Christmas Eve 2013

After attending our church's Christmas Eve candlelight service we all came home and opened the white boxes under the tree, the matching Christmas jammies! This year they were green, fuzzy, glittering and looked a little like astroturf. They were super comfy though. The girls were really excited because for the first time I made them dresses. They kept asking if I would make them dress jammies, but I never really said I would so they didn't know if they'd be getting dresses or pants. They jumped up and down when they saw them.

Then they all put them on and jumped inside their boxes that they had just opened and we played dance music while they pretended to be jack-in-the-boxes and danced around the living room until bedtime. They all chose to sleep together in the boys' room and have a fun Christmas sleepover.

Family Christmas Pageant 2013

On Sunday, December 22nd, our family put on a Christmas pageant for our church family. We had done this last year in the little chapel of our church and this year we held it in the auditorium. It's such an easy, fun and stress free way to put on a pageant and we all glorify God together.

All of the kids who wanted to be in the pageant came at 6:00 and got whatever costume on that they wanted to wear. Then I assigned parts of the Christmas story from Luke 2 for the older kids that wanted a reading part.

Peter played guitar and Jon accompanied us all on the piano while we sang Christmas carols that went hand in hand with the story of Christ's birth. Jasper started us off this year with the first part of the Christmas story.

As each reader told the story and we all sang, kids dressed as that part of the story went up on stage and became a living nativity.

At first, Pella came right up and stood by Dada and the microphone. Then she spent the rest of the time on Kivi's lap or on mine. Every once in a while she would go and pat baby Jesus. She called herself, "Big Sheep" which was funny because all the other sheep were our precious teenagers! It made my heart happy to see them all participate.

Eben chose to be a camel, he wanted to be the star, but the costume wasn't available this year.  (Which was good because our cute, little friend, Kenzie, made her own star costume.) He spent most of the time under his camel head. Jasper and Berg were wise men although we couldn't see Berg the whole time, he sat right behind the bearded wise man. Opal was a beautiful angel and even had a little reading part! She spent most of the time behind Kenzie.

The stage of our church filled with all of our gifts from God, telling the world about the most precious gift ever, Jesus. It was such a sweet scene.  I told the kids they were free to get off the stage if they wanted to go sit with their parents and were done being in costume, knowing the little ones could only last so long. We actually went through two Marys because our first one got tired. 

 For the last song we sang Silent Night a cappella by candlelight. Then we mingled with all of our friends over cocoa and cookies!

December - Week 3

We started off our week recovering from plays, cleaning the house, doing school and on Tuesday the 17th we cut and baked our gingerbread Bethlehem pieces. The kids all chose their own building to make. Some chose the same as last year and others wanted to make new sets. 

On the 18th we went over to the Schocks for our traditional Gingerbread Day! We had fun playing Christmas bingo,  eating lunch, decorating houses, eating candy, and watching a Little House Christmas.

Here is our finished Gingerbread Bethlehem 2013:

On December 19th, Jeremy had a viewing party for last year's Christmas play, The Mystery of Christmas it only took a whole year to be able to finally see it! Before we watched that movie we had our own Christmas movie day and these cute sisters cuddled each other on the Mama chair.

On the 20th we enjoyed a fun evening with our friends, the VanderPols. We had dinner, watched Planes and ate Mr. Tim's amazing popcorn!

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who gave us a zoo membership as an early Christmas present we battled the massive parking traffic and made it to Zoolights on December 21st. 

This is my group test shot. Peter is the only adult in our photo because the guy who we asked to take our picture didn't actually take any. I just now figured this out. So you have to imagine John, Shari, Zach and I in this photo too.

All the kid's in front of "the tree".

Our family pic caused a huge backup of people on both sides since we were blocking the sidewalk and it was super crowded this night.

 My Zoolight Love

Chin Nativity

The kids chose who they would be in the nativity story and one by one I took them down into the boys room (where it would be quiet), had them lay upside down on a pillow, dressed up their chin and interviewed their character. They ended up telling the story of the nativity in the cutest way. Eben then edited it on the Mac. I made his version a little shorter:

Opal as Mary:

Eben as Joseph:

Kivi as the Innkeeper:

Jasper as Shepherd 1:

 Berg as Shepherd 2:

Pella as Baby Jesus (and a sheep):

The shepherd part is definitely our favorite part. Jasper took on this hilarious accent throughout his interview, we had to cut out a lot of his. It went on forever. We quote this almost everyday. Our favorites are, "Baaa," "Come on sheep," "Bright light!" "They were God's angels" and "Oh Holy Gaaaawwwwwd, my Saviooooorrrrr"

December - Week 2

The second week of December included lots of plays and sewing. On Sunday the 8th, the big four and I went with our friends the Schocks to the Nativity Ballet. Before the ballet I snapped a pic of all the kids because they all looked so Christmassy after church.

 The kids reenacting the ballet they just saw:

We also stayed and let the kids make gingerbread cookies for the Heritage Christian School's Christmas performance which we saw the next night.

My poor sewing machine died on me. I go through them like hot cakes. Peter priced out trying to get it fixed and realized it was cheaper to just buy a new one. He got me a really nice Brother at Walmart and I taught him how to sew! He loved it! He actually ended up making all of the boys, his and my Christmas pants on Monday.

Kivi worked really hard using the new sewing machine too. She set a goal to buy lots of animals for people in poverty around the world. She set aside money from her own account and made bags out of our chicken feed bags to sell to make up for the rest of the money she needed. She worked so hard and has such a heart for giving.

They turned out beautifully and they are super strong! And as of yesterday she just sold her last bag so she can now buy the animals! She's so excited!

On the 12th, as we were eating breakfast, Opal laid down on my lap and I covered her eyes and nose with my hand while she talked. All of a sudden I got a great idea for how we would spend our homeschool day! I asked the kids, "Do you want to make a fun Christmas movie today?" and the Chin Nativity was born. I'll post this next!

December 13, 14 and 15th Peter, Kivi and I were in our church's Christmas play called, "The Christmas Plan" which was basically about how we had no plan for this year's production. I had a small part, Peter and Jeremy were the main "planners" of the play and Kivi didn't actually have a part in the play (although she and a covered up Eben were in the audition video) but Mr. Pritchard used her as an illustration during his sermonette. She was super cute demonstrating how we decide to reject or come to God!

December - Week 1

The first week of December is filled with fun adventures, traditions and outings to look forward to. This year, along with all of the advents we do each day, we also finished up our Madagascar books and continued doing school (we didn't take a break until the 20th), but we also had a lot of fun. 

On the first we all got our jammies on and headed over to our friends' the Norquists for a White Christmas movie, cider and popcorn tradition. They have let us share Jon's family's tradition with them for the past four years. 

Starting on the second, Dada took all of the kids on their own one-on-one. They look forward to this special time with Dada each year. 

On the fifth Eben and Kivi were invited to go see the Nutcracker in Seattle with our friends the Wrights and their homeschool group! They loved it! Eben talked about the sets for a long time.

On the sixth, we headed to Auburn for Journey to Bethlehem! This must have been the coldest night ever and I forgot jackets for both Berg and Pella! Thankfully Mr. Steve shared his blanket and carried Berg through the whole thing although he whimpered his way along most of the time. He was also very afraid of the Roman soldiers. Kivi also shared her head covering she had brought so she could be a nativity character while going through so I could wrap up Pella. She was much tougher than Berg and didn't cry as much.

We enjoyed seeing all the live animals, even through the freezing temperatures.

 We've been doing this for so many years now and have gotten quite a collection of shekels from the marketplace that Kivi brought 5 with her and tried to buy a basket, but was told they weren't really for sale. That's the first time we've seen them break character. I think she really caught them off guard, or they thought she was stealing shekels!

Jasper and Dodie trying to get warm before going in to see Caesar. On the way to J2B we hadn't had dinner and so seeing a little, old couple on the side of the road selling tamales we stopped and bought $20 worth. They were the best-tasting, warm tamales, so at least we had those warm in our bellies for our traveling in the cold. Grandma and Grandpa and the Raykovitz' travelled in our group too and afterward while enjoying hot cider and cookies we saw the VanderPols and the Schocks!

On the seventh, we enjoyed a beautiful Women's Christmas Luncheon at Lake City. The day before Kivi and I went to set up our Humble Stable Table. Our advent wreath became the centerpiece surrounded by one of our nativity sets, burlap and Shari's grandma's china. It was a truly a symbol of how simply Christ came into the world. Simple, not big and flashy. 

We had a wonderful time with some of our friends and Kivi and Grace were able to come too!

Right after the luncheon we went down to Olympia with our realtor, Barb, who was sitting next to me at the luncheon. The house was amazing, huge and right on the Black River! We had fun exploring and checking out the big 14 acre property, which 2 other creeks run through. We actually weren't looking for a new house, but our friends found this one and as an act of obedience to God we went and checked it out. Although it was great, it wasn't for us. We both felt very sure this was not God's plan for our family.

While we were there, we decided to see the Mima mounds. They were only about 5 minutes away and we'd never been before. Again, it was freezing, so we didn't stay long. We all walked over and let the big kids run over some of the mounds. Then Dada and a tired, slipped on the ice Berg went back to the van while we all read about what caused them. (No one really knows, so we didn't really learn anything except that they've been there ever since people can remember.) They were beautiful as the sun was setting over them.

Our Purposeful Christmas Tree

After I wrapped the lights, garland and ribbon around the tree, the kids took over the decorating. They can do everything else now because they're tall enough to reach the top on chairs and nothing on our tree is breakable!

They did a beautiful job! Once our tree was all decked out I explained that this year everything we do at Christmas time was going to have a purpose and meaning, including our tree. We put a lot of effort into getting a tree, decorating it and turning on the lights each morning. It seems like we make such a big deal about the tree that it should have a purpose and special meaning that relates to Christ too. I asked the kids why they thought we had the decorations on our tree that we did and on their own (except for the pinecones) they came up with a symbolic meaning for each one. 

The tree itself is wood so it reminds us that Jesus came into the world humbly, laid in a manger and then later died for our sin and pride on a cross.

The lights are because Jesus tells us to be the light of the world and let your light shine before men.

The red ribbon reminds us of the blood He shed for us. 

The icicles are symbolic of the nails that pierced His hands and feet for us.

The fruit all over our tree represents the fruit of the spirit. Apples, pears, peaches, cranberries, currants, raspberries are all we have so far, so we still need three more types I guess.

The raffia bows represent the straw in the manger.

The pinecones represent our spiritual walk. As we mature in Christ we become more like Him, our lives are open and our fruit is easy for others to see.

The star represents the star of Bethlehem that led the wisemen to worship Jesus and bring Him gifts, which we put under our tree! 

Each year a different child gets to put on the star. This year was Berg's turn!

We actually didn't pick these decorations for their spiritual symbolism, I just liked they way it all looked together, but now we love it even more because everything we put on our tree reminds us of Christ!

After we discussed our tree we got out What God Wants for Christmas and we all sang the songs, took turns opening the little boxes and put the pieces in the stable, while Eben and Kivi danced in the background.

Sweet girl worshipping our Lord with carols.

Pella holds baby Jesus while sucking her thumb. She calls Him "Baby King".