Special Delivery from Germany!

My dear friends Mindi and Clark are are so blessed to have been sent by the Army to spend a few years in Germany!! And we are also blessed because they have been sharing bits of Germany with us in all sorts of ways.

Last week a special package from them arrived here. Mindi had told me a gift for the family would be on its way, so when it came I set it aside for us to all open together after dinner. I like to take a bunch of pictures of stuff like this to share with the wonderful folks who send us things so that they can see how much it brightens our lives to be thought of in such a sweet way.






Ramsey read the card to us.


Alaire just flashed a cute smile for her Nanny and Uncle Clark. :)


It's a German Christmas Pyramid which Mindi explained is very traditional German Christmas decor. The nativity is depicted throughout the tiers of the pyramid, and when the candles are lit, the propeller at the top causes the wise men and animals to revolve around Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.




It is so beautiful, and I am so grateful to Mindi for sending this to us. It will always be a precious addition to our home during the Christmas season--a good reminder both of the true meaning of Christmas and of how blessed we are with amazing lifelong friends.

We aren't usually so early in getting our Christmas tree up. These growing kids are pretty amazing helpers now, though. I remember the days of strategically putting my wee ones down for naps before attempting the tree trimming madness, but we've gotten to a stage that I simply couldn't do it without them! They get so excited about opening the ornament boxes and seeing the familiar ornaments again, and reminiscing over handmade ornaments they've made at home or school over the years, then claiming which are their own and finding the perfect spots on the tree for them.





We had the tree decorated in no time. And there was a little gift beneath the tree for each of them. They could hardly wait to tear into them.









The gifts were their annual personalized ornaments from Cook and Pop. Usually Cook gives them to them on Christmas Eve, but since she had them shipped directly to me this year, I decided to wrap them up and let the kids open them on tree-trimming day so that they can enjoy them all season long. And they're precious, Cook! Thank you!

Our Thanksgiving Day

For the first time since we've had children, Aaron and I did all our own Thanksgiving cooking and prepared the entire feast for our little family right here at home. We cooked all the stuff that our families have prepared all our lives, and it was so nice to have my mom's homemade bread, my dad's sweet potatoes, Granny Jeannette's cranberry salad, and many other traditional dishes made by our own hands right here in our kitchen even though they're all several states away.

I started the day off with a wonderful mass that truly got my heart in just the right place, and I had such a wonderful, relaxed day with my family. We cooked together, we prayed and ate together, we played Phase 10 with Ramsey and Maren for hours, and watched family movies together. We ended the night by looking through a ton of old family photos in a box we brought up from the basement, and then we tucked everyone in.

Here is the view of all my blessings as seen from my end of the table today.

 

 

and for a little extra cuteness, this is the apple turkey Alaire made in Kindergarten earlier this week. :)

 

Today We Give Thanks

Today our entire nation gives thanks universally. Let us keep that feeling of gratitude with us every single day and always be mindful of the many blessings God sends our way.


thanks⋅giv⋅ing [thangks-giv-ing]
–noun
1. the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God.
2. an expression of thanks, esp. to God.
3. a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness.
4. a day set apart for giving thanks to God.
5 Thanksgiving Day.

Cold Night

A few nights ago it got very cold! So cold that we woke up to a teensy bit of snow Tuesday morning. In anticipation of that, all the kids got into their "pitter patter" jammies!

 

 

 

 

Cuteness

 

from a day Ramsey had off from school for teacher workshop stuff. Interesting dynamics when the oldest and the youngest get some "private time" as Curran calls it. Pretty sweet.

To Honor Our Veterans

The girls' elementary school put on such an adorable celebration to honor veterans this week. Parents were invited, and all veterans were invited. The music teacher has obviously been working very hard to prepare the entire student body for this, and it was just wonderful!

Each student who happened to bring along a special veteran guest got to stay after the performance for breakfast with their veteran while the others had to return to class. When Maren mentioned this to me the week before, I told her I'd be there, but since Daddy had class at that time, she shouldn't count on him attending. But what do you know? Daddy was able to skip a class (shhhh) in order to be there for his girls. Mamie was SO excited when she looked out into the crowd and found her special veteran there standing beside me.

After the breakfast we walked Alaire back to her class, and then we went to Maren's class where the students took turns reading an essay they each wrote about a veteran they know. I am so impressed with the effort the teachers, administration, and children went through to make this day such a special one.










Maren and Alaire have come home singing the famous melodies of military tunes almost since the first week of school. The music teacher has been teaching them a medley of military tunes honoring each branch of the service, and I finally got to see and hear it all put together. She asked all the veterans there if they would please stand when their particular branch's song was sung so the audience could recognize who was there representing each branch of service. It was very sweet to see some of our older generation veterans getting a little teary-eyed as they sang along with those old familiar songs, and that got me a little choked up as well. My videography is pretty horrible, but if you're not too scared of motion sickness, it's kinda cute to see and hear, and it's a great reminder to be grateful to all our heroes who have played a role in defending and protecting our country and our freedom.

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The Night of Bo Lings and Bowling

from a couple months ago...

One night when we told the kids we were going to Bo Lings (yummmmmy chinese food), Alaire got all excited and said "Really?? I've always wanted to go BOWLING!!" We laughed at that, then we figured, why not? So after Bo Lings, sure enough we all went for our first-ever family night of bowling. :)

Today this picture of Alaire in the bowling shoes looking so grown just jumped out at me begging to be blogged, so here it is along with a couple others from that fun night.

 

 

 

Gorgeous Sunny Days

Unseasonably warm at 70+ degrees for the last few days, it has been just beautiful!! We've been enjoying some outdoor time while it lasts.












today was so nice, Alaire put on a sundress...