When I returned to work after having Katriel I received many congratulations. Some asked if I was surprised it was a girl, or if I’d hoped it was a boy, or if I’d known all along it was a girl, etc. But one friend said, “I knew you’d have a girl. You have them in sets.”
I loved that comment. Loved it. Certainly, it wasn’t really guaranteed, but it is a really fun idea. And I just can’t thank God enough for this “bonus set.”
We enjoyed our seventh Christmas Eve with our friends.
We long since abandoned the idea of having a sit-down dinner and instead annually enjoy eating too much taco dip, artichoke dip, shrimp, and punch. This year the shrimp was yucky, so we made up for it with taco dip. And two desserts. ALWAYS two desserts.
We are so grateful for how the numbers have increased. Each family is “up” children by 50% over the first years.
We didn’t get a group picture in 2007, but this is 2008. *sigh* Really – it is 2008.
2009
2010
2011 Emily was in rough shape and we forgot to get group shot.
2012 I was in rough shape and we forgot to get group shot. 😦
But all was right this year and we got the BIG picture…
I hold high hopes that we will be able to enjoy this tradition for years to come, God willing.
My sweet girls. I’ve never had a baby this old for their first Christmas. It’s neat to be baby number six and still offering Mommy and Daddy something “first.”
Johanna was excited for Jesus’ birthday party.She got the hat the night before at Christmas Eve church time. (Thanks, Pam! I don’t know if you still stop by!)
Santa and his elf. They visit every year. They usually arrive before Stewart and Nigel wake up.
They had gifts for everyone that they purchased with their own money, that they made in their workshop.
They posed for a picture with our girls and handed out the presents they brought.
They had colored pencils and markers for Marie; a homemade coloring book for Johanna; a set of princess coloring sheets for Tabitha; socks for Ba; mints for Poppy; a homemade comic book for Nan and Nene; and tickets to their upcoming movie release for John and Stacy.
Once again they left before the boys woke up. 😦
Tabitha presented Daddy with a copy of a really long Psalm (forgot the number) broken into sections and illustrated.
We opened gifts for a while.
Ate a breakfast FEAST.
The boys opened a rocking, awesome green-screen and light set.
And myriad other items…
I have to say it was the BEST Christmas Day in my memory. Really. I think the keys for me were picking up the boxes, paper, etc., after each item was opened AND keeping dinner extremely simple. We had pasta Alfredo with broccoli and shrimp and served it with chicken we grilled a few days before. I was not in the kitchen all day peeling potatoes or manning a hunk of meat. And of course there were desserts. Two of them.
I’ll tell you some funny stories about MY gifts when I find the time. you can expect that installment sometime in April?
For at least a handful of years I have seen emails requesting help with the food and gift distribution at the R Family Mission each December. And for as many years I have not been able to help out. John was able to one year, but it has never worked out for me to go. Well, this year things just lined up. My mom was willing and able to stay with the three younger girls. And John was already scheduled to be off for the day that they were distributing this year. So he, the older three kids, and I signed up to help out for a two hour window of time and I was so looking forward to seeing how God might use us.
We managed to get out of the house on time and using the address listed for the ministry we managed to get to their headquarters ahead of schedule. The parking lot was all but empty. But as we were pulling in, two other vehicles had also just pulled in. One was a man with a big truck and another was an SUV with 5 members of the McQuaid hockey team. We entered through the front door and found someone to direct us to the kitchen. It didn’t quite look like what we expected. A fairly quiet building with seemingly nothing much going on. We found out that the truck needed to be unloaded. So, just like in the olden days when people passed water buckets down and back a line to put out a fire, we all got into a line to unload the truck. By passing, passing, passing them along, we helped unload about 100 hams. Frozen hams. Right from the back of the truck into the freezer. After the meat was unloaded, John decided he’d best ask a few questions. We were afraid we were in the wrong place. John explained to the man who had driven the truck over what it was WE thought we were supposed to be doing. Turns out that for this operation the RFM partnered with another local ministry and used THEIR building, about a mile away, for distribution. “But,” the man said, “You aren’t in the wrong place at all. God sent you here.” And then we went back to work. See, in addition to the ham, there were about 100 boxes of food that had to come off the truck. So. We stood in our line again. Imagine a truck with it’s big door open. Then imagine a young high school hockey player lifting a box off the piles and into the arms of another young high school hockey player. Then imagine player 2 handing the package to player three, who then hands it off to player four. Then player four hands the box to player five. And player five hands the box off to Marie. Marie. My nine-year-old joy-filled little girl stood alongside boys twice her age (and adults 4-5 times her age) to unload 100 boxes for families in need. The boxes went from her to me, to John, to Nigel, to a worker, to Stewart, to the last worker. A nine-year-old girl. Can you imagine Jesus’ smile that morning?
Well, let me tell you about her smile. The boxes weren’t exceedingly heavy. They were a little awkward, but they weren’t full to the brim. And they had food in them. We like food. And Marie started commenting on them after about the 40th box. And she had me in stitches. First there was, “Oooo! Mac and cheese.” And, “Oooo! Noodles.” And, “Apples.” Then, “Ah. Something I’ve never seen before.” Then after another two dozen boxes, she turns to me with the box and says, “One handed!” After I burst out laughing, she then says, “No handed.” John and I were dying. All with a giddy smile and never missing a beat. She didn’t drop a box. (She and Stewart had both dropped a ham or two earlier.) The boys were also pretty smiley. They stood closer to the ministry workers and had some conversations as they piled these 100 boxes up and up and out and out over a reception area floor.
We finished with the truck emptying and then followed the two vehicles over to the distribution center to see what we could do there.
There wasn’t much to be done. We were given a job of breaking down unused boxes. This was something we are good at – dismantling things. We loaded the cardboard into a truck, too. Then they asked us to pass out bags of extra produce to the people that were waiting for their boxes of food and the gift bags for the kids that were registered. People eagerly accepted the bags of produce and it wasn’t long before the bags were gone. There wasn’t much else for us to do, but we hung around a little longer. I’m not sure we were terribly vital, or if the kids had any earth-shattering life experiences, but I sincerely enjoyed my rare opportunity to do “works”. I know my prayers are just as important, but it does feel awesome to exercise my arms and legs for His work. too.
And it was SUPER awesome to see my kids involved, especially to see my 9-year-old daughter keep pace with those big hockey players.
*sigh* I wish I had had my camera.
We are planning a trip to Florida for 2014. We hope to spend two weeks on vacation renting a house in the Kissimmee area. We have a four-night Disney Cruise Line trip in the midst and then plan to visit the WDW parks a few days, as well. (This might change.)
On our last two trips we wore these matching shifts.
This is 2007. (Ignore the date stamp… LOL.)
This was 2011. (I had to make some new shirts for new members of our travel party.)
We get TONS of compliments from other guests and the CMs. (CM stands for Cast Members which is what Disney calls its employees.)
These old shirts were not made by tie-dying, but instead by a fabric paint that comes in a spray pump. It is made by Tulip. It was a great way to make shirts, but it took a LOT of time. And the cost added up quickly as the paint bottles aren’t really designed for a group this size! We DID get to wear them over two trips and the kids have worn a lot in the mean time. But they’ve faded and we have a new member of our travel party again, so we decided to try something new. 🙂
To prep, I’d picked up shirts over the summer and kept my eyes open for sales on white t-shirts. When we saw a 50% off coupon for Michael’s we went in to look at what they had supply wise. I was blown away with a HUGE store brand kit they had for $40, which I picked up for $20. To compare, I think if I had purchased the Tulip sprays or the Tulip tie dye kits I would have spent over $70.
John and I watched different tutorials on the computer and found a blog or two with the design we wanted to copy.
John designed a Mickey Mouse head and cut it out of thin cardboard. He traced the shape onto the shirts with pencil.
I then sewed a basting stitch around the outline with waxed dental floss. I pulled the floss tightly and tied it off. Then I wrapped a rubber band around the “Mickey head” that poofed out.
We then got the shirts wet and twisted them in a spiral shape, keeping the “Head” protruding out.
We then soaked the shirts in soda ash for 30 minutes.
And got individual bags ready to store them in.
John held each shirt over the sink as I squirted onto the “head”. Then we placed each shirt on its bag and filled in the rest of the colors.
THAT was the easy part.
Since we had all this stuff out, we went ahead and made second shirts for 9 of the 10 travelers. (Traveler #10 was okay without one.)
The 19 bags rested overnight.
The next evening, John unwrapped each one, cut off each band, and removed the dental floss while I was at work. That took him forever given he was also providing for the care and feeding of 6 children.
He then washed them all in hot water and fluffed them in the dryer a few minutes before hanging them.
This is how some of them turned out.
Clearly some Mickey heads are better than others. Some spirals are better than others. But they are certainly not hideous.
The striped ones were less successful. Despite all indications that we had drenched them to the point of ruining them (so we feared) we actually had them too tightly wrapped to get good color saturation. Again, they are decent enough to wear, but we aren’t going into business making these.
And I’d like to call this homeschool art, except even I won’t give dye to my kids. We kept them far, far away during the process. 😉
AND – as Disney is completely changing their FastPass process, we might not even GO to WDW parks. But we will wear them on the cruise. And anywhere else a group of 10 might want to match. (I’m taking suggestions.)
Given enough time, I might be able to figure out just how many Christmas concerts my kids have participated in for CBS over the years. But I don’t have to time to figure that out right now. It’s been quite a few.
Yet, each one brings me to tears. I love this program. I love what they teach and I love how much my kids love CBS.
Blast from the past?
This is my all-time favorite singing clip.
Go ahead, watch it… just don’t take a drink before you do. Crazy, funny, Nigel.
UGH – you tube won’t let me post b/c my accounts are blended or something. I am too frustrated to mess with google. I hate google.
anyway – here is a link to the video.
http://www.dayspringdisciples122.blogspot.com/2011/06/blast-from-past.html
Our worship pastor assembled a team and presented our community with a beautiful Christmas production. While it was significantly smaller in scale than the Passion plays of the last two Easter seasons, it was spectacular nonetheless.
Nigel and Marie had large speaking parts as Victoria and Quinn. The premise was they were part of a group of kids who had prepared a Christmas show that was supposed to take place in the town square. The day before they were to preform, however, the mayor cancelled the production because ratings had shown people just weren’t into that kind of religious thing. The kids decided to go door-to-door to ask people to call the mayor’s office and request that the show be restored.
Stewart played Thurston, an older man whose house was decked out in Christmas gear which the kids took to mean he was all about celebrating Christmas. Turns out Thurston is all about how things look and he offered to pay the kids to leave and advised he would sue them if they ruined his lawn. Stewart did not have many lines, but he delivered them with panache.
The group of kids also visited a hippy-couple who supported ALL religious expressions, but wouldn’t call the mayor because they didn’t want to get involved. They finally DID find someone who was more than happy to call the mayor’s office. The mayor’s daughter! She’s a Believer!
Tabitha was part of the kids’ choir, one of the kids who had prepared to be part of the Christmas show that was cancelled. She also delivered a line and sang her heart out with each of the 11 numbers.
The show was fantastic. Yes. I am biased. But really. It was. Johanna LOVED watching it and exclaimed a few times that she liked the songs and that those were “her kids.” Katriel hung out in the nursery after a few minutes of paper chewing with Nan before it started.
It was a dream come true for me for my family to be part of a production like this in our own church. Our older kids were fortunate enough to take part in similar productions at another church in the area a few years ago. To see our own church family GROW to have enough children to even consider such a production is a blessing in and of itself. To have a worship pastor willing to work with kids is such a treat. He worked hard to find a musical with a relevant message and the songs had awesome, scripture-centered lyrics. I hope they stick in my kids’ minds for years.
This one required throwing popcorn into the air and trying to catch it with tweezers to simulate birds that catch bugs while flying.
Did you read the part about throwing POPCORN into the AIR?
We’re taking things to new heights…
And it’s looking like a barn in here…
Dayspring Disciples 