Our Christmas tree saga ...

I joyfully anticipate setting up our Christmas tree every year. For some reason, I have always loved the process ... except for lighting it. I love a well-lit and beautifully decorated Christmas tree, but I've never been very good at getting the lights just right. Two Christmases ago, we purchased a new artificial tree and I suggested that we get a pre-lit tree to save me the hassle. We don't have much extra space anywhere in our house and there is really only one place in our front room to put a tree ... so it has to be tall and narrow in shape. The one we picked out had 1200 clear lights ... each branch of the tree was wrapped in lights all the way inside to the tree trunk ... and that first year it was beautiful!

Last year because we were entertaining special guests early in December, we brought the tree out very early in the season. I never gave it a thought that we might possibly have problems with the lights ... and actually for the entire first week it was perfect ... but then one strand of lights went out, and then another, and another! By the time Sabrina's family arrived for the week of Christmas, our tree looked pretty dark and I was heartsick about it. We couldn't seem to fix the problem, and the tree was already decorated. Andrew (our favorite son-in-law) picked up on my sadness and went right out and purchased a bunch of lights that we could just put on the tree where it was dark ... except they were colored lights and it really changed the look of the tree.

In October, I warned Mr. Jones that we needed to either fix our lighting problem on the tree, or replace this pre-lit tree with something else entirely! Mr. Jones decided that we needn't throw out the tree just because the lights were bad! Even the replacement lights that came with the tree were defective! So Mr. Jones took every single strand of lights off that tree and separated the good ones from the bad ones.

It was a long and arduous process because these lights were really wound tightly on this tree! We were left with seven good strands of lights and I decided to just make do with them ... spread them out a bit and hope it would be good enough. I plugged in the lights to make double sure they were all working, and then I took my usual two days to perfectly decorate our tree. I was a little disappointed in the number of lights, but I was okay with it until ... the very next day, a whole strand of lights went out! And the next day, another!
There was only one thing to do! I UNdecorated the entire tree (which took remarkably less than 20 minutes), ripped off those defective lights ... every single one of them ... and threw them in the trash! I bought 600 new lights, and under the watchful eye of Thomas K. (I don't know if you can see him, but he is on the top of the back of our couch observing my every move), I REdecorated the whole tree! I listened to beautiful Christmas Carols, drank lots of very sweet hot tea during the process, and finished in just a few hours.

A few years ago, I started collecting small and inexpensive Nativity ornaments. I wanted everything on our tree to point to Jesus, whether it was an angel or a wise man or some created thing like a bird or dove ... so our whole tree would be a reflection of Him! Here are some of the ornaments.

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things was visiting my Grandma Mary's house at Christmastime. My grandmother was such an artist ... she hand made lots of ornaments ... everything she touched turned out beautifully. Her Christmas tree was always a delight to me. I remember sitting under hers, lost in the beauty of it, remembering the precious birth of my Savior.

O Christmas Tree!

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!

Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;

Not only green when summer's here,

but also when 'tis cold and drear.

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!

Thy leaves are so unchanging!

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me.

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Thou hast a wondrous message.
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
Thou hast a wondrous message.
Thou dost proclaim the Savior's birth
Good will to men and peace on earth
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
Thou hast a wondrous message.

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
Thou bidst us true and faithful be,
And trust in God unchangingly.
O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!
How richly God has decked thee!

(An old German carol, origin unknown)

A rerun kind of day ...

Nathan and Nia came over for another play day today. We had a lot of fun with these two kiddos. Nathan right away wanted to go back downstairs to the playroom and resume playing with our Marble Mania race game. But he went back to his old favorites after just a bit ~ the Matchbox cars and trucks and building blocks. We did a lot of book reading and singing songs together too. Nathan is very musical.

I think Nathan's favorite toy of the day was an old toy of his daddy's! It was remarkably made in the USA, which tells you how old it must be! This is a ZUBE TUBE and it's basically a noise maker!

The instructions written on the side of this toy say to: "Talk, yell, or sing directly into either end. Shake it up and down and all around. DO NOT bang on floor or place it up against your ear." Hmm. I didn't see the DO NOT part until just now ... and we did plenty of banging it on the floor and putting it up against our ears while the other one talked into it. I suppose we'll live. It makes very interesting wiggly kinds of sounds (boing, boing, boing) and vibrates your voice and makes it echo. I asked Nathan what it sounded like and he said: "Mush. It sounds like mush, Granny." Mush?! Perhaps all of those sounds together could be described that way! I took the above picture of Nathan dancing to a children's CD, using the tube as kind of an odd partner! I tried to take a video of this bit of action, but I messed it up. Sorry.

Miss Nia spent the day switching off between me and Grandpa Jones. She was very cuddly today.

It was a quiet kind of laid-back day ... nothing really new to tell you about, but I thought perhaps you would enjoy a few pictures.

Mr. Nathan enjoying a juicy apple for his afternoon snack

Cuties!

I know we have an insane amount of toys around here, and you would think I would stop buying more ... but this marble run is SO COOL and it was only $19.95 at Toys R Us. Look at the beautiful colors and all the neat stuff it does! Young Mr. Nathan was quite taken with this toy today and played with it for ... hours ... no exaggeration! He almost totally ignored his usual favorite, the suitcase full of Matchbox cars!
Nathan was very intense about this entire experience. This particular marble run is the layout featured on the box cover and the only one it gives instructions for. You can make tons of different runs if you are so inclined. I actually purchased this for our house weeks and weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to assembling it. Last night it took me no less than 40 minutes to put this together ... engineering is NOT my expertise, and Grandpa Jones was singing in Festival of Lights! He was no help at all. [Editor's Note: Grandpa Jones has just read through this post and reminded me that after watching Nathan play with the marble run for a few minutes this morning, HE FIXED FOUR PIECES that I had on backwards and with these four fixed pieces, the marble run ran much better and as it was intended ... so I guess Grandpa Jones was a helper-after-the-fact ... which is something, but not as good as a helper-from-the-beginning.]

There are three points of origin at the top from which you place your pretty colored marbles. They travel down curvy slides, jump through hoops, make wheels spin, etc. as they go down down down all the way to the bottom.

Since marbles are dangerous objects for littles ones like Nia, we didn't allow her to play with it. Actually, she was upstairs most of the day with either grandpa or me, but we took her downstairs now and again to watch the marbles go.

Look at Nathan's face ... it was a joy just to watch him have so much fun. We were able to coax him upstairs for lunch and an afternoon cookie break ...

But then he was right back at it! He'd get his marbles all set up on the three starting points and watch them race to the bottom.

Since we've already used up Nathan's Christmas present budget, I think Grandpa and I are going to have to get Nicolas one of these for Christmas so that he can play with Nathan ...

Miss Nia enjoyed herself very much upstairs. She spent most of the morning pushing this toy cart around, gathering objects to put on the top to take for a ride ... it looks like she has a mighty full cart!

We told Nathan at lunch: "You have a very pretty little sister." He turned and looked at her, smiled, and said: "Yes, I do!"

For Christmas last year, Adam and Emily gave me one of these cute Hallmark animated deals that plays "Sleigh Ride", complete with a shivering penguin with a jingling bell, a dancing snowman, and little puppy that barks! It's so cute. Nia liked it too. She watched it for quite awhile ...

... and after showing her which hand to squeeze on the snowman, she could start and stop it all by herself ~ and she did, about 100 times.

Nia even had the train table all to herself this morning. We had several huge unintentional train wrecks, but then she got the hang of it.
You can't see them in this picture, but she even took all the trains for a ride in her cart!

Nathan came upstairs briefly to show us how to operate the trains like a big boy. He looks like a pro in this picture. He's finally learned that hooking all 17 cars and engines together is a bad idea because a train that long doesn't travel around the tracks very smoothly.
But just when Nathan appeared the most confident, it turned four o'clock and our train clock went off (it goes off on the hour), sounding like a huge steam train coming into Union Station. Nathan cracks me up about this clock ... he hates it! He runs ~ I'm not kidding either ~ he runs away from it, climbs up on the couch, tucks his feet up and waits until the horrid noise stops. Dylan is in total agreement with Nathan here ... Dylan isn't afraid of it, but it really irks him to the point where he has taken the batteries out of it!

Grandpa Jones and Nathan playing the marble run

Peanuts and such ...

I’m learning there are all kinds of three-year-olds in this world. I’ve been volunteering at church on Sunday mornings, Tuesday mornings, and every other Thursday morning for almost a year now. This is not the same group of three’s, but almost three completely separate groups, with very little overlapping … lots of different little faces, personalities, family dynamics, etc.

Yesterday, we had 11 three-year-olds in our class and four adult workers! An unusual and nice ratio for a change ~ usually we have more children and less workers. One little guy in our Thursday group is kind of “out there” ~ it’s hard to define exactly what I mean … Adam just doesn’t fit into any mold whatsoever. Whatever it is the group is supposed to be doing at any given time, most assuredly he isn’t. It’s not that he is a problem really. He isn’t loudly misbehaving or anything, and he doesn’t appear unhappy. It's like his body is in the room but his head isn't!

I’ve been praying that I can make a difference as I work with these little kiddos, and make a connection somehow. During our craft time yesterday, Adam was at my table with another boy and two girls. The craft was ridiculously complicated, requiring no less than 15 small foam pieces (not the nice ones with the sticky backs, but ones requiring a glue stick) that had to be assembled in a particular order, etc. with the result of making a cute little picture frame the kids could take home to their parents. The teacher was giving very careful, slow instructions, one foam piece at a time, so that we could help the children end up with a picture frame as opposed to a sticky, icky something else!

After the first four steps of this crazy craft, I was about on my last nerve with Adam. I'm sure you've heard the saying:“The light is on, but nobody’s home.” Well, I have NEVER even seen anything close to a light go on with Adam. His 15 foam pieces were everywhere they weren't supposed to be, glue was everywhere, and he was completely somewhere else, hardly trying it seemed, and so in my frustration I made a funny face and said in a silly voice: “You are being a goober, Adam.” And this little boy, who hardly seems to recognize when someone is speaking to him, for the first time, looked at me square in the eye with an actual gleam in his, chuckled and said, “Did you say goober?” I had never seen him light up like that! “Goober” he said, and he laughed again, very pleased with this word. I, of course, didn’t tell him that I meant him no compliment. We continued the craft until all four children at my table had what kind of resembled a picture frame, and all throughout, Adam was engaged with me! It was a delightful experience! We even had a small conversation. I was counting the children and announced that we had 11 children in our class today. Adam shook his head from side to side and then said, “We have 10 children and one goober!” and pointed at himself with a pleased face! It cracked me up that he said this! You just never know what will tickle a kid, do you?

P.S. By definition, “goober” means peanut, so it’s not like I called him a bad name or anything.

Our Family Tree!

Christmas carols have been playing all day long at our house and I have been decorating like crazy! There is a fresh pure white blanket of snow everywhere, and I'm just loving every minute of getting ready for Christmas!
Today, I had a couple of goals that HAD to get accomplished! One of them was our Family Tree. I love this little tree so much. I purchased a tiny tree four Christmases ago to put in our dining room, and decided it would be just for FAMILY ... it's been a lot of fun decorating it every year. In 2005, we had five grandchildren: Olivia, Emma, Christopher, Jackson, and Nathan! [Oops ... I've been corrected ~ we had SIX grandchildren during Christmas of 2005 ~ Matthew was born in April and that's the picture I am missing of him! See below. It gets confusing with all of these beautiful children and it's hard to keep them straight!]

I looked everywhere for name ornaments and when I couldn't find the name, I just wrote it on myself! Names nowadays are not the easiest to run across ... I finally found a little snow guy that said "Sabrina", but only after I had already written her name on another ornament!

I also got little picture frame ornaments and used them just for grandchildren pictures. It's fun to look back on these four Christmases to see how the children have changed ... and to add a few more picture frames to our collection!

Nathan was just a newborn in this first Christmas picture!

And look at Nia last Christmas! I certainly didn't think she would be a BIG sister THIS Christmas!

And Jackson was only six months in this first picture! Isn't it fun to see how they've changed and grown?

I'm missing the first picture of Livie and can't find it anywhere! :(

This first picture of Karis is her ultrasound picture ... I actually had this picture framed and hanging our little tree, Christmas 2004 ~ she was born two months later.

Ems was three in this first picture. Look at her now ~ such a little lady!

And Christopher! How big you have grown!

I'm missing a picture of Matthew as well, because I should have four of him!

Even little Lottie has a picture for her frame ... we never even gave her a thought last year!

Aren't the birdhouses so cute that Rachel made for us last year? Each family unit is represented by a birdhouse ... so perfect for this little tree! See the bugle frame underneath the tree? I wonder WHO will fill this little frame ... not that we are in any hurry for grandbaby #10 ... honest!

A fun play day ...

I regret hugely the fact that I have never successfully taken a video with my camera, because Nathan walked into our house today absolutely FULL of singing and dancing ~ and he put on quite a performance for us. He sang "If you're happy and you know it" (all three verses, complete with motions), "Deep and Wide", and an assortment of other songs we had never even heard of. He is a very entertaining little soul!

Grandpa Jones entertained Queen Nia for a little while with our finger puppets, but she was comfortable enough with grandpa and I and our house today (finally) that she wanted to wander around and play. She also takes our finger by the hand and leads us around the house to whichever room she wants to play in ...

She seemed to enjoy all of our toys, preferring the soft squishy ones ... but she rarely let go of her bunny.

Nathan wore a fire hat over to our house today and announced that he was a fireman. We tried his hat on all of the animals, including Boo, but Nathan told us "Boo was NOT a fireman. He is Boo."

Paco the Pig got to wear the Thomas the Train hat for just a little while. We tried to get Nia to wear it, but she's not much for hats.

We had played for awhile with Nathan and Nia in the same room together, but found that it was difficult to keep one or the other of them happy. Nia is at the unfortunate stage where she sabotages most anything Nathan has going, and it does get frustrating. Fortunately, since there are only two children and two grandparents, one of us could take Nia and the other could take Nathan, and just play separately. We had a much happier and more productive later part of the morning that way. Nathan and I played downstairs in the playroom with the blocks and the cars while Nia and grandpa stayed upstairs. Nathan and I got out all of the Matchbox cars and made a huge traffic jam, complete with helicopter rescue and jet airplane landings.

After our lunch, Nia took a really good 3-hour nap! Nathan played for awhile with grandpa, and I was able to get some stuff done around the house.

This foam alphabet/number puzzle is the newest addition to our toy collection. I love the colors and shapes and all the cool ways you can put it together.
It is SO cold at our house! Thankfully, I remembered I still had one of those little fleece vests from years ago when Emma used to come over and play. It fit Nia just fine.

Here is Fireman Nathan pretending to pull the rope that makes the train whistle blow. Isn't he such a cutie? There isn't really anything unusual to tell you about our day ~ we colored, we ate snacks, we read books, we danced and sang to tons of children's music ... we had a very fun day playing with Nathan and Nia today!