Leavenworth 2013

Grandma and Grandpa blessed our family again this year by giving us another trip to Leavenworth! A couple of days after Christmas we all head out to Smallwood's Harvest and take over their three, sweet, little "cottages". We stay at Apple Blossom Inn, the main hang out where everyone else comes and goes at their leisure. We put together puzzles, drink hot cocoa, watch morning cartoons, played the Wii in the big kid's room (whoever is Toad has to wear the mushroom hat!), read magazines and eat.

Emma also brought along her Christmas present, Luna the hedgehog! We were so excited to meet a real hedgehog. She was pretty scared at first but she warmed up after a while and came out of her prickly ball shape. Pella and Kivi loved holding her in her little flannel sack.

There wasn't really that much snow, but Dada figured out a way to get both Opal and Jasper aquainted with skiing down the little hill we usually sled on. It was mainly ice, but he just held onto them with a luggage strap and walked/jogged behind them. Eben and Kivi skied the little distance down the hill and then walked the skis back up. Pella enjoyed sledding and Berg stayed warm inside with cousins and Aunty Tonya.

One of the more memorable things we did was drive into Leavenworth proper and take a walk along the ice with Grandma and Grandpa. All of the paths were covered with about 3 inches of ice. After we made a complete loop along the river and back up through the town we decided to wait for Dada to get the van so we wouldn't have to walk down the extremely steep hill where we had parked, but Dada never came to get us. We realized he was stuck and couldn't get the van back up the steep hill. So we all walked, very slowly, down the treacherously slippery hill to see if sitting in the van would give the van more traction. Nope. So, we took the same, very icy, slow walk back along the river and up through town because we couldn't even walk up the steep hill which we were trying to drive. Uncle Chris came to the rescue and brought us chains while we had lunch at the ginger-bread house looking restaurant, (which for a cute, kid-friendly looking place has nothing kid-friendly to eat except cookies and we didn't get those). However, the chains worked, we were able to wait in a warm place, and get back to our Inn.

 The whole Johnson clan posing for the traditional Leavenworth picture.

Christmas Day 2013

We started off our Christmas morning by singing, "Happy Birthday" to Jesus while coming up the stairs and letting the kids blow out His candles, this time on Dada's homemade, super yummy cinnamon rolls.

We read Luke chapter two while Nonnie and Poppie followed along via web cam and lit our advent candles and the Christ candle before we ate a delicious breakfast of Dada's rolls, and quiche. 

After everyone had their fill, Dada handed out the stockings. The kids love this part and loved getting all the little treats and necessities like individually wrapped fruit snacks and toothpaste. I'm so glad they are grateful no matter what the present. They just love the excitement and the fun this day brings. We went slow so that Grandma and Grandpa could join us and open their stockings too.

We decided to make it feel less chaotic and each child feel more apprieciated by all stopping to watch what every person opened. It made the opening part of the day much longer! But we were able to see what everyone got this way and take time for thank yous in between.

Dodie and poor, sick Mr. Steve joined us along with Uncle Chris, Auntie Tonya and all three cousins!

Dada sent us on his traditional scavenger hunt for the last, big gift. We got stumped at the wise men clue because we have so many nativity scenes around the house, but we finally found the last clue and then the presents in the van! The kids got a (free, hand-me-down!)Wii. (The first video game system is entering our house!!!) They played downstairs on the MamaDada bed for the rest of the day! Dada also surprised me with new, orange plates! A fun twist to our dining experience and we don't run out of little plates now.

Dada also decided to hydrofoil in the freezing water of our little lake and was pulled (or shall I say left in the water to freeze for a really long time until she got the boat figured out) by Shmee. Those of us who were not in the water really enjoyed it!

It was happy and sad. There were exciting parts and boring parts of the day. Lots of love and some arguments, too. It was family near and far altogether. It was a celebration of life, death and new life, of love coming down to earth. It was Christmas.

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!