Christmas Eve Eve

On the tenth day of Christmas we celebrated by hosting our annual, impromtu (an oxymoron) Christmas Eve Eve party. It all started two years ago when Hannah's friends Emilie and Katie happened to be over on Christmas Eve Eve. Last year Katie and Emilie came over again for our second annual Christmas Eve Eve party. Here's some pics from this year's party. And thus a tradition is born!!

Ninth Day of Christmas

So, yesterday was the ninth day and pretty much our plan was to go see Starry Nights at Shelby Forest, but it was starting to rain and the kids were pretty settled in, so we decided to just hang tight. Our family time for the day was reading Eragon, which we are about 1/3 way through. It was really nice!! Hannah read. I took pictures. Everyone else colored.

Eight Pictures of the Eighth Day

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight maids a milking. We impromtuly (is that a word) decided to sing eight Christmas carols. It had been a shopping day!!! Hannah and I enjoyed a day of shopping with our friends Amanda and Katie. Seriously we shopped til I dropped.

Hence the Christmas carols, easy, nostalgic...picture a scene in your minds eye with everyone gathered around the piano, with smiles on their faces, carols flowing melodically from their mouths. Well that was not what it looked like at the Smith house. Boys were hiding, children were fighting, Elijah had his ears covered with his hands, nobody knew the words.

The group shots were posed. All the other shots occurred while carols were being sung!!

Seventh Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven swans a swimming. The seventh day was a beautiful, busy Sunday. Our plan was to go out to lunch....a treat, we have tried to eliminate eating out and my kids LOVE to go out to eat. It worked out that our friend Ari was able to join us, so there were seven of us eating Mexican...loving the cheese dip (why do I ever get food at a Mexican restaurant?).

The seventh day we were supposed to talk about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (there are certainly more, but that's what is on my list). Yeah, we still haven't talk about this part. But, I do have a card up my sleeve for sometime when we have time to sit all together as a family!!

Fifth and Sixth Days of Christmas

What happened to the fifth and sixth days of Christmas? They passed in a flash. We were certainly too busy to document with pictures. But we did have a good time!!! And shall I say Noah asks EVERY DAY...what are we doing for the days of Christmas!!!

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...five golden rings. (We were supposed to talk about the Torah which is the first five books of the Old Testament, but that just didn't happen) .

The fifth day of Christmas at the Smith house started with golden rings...fresh hot doughnuts. (Noah thought we should each eat five doughnuts, but we decided that would be overkill!!!) David and I were able to slip away and get some much needed Christmas shopping done. YIPPEE!! We even went to lunch together. YIPPEE!! YIPPEE!!

The girls trained for a new job in the afternoon!! They are going to help a friend care for her horses (aka feed and clean) in exchange for riding lessons. Let's just say THEY HAD A BLAST!! I wish I had taken pictures, but I was too stinking busy getting ready for a wedding rehearsal that I had in the early evening. They both got to ride a horse...that was a surprise. They had a lovely afternoon!!!

Then, we hosted the children of our Life Group at our house....14 kids supervised by 3 high school students. Noah said it was the most fun he ever had!! Hannah opted out and went to her Sunday School party where she had a fabulous time. David and I spent the evening with the grown-ups from life group at a different house in our neighborhood (Praise God from whom all blessings flow) where David walked away with an Enema as his the dirty Santa gift. Good Times and Lots of laughs!!!

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six geese a laying. (We were supposed to talk about the six days of creation, but haven't done that part yet). For our Smith Family fun we had six cups of hot chocolate in the evening while watching "A Little Princess". (Well technically we made seven cups since Emilie was over spending the night with the girls).

I did find a free lapbook about the 12 days of Christmas that I'm going to let the kids work on together over the holidays as a fun project.

Fourth Day Favorite!!

We did it today!! We completed Christmas event for the day. Today is the fourth day of Christmas. The hidden meaning behind the carol for the fourth day is teaching about the four gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

In honor of these amazing stories, these biographies of Christ, we read four Christmas stories. As a family we piled into the master bedroom to read four Christmas books.

Fun!! My favorite part of today!! Here are some other favorites from today...the fourth day of Christmas at the Smith household

• The basket of oranges at work filled with oranges and Lindor Chocolate (who am I kidding I didn't eat any oranges, just a couple of my favorite chocolate.) Thanks Susan!!!!
• Favorite food fajitas... for lunch from La Guadalapana
• Watching all the eager parents excited about coming to see their children's preschool Christmas program
• Watching the little girl in front of Elijah's bow during the Christmas program knowing that his cute, mute little face was behind it
• Leaving work knowing that I have two weeks to play with my family!!
• Going to the seniors banquet at church where my two middle school daughters were serving food. One of favorite moment of the banquet was looking around the room as we were singing Christmas carols. These wonderful people love their Jesus and their church.
  
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Plan Thwarted

Hannah planned to sit down and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. Enter cute Marley who jumped on her lap, spilled her coffee and promptly started to lick everything!! What I love is Hannah still has a smile on her face...even when her plan was thwarted!!

Plans!!

When my children were little I learned early on to ONLY tell them they were playing with a friend when the friend was walking to the door. Because if I told them early and the friend did not show up they were devastated!!

I have slacked off as they have gotten older, but I am realizing that when I say we are going to do something the kids expect it to happen. In an effort to liven up Christmas I have developed this wonderful plan to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas.

Day One...my plan was to decorate our Christmas Tree. We brought our tree home, started bringing the Christmas decorations from the attic. We could not find the lights. They were winning at the game of hide and seek. We couldn't decorate the tree without the lights!! SIGH!! And, it turned out that four of the families members needed to be out of the house in the evening. SIGH!! SIGH.

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me...a naked Christmas tree!!

Day Two...my plan was to watch two Christmas movies. We ended up laughing through one claymation Christmas movie and only watched a part of the the second. And, the lights were still winning at the game of hide and seek.

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me...two partially watched Christmas movies and a still naked Christmas tree.

Day Three...my plan was to make three yummy Christmas treats...by now I have learned my lesson. I am not completely stupid. I did not say what we were doing for the day. It turns out that I spent the afternoon with some families from the play Clara is in at the Tropical Smoothie Cafe. It was fun, but it WAS NOT in my plan. We got home late.

As soon as we got home, the kids asked me innocently and excitedly "what's the third day of Christmas?" There are lots of ugly thoughts churning inside my head. The good news is I kept them in my head and not out of my mouth. What did come out of my mouth shocked and dismayed my children.

The third day of Christmas....you get to clean three rooms. So, four very disgruntled children set out to clean three rooms. Not nearly as fun as baking treats, but a necessity nevertheless.

And at this point, I have yet to teach the history of hidden meaning of the carol for the third day. Which by the way represents faith, hope and love. Oh, the irony as all are waning in my grumbly heart!!

However....David did find the lights, so our naked tree has lights!!! But, by the time the girls got home from their event, it was too late to put the ornaments on the tree. My boys were beside themselves as they were sent to bed again with an undecorated tree. My positive spin was.."but look it's pretty and twinkly now!!".

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three clean rooms cleaned by disgruntled children.

Here's the lesson that I'm being reminded of as I venture forward. In life, we must plan with an open hand!!! Proverbs 19:21 says "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

So, even though the Norman Rockwell Christmas experience is not a reality in my home. What is a reality is that we are day by day learning as a family to deal with the disappointments of life. We are learning to stick together even when things don't go our way. We are learning that Christmas isn't about my perfect plan...

Christmas is about God's purpose being accomplished through a perfect baby born in a manger who lived a perfect life and died a perfect death. Christmas is about my imperfections being made perfect in the Person of Jesus.

Glory to God in the Highest. Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Man!!

On the second day of Christmas...

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves. History lesson for the day from the 1500-1800's....This was used to teach young children about the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Our fun plan was to watch two Christmas movies. What in the world was I thinking?????

It was a busy day in Smithville!!

• David went to work.
• I went to work.
• Clara performed "the Best Christmas Pageant Ever" twice in at a local theater
• David took Clara to Physical therapy appointment (she now wants to be a physical therapist)
• School for the Hannah and Noah. They practiced their play and made colonial Christmas ornaments.
• School for Elijah. Santa Clause came to see Elijah at school...who by the way wanted NOTHING to do with Santa. When I asked him why he said, "Cause he's a fake. He's just wearing a costume." When I asked him where he got that idea he said "I just thought of it."
• IB meeting at High School for Hannah and her parents.
• The boys and Clara got to play at church with Ms. Stephanie!

So we all trudge into our door around 8:15 pm...some might say that is too late to watch TWO Christmas movies. Oh no....while we ate an amazing pizza dinner fresh from Pietros (it was so tasty!!), we decided to at least watch one short Christmas movie.

Turns out we had a DVD with three short Christmas movies on it. Wait, let me clarify...three CLAYMATION Christmas movies. So we watched the story of the First Christmas. Claymation is a whole new world for our kids.

I confess it was kind of lame!!! Me and the girls were having a good time laughing and joking. The boys were seriously wanting to watch the movie. Clara gave us all a lecture on the technique for claymation that she learned on "I Carly". Clara quoted the entire Christmas story along with the movie. Clara and Hannah sang Christmas carols along with the background music. I was laughing!! David was shushing!!

AND...meanwhile, Marley, our houseguest (aka dog, pictured with Clara) howled at the top of his lungs while we sang. At one point we were all (except David...I think he wanted a valium by this point) singing and the dog was HOWLING!! It was downright hysterical!!

Oh and we did watch some of White Christmas because well we had to watch two movies!!

The tree

The boys had an absolutely delightful day!!
They picked out a Christmas tree that cetainly needed us.
It's starting to feel a bit like a
Charlie Brown Christmas.

Our Christmas tree is still a work in progress.
(Which means in Tennessee..
It ain't decorated yet!!)

The good news is our tree was discounted!
Clara did a great job taking pictures!!!

O Christmas Tree!!!

So this morning I hatched this scheme to make Christmas exciting around here. My last blog post talked about how we are going to celebrate Christmas in 2009. Well today is the first day of Christmas for the Smith's.

We decided that to kick off the celebration, we would decorate our Christmas tree. Step one...go purchase a Christmas tree. We have an artificial tree that is being relegated to the upstairs this year. Most of the needles have fallen off and it is beginning to look more like twiggy tree. As the tree picker outers were getting their coats on, the doorbell rang.

Lo and behold it was a package from my mother. She sent the kids a package with a bag filled with wrapped goodies for the kids to open. Her instructions were clear. Reach into the bag and pick out your gift. We followed the instructions. All the kids picked out their gifts. And, one by one they opened them.

Here's the irony...they all picked out the same gift.

CHRISTMAS TREE CAKES!!!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On The First Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me....
a partridge in a pear tree

Christmas has crept up on the Smith family this year!! We still have our Fall Decorations up (nothing elaborate 2 fake pumpkins and a fall flavored candles). We haven't been Christmas shopping. I FEEL so behind this Christmas. Sometimes when things are not going the way I want it is easy to get discouraged and throw up my hands. The truth is that we have plenty of time to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

So, the Smith's are celebrating the twelve days of Christmas starting today (I know that technically the twelve days of Christmas goes from Christmas until the day of Epiphany on January 6th). Recently a friend sent an email that describes how from 1558-1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. So someone during that era wrote a Christmas Carol that we still sing today..."The Twelve Days of Christmas". This song was used to teach catechism to young catholics.

We're going to use this song to teach our children this Christmas season AND we're going to have a little fun. The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ!!

Today the Smith's are going to decorate our Christmas tree

Creative Math Idea

Recently a friend gave me a plethora of school resources that she used when homeschooling her children...truly a priceless and meaningful gift!!! One thing I realize about my children is that they like to play games and they are quite competitive. However, it's just not practical for me to go out and buy a bunch of learning games. They are actually quite expensive.

While digging through this treasure chest of books, I found a book that caught my eye, "Math For Smarty Pants". One of the first exercises looked pretty interesting to me, so I tested it this morning on my 2nd grader.

It's called the $1 Word Search. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a cent value: a=1cent, b=2 cents, c=3 cents, and so on up to z-26 cents. You take a word, any word, like "excellent" and add up the value of each letter to see if it is worth a dollar. Simple!!

Armed with a white board and a dry erase marker, we tried it out. And, yes we learned "excellent" is a one dollar word. Noah is not. Neither is Elijah. And, for that matter neither is Jesus. But, we did find that there is a Halloween word that is and it is NOT Halloween.

Well let me just say that Noah learned about ones and tens column. He learned about carrying. We talked about how to take shortcuts when adding up several numbers. We had fun learning about Math this morning. We even talked about which numbers added together equal 10. Because let's face it...it is easier to add multiples of ten.

Bottom line...we had FUN!!

So here's my idea for the next month. I am going to challenge my children to find $1 words and for every $1 word they find, I will pay them a dollar. That should motivate them!!! I figure it never hurts to practice the basics. Truthfully....I still count with my fingers...maybe I should join in the competition so that I can learn how to add in my head!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Well my 20th anniversary is a thing of the past. Milestones come and milestones go. Here are my random (seriously not organized thoughts)!!

This morning my husband took me to IHOP for breakfast. It was GREAT!! (For those of you newlyweds out there we are going out nice on Friday night). But it was quite thoughtful of him to roll me out of bed on our 20th anniversary and take me out for breakfast. Thoughtful because it made me feel like we were on vacation. We NEVER eat breakfast out. As we lingered over coffee we had some quiet time (hard to find with four children) and we reminisced about the past twenty years. I won't bore you with all that.

But I will say, we have much to be thankful for after 20 years. We started our marriage with God at the center. We wanted our marriage to bring honor to God. We have had our ups and downs...that's a fact of life. However, we have been able to weather the storms. This week we were reminded how we have been able to weather these storms. Reminded by our 7 year old son.

By the way let me say an aside to all out there. God uses His people to speak truth. You don't have to be a preacher. You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to speak loudly. You just have to know the truth and speak the truth. And, you have to listen for the truth!!

This week in our home, he used a young boy; a skinny young boy at that, with beautiful blue eyes and and a tender heart for God (I'm sure a I butchered the grammar in that sentence!!). Let me explain.

On Monday night of this past week our family was sitting in our sitting room all together. It was about that time of night when we send the kids to bed. Our son Noah said, "I have an idea!!! I think we should all pray together tonight." Well, his heartfelt statement just made tears pop out in my eyes. It's one thing for the grown-ups to say we should pray, but a little boy...

Then, Tuesday night he was in his room finishing up his school for the day. Our system is that he has 12 numbered folders that are loaded for him every morning. He is responsible for completing the work in these folders. So, David and I are sitting together in our living room. Noah comes to the top of the stairs (we can both see and hear him) and says in a passionate voice, "MOM, I have an idea!!! Tomorrow, could you start putting my Bible in my number one folder."

Now as you read you may be thinking okay, that doesn't seem like a big deal. But, for me and my husband of twenty years it's like God was using a megaphone to scream at us (kindly of course). Our first year of marriage we attended Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. We had dear Bible Study teachers and Edna Clark was a lady who we still talk about today in our home. It did not matter what Edna was teaching on, her message always came out to be..."You need to pray and read God's Word."

Here was our son communicating the same message that resounded through our first year of marriage. So as we head into our 21st year, we are committing to renew our passion to pray and read God's word. Our marriage is a gift that I am thankful for every day.

If you are married, your marriage is also a gift. For those of you who are unmarried...Wait upon the Lord!! Hold steadfast to him!!!

Foot Woes!!!

I just had to share these fabulous pictures of our daughter's foot. We thought she had an extra navicular bone (who even knows what in the world a navicular bone is) in her left foot. Off she went to the doctor this week. Turns out she does not have an extra navicular bone in her left foot. It is just extra large and maybe even fractured...hence the extra bump in her foot shown in the pics.

The irony is that she does have an extra navicular bone in her right foot, that is perfectly fine.

So, she's wearing a boot for 10 days and we are hoping this growth will heal very soon.

Neighborhood Halloween!!

Thanks to my dear friend and neighbor Robin, I have some sweet shots of my children (and the neighborhood friends) on Halloween. We really do live in a FABULOUS neighborhood!!!

Enjoy the pics!!

Picture-less Halloween!!!

This morning I sit here the day after Halloween and look at all the cute pictures on Facebook of little kids dressed up in their costumes. I realize with dismay that I did not take one picture of my children yesterday. The thought crossed my mind, but the camera was with Clara who was with friends trick or treating in a different neighborhood. This has brought me to a place of pondering this picture-less Halloween.

Pondering why when the girls were younger I would NEVER have missed out on taking a picture of my children with their cute costumes. Maybe I had less on my plate. Maybe I was more enthusiastic. Maybe life was simpler. Maybe I had my own camera and was not borrowing my daughter's.

Pondering the reality of raising two middle school daughters. Yikes!! One who is ready to move out tomorrow. One who likes to talk and talk and talk....starting about 9:00 pm when I can no longer comprehend what she is saying because my brain has shut down for the day. Really, I need an extra measure of energy just thinking about the days ahead.

Pondering raising little boys while raising middle school daughters AND how different my boys growing up experience is from my girls. We live in a different state. The boys lives are not filled with play dates and play groups. The boys are surrounded by activity. Their friends are little brothers on Clara's soccer team and the boys in the neighborhood and from church. When the girls were younger I was intentional about helping them the develop friends. With the boys I simply say let's go....go play outside or let's go to the soccer field or to church or to work.

I suppose the picture-less Halloween is merely a foreshadowing of the future as the nest empties and the children pursue their own lives one by one. That might bring a tear to my eye except this nest will not be empty for like a hundred more years.

My life is full. It is abundant. I am trying to teach my kids "as we go" what it means to walk with Jesus, what it means to be a friend, how to get along with others, how to cook, how to clean up what you mess up, and a myriad of other things.

And yet, I hope when they look back on these days they remember a loving family. I hope that they have learned valuable lessons from time spent together. I hope we are preparing them to fly from the nest well. I hope as they go into their future and our family multiplies they will take cute pictures of their children and send them to me via whatever means of communication is available.

Okay, and I also hope that some of my neighbors captured at least one cute shot of my dressed up kids on this picture-less Halloween at the Smith House!!!