A Recap of Advent and Christmas

I can honestly say that our Christmas was wonderful. And, I can honestly say that I am SO grateful to be done eating rice and beans for dinner every night. I like rice and beans. I do. But, after eating them for a month straight, the beans started to make my stomach churn a little. For some reason, it was harder for me this year than it was last year. The kids were amazing with it again though - not one single complaint out of them. They loved going through the World Vision catalogs each night as they ate their rice and beans. That was such a great addition this year and definitely one that we will continue. It made the "giving presents to Jesus" even more tangible, since they were literally getting to pick out their own presents for Jesus. Every night as we sat eating our rice and beans, they would explore the catalog, deciding what they thought would be best to spend the money on. They each had their own ideas and took their decisions very seriously. They loved it. On Christmas morning, I placed pictures of the things they had chosen around the manger. I was hoping to have them open the World Vision cards that were supposed to come, explaining the significance of each gift they had chosen, but those didn't arrive in time. It will still be fun for them to receive those cards in the mail though.

Another great addition this year was our advent candle wreath. I love that Jay made it for us, and I loved adding a candle to it each night. It made such a perfect centerpiece and was a beautiful way to count down the days until Christmas. I loved that it was a little brighter each night as we anticipated celebrating the coming of our Saviour. Jay spent hours and hours making some extra ones to give away as gifts, and I hope that those we gave it to will enjoy it next year!

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with most of my family, and the kids had a great time. My parents had bought each of the kids some sort of costume, so Jake spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as a pirate, and Addi alternated between being a renaissance princess and wearing the new outfit that matches her new doll from my parents. She also spent some time in the new pink and black tutu from our neighbors. We were never sure which of the outfits she would come out in next.

Here they are with our neighbors, before heading to my parents house. This is Addi in the new outfit that she got as a present from them.

Jay's parents arrived Christmas Eve, and we were able to spend a little time with them that night as well. We then spent the rest of the night (until the wee hours of the morning) putting finishing touches on our Christmas Day plans - sanding candle-holders, preparing casseroles, decorating, getting the treasure hunt ready, etc.

Christmas morning went like this. It started with our treasure hunt, following the star to find Baby Jesus. The kids then got to open the presents that they had bought for each other, which was sooo cute. Addi had picked out a couple of coloring pictures for Jake and a whoopee cushion. The whoopee cushion was a huge hit and did not get old ALL DAY for them. Jake had chosen a little wooden car for Addi that she can put together (with Daddy's help) and paint. They were so excited to give their gifts to each other that they had picked out and purchased with their own money.

At breakfast, we finished up the final day stories for our Jesse Tree and advent calendar Christmas story.

We then did our Christmas morning ding-dong-ditch deliveries. This mostly included some cinnamon rolls to a couple of neighbors and a couple of advent wreaths that we lit and left on doorsteps. The ding-dong-ditch deliveries are a highlight of Christmas for us. It's such a fun way to surprise people on Christmas morning, and the kids love it. It's just fun to leave something for people and then try to run away and not get caught. I wish I had some video of it, but it's too hard to try to video, and run, and hide, all at the same time.






Jay's parents then met us back at the house for the rest of the day's activities, and the kids had a great time with them. When we got back, we gave each of the kids their present from us. Jake got an erector set, which is definitely JAY's favorite toy ever, and Addi got some Polly Pockets. Jake is REALLY into Legos and is amazing at following the directions and putting the sets together, so we thought that he might be ready to take it up a notch and try an erector set. He loves the idea of it, and is so excited to build things with motors, but unfortunately, they're not kidding about that age 8+ on the box. Those things are really hard to put together, even for Jay, who can put anything together. I thought that if there was any 6 year old out there who could do it, it would be Jake, but he will definitely need some assistance with it. He and Jay spent much of the day working on that together and Addi spent much of the day changing outfits and playing with her new Polly Pockets with Nana.




Jake did take a break to put together his awesome new Lego set from Nana and Papa which he, of course, loves. Once he started that, he didn't stop for anything until it was finished. Addi got some clothes from Nana and Papa, so she can add that to her rotation! We played out in the hood for a bit, having some marshmallow shooter wars and watching neighborhood kids fly by in their new go-carts. Yes, we live in Orange County, and children here receive as presents go-carts that go 35 mph...and had to be picked up in Las Vegas because apparently they are not "street legal" here in California.

So, that's it for now. We had a great time with the kids, a great time with our family, and a great time celebrating the birth of Christ. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merely a Flesh Wound

I posted recently about the unfortunate rug burn I received crawling across a floor. At the risk of sounding like a complete baby, IT IS PAINFUL! It happened over a week ago, and here is what still remains of the injury today...

I know you were all dying to see a close-up shot of my foot. I used to be a foot model, so I should be getting paid for that shot. (Well, I could have been, right?)

Seriously though, can you believe that was caused just be dragging my foot on the carpet? I really cannot believe how sore and painful it is if even the slightest thing touches it.

So, I guess the only moral of the story is this: Don't wear flip flops to your child's performance if there are bells involved and if you plan on sitting on the floor to take pictures and might have to crawl across the stage in order to try to get said bells to your child before a major meltdown occurs because your child was overlooked in the passing of the bells.

Or the better moral might be: Don't even try, because you won't make it in time.

Playtime with Daddy

If the kids were given their first choice of who they wanted to be with, they would pick Jay every time. Hands down. No brainer. Every. single. time. They prefer being with him over any other person in the world. And it's really not very hard to see why...

Exhibit A: Horsey Rides

Exhibit B: Jam Session

Exhibit C: Pillow Fight

It doesn't matter that he is not perfect all the time or that it's not playtime all the time (although I chose not to include videos portraying that life is anything other than a party around here!). They don't care. They would follow him anywhere. They simply love to be with him.

Meal Packaging with Children of the Nations

This week, the kids and I participated in meal packaging for an organization called Children of the Nations (COTN). It was a great way to allow the kids to be hands-on in doing something to care for others in need. The event was organized by a local homeschool group and prior to this, I had not heard of COTN. Basically, the way it worked was that our group packaged the number of meals that we raised money for. As a group, $2500 was raised, and each meal costs about 25 cents. So, we were able to package roughly 10,000 meals, box them, and get them ready to be shipped. Each meal consists of lentils, spice, chicken (dried powder form), and rice, and is fortified with vitamins and nutrients. Any size group can organize the same thing, but they encourage each group to raise enough to package at least $500 worth of meals. The kids enjoyed doing it, and so I was thinking that it could be a good birthday party idea. Kids could donate toward the meals being packaged, rather than giving gifts, and then work together to package the meals. Like I said, it was great for the kids to be able to be hands-on and see a little bit of the impact that they can have. Children of the Nations states that its goal is to "raise children who transform nations." They provide holistic care to children in various parts of Africa and the Dominican Republic through educational programs, health care, children's homes, etc. You can check them out at http://www.cotni.org/.

The Christmas Program and the Drama of the Bells

This morning the kids performed their Christmas songs for all the parents at our CBS Bible study. They have been practicing the songs for the last several weeks, and I was so excited to see them in their first little performance. My little Addi is always a performer around the house, but performing for the general public is an entirely different story. She does not like to put on a show for others. (However, she always has a flare for the dramatic!) She informed me this morning that she didn't think that she could go to CBS and sing for the parents because she was sick. Needless to say, she is not sick. I assured her that she would do great and told her not to worry about it.

As the kids were walking up to the stage, she stopped to hug me, and I was concerned for a minute that she was not going to let go. But, again I assured her that she was going to do great. And she did do great, wonderfully, in fact...until the bell incident. For the first few songs, she was up there doing the motions and singing the words and even seemed to be enjoying herself. She would smile and wave at us and keep going. Then, the time came for the grand finale of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." The teachers passed bells out to the kids and they were supposed to ring the bells as they sang. Well, Addi got skipped and did not receive her bells, and I knew exactly what was going to happen. I could see the whole thing unfold before it ever did.

I was sitting on the floor in the front trying to record the performance, and as soon as I realized that she did not have bells, I knew I had to take action. I saw her face fall and that she was trying to be brave at first and shake some non-existent bells. But, I knew it wouldn't last long. I frantically started crawling across the floor to reach one of the teachers who was holding some bells. (The top of my foot is literally now raw from the rug burn I received as a result of the frantic crawling.) I grabbed the bells and tried to reach them up to Addi on the stage...but I was too late. Before I could get to her, she had already lost it - face covered in her hands, crying inconsolably, devastated and embarassed that she did not have the necessary prop for the song. To make matters worse, another human being outside of Jay or myself tried to console her, at which point the crying turned to a full-on scream. So much for wishing everyone a merry Christmas!

The culmination of the nerves, the embarassment, the lack of bells that she was supposed to be ringing, and the fact that her halo had also just fallen off her head, was just too much to handle for my little 4-year-old angel, with a flare for the dramatic. Here she is trying to be brave and shake her pretend bells. She's in the second row in the black dress. When the camera stops is when I had assessed the situation and had sprung into action. If only I could have crawled a little faster.

And here, in happier times... (The little girl and little boy in front have taken the teacher's instructions to use loud voices very seriously. The little girl is the daughter of our very close friends, and she is every bit as funny in person as she is on stage. She also apparently has a flare for the dramtic!)

And, I'm adding one more just so that I can try to get one on here that shows Jake as well. He's in the back in the black shirt. I moved around a couple of times trying to get him in the video, but he always seemed to be blocked. The real entertainment in this one is Audrey (the little girl in the red).

I'm sure that the most entertaining video, however, is the one that all the other parents now have in which a grown woman is crawling across the floor from one side of the stage to the other, providing a great butt shot for all those cameras, in an effort to obtain bells and then fling them up to her now inconsolable child. I'm hoping that those videos won't make it onto to any blogs!

Safe Families at ROCKHARBOR

In a recent post, I shared a little bit about our experience with Safe Families. I mentioned that our church is getting involved with this organization and that our pastor had asked us to briefly share with everyone a little bit about our experience. The hope is that others will be encouraged to get involved when they hear stories of those who have done so. So, this past Sunday we stood up front and spoke for a few minutes. My husband is a great public speaker but I, on the other hand, thought I was going to throw up. Fortunately, I did not. I did have to pass the microphone off to him at one point though when I started blubbering and couldn't go on! The woman who is interviewing us, Wendy McMahon, along with her husband Tim, is going to be heading up the Safe Families ministry at Rock Harbor, and they are amazing. They are the resident experts in foster care (she used to work for Olive Crest) and they have adopted two children themselves.

Someone recorded the interview and put it on YouTube, so I thought I would post it here so that you could also see a bit of our story and maybe be encouraged to get involved as well.

Redeeming the Season, Part 2: Advent and Christmas

This post is going to be somewhat repetitive of recent posts, so I apologize for that. I have been mentioning a few of the things that we do around here to try to prepare ourselves during the Advent season. (For anyone who might not be familiar with it, advent means "coming" and the Advent season is the time prior to Christmas when we remember and celebrate the coming of Christ.) So, although I've already posted some of these ideas elsewhere, I'm just going to try to summarize them here so that they're all in one place. (Part 1 was: Rethinking Santa.) It may seem like overkill at first glance, but keep in mind a few things: 1) We have been adding and changing things each year, figuring out what we like and what we don't. We didn't just start doing it all at once. 2) We homeschool, and this is pretty much our entire December curriculum! 3) Once you have a few things in place, they are not time consuming or overwhelming to do - just a few minutes here and there throughout the day.

For us, all these little things are worth it. They help us to focus on the anticipation and excitement of Jesus' birthday and God's incredible gift to us.

Jesse Tree - My sister gives a great description of what a Jesse Tree represents in her post here. So, if you're not sure what a Jesse Tree is or what purpose it serves, go there. For the Jesse Tree symbols which go on the tree, I didn't do anything costly or fancy. I simply printed out pictures of the symbols from the computer, glued them to card stock, cut them out, and tied a string in them so that they can be hung from the tree. We also use the same book that my sister mentioned, very appropriately titled, The Jesse Tree, but there are many free sources online as well. I know that Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience has a free Jesse Tree book to download that I've heard great things about.

Advent Calendar - This is not the regular kind of Advent calendar where you open a door and count down the days, but a homemade flannel board advent calendar. (Are you starting to see that we do lots of homemade things around here?) It's not pretty or fancy, but it gets the job done without spending a bunch of money. Basically, my husband made me a flannel graph board by stretching a big piece of felt over some wood and stapling it there. I printed from the computer all kinds of pictures related to the Nativity. Then, I glued the pictures to some card stock to make them a little sturdier, cut them out, and stuck velcro to the back of them so that they would stick to the felt board.

Each day in December, we add another piece to the board and another part to the story. I got the idea from Noel Piper in her book, Treasuring God in our Traditions. So, December 1 we start the story with, "One time, a long time ago, in the city of Bethlehem, there was a place called a stable," and we put the stable up on the board. The next day, we start from the beginning of the story again and add to it. We'll say, "One time, a long time ago, in the city of Bethlehem, there was a place called a stable. In the stable there was a manger filled with hay" and we add a manger to our board. Each day, the story starts again at the beginning and goes a little further, and another piece is added to the board. It's a great way for the kids to really know the story of Jesus' birth, because they are repeating it each day. If you are at all interested in the simple story that we add to each day, I'm more than happy to e-mail it to you. Here is a picture of our Nativity flannel graph. As you can see, we only have the stable on there so far.

Advent Candle-Holder Wreath: My husband just made me this and I love it. The idea came from Ann at A Holy Experience. She writes much more beautifully than I do, so you can read about it there. Each night, we will add an additional candle to the wreath as we get closer to Christmas, making it brighter and brighter as we get closer to the coming of the Light of the World. Another variation would be to just use one candle and move it along one space each night.

Sitting next to the advent wreath in the picture above are our World Vision catalogs which go along with our rice and beans for advent. I already have a previous post about that, so I'll just sum it up. We eat rice and beans for dinner each night from the day after Thanksgiving, up until Christmas Eve. Each night after the kids eat their rice and beans, they put the money that we normally would have spent on an average meal into the stocking for Jesus. They will then get to choose how to spend that money for people in need. Last year, the money went to help build a well through http://www.charitywater.org/. This year, they are busy going through the World Vision catalog each night trying to decide if they should buy animals and, if so, which ones, or if they should send kids to school, stock a fish pond, etc. It will be entirely up to them how to spend the money, and they are having a great time deciding. It is our dinner conversation each night as we eat.

Attributes of Jesus Ornaments - This is a new addition this year and is super easy. I bought some plain silver ornaments from the dollar section of Target. They are just cheap, plastic ones that were four for a dollar. I used a red marker and wrote one attribute of Jesus (i.e. faithful, holy, righteous, etc.) on 24 different ornaments. Then, on the other side of the ornament, I wrote the reference to a Bible verse that talks about that attribute of God. Each day, either Jake or Addi get to pick one of the ornaments to add to the tree. We look up the Bible verse and read it and talk briefly about that attribute.

Christmas Morning Treasure Hunt - The first thing the kids do when they wake up on Christmas morning is a treasure hunt to look for baby Jesus. I make star shaped clues so that they can be like the wise men following the star to find Jesus (one of Addi's baby dolls, wrapped up in a swaddling blanket). When they find him, we place him in our manger and then we give our presents to Jesus. This will vary from year to year. Last year, we were helping to raise money for a well that our friends daughter had been raising money for. So, in order to give our present to Jesus, we got in the car and drove to their place to drop off the money. This year, since the kids are choosing items from the World Vision catalog, we will probably wrap up pictures of whatever they end up choosing and we can open those on Christmas morning.

The kids typically get one present each from us that they get to open next (as well as a couple little things in their stockings). Again, we really try to take the focus off of what they're getting and instead focus on what we're giving to others. And, so, we choose to keep gift-giving to them to a minimum. I personally think that it also helps them to be more grateful for the gift that they are getting, rather than expecting or wanting more, more, more. That is just a personal preference in our family. I have heard of others who do no gifts except those that are the gifts to Jesus, and others who choose to do three gifts like what the wise men gave- they choose one costly gift, representing the gold that the wise men gave; one gift for the body (such as clothes or bubble bath, etc.), representing the myrrh, which is a spice used to annoint the body; and one gift used for worship (such as a Bible, music cd, devotional, etc.), representing the Frankincense which was used in the temple for the worship of God. I'm not 100% certain that I got that right, and we have never done it that way, but it's one more idea.

So, there you have it. Those are some of the things that we do in an attempt to keep our hearts focused on Christ. We never ask our kids the question, "What do you want for Christmas?" but only, "What do you want to give to Jesus for Christmas?" Am I claiming that because of this our kids only care about Jesus at Christmastime, and not about themselves? No. They are human. I wish that I only cared about Jesus and not about myself. But, I am human. I really do believe though that it is helping them (and Jay and me) to strip away the selfishness and consumerism that usually accompanies this Season, and instead understand and focus on what Christmas truly is about.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We are on a "rotation schedule" for the holidays, spending every other Thanksgiving and every other Christmas with my in-laws and the other years with my parents and sisters and their families. This year, we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and sisters (minus the one who moved to TN). The day before Thanksgiving is always the food prep day. My sisters and I get together with my mom and distract her and get in the way while she does the majority of the work. :) Actually, she gives us instructions and we really do try to follow them, but she still seems to end up doing the majority of the work! Funny how some things never change. We spend the entire day getting things prepared for the Thanksgiving feast while the kids run wild.

Then, Thanksgiving Day, everybody gets together and the girls get everything cooked and ready while the boys entertain the kids. Every year we complain to my mom that there's no reason to bring out the good china because it just adds more work, and every year we bring out the good china. We did manage to convince her, however, that the kids definitely did NOT need the china.

Jake and Addi later got into the spirit of Thanksgiving by attempting to dress up like Indians and shoot bows and arrows. This was what they came up with...

The day after Thanksgiving in the Herron household is the day that I pull out the Christmas stuff and Jay puts up the Christmas lights on the house. Jake was really excited to be able to help with the lights this year and the boys spent the entire day at it. If you know Jay at all, you know that he is a perfectionist. So, of course, the lights are perfect without one single little light out of place or going in a different direction. If putting up lights was my job, that would be a different story entirely. Addi and I worked on doing the inside decorations. Correction: Addi played with the decorations as I worked on setting them up.

Here she is playing with our homemade nativity set. That was a project I took on a couple of years ago, and my plan was to make several of them to give away as gifts. Yeah...that didn't happen.

Jay and Jake were still working on lights when it was dark outside, so Jake needed his trusty headlamp!

A future perfectionist in the making!

The day after we put up lights and get the Christmas decorations out is tree-putting-up-and-decorating day. And, just like my mom used to do, I always lay out a spread of various snacks on the couch and give the kids directions as they put up the ornaments.

For whatever reason, the kids were convinced that we should be putting a star on top of the tree instead of an angel. Apparently, they have seen it that way more often. I kept telling them, "We do an angel at the top." Of course, they responded with, "But why?" to which I informed them, "Because that is the way I have ALWAYS done it. It was ALWAYS an angel when I was growing up and it will ALWAYS be an angel while you are growing up. So there!"

 



Those beautiful stockings in the background were handmade by my mom and are treasured possessions...in fact, the greatest stockings EVER, if you really want to know. The second one hanging there is the same one that I have had ever since I was little. She just took out the stitching that said, "Kinzi" and changed it to say, "Mom." Unfortunately, she did not pass along her sewing skills to any of her daughters. The stocking in the middle that doesn't match the rest is just one that I picked up and painted "Happy Birthday, Jesus" at the top. I'm sure that my mom would want to make it very clear that that one is NOT her work! The kids will put money in it each night after they eat their rice and beans for dinner.

And, the first night of rice and beans...

And lastly. just because it's funny, another picture of Jake sleeping. Apparently, he is still having a difficult time getting comfortable in his bed at night!