Christmas 2011

We had a very enjoyable Christmas weekend. On Christmas Eve we just hung around the house, visited family, and had a relaxing day. We went to church in the evening and took part in West Hills' beautiful Christmas Eve service.

We put our gifts out on Christmas eve 

 Christmas Eve pancakes: gingerbread pancakes with sprinkles (and others had crushed candy cane)

Christmas Day was a lot of fun. Mark's parents and grandma joined us for Christmas morning and enjoyed watching the boys open their presents. The boys loved having their grandparents over for Christmas morning.

 Present opening

One of the boys' favorite gifts was a pack of water guns which, I have to admit, we didn't even buy. Throughout the year, Mark's mom will give us thrift store and garage sale finds for the boys - stuff she finds that she knows the boys will love, and that she got at an incredible discount. Sometimes we'll give the stuff to them right away, and sometimes we'll tuck it away to save for later. These water guns were one of the things I tucked away and totally forgot about. I didn't remember them until I was doing some pre-Christmas purging and found them in the back of a closet. Tommy immediately filled his with water and headed outside to 'test' it. The boys played with them the rest of the day.

After present opening, we played with our gifts (the boys played with their guns, I played with the ice cream maker Mark gave me and made some strawberry ice cream ;). We took a walk through our local vineyard - the boys brought their water guns and shot everything in sight with water. In the evening we had dinner with Mark's family. It was a relaxed, low-key day, but still very full and a lot of fun.  

Doing Christmas Things

For some reason, I haven't been able to get into the "holiday spirit" this year. All month it hasn't bothered me too much; I think I was hoping that the closer we got to Christmas, the more I'd get in the spirit of things. But so far, it feels like a normal month, just with more stuff to do. Since I've got kids who are old enough to remember doing fun things last year at Christmastime, I haven't been able to get away with actually pretending it's a normal month (not that I would actually do that. Ahem.)

So, here are some of the fun Christmas things we've been up to:

Cutting down our Christmas tree at a local tree farm.

Decorating our Christmas tree. This year we let the boys have full autonomy with decking it with ornaments. So what if all the ornaments ended up in the bottom four feet of the tree?

Fast forward two weeks. The tree in the above photos died. It was really depressing having a completely dead tree with two weeks left until Christmas, so we got a cheap replacement from Home Depot. That'll teach us to keep a closer eye on the tree's water level! Sidenote: Don't these LED lights make our living room look like a disco?

Making Christmas cards for family.

Rolling molasses cookies. I love that the boys are old enough to be able to help with useful (and tedious) things like rolling cookie balls. 

 Frosted and sprinkled molasses cookie. Not sure why the cookie maker was so somber.

Glitter snowflakes. 

One night we surprised the boys with driving around looking at Christmas lights. Mark researched all the good spots in San Jose. As you can see, some of the houses were just incredible.


I'm thankful that the real reason we celebrate Christmas isn't about cookies or twinkle lights or presents. When I think about it, much of the 'Christmas feelings' that I'm missing out on are just associated with cultural traditions. The real purpose of Christmas is to celebrate and be thankful that God sent us his only son, in the humble form of an infant, who would grow up to be our savior. It's about more than being in 'the holiday spirit'; it's remembering every day throughout the year that Christ has saved us. When I think of Christmas in that way, it doesn't bother me so much that I'm not feeling so holly-jolly.

Christmas 2010

Christmas eve was a nice mix of chores and family time. We had a breakfast of gingerbread pancakes, which is everyone's favorite wintertime treat, and then watched part of It's a Wonderful Life together. Then we spent the rest of the morning working outside doing yard work. I helped Mark while the boys found all sorts of things to climb on and jump off of. After lunch and naps it was time for West Hills' Christmas Eve service, and then to our friends' house for a birthday party for Jesus. The whole evening was a sweet time of fellowship and reflection on Christ and His love and sacrifice.

Christmas morning with the boys was a lot of fun, particularly since they didn't even know they were getting presents. Tommy came out of his room asking, "Is it Christmas Day now?" and Ben was the first to notice that there were presents underneath the tree. He said, "Tommy!! Look! There's presents!!" in an awed voice. We continued our tradition of giving three gifts that match those of the Three Wise Men plus a book (simply so I can have an excuse to buy hardcover classics). Their main gift was a pair of waterproof RC cars. They spent the rest of the day playing with them. 

The rest of the morning was spent hanging out in our PJs watching some more Jimmy Stewart, visiting grandparents, and playing with our toys. We had a yummy Christmas dinner in the evening with Mark's parents and grandma and then an early bedtime for all. It was a pleasant and relaxing Christmas!

Christmas 2009

On the morning of Christmas eve the boys both came down with colds, and so we had a very slow day.  They both woke up super early (thanks to their colds) and no amount of persuasion would convince them it was still nighttime.  So they got to watch Bambi while I got my act together and made breakfast.  


Mark took the boys with him to do outdoor work at his parents' house while I stayed home and did meal prep for Christmas dinner and cleaned the house.  We decided not to go to church in the evening because of the boys' colds, which was very sad to me because I love our church's Christmas eve service and had been looking forward to it for weeks.  Instead, we went out to eat at a yummy Italian restaurant, came home to do our final celebration of advent, and put the boys to bed early and watched Love Actually together.

Sleepy boys watching Bambi

On our way to Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas morning was much the same as yesterday morning, early, yet slow.  Both boys woke up early again, but this time I was already awake before them because of my own cold.  We ate freshly baked gingerbread and apple slices on the couch while Mark read the story of Jesus' birth from our favorite storybook Bible, and then opened our presents.  The boys both received Tag readers as their 'big' present and they spent most of the morning playing with them.  The Tag Junior is a bit above Ben's level (rated for ages 2-4) and the original Tag reader (ages 4-7) is a bit above Tommy's level, but we hope they'll grow into them in a few months.  


The rest of the day was mellow: we took a meandering walk around the neighborhood, then returned for a lunch of leftovers, and all took early naps.   After naps we hung out around the house some more and then headed over to Mark's brother's house for our extended family Christmas celebration, and then returned home for our Christmas dinner.

While there were many happy moments during this Christmas, overall it's been a pretty rough week. The kids getting sick has been difficult, mainly because of the sheer volume of whininess and clinginess.  I've also been struggling with sadness over the child I wish was with us this year and feeling impatient for another one, yet feeling like I "should" be happy simply because it's Christmas, and people are supposed to be happy, right?  I'm honestly happy this holiday season is over, and I'm looking forward to the new year. 

Tommy trying on Mark's new sweatshirt

Mark and Ben playing with the Tag Junior

Tommy engrossed in The Cat in the Hat.  He also received The Little Engine That Could, Green Eggs and Ham, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! for his Tag reader.

Weekend Review

In an effort to slow down as we near the Christmas Day, we decided to stay home all weekend and do as close to nothing as we possibly could.  I think we were pretty successful.  





On Saturday we woke up late (and when I say we, I mean Mark and the boys, since as a mom I am biologically unable to sleep past 6:15am) and had a big breakfast complete with pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and fruit.  Then we went on a family walk to the high school down the street so the boys could ride their bikes over the speed bumps in the parking lot, which is one of the great joys in their lives.  Then we returned home, put a fire in the fireplace, and read books on the couch for awhile.  Actually, we just read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel three times. After this, we built and decorated a gingerbread train.  It was sticky, sugary good fun.  Afterwards, I put the finished train on top of the stove and told the boys not to touch it (yes, our children still need to be told not to touch things on top of the stove).  As I walked away I heard Tommy telling Ben in a very serious tone "We can't touch.  I'm letting it dry.  It needs pribacy."  

After the boys went down for a nap, I made sugar cookies from scratch broke apart pre-made, pre-cut "Christmas Shape" sugar cookies and baked them, so the boys and I could decorate them later in the day.  Sugar cookies are Mark's favorite and I had planned to make them from scratch, like I do every year at this time, but Christmas week snuck up out of nowhere and I decided my time would be more wisely spent outside of the kitchen, rather than spending half a day rolling, cutting, freezing, and re-rolling cookies.  After the cookies were done baking, I did something unprecedented and watched a movie during naptime by myself.  

After nap time we went to the playground, then came home and watched a tractor plow the field across the street for about fifteen minutes.  It was in that moment of watching my boys so intently watch the tractor do its work that I glad we had no plans and nowhere to rush off to.  When it was too dark to watch the tractor anymore, we went inside and decorated cookies while Mark made us a yummy dinner of Trader Joe's orange chicken and rice.  


On Sunday we went to church and had lunch with friends afterwards.  Then we returned home and put the boys down for a late (and long) nap, and I made myself a nest of blankets on the couch and dug into a new book I was given at church as an unexpected  Christmas present called The Thought of God.  After naps and dinner, we drove around town to look at Christmas lights.  Tommy told us "I love a lot, a lot, a lot of Christmas lights!" In all, it was a very relaxing, enjoyable and mellow weekend.

There are two drainage vents in the field at Nordstrom Park.  The boys realized that they could yell to each other through the vents, like the "phone" funnels at the playground.

How We Keep Christ in Christmas

We live in a culture where it seems that the anticipation of Christmas is made up of one great, overwhelming to-do list.  Must remember to send out family greeting cards, decorate the house, get the tree, decorate that, bake cookies...Oh, and buy presents!!  What in the world am I going to get Aunt Betsy this year?  And the kids...can we afford to get Eric that bike this year?  And the Nintendo DS?  And the [insert hot toy of the season].... and on it goes.  


We've found our own family caught up in the trappings of the Christmas holiday, where we spent more time preparing for parties, gift giving, baking, and decorating than we did thinking about Christ Himself.  We caught ourselves in this after Christmas last year, when it was too late to do anything about it, but we vowed that next year would be more Christ-centered.  Well, it's next year, and so here are some of the ways that we are slowing down and putting Christ where He belongs: in the forefront of our minds and the reason for everything we do this month and all year long.


Advent Celebration
I was inspired to celebrate Advent with our family after reading Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions.  A few months ago, we started having family worship in the evening after reading this book, and so celebrating Advent was a seamless transition.  We light our Advent candles, sing traditional carols as well as worship songs, read a passage of the Bible related to the Christmas story (so far the passages have been prophesies of Christ's coming from Isaiah), read a chapter from our Story Bible, and then sing one more song.  The kids may be too young to fully grasp what we're doing (that's debatable), but it is certainly centering our grown-up minds on Christ.


Nativity Scene
This year we bought a Schleich nativity scene with figures that are practically indestructible.  It sits on a table that is accessibly by our boys and is played with often. This presents many great opportunities throughout the day to talk about who each figure is, why he or she is important, and to retell the Christmas story, which is essentially the gospel.   


Jesse Tree
In Treasuring God in our Traditions, Noel Piper writes about a Jesse Tree, which is basically to gather every day objects that symbolize the attributes of God or Christ or parts of the Christmas story and put them on a tree.  One idea is to have a separate tree or mobile for these objects, but we just put them on our main tree, near the bottom so the kids can see and touch them.  Some of the objects we've put on the tree to represent Christ are a toy hammer and a saw (because Jesus was a carpenter), a toy loaf of bread (because Jesus is the Bread of Life), and a cross.  The idea is to use this objects, similarly to the nativity figures, to talk to children about the attributes of God and Jesus.  Some other objects Noel suggests are a lion (of Judah), a lamb (of God), Dove (Prince of Peace), Candle (Light of the world), or nails (crucifixion). We hope to add more to the collection next year. 


Three Wise Men Gifts
We stumbled upon this idea after Christmas last year and we have been excited to start this new tradition this year.  Each child gets only three gifts, and each gift represents the symbolism of each of the wise men gifts: One is a valuable gift (Gold), one is a spiritual gift (Frankincense), and the other is something for the body (Myrrh).  While we don't assign spiritual significance to this particular method of gift-giving, it is a wonderful way to simplify gift-giving to our children.  They've never experienced a deluge of gifts from us, so (hopefully) they'll never come to expect it.


One thing we'd like to work towards in the future is doing more for others with our children.  We've donated as much toys and goods to good causes as our budget could handle, but I wish we could do more.  Plus, the kids are still a bit young to be in the loop of what we're doing.  Hopefully in a few short years the boys will be able to understand that our family is incredibly privileged and can participate with us as we give to others.

Cookies with Cousins

Yesterday the boys' cousins came over to make gingerbread cookies.  What I thought would be a fun morning activity turned into a fun all day activity.  It had been a few years since I made gingerbread cookies, so I forgot exactly how time consuming it is, and that's even with preparing the dough the night before!  It took all morning just to cut out (and refreeze, re-roll, cut out, refreeze...well, you get the idea) and bake the cookies. We adjourned for nap time, then reconvened right afterwards to decorate.  Mark was SUPERDAD! and offered to head up the Decorating Committee, for which I was so thankful.  As you can see, it was a messy effort, but all the kids had a ton of fun.  


After the cookies were all done, both families shared an amazing lasagna together for dinner (made by Cameron).  It was a fun day, and I know my boys loved having their cousins around all day.

Before four toddlers/preschoolers got their hands on them

Getting lessons on proper frosting techniques

Working hard on Gingerbread Man's face

Needs more pink!

Tommy's creation - the black dots at the bottom are feet

A very small sample of some of our cookies

Our Weekend in Pictures

Saturday morning: helping Daddy clean up the yard.  All those pesky pugs lying around need to be moved! 

Taking a walk with a friend Saturday night in downtown Campbell at the Christmas festival

Sitting on a police motorcycle at the festival.  Tommy wanted to drive it.  He actually talked to the police officer, which I was very surprised at because he is normally too shy to talk to adults.  But police officers are just that cool.

Snow!  The Boy Scouts had a small hill of snow set up that kids could sled down. The boys loved it! 

Christmas season tradition: Sunday night we loaded the kids up with hot chocolate and drove around town looking the Christmas lights.  Tommy says, "Oh look Daddy, more Christmas lights!!" while Ben says "Big big lights!"  We saw this incredible house along the way.  It's like the Griswold house, but with elegance.