I'm still on the look out for something "just right."

My friend taught junior sharing time in primary last Sunday and sent a bag of straw home with Caroline.  Attached to the bag of straw was the note I place in front of my nativity.....

A Bed for The Baby Jesus

Each time this month as you do or say something kind, take a piece of straw and add it to the bed for Baby Jesus.  See how full and comfortable you can make his bed by December 24th.

The girls were excited to see the straw set up and know which baby Jesus (of our several nativities) they'd be making comfortable.  Note: The girls have added a couple of straw blades...the light fake straw at the base of the nativity was already there.

More on the home front....

• Kids continue to rearrange the ornaments on the tree.  Ornaments found hanging from garland are a dead give away.
  
• I realized I didn't get the '07 ornaments done last year.  They were small oval frames (I think I found them on clearance at Exposures AFTER Christmas...some years are like that:)).   I checked that off my list today.
  
• As Thomas whipped together a Thanksgiving graph that was due last Wednesday and Christina finished research for a report due in 2 weeks, I was reminded how different our children are.  One's strength may be the others' weakness.  As their mother, their unique needs keep me humble.  I love them each individually more than I can say.  
• We may look like adults, but to Wesley, if we lay down we are much like a jungle gym.  Tonight I was laying down on my back by the Christmas tree and Wesley ran over, climbed on me, and counted, "Uh, Oo....EEEE!" as he jumped off to the carpet below.  I looked away and he grabbed my face, looked me in the eye and babbled, probably something to the effect of, "You missed my jump, mom!  Watch this time!"  I love this age.  I love this boy!

I dropped by Trader Joe's today and bought myself a treat...Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe's.  I'll share with Wayne, but that's it.  (Thanks, Robisons for getting me hooked:))  Shay, I think we should get a free box for advertising!

Merry Christmas! 

O Christmas Tree - Part 2

Our Christmas tree is up and decked out.  

We've got the tradition many of you do...a new ornament for the kids each year.  Do the math, and those ornaments alone add up to QUITE A FEW for our tree.

After our fake tree was assembled, the kids chose a silver snowflake garland, and then happily found their box of ornaments to hang on the tree.  I love this part of Christmas...our children naturally recall Christmases past as they hang each ornament.  This year Christina and I picked up a liberty bell ornament from our trip to Philly, so finding that ornament brought a smile as well.  We even still have ornaments made of photos glued to cardstock from when Christina and Thomas were in nursery with Sis. MacIntosh.  She was an angel teacher.  I love that those ornaments are lasting.

This years' ornament idea evolved...last summer I picked up red 3.5x3.5" frames at a Pottery Barn outlet in UT.  I thought I'd just put photos in them, but since then have seen lots of beautiful silhouettes on blogs & who knows where, so I followed THESE instructions and made simple silhouette ornaments.  I'm sure you get more detail if you paint them, but that will be a project for another day....maybe to hang in the hallway.  We had similar silhouettes from Disneyland when I was a child, so making these ornaments has sparked dear memories.  I'll personalize the red frames somehow, but haven't gotten that far yet.  I couldn't wait to hang them on the tree though and share....

MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PS.  "Fake" trees aren't so bad after all :)  I'm liking ours more and more...and being crazy for lights, I love that there are lights galore.  Simply Merry.