Christmas Sunday

 

I requested a family photo in front of the tree before church, and the family was not exactly cooperative. This is a better depiction of what that morning was really like and what the kids really wanted to do.

Arnold Christmas

We all gathered the weekend before Christmas, since we were going to be gone in Sisters this year. We had dinner together and did birthday cake for Jesus.

This year here are the things the kids said they were thankful for:
Joel-- People fighting for our freedom
Aubrey--God sending Jesus
Kari--A warm house to live in
Grant--That God made him

 

Aubrey had my camera for a while, and I thought her subject choices were pretty funny. I especially like that she took a photo of Grandma's washer and dryer. :) A couple days before, when I was volunteering at the kids' school, I saw this writing piece by Aubrey. I guess she was practicing for her future career.

 

Translation: "I think photographers have the best job. Photographers get to take pictures. Photographers get to work on computers. They can make people smile! I feel like being a photographer is the best job."

 

More Kari B-day

We did chocolate fondue again on Kari's actual birthday (a Wednesday) and invited family over to celebrate with us.




Aubrey helping melt some chocolate

Angel food cake was her "cake" this year--good for dipping in chocolate

 

Greg dressed up for Kari's birthday. Actually, he had a big, important meeting at work, for which we had to go buy him a suit, and it happened to be on her birthday. :) After 11 years of being a "professional," it was probably about time he had his own professional clothes.

 

Kari's birthday breakfast date with Grandpa. He brought her a dozen roses. I enjoyed them, too. :)

Grant's Christmas program

Grant had his first preschool Christmas music program, and he was SO excited. He had a large crowd of family and grandparents there to watch him. We discovered that he is a nervous nose-picker. Aubrey flipped her hair when she was nervous in programs like that, and Grant picks his nose. Awesome. He was a pretty cute nose-picker, though, and he did know the songs. He sang and smiled and did the motions. He seemed to have a good time up there.

I liked this photo I took of Aubrey and Mom waiting for the program to start.

 

Chocolate Birthday

Kari decided right after her last birthday that the next one would be chocolate-themed, and that's what we did. She invited 13 girls over for her chocolate party, and 12 came to celebrate with her (one got sick and couldn't come). It was a smashing success! We played chocolate/candy themed games--name that candy bar (example: a happy nut= Almond Joy), a taste-test version of name that candy bar, and a really fun game where they raced to unwrap a cellophane ball with candies hidden inside. We fed them taco soup for dinner (Kari's request) before we let them at the chocolate fondue and chocolate fountain. Lots and lots of chocolate and lots and lots of sugar! We ended the party with a couple rounds of Catch Phrase and charades. Greg stepped up and owned the party games. He's a great guy to have around for a party. :) My friend, Christine, stayed and helped us, too, which was so nice! I had asked her to help and then decided maybe we could do it without her, but she stayed anyway, and things went smoother because of her. Thirteen girls (plus our other three kids) is a lot to handle! They all seemed to have a lot of fun. We put on a pretty good party, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Two friends spent the night because their parents were gone overnight, so the fun continued the next morning. The picture of Grant and Aubrey filing Kari's feet while she got her fingernails done cracked me up. They had quite the nail party going on.

Kari has some great friends. All the girls were fun to have here. Friend party is done! Now we just have her real birthday to go. Family will be coming over that night, and we'll do the chocolate fountain and fondue all over again! :)

All Dressed Up With Somewhere to Go

Last Saturday night, we went to Greg's company's holiday party. It's my one night a year I get to dress up and coerce Greg into wearing a tie. :-) The last couple years they have had it at the Montgomery Park Atrium in Portland. There's always good food and music, and it's fun for me to get to meet/see Greg's coworkers, these people I don't know but feel like I know because of the stories Greg tells me. This year we were a little unlucky with our tablemates, and one particular lady, who had had too much to drink, became a little too friendly, chatty, and in our personal space. Thankfully, we had friends (the Stagers) at our table with whom to exchange looks and share little smiles and raised eyebrows. We made an early exit to get away from her and to get back to relieve our babysitters but didn't escape without a big hug (both Greg and I at the same time) from the tipsy lady. Next time, we will be more careful when we choose seats!

I still had a great time out on our date. It's fun to get all prettied up and wear heels every now and then. :)

Tree Hunting and decorating.

We usually get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, and the kids know that. The weather that day was intermittently stormy and not ideal tree-hunting weather, but the kids were so anxious to go (and were driving us nuts!), we decided to go anyway. We waited for a break in the rain, admired this double rainbow, then hopped in the van.

As we were driving, the storm picked up. It was pouring! The wind was blowing the rain sideways, and we did NOT want to be out searching for a tree in that weather, so we parked at the tree farm and waited for a break in the rain.

After about 15 minutes, it had calmed down enough for us to venture out in our raincoats and boots.

kids standing in front of our chosen tree

The kids ran between the trees and played while Greg sawed down our tree. That's one of their favorite parts of getting a Christmas tree--running through the trees.

Kari helped me string the lights, and then the kids took over the decorating and hung all the ornaments themselves. The cats had fun with the ones down low, and I had to re-hang a bunch that fell off (probably hung by Grant), but I didn't even do much re-arranging. Kari must have been on quality control. :)

 

All set!

Thanksgiving

This is the only photo from our Thanksgiving day, and I didn't even take it! The kids went for a post-Thanksgiving dinner "swim." We really did have a very nice Thanksgiving at Grandpa and Grandma A.'s house. It was relaxing, tasty, and just so nice! We ate great food, chatted, worked on puzzles, and enjoyed a low-key day together.

We also did our November Thankgiving tree at our house again this year and, of course, neglected to take a photo. It's a great way to teach the kids how to be thankful and a great reminder for me to give thanks, too.
Family, friends, our home, our church, my husband, my kids, health--all wonderful gifts from God. I don't want to ever forget that all good things come from our Father above.