Christmas Day

Patrick's artwork on the left; Luke's on the right

The Professor and I got a Very Special Christmas Present this year: Luke and Patrick had made angels for us, with help from Mommy, of course. As they worked on them, Patrick told his mommy,

"Give Papa."
"Have eyes and face and beard! Mommy draw it."
"I do good job."
"Papa 'ov green. Papa like it."
"Papa say, 'oo, dat's pretty!' "
"Papa say, 'Dat's giffi-cult.' "

Luke apparently worked without much comment, but he mastered the scissor work and the hole-punching.

Christmas Eve

We have to share around here, so this year our family "shared" the married ones with their in-laws for Christmas Day, and we got the 26th for our Christmas Day. We also got the late evening of Christmas Day for our Christmas Eve. Got that?

On our Christmas Eve we had our annual traditional St. Lucia dinner, with Swedish meatballs, lutefisk, seafood, potatoes, lingonberries, and many other goodies. This year I also made a cookie tree using a set of cutters that I found at a garage sale in the summer. Love those bargains!

Later, we hung our stockings on the mantel. There were two very excited little boys running around. It was amazing that we got even one non-blurry boy.

Busy Day at Church

We woke up today knowing that our day would be very full.

Today was the inauguration of the "new room" at church, the room to yet be properly named, the room some are calling the overflow room. (That sounds so much like leftovers or something unwanted. Surely we can think of a better name than that!)

Ready for worship today

I worked 30 hours this past Monday to Thursday, helping to get the room ready for worship today. Others put in many more hours too. We started with a bare room, then built some wall extensions, patched and painted, then painted some more (that seems to sum up my life this year). I sanded the water-damaged ceiling, helped hang lights, I ironed 18 curtains and hemmed 10 of them; I helped hang curtain rods and I even helped hang the TV's. Then I "built" shrubs from greens and added Christmas decorations.

In process: the painting is finished and the carpet is being installed

So this morning I felt responsible to make sure all the details were in order in the new room. I am also the unofficial candle-lighter in the sanctuary for the Christmas season, and that takes a bit of time to complete. I also rounded up help to move the fake trees from downstairs to the "new room". That was all before church began.

After church, we stayed to help set up for a Christmas dinner in the gym this evening. I was put in charge of setting and decorating the tables. We had 32(!) tables filling the gym. All the decorations coordinated; they did not match. We used what we had, and we used up almost all the remaining bits and pieces of Christmas decor the church owns.
The starting point for the centerpieces was a tall glass candleholder and greens or florals in sprays coming off the center candle. Below are a few of the pieces we put together.

Everything was stored in large bins in the small closet off the sanctuary. We trollied the bins downstairs to the gym after church, built the centerpieces, then tore the florals apart again after the dinner and returned the pieces to the bins. I got help to trolly the bins back to the closet off the sanctuary. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

We arrived home ready to put our feet up!

Christmas At Church

Last Sunday at church the 2's and 3's sang Away in a Manger (a long-standing tradition at our church and their intro to singing in front of the church). Usually there are tears from at least one child, but not this year. That's not to say that they were all pleased with being up there; we did see a few unhappy faces.

Two boys who looked quite happy were Luke and Patrick. Luke sang and did all the motions. Patrick didn't sing a single word or do any of the motions. He stood up there grinning the whole time, and waving to the congregation. It was hilarious!Blurry picture, but you can see Luke in red, doing the motions, with a classmate next to him, mad about being up there.

Patrick in white, grinning and waving to everyone.

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Luke and Patrick came to visit Aunt Greta one day before Thanksgiving, and made clay turkeys. The turkeys then got fired in the big, giant, hot, hot oven. Patrick's is the one with the waddle on top of the head.

Happy Birthday Boy

Look who's four!

We were invited to the birthday party on Saturday evening, with the other grandparents, and most of the cousins and aunts and uncles. Luke asked for meatballs ("no sauce") for dinner, and cupcakes.

He hopped on his new bike and rode with no hesitation. He may be dumping the training wheels soon!

Celebrating Christmas

As December speeds by, we looked at when we could set aside time to buy a tree. Every weekend is already filling up, the Professor is scheduled to work late some evenings, and the tree lots might get emptied before we can get there. So I decided to go buy a tree all by myself.

And I did it: I walked in the nursery, saw a tall tree, pulled it out, and bought it. In something like 15 seconds. I even unloaded it from the top of the car and carried it to the backyard. Then I left it for the Professor to set up in the house. He also gets to string the lights. After all, I have to draw the line somewhere.
When he opened the bin of lights, he saw the lights as he left them last year. I have never seen such tidy, neatly wrapped lights as these. Aren't they cute little bundles?