Circus

Tuesday night the circus came to town. It's been on Sunday the last several years, so when it came this year on a Tuesday, there was no way I was getting out of it. Just because it was New Beginnings that night, and I had been running around like a crazy lady for two days made no difference whatsoever. I simply had to take a three-hour break in the middle of the day and go to the circus. And I'm glad I did. It was lots of fun and pretty cool. They had a white tiger, along with two orange ones, and boy and girl lions. There were pink and blue poodles, and cool motorcyles-riding-around-in-a-big-ball tricks. And then, of course, daring acrobats and not-so-funny clowns.
I made it back to the church five minutes before New Beginnings started, and thankfully everyone was ready to go. Everything turned out great, but boy am I glad every day isn't so action-packed as that one was.

My Brilliant Son

Last night we got a phone call telling us that Ben would be given an award in an assembly at school the next day, and his parents were invited to come see. So this afternoon we gathered, all the proud parents, and even one of Ben's Grandmas, at the back of the auditorium to see Ben receive his glory. Turns out he was one of the top five in his grade on the NWEA test taken in October. Not only in math, but also in Language Arts! He got a $5 Wal-Mart gift card for each certificate, and the whole school applauded. He seemed quite pleased with himself. My brilliant son.

However....
There were several things going on after school, and by the time Ben got home it was about 5:00pm. I immediately asked if I could see his certificates, which I hadn't gotten a chance to see yet. He suddenly got very sheepish and didn't want to show them to me. I couldn't figure out what was going on until he pulled out a beige-colored paper airplane from his backpack and started hastily unfolding it. I was quite upset with him, but took his picture with it anyway.
But wait, didn't he receive two awards? Why yes, he did. And where is the other one?

Well, it just happens to be on the roof of the church!

In the form of a paper airplane, no doubt.

My so very brilliant son.

Grand Total

(My apologies to those of you have already heard this story. Some of you more than once.)

In June of 2007, a friend of mine was telling me that she was so proud of herself because it was only half way through the year, and she had already read eleven books.
Eleven? That's all?
So I went home and tried to think of all the books I had read that year. I could only think of ten! I was sure I had read more than that, but I couldn't remember them. So as soon as 2008 started, I wrote down every book I read. And no, I didn't count any picture books, and I didn't count books that I didn't finish.
And so, at the end of 2008, the grand total was...

SIXTY-FIVE!

At the first of the year I was sure I could reach one hundred, but when you throw in The Count of Monte Cristo (1462 pages), Pride and Prejudice, and just life in general, it sure cuts down on one's speed reading.
Still, sixty-five's not bad. That's more than one a week.
And my goal for 2009 is to read at least sixty-six. :)
Anybody up for a little friendly competition?

Empty Nursery

Wanna hear something crazy? I have no children in nursery right now. Jennie went into Sunbeams at the first of the year, and Lydia won't be old enough until April. This is the first time this has happened since Emily went into Sunbeams. No wonder our nursery leader of ten years finally consented to being released. It's just too weird!

On Opening Presents

Most of my children LOVE opening presents. It is the coolest thing ever.

(As for the Bosch vs. Kitchenaid dilemma, I guess Jef thought Bosch was best :)

But one of my children got really upset when it was her turn.

Wait, you mean there's toys inside?Sweet.
Merry Christmas!

Lydia's Stroller

Santa brought Lydia a stroller to encourage her in this whole walking project. But it hasn't worked out quite like Santa hoped. Although Lydia loves the stroller, and she will walk behind it, she's a little confused. See, every stroller she's even seen before is for her to ride in. Not some silly doll. It's just that Santa brought one that's way too small.
But it's not too bad once you get used to it, I guess.

Christmas Morning

And finally Christmas morning came!

Robyn was thrilled with her bead kit.
Ben spent lots of time putting together his model airplanes,
Emily loved her new Diamond Castle Barbies,
Cannon got to add to his car collection,
and Jennie was delighted with her Dora toys.

But Lydia was ECSTATIC about all of that candy!

Christmas Eve

Every Christmas Eve we have our own little nativity pageant. Jef has always been the donkey, but for some reason he didn't want to the beast of burden this year and opted instead for the role of narrator. Jon and Jame were visiting, but Jon didn't want the job either. So Jamie nicely volunteered to carry Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Thank you, Jamerz! You were a fabulous donkey! Also special recognition to our guest star, Jon the Wise Man.
And here are my angels, shepherd, Joseph/Innkeeper, and Mary. And, oh yes. My sheep.
Now, I know that it might look to some people like my sheep isn't happy to be here. Like she might be upset because she's been stuffed into this stupid white sweater, set where she didn't want to be, and told to stay put. I know it might look like she's fed up with being dragged from one side of the living room to the other to see her sister holding a dumb doll and then being grabbed by the donkey. It might even look like she's ticked off that everyone keeps baa-ing at her and holding up cameras instead of helping her get to her mother!
But really, she's just being the best little sheep she can be. You know, down on all fours, head down (eating grass, of course.)
What a good little actress.

Ward Christmas Party

An important part of the Christmas season is our Ward Christmas Party. Including, of course, a nativity pageant done by the Primary children.
The most important parts in this year's pageant were the sheep

the angels,

and the innkeeper.

But the most entertaining part was, as usual, the Sunbeams. I mean sheep.


But even though I had several people tell me that Cannon was their favorite part, I guess Primary teachers still have a responsibility to keep things reverent. Much to the disappointment of my little boy.

Snowman

My kids love the snow.
If I wasn't sure that they were mine, I would wonder where they came from. I'm working on my attitude, I really am, but I'm pretty excited about being old someday so I can be a snowbird.
In the meantime, my children had a great time making a big ol' snowman. I thought using a bungee cord for the mouth was very creative, and I posted the only picture with both of his eyes in place. I've never wondered before, but how did Frosty's eyes of coal stay in his head while he was thumpity-thumping over the hills of snow?

In Which We Do Eventually Get a Christmas Tree

One sunny Saturday at the beginning of December, I had the bright idea that we should venture out to find a Christmas tree. Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it?
Well, on our way to get a tag, who should my children spy, but... Santa Claus!
So, of course, we had to stop and say hello to the old guy.
He was very happy to see us, of course, and sent each child on his or her way with a bag of candy and a can of pop.


(I know, this seems like an excess of Santa pictures. But, really, who would I leave out? So just keep scrolling. They'll end eventually.)








































So then we continued on our way, and you would think the next picture would be of us in the hills. But, no. I'm not actually sure what happened, since I was keeping track of children. Keeping track of the road -and the other cars on it- was supposed to be Jef's job. But suddenly he made a panicked kind of noise and I looked up just in time to see us hit the car in front of us. Turns out, our vehicle was much tougher than theirs. Our front license plate was ripped off, the front tow hooks were bent, and my knee smashed one of the A/C vents to smithereens. Other than that, the worst damage to our car was that all of that nice candy and soda pop that Santa gave us was suddenly at my feet in the front. So while Jef dealt with the other car - whose trunk was no longer functional - I was cleaning up a huge mess inside the car. The ambulance was for one of the kids in the back seat of the other car who wasn't wearing his seat belt and hit his head. But he turned out to be fine.

So then we set off again to find a Christmas tree.
And this time we made it!Jef and Ben decided that Ben should be the one to cut the tree down this year. Luckily we picked a tree with a very small trunk. I mean, we could have survived for several days on the candy and soda pop, but since the supply was damaged by Jef's adventure, that meant we really couldn't spend more than one night in the wild.

Turns out Ben is a great little lumberjack, and he had it down in no time at all.
So from here you'd think that we could throw the tree on top of Max and go home. But the pattern we had set earlier in the day continued to haunt us, and the kids just had to stop at a frozen pond and throw some rocks in. (Yes, Cannon is smiling at you.)
So, we did eventually make it home with our Christmas tree and even managed to get it decorated that night.

(OK, I admit it. I took this picture after Christmas, which explains why all the decorations are missing from the lower half of the tree.)

And they all lived happily ever after.

Christmas Tag

This tag is from Chelsi, who probably thought I'd forgotten or was ignoring her, but not me!

Four Things:
1) Four Places I go over and over:
Church, Wal-Mart, Lin's, the library.

2) Four people who email me regularly:
Image Checks, Rocky Mountain Power, Kohls, and Snapfish

3)Four of my favorite places to eat: ColdStone, my mom's house, and, ummm, oh dear. I think I need to eat out more.

4)Four places I would rather be right now: Sleeping, Reading, Watching a movie... wait, are those places? I guess I'm happy where I am. Except for that the house could be bigger and I wouldn't complain.

5)Four people I tag: Lisa, Jamie, Katie, and Sara

6) Four TV shows I watch: General Conference, the Olympics... and that just about wraps up all my TV watching.

---

I was also tagged by Tiffani, and since it's not New Years yet, then I figure it's still the Christmas season, and thus I can still get away with finishing up Christmas stuff.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper for Christmas, gift bags for everything else.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Real tree - But I really wouldn't mind having an artificial one. No needles to vacuum up, no sap in the carpet... It sounds great to me. But there are seven other people who live in this house (the ones who don't care about needles or sap) who would think the world had ended if they didn't get to tromp out into the hills and find some poor innocent tree to chop down and haul back to our living room. I always feel bad for those poor trees.

3. When do you put up the tree?
As soon as there is a Saturday when Jef can lead the expedition into the hills.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Around New Years sometime. Just as long as it's before Young Women's annual Tree Burn. (Another tradition I'm not so sure about.)

5. Do you like Egg Nog?
I've never had a store-bought kind that I liked. (Of course, I haven't sampled nearly as many brands as my crazy cousins, so maybe I just haven't found the right one.) But I do LOVE home made eggnog. You know, the kind where you start with French Vanilla ice cream, then add more cream, more sugar, and more vanilla? Mmm.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
The swing set in the living room stands out as the most memorable. It was just too bad they eventually had to move it outside.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Jef's three sets of parents.
It always seems like I should be able to just get them all the same thing, but that never works.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
This year it was Ben since he knew exactly what he wanted and it wasn't too hard to find. (Not like the year he asked for a bubble gum gun.)

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, and it is one of my favorite possessions in the world. One year I searched and searched and searched for the perfect one, and finally found it... in the hardware store, of course. Silly me, I should have looked there in the first place.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Oh dear, what a huge guilt-inducing question. I have boxes and boxes of Christmas cards that I buy every November with the very best of intentions. Maybe someday I'll send some - just so I don't have to store them another year. But for now, how about a blog Christmas card?

There you go. And now you won't even have to deal with that post-Christmas dilemma of what in the world to do with it.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
My sweet Grandma likes to make us ornaments, but this year no one can tell what it is. The best guesses have been a fish, a mitten without a thumb, or a cell phone holder. But I'm sure as soon as we figure it out, then it will become very sentimental and thus removed from this category.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Miracle on 34th Street. (The newer one.)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Well, I think about it real hard during September, October, and most of November, but if I miss black Friday, then it won't be until December.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Well, I'm certainly not about to confess that on a blog that all of you read, am I?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Sweet Potato Pie, Frog-Eye salad, and cookies!

16. Lights on the tree?
Now what kind of question is that? Are there really people who don't put lights on the tree? How would you sit in the living room at night, sipping your hot chocolate, and stare at the tree? It would be really, really dark if there were no lights on it.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day and all of the Forgotten Carols. But the Veggie Tales Christmas album is pretty good, too.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Christmas Eve and morning at home, but then up to Forsytheville for most of Christmas Day.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner, and Blitzen, and Rudolph!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Currently a tipsy star, but I wouldn't mind an angel. (As long as she wasn't tipsy, too.)

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
One present on Christmas Eve. (I refused to buy pajamas this year, since I have a couple of children whose pajama drawers are so full that you couldn't possibly fit another pair.) This year each person got to choose one present to open. The rest are opened Christmas morning after breakfast.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Too many things all at once. I really do enjoy all of the parties and activities, but trying to cram them all into one month is insane.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Wow, how cool would that be? To have a theme or main color for your tree? To have something besides a crazy collection of yarn, rick-rack, popsicle sticks, and construction paper? Someday I'll be so cool.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Hmm. Too late for that question...

... and it's really too late to tag anyone else, since Christmas is over, but I'll catch ya next year!