Tradition -One of my favorite things

Per tradition, the baby Jesus arrived in the manger late Christmas Eve.  I collect a new piece every year for our nativity and added the donkey this year.  The calendar is already marked to add another shepherd next year.  The shepherd showed up with the rest of the scene this afternoon, and the wise men will arrive later this week.  Mary and Joseph traveled through the house during the weeks before Christmas and spent a couple of nights in each of the kids' rooms. Because there is no Easter without Christmas, I believe this will remain on display until Easter.

I have probably shared this before, but here is the story of our nativity.  Years ago we decided that a nativity set was a must have for our holiday decorations.  We bought a cheap porcelain set and were satisfied.  We also decided that to keep some symbolism of the true Christmas story in our family traditions. Mary and Joseph would travel through our house from Thanksgiving to Christmas and arrive at the manger on Christmas Eve.  Jesus would arrive later that night.  One Christmas, many years ago, we had boxes stacked on two couches as we were cleaning up after decorating.  One stack of boxes was old and worn out, so I asked Andy to take them to the trash.  I did not specify which stack, and Andy took all the boxes out.  Before I could stop it, the baby Jesus went out in the trash.  I then launched my search for a realistic looking but kid friendly nativity set.  I also needed a replaceable baby Jesus just in case we made the same mistake twice.  I found a Fontanini starter set that fit all the criteria except the budget and purchased it.  From that point on we still used the porcelain pieces until we replaced them one by one by adding a piece each year. We had one poor wise man who had his head super-glued back on three times before he was replaced.  We are almost finished with the collection.  I want another shepherd, and he is already in my Amazon cart.  I think he will be the last addition to this set, but who knows?

Another tradition we have here is that Santa brings one gift and stuffs the stockings.  This simplifies Christmas and makes for a quiet day at home for just the six of us on Christmas day.  Of course the kids buy gifts for each other, and we also buy two additional gifts for each child.  Santa's gifts are always the only ones wrapped in Santa paper and left on the hearth.

Preparing for Easter

For a fun Easter tradition, have a scavenger hunt to the baskets.  Our clues, which are tweaked yearly, are posted here.

We are ready

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus with the traditional cake to celebrate.

The white frosting represents cleansing our sins.

The chocolate cake represents our dark sin.

The red candles represent Christ's birth to shed His blood shed for our sins.

The evergreen represents eternal life.

The angel represents angels proclaiming the birth of Christ.

The star represents the 3 wise men following the star to worship baby Jesus.

Julia and Wyatt read the story of Jesus' birth, Luke 2:1-20

A few gifts have been opened.

family celebrating together
We even had a doggy gift exchange.  Tiffany, who swore off pets for many years, got a dog this year and decided the dogs should draw names and exchange names.  Between my siblings and myself, we own eight dogs, so we all obliged. 

Reindeer food adorns the lawn.

Cookies and milk await Santa's visit. (homemade gingerbread cookies, yum)

Mary and Joseph have arrived at the manger.

Julia has said to Savannah, "I have been good at believing this year, so I trust Santa to be extra good to me."

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

HO, HO, HO, Santa Claus is Coming to Town

When I was growing up, piles of presents from Santa could be found under our tree.  Santa did not wrap the gifts.  Shortly after I stopped believing, my parents quit Santa.  Fearing we would love Santa more than Jesus, they told all of us he did not exist, and honestly I remember wondering if I would soon learn that Jesus is a mere myth as well. Of course, a very big book detailing the work of God in the lives of his people, and the very fact that even adults worshipped him seemed less like an act than the whole Santa gig.


Andy and I became parents and had to settle the Santa thing for our own kids.  I firmly held to not starting the whole charade.  Andy disagreed.  With Zach and Savannah, we decided to play Santa.  We told them that Santa is pretend, and pretending is fun.  


I relaxed when Julia came along, and we left the pretend part out of the Santa act.  Then came Wyatt.  We still wanted some more fun on the Santa front with Julia, but Wyatt was almost six when he landed in our family.  He had five Christmases behind him with no Santa.  Wyatt believed in Santa.  I think this was because we didn't make a big deal out of the whole world piece.  I also think this is because Wyatt's love language is gifts, so that boy has no intention of blowing an opportunity to receive gifts.  In fact, he still believes.


That said, Santa is a small part of our Christmas celebration.  He stuffs the stockings and brings each child one gift.  That gift is usually not the most longed for thing on their wish lists.  Santa's gifts are the only ones under the tree wrapped in Santa paper which we try to keep hidden from the kids.  I remember being disappointed when I was a kid because when Santa started wrapping our gifts (he didn't wrap them for many years), his paper was exactly like Mom's. At our house Santa uses simple stick on bows, and writes the child's name on the gift in red Sharpie.  The gifts from us, on the other hand, have the curling ribbon that nobody seems to be able to remove and black Sharpie labels.


In addition to the gifts from Santa, each child gets two gifts from Mom and Dad. Christmas gifts here are fun rather than practical.  They get the toys on their lists.  We keep a tight budget all year, and the kids only get their desires for useless stuff met on their birthdays and Christmas.  Any other time they are pining for a toy or game, we remind them that they have an allowance.  It is small, but I have to say that allowances are one of the best things we have ever done.  I rarely hear over and over in a store about something desired because I simply remind the child that the allowance is for that even if the item would require years of saving.  


The Santa discussion has come up in several places lately, so I thought I would share our Santa tradition.  This year I picked up a book from the library on the real St. Nicholas and Christmas traditions around the world.  I don't know much about St. Nick and felt that his way of sharing Christmas love is worth sharing with the kids this Christmas season.


Tomorrow morning we will find Santa gifts under the tree and enough candy in the stockings to cause some more dental bills.  However, we will also find the baby Jesus has arrived in the manger overnight.  After journeying through the house, Mary and Joseph will arrive there today.  We will definitely read the account of Jesus' birth from Luke.  Since Christmas falls on a Sunday, we may even go to a simple church service before digging into the goods under the tree, and lovable Wyatt may spontaneously combust with all the waiting! 


Merry Christmas!!

a birthday celebration

Savannah will be 13 on Wednesday, and Andy and I will officially be the parents of two teenagers.  We gathered family at our home tonight to celebrate this upcoming milestone.

I will share more pictures later, but I wanted to share this special moment before going to bed tonight.

Andy bought Savannah a professional paintbrush and used a paint pen to note the following scripture references on it.  He presented it to Savannah tonight with the following thoughts.  Naturally, the video camera battery was dead :(

1Peter 3:3-4  

He reminded Savannah that her beauty comes from within and not from make-up and jewelry.  Andy then pointed out that her gentle and quiet spirit is pleasing to her family and to her God.

Isaiah 64:8  

Andy used this scripture to remind Savannah that her life comes from the potter and should always be directed by Him.  He talked of her artistic talent and love for math as well as her academic success.

1 Esther 4:13-15

Andy was touched when one of Savannah's leaders at the Believe conference told him that Savannah named Andy as her Mordecai.  He used this verse from Esther to remind Savannah that God has a plan for her life and that she is her for "such a time as this."

Andy did something similar with Zach for his 13th birthday.  He gave Zach a sword that we purchased in China and admonished him to be a warrior for the faith.  The paintbrush seemed fitting for Savannah as she has an artistic bent.

Another 13th birthday tradition we have is to ask family and friend to send us a scrapbook page (8.5 by 11) including a picture of themselves (if possible with the birthday child) and a letter, prayer, funny or special memory of a time they have enjoyed with the birthday child.  If you would like to participate in compiling this scrapbook, send the pages our way.  There is no hurry.  I still have to compile Zach's book, but hey, I'm a busy mom, and the pages are all together in one place.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My parenting style is pretty consistently inconsistent.  However, I work at tradition.  Tradition is the stuff that makes a family identity, and it is is the stuff remembered by the kids.  On Valentine's Day our tradition is to let the kids decorate a cake or cupcakes.  I use decorator's icing to section off a cake or to make symbols on cupcakes and then let the kids go wild with sprinkles. 

I did not feel like following tradition today.  I am exhausted to the point of being tempted to take a sick day and stay home in bed one day this week.  My sleep right now is really messed up.  As I had to interview today to try and keep the job I have held for thirteen years, I did the typical wake up at 4:00a.m. and then again every ten minutes for fear I would oversleep.  However exhausted, busy, stressed or whatever I am, if we have a holiday tradition, I keep it.

I quickly got the cupcakes in the oven this afternoon before running an errand with Julia that we forgot to settle over the weekend (grr).  When I mentioned that we should make our cupcakes today as it is tradition, I had a conversation like this with Savannah.
Me: We need to make cupcakes for Valentine's Day.  It is our tradition.
Savannah: It is?
Me:  Yeah (a little sarcasm in the the tone) We decorate them for Valentine's day.
Savannah: oh yeah

My only help on the cupcake front today came from Savannah.  When I called Wyatt and Julia to help (Zach no longer participates), I got a "no thanks."

Really!?  Why do I bother?

Let it Snow

We continued the tradition started last year and celebrated our first snow today with gifts for the kids.  A very excited Wyatt came to me this morning and announced that we had snow on the ground.  He wanted to sleep in the living room last night when he heard the prediction of snow so that he could see it.  I reminded him that his room has a window.  Julia joined him shortly afterward, and their excitement and anticipation of everyone waking so that they could open the gifts seemed so Christmas morningish.  I think Wyatt was less than thrilled that once again the gift was warm pajamas.  He did, however, love building a snowman with a little help from Andy tonight.

 After much ado about what to do with decorating the mantle.  I think we have success with live greenery.  I love it!

Spring Break Day 1 -The Children's Museum April 5, 2010

We took a day trip to start our spring break week, and as you can see we had lots of fun.  This is an annual tradition.  However, this year was a little different.  My mom often goes with us, but she was not feeling up to it as she had chemo last Thursday and Friday.  We also packed lunches instead of eating fast food for lunch.  We usually splurge on a nice dinner on the way home but saved money with a meal at Burger King.  As you can see, we had lots of fun.  We were greeted by dinosaurs.

Wyatt had some issues riding in the car and started the day with discipline and pouting.  He never had to ride in a car for a road trip in China, and of our four children, he is the worst at it.

During the car trip Julia made up names for us. I was Moody Mother--nice, huh? Andy was Diddy Daddy Doo - yep, she's still a daddy's girl.  Wyatt was Witty Willie Wyatt.

It all started when she decided that she and Savannah were Superstar Sisters.

We built boats and sent them down the water course.

Savannah brought her friend Whitney along, and she tried rock climbing.

Julia snapped some pictures (Andy).

Logan and Austin tried rock climbing too. Zachary was too old.

We all enjoyed the slide (except Tiffany).We flew Egyptian Air and learned lots about Egypt.

Some of us walked the Barbie catwalk. I don't think the boys were what the designer had in mind.

Julia enjoyed some glam and some excavating.

Tired kids found a fun spot to rest.

I noted the Chinese Barbies and learned that one of them was released in 2006, so I can't imagine why I didn't get one for Julia...except maybe that the Barbie isn't that attractive.We saw some fireworks in glass and had some fun looking for the Putti (cupid).We had some silliness.I found a Barbie that I may have owned once upon a time.  I do remember when Barbie was sold in a one piece suit and had big sunglasses on her head.Julia was excited to lead the parade out at the end of the day.

While I expect that we will return next year, I wonder if Zach will go with us.  Our high school youth group spends spring break at the beach and since Zach can't attend camp this summer as it conflicts with football, I suspect he will go with the youth to the beach.  This week is nostalgic as I realize just how old he is getting.  I miss his little voice and his fascination with cheetahs and reptiles.  I miss living with a huge fan of the crocodile hunter.  I miss Zach's big eyes and the way I used to know just by looking at him how his day was.  Now his conversations revolve around heavy metal music, end times, and gas.  Where has my little cheetah boy gone?