God bless us, every one!

Nice so Cal Christmas day here today with a high of perhaps 70 degrees (in the sun), which still feels very weird to us in the winter - especially at Christmas time. One doesn't realize how much the "winter wonderland" concept contributes to the Christmas feel till one is out jogging on Dec 25 in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. Second year now so we should be used to it, but still, it just feels wrong.

There was great enthusiasm for Christmas this year among the kids, spearheaded of course by J. Church, dinner, advent candles, books, and stockings last night and a great Christmas morning today. Y and I put a fair amount of thought into the day, schedule, and how many presents we want the kids to receive (not too many), and we were pleased with how things went. The kids were delighted with their gifts and we kept things slow and focused enough that they could enjoy them throughout the day. Yesterday the kids colored some place settings to decorate the festive dining room table - Q did the girls' and J did the boys'; it's fun to begin building some holiday traditions with them. Q, who was up an hour earlier than normal for stockings and is finally cutting her two-year molars, had some challenging moments by the time we reached our roast beef lunch - but hey, so it goes.

We went over to our friends, Dave and Courtney's, house for a low-key gathering around 5:30 pm which was fun. Dave has been joining Y in some of his morning duck-hunting ventures which has been nice... They and happy Angus will be off in the morning at 4:30 AM tomorrow once again. Y's parents also arrive tomorrow for a week-long visit, about which we're all very excited!

Second annual dinner and carol sing

Saturday night we spent a delightful evening at the Scherreis' house next door for dinner, yuletide cheer, and a carol-sing. Y and I supplied dinner for the adults (this year a garlic shrimp pasta), and Chuck and Kim host and do kids' dinner. Works out great; everyone should have so ideal a next-door-neighbor set-up.

At the Christmas dinner last year, we told them the news of our pregnancy with baby L over chicken pot pie... And this year there she was, a full four months old and 15 lbs... and rolling over now too, as of last weekend! Funny how long a pregnancy seems during it and how short once it's over.

We belted out some carols, led by Chuck on guitar (with Y assisting), and the kids helped with drums and maracas... and dance!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Those of you who know me well know that Martha Stewart, I'm not. Decidedly not. But this fall I've been working to develop some homeward diligence, and Christmas is perfect to start practing some fledgling skills and work on some low-key decorating.... I'm also not too crafty of a person, and thus of a mom, and tend to avoid things involving paint, construction paper, scissors and the like with wee ones as much as possible. Another area I'm trying to break out of my comfort zone in (because hey, with three kids in the house 4 and under, how unhelpful is it to be disinterested in making fun stuff with them?)

Hence this week J and I stuffed some bud vases with some cheap greens I got at the local nursery and tied some red ribbons around them to place around the house. Very cute, I must say. We also stuck a couple of branches we found on the lawn near his preschool (very difficult to find branches around here, so this was a feat in itself) in some glass pitchers with sandbox sand at the bottom to stabilize them and then decorated the branches with some bulbs and homemade decorations the kids have made at school and church. Likewise, pleasing. On the craft side I bought some $1 stand-up snowmen and let the kids color them for room decorations, which delighted them. And since J is very interested in gingerbread men, we made, colored, and hung some paper chain gingerbread-men garlands (not pictured). So definitely a step forward this month on the domestic attentiveness and craft-oriented fronts.

Adding to the yuletide cheer this week was J's preschool Christmas program - since it's a church-based program, it was in fact Christmas program which was much appreciated. They sang a number of carols and songs including Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Jingle Bells, and Happy Birthday Jesus. They also did a kid-involved telling of the nativity story, led by the church pastor, which included the kids calling out barn animal sounds, appropriate faces for angels and innkeepers, and "are we there yet?" comments for weary Mary and the youngest shepherd en route to visiting baby Jesus. (Cute, of course, but thanks Pastor Matt for planting that seed for future car-rides!) It was a red-letter event that J relished and the whole family enjoyed.

What child is this?

Why it's our new niece/cousin Sophia Lyons! She arrived Tuesday in Montgomery, AL, second daughter of my sister and her husband. Sophie was eagerly anticipated and pleased everyone by arriving via VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) - an enormous blessing.

My sister and I, ourselves 25 months apart and very close, each now have two daughters exactly 24 months apart. So fun. Q is four months older than Caroline and now L is four months older than Sophie. The dress-up fests and tea parties these girls will have together - I can hardly wait to see! (And of course tree-climbing outings and such was ringleader and so far solo male J...)

Tiny tree trim

Last December we got our Christmas tree during a road-trip north to San Luis Obispo at a sweet farm stand. We got a smallish one and put it atop our living room table in the bump-out section at the front of our house - a perfect spot for a Christmas tree. It worked well so we decided to do the same this year, minus the road trip, and thus were faced with where to buy our tree. We have friends who cut their own nearby but a) it feels weird to us to cut down our own tree in a warm weather climate far from hints of snow, and b) we prefer fir trees, and the cut-down options here are pine. In the end Y went out Saturday with the two big kids to buy something basic, inexpensive, and on the small side from a local venue. He ended up with a 3 1/2 foot tree which suffices but, shall we say, would not have been our selection had I been present. :) Nevertheless the kids delighted to decorate it on Sunday after our third advent dinner and homemade-sugar-cookie ("cutter," in Q's case) gluttony... A festive time had by all.

Y broke out his guitar once or twice last week and has been practicing a couple Christmas carols, much to the kids' delight. So far John Denver's "Christmas for Cowboys" is the only one getting much play, but we're working on it...

J's eventful weekend

Big weekend here for our resident four-year old... On Saturday he attended his first ever real-deal birthday party, and then yesterday he got to accompany his dad on a hunting venture for the first time.

The birthday party was given by one of his preschool friends, Cody, and since the family is new in town, all the attendees were members of J's preschool class. Of the 10 pupils, 8 were present along with one parent each - so it was almost like a little class bonding event. They had a pinata, pin-the-tail on the donkey, present-opening, lunch, cake, and ice cream. As traditional a little kids' birthday party as I could imagine (since I did all that stuff when I was little too). J had a wonderful time, needless to say, and I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the preschool kids and their parents a bit better. [Y had home-with-girls-duty.]

Y went duck-hunting twice over the weekend - the season is only 8 weeks long so he's packing it in there - and the second time J went along too. Angus as well, happy bird-hunting dog, so talk about male-bonding time! They saw but didn't get any shots at a few ducks and Y said it went "as well as it could have gone with a 4-yr old in a blind." Red letter event! Photo evidence (please note that J's "gun" is made of wood and is a practice-rifle for J. And do you love the boots with that outfit?!)

Weather

On Monday it rained... and I literally woke up wondering what that noise was (and if perhaps I might have left something running downstairs). Still strange to me, obviously, to live in a place where it rains that infrequently. Since then it has been cold, very cold for southern California. Yesterday was in the 50's all days, and everyone - even us - was freezing. Y and I were actually a surprised and a little embarrassed, to be honest, about how cold we were. One loses one's hardiness quickly, we realize - plus the total lack of incremental build-up is a complete shock to the system. One day it's 75 and you're in shorts, the next day it's 42 in the morning and you're pulling out the one wool sweater you have in your closet for stray cold weather like this.

Christmas cards are arriving, which is great fun for the kids; one of them had a picture of snowflakes on it. J didn't know what they were - we had to explain it to him. Likewise as we listen to carols and "Winter Wonderland" comes on... we have to run through the song, the winter, the concept of glistening snow and 'white' Christmas. It's a little sad. On the other hand I've just realized that the climate here in So Cal is pretty much the exact same climate as Israel where the first Christmas actually occurred... Even the palm trees you see in the Christmas books (y'know, behind the wise men on their camels) match up exactly to what we have here. So I guess that's a nice bonus.

Baking and baby

J has been asking to make gingerbread cookies every day for the past week, and he got his wish yesterday when he had our first baking fest for the Christmas season. The $3.99 I invested in new cookie cutters at Michael's was well worth it, and we did it up yesterday after breakfast. Later J helped me decorate while Q napped - I was on icing and he was on sprinkles - and was an excellent little assistant. As for Q - one remembers that a 2-year old is more of a liability than a help where cookie cutters are concerned, though she was an enthusiastic and happy soul throughout. Funniest of all is that she now calls Christmas cookies of every type 'cookie cutters,' as in "Look Daddy, I'm eating my cookie cutters." Too sweet.

Our dear fellow-New-Englander friends Dan and Rebecca had a beautiful baby girl, their second child, last weekend so we trekked out to Pasadena yesterday afternoon to meet little Josephine and bring them dinner. Andrea, our other friend from New England, joined us and we had a lovely celebratory gathering over lasagna. Andrea, Rebecca, and I have all had baby girls in the past 5 months - a fun bonding fact.

Y is hunting this weekend for the first time in nearly two years, about which he is fairly jubilant. He is out right now for the third time in 24 hours as he figures out the best spots, which ducks are permitted, etc. Yesterday as I baked lasagna J said," No Mom, for dinner we'll eat the duck that Daddy is going to shoot!" Talk about faith like a child, huh? (Alas, he was disappointed yesterday - though I'm sure our duck-for-dinner day is coming soon.)

The advent of advent

With a four-year old now in tow, we now really have the opportunity to delve into Christmas - the story, the meaning, the theology (in a basic way). So fun! Last Sunday we kicked off advent with a Christmas table cloth on the dining room table and a new advent wreath, complete with the full nativity scene. We had a special dinner - the kids' first sitting in the dining room (with, of course, the requisite spilled milk and wet carpet that goes with it, but well worth it). I even succeeded in making my first-ever gravy for a roast chicken dinner. Turns out it's not as hard or scary to do as I thought.

Each Sunday as we light another candle on the wreath we'll have a special Sunday dinner, probably with a different type of Christmas cookies too each week. The kids are already talking about next week! It's amazing how simple it is to develop traditions with young children if a mom is just organized and enthusiastic... The littlest things are eagerly adopted by small ones. It's very reinforcing to a mom, I must say. I'm thinking I'll break out the Christmas decorations a little at a time rather than all in one day - nativity scene one day, stockings another, fireplace decorations another - to keep things exciting and Christ-focused for the kids so I can explain each one and make a big deal of it.