Traditions and Gifts

Like most families, we have some holiday traditions that withstand changes in life.  Changes like moving. This year was no different.  Every year, on Christmas Eve, after dinner and church, we put on our jammies, jump on the couch and read Twas the Night Before Christmas. At this point, the kids know most of the words and can read it along with us.  We are so blessed by these four precious gifts and amazed that we have been given the privilege of being able to raise and teach them.
I hope your family enjoyed the traditions and gifts of Christmas.  We are enjoying all of ours.


They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:1-23

Merry Christmas

We are enjoying our winter break and our Christmas presents from Grandma Peggy and Papa Gary.  Snowshoes!  Merry 

Christmas from our trail to yours.

(somehow, Sam missed being in front of the camera)

Merry Christmas.

Jennifer

Thankful Thursday {Paige in glasses}

I am oh-so thankful for this sweet girl.

We just picked up her new glasses today.

Doesn't she look so much older!

Paige, our sweet, sweet lovebug.

Everything is just a little bit clearer today.

Down

I must admit that I am feeling a bit homesick today.

 I am missing my family. I am missing my friends.  I am missing the usual routine of the Christmas season.  I am missing my church family.  I am missing my morning run with my super duper running buddy.  I am missing the wildlife (I know, right, I haven't even seen a bunny).  I am missing the fabric store.  I am missing my neighbors right across the street.  I am pretty much missing my life.

A very wise woman once told me that a pity party is no fun because it is only a party for one.  I am the only one at my pity party today.  I guess I better get up off the couch, put the Christmas cookies away, take off this old FHS sweatshirt from 1992 and get moving.

Today is the first day that I have really felt sad about moving.  We are so blessed and grateful for this move. Living here rocks and  I do love it.  But today I am missing all the familiars just a bit.

I keep telling the kids that even when something (school, routine, friendship)  looks different, it doesn't mean that it is bad.  Just a different kind of good.  Maybe I should be taking my own advice.

Chin up, Jennifer.  Life is good.

***WWHBUT

***What we have been up to.

It has been a crazy month. Isn't December always a crazy time and it blows by so fast?  It is a mystery to me.  It is so hard to believe that Christmas is only a week and a half away.  No matter how much we try and enjoy the season, it seems to speed by in a flash of red and green.
So.....here are some pics from the last couple weeks.  Warning: these pictures are *SOOTC. No editing was involved in the making of this blog post.

* Straight out of the camera.

Yeah, we got Christmas spirit. Do you?

Alice decorating the Christmas tree

Where should this ornament go?  So many spots, so far away.

Decorating gingerbread choo-choos. Are we having fun yet?

Sam and Mason displaying their gingerbread house. They were just happy to have finished before their sisters.

Friends from COS come to visit and the girls perform a dance.  

Mason hanging out with his "girl"friend.  They were showing off their weapons.

Scott's parents are here visiting for a week.  They got to see the stores today and check out the kids' school.  Last night we attended the school holiday program.  It was very cute and so worth the third row seats.  I, of course, still had on my crazy parent hat on and got to the school gym 25 minutes early to get some decent seats while all the other parents came strolling in at the suggested time and got their seats with no worry. I gotta lose this hat, like seriously throw it in a ditch full of snow. Oh! Did I mention it is snowing?  We love snow.

I hope you are all having a fantastic and blessed Christmas season.
Love, Jennifer

Hiking to Rainbow Lake

This afternoon, after watching two movies, our kiddos needed an outdoor break. Scott has been running a lot of the trails around Frisco and scouted this one out just this morning.  It was a little over a mile up to Rainbow Lake.  Very hikable (probably not a word) for the 10 and under crowd.  It was a perfect trail for releasing energy. The kids had fun sliding on all the ice.  Knees, bellies and bums all worked for slip sliding around.  

Now I know during the summer months you all get very tired of seeing us running around in bathing suits.  Now you better get used to seeing us in hats, boots and winter gear.  It sure is pretty in the winter but I know we are going to appreciate those warm summer months too!

Off to make some hot cocoa and warm up!

Jennifer

The Hunt

Our annual hunt for THE Christmas tree started out really well. We were actually hunting for two trees this year, a large one for the basement and a smaller one for the front window.  We found the smaller one pretty quickly but the hunt for the daddy tree went on longer than four kids can handle.  After quite a few tears and a stop back at the car to warm up hands and toes, THE tree was found.  Alice and Scott did the honors of cutting it down.  We hauled both of the trees on top of the car and headed home (well, Scott hauled them on top of the car but I was there to take pictures and moral support so I am going with WE).  Here are a few of the many (113 to be exact) pictures I snapped.

I hope you are having an awesome Saturday!
Much love, Jennifer

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

....a big huge mess, that what.

This morning I finally got our family room organized and cleaned up. This afternoon, we made a visit to storage and hauled over about 8 big boxes of Christmas "stuff" and now it is sitting in my clean family room.  Lights and ornaments and angels, oh my!

We made a really good effort to cut down our Christmas tree today but that didn't work out.  Hopefully we can get the tree next weekend or else we may have to visit the dreaded Christmas tree lot.  Scott's least favorite place during the holidays :)  He REALLY enjoys cutting his own tree.  And it is a lot cheaper.  A lot.

The three older kids all got a couple hours on their skis this weekend.  Scott took Sam and Alice yesterday and Paige got her turn this afternoon.  It was perfect weather for hitting the slopes, sunny and warm.  Hopefully one of us will be able to ski with Mason sometime this week.

Sewing has been on my mind a lot lately and I am hoping to get to it this week.  All that fabric, so little time.  I have a couple projects started that really need to be finished.  I could really use a couple more hours in my day.

I haven't taken any pics in the last couple days so I thought that I would find some on the old hard drive that I didn't get a chance to post.  Actually, these are some that I took for my mom as a birthday gift. This was on one our last days in Colorado Springs before moving on up to the mountains.  It was a gorgeous day and I could have stayed out all day snapping pics of the kids.  Not sure if they were equally as excited as me :)

Happy Sunday night!  Have a great Monday!
Jennifer

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

We have been blessed with the love of family and great friends and we have so much in which to be thankful.
Yesterday, we had a wonderful day with our family in Colorado Springs.  The weather was beautiful and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins outside.  Many thanks to my sister (in-law) and brother for such an awesome Thanksgiving dinner and also to my parents for putting us up at their home for part of the week.

Now we move on to Christmas.  It's the happiest season of all, for goodness sake.  

Jennifer