Month: December 2008

Gabriel’s first Christmas was a blast. For all of us. I didn’t think he would get a kick out of opening gifts at just seven months old, but he did. Too cute! He loved bags, tissue paper, ribbons… and yes, he even liked some of his gifts. 😉 I still think his favorite “toys” are spoons. He loves spoons. Go figure.
We have more snow forecasted for the weekend. So maybe our snow will soon be up to my shoulders… wouldn’t that be interesting. 🙂 We think we may invest in a snowblower next year. hehe.
My parents also just celebrated their 33rd anniversary this week, so the four of us kids and the grandbabies took dinner there for a celebration that day. It was fun.
Plus, my grandparents are in town, so we’ve had good times with them as well.
I will upload some pictures to show y’all what we’ve been up to. I’m especially pleased, since I was given a fantastic new camera yesterday! Now my pictures will hopefully be consistently more in focus. 🙂
We’ve sure enjoyed the Advent season of prayer, song, chocolate, and lots of expectation. Now we are enjoying celebrating Christmas! And we are also looking forward to Epiphany. Although we are not really doing anything for the 12 days of Christmas until then, it’s fun to see what some of our friends are doing. Gives us ideas for the future. Tonight is our church dinner and Christmas celebration. Steven and I were so involved in the Christmas Eve service (did I mention that we managed to get my harp to and from church that night without incident, even with ALL the snow??), that tonight we are mostly just going to enjoy the food and fun and fellowship. The only thing I’m “involved with” is singing a duet — the Benjamin Britten version of “This Little Babe.” That’ll be super fun. We’ll see if the cold I have allows me to sing as high as I’m supposed to… wish me luck. 😉

Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully you blogging friends will post your own pics soon too. Can’t wait to see ’em!
 

Just a note.

Yes, it’s still snowing.
No, we still haven’t gotten mail in a week.
Yes, our road finally got plowed out about two hours ago!!
AND one of our neighbors even surprised us by snow-blowing our driveway!!
Yes, we were able to have our Christmas party.
No, we are decidedly not dampened by the weather.
WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT OUR INCREDIBLY WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Woo hoo, wading through butt-deep snow is FUNFUNFUN!!!

🙂
the end.

So…. our entire county is practically snowed in. Woo hoo! It’s awesome. Unprecedented and gorgeous. 🙂 Thankfully Steven can work from home, so he was blessed not to have to take the last 2 1/2 days of the workweek unpaid. Praise the Lord! And it gave me lots of time to finish up all my Christmas baking! Today I just did a double batch of cookies plus four kinds of breads (whole wheat, pretzel white, banana, & gingerbread), after yesterday doing two kinds of cookies and another day doing three kinds of cookies. Yay for being done a week before Christmas!! I also got all of our gifts wrapped and under the tree. So pretty!
And today we went on a Family Outing in the knee-deep snow: we delivered plates of Christmas cookies to our neighbors. We knew they’d be home,  since no one is really leaving their homes at all. 🙂 We have 27 inches right now, with more in the forecast. So pretty!! I loves it muchly. 🙂 And it’s been super fun trying to introduce Gabriel to his first big snow.

…going to WalMart yesterday for a couple things, most importantly, peppermint extract… just to find out that there is only ONE bottle left and it is waaaaay back on the top shelf, laying down… so a tall gentleman worker reached it for me and I emphatically said THANKS & gave it to Gabriel to hold while I looked for bagel chips… but of course they are not carrying bagel chips currently… so I go to the check-out counter to find that the peppermint extract has disappeared!… so I put all my things back in the cart and truck around the entire grocery section again to find where Gabriel dropped it… to no avail… asked some other worker… no help… checked out sans peppermint extract, with hopes of Safeway coming through… drive to Safeway, get myself & the baby out into the heavily falling snow and “skate” across the icy parking lot… to find that they too are OUT of peppermint extract!!

My next endeavor? To find the perpetrator that has bought up all the peppermint extract in my county. 😉
Haha.
And in the meanwhile, I settled with Mint Extract to make my chocolate-mint cookies.

The End.

…standing in the post office line for 35 minutes with a fussy baby on my hip, just to get to the counter & realize 1) they don’t take credit OR debit, 2) I have $13 in my wallet, 3) my package is a couple bucks more than that. Oops. 🙂

…temperatures between 0 and 9 degrees so far since I awoke this morning, and then spending the last HOUR trying to keep the stoves stoked & blazing… cuz they don’t want to stay lit!

…making “plans” but realizing that God + Gabriel frequently change my plans!

…bemoaning the local radio station for its plethora of stupid ads + repetitive stupid songs, and then finding my new love of PANDORA.COM!!! woo hoo 🙂

Yes, I guess it has been longer since I’ve posted than I thought…
So, here are current random thoughts & updates.

• we are expecting A NIECE & A NEPHEW in just a couple more months! Ashley and the babies are all doing really well. Here’s a pic — aren’t they beautiful?? Love them. Plus, this pic cracks me up.
• 
• it’s a superbly exciting time of year for our family as we celebrate the season of Advent and soon Christmas! It makes for a super busy me… since we are trying to go as homemade as possible. So there has been less interneting (new verb for me) and more crafting. And since I can’t post pics of gifts, you get no proof of the pudding. Poor you.
• the teaching semester is about to end, so I am looking forward to having a few weeks off from music lessons. I love the kids I teach this year, but it will be nice to have a bit of a break. I’ve been doing piano, harp, & choir a lot in church lately… and am doing all the music at our Christmas Eve service… so yeah, lots of music going on ’round here!
• Gabriel is continuing to grow up so much. At 6 1/2 months he is just over 17 pounds (so okay, maybe the turkey was a little too big…), and 27 inches tall. He hates being on his tummy so there is so inclination to crawl whatsoever. I’m totally okay with that. 🙂 He does love to walk though! He will stand up “on his own” if his back is against the couch, or my knee, or something. And if you hold his hands, he tries to walk around the house. It’s super cute. His favorite things are: baths, cuddling with Grandmama, Baby Bach on the computer, playing with my silicone basting brush, his blankie, playing peek-a-boo, and riding around on my back. We are more in love with this little boy every day. Praise God for this gift!
• 
• I’ve realized that my “occupation” (homemaking + mommyhood) is so vast. That might be obvious, but hey — I take a while to catch on sometimes. Also, I’ve concluded that it is simultaneously the most glorious & the most humbling thing I have ever done.
• the Lord continues to be my strength for both the big and the small. And I am seeking daily to lean on HIS understanding and toss away my own understanding. This is a never-ending endeavor, but God has been so gracious recently in teaching me. I am thankful.
• Steven was hired into a new position and while ago (I think I already wrote a post about that, but I continue to be SO PROUD of him, his diligence, and his hard work!!) and is doing really well. We passed our 18-month-iversary recently, and feel more in love all the time. I used to laugh when people said “it just gets better with time” — but that was before I was married. Now I know the cliche is true. I love this man. And happy birthday to him, too — we just celebrated his 26th!
• 
• we are hooked on a new dvd series — 24. Wow, I am so addicted. I check the mail far too often, waiting for the next disc to arrive. haha.
• I am gearing up to make Christmas cookies — sugar cookies, gingersnaps, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate thumbprints… am I missing any family favorites??

Blessings upon you. Thanks for checking in on us. We are a busy family. A thankful family. A so-in-love family. We praise God for all of this! Happy Advent !

Steven and Gabriel on Thanksgiving!

Gabriel’s first snow!

Gabriel’s first Christmas tree!

Gabriel was the same weight as his first Thanksgiving turkey!

Here’s the tree, all decorated and twinkly.

And here is my mitten Advent Calendar. I actually just finished stuffing each one with chocolates and Scripture verses. I still need to attach the hanger to it, so it can go on the wall. 🙂