It's the Holiday Season

I hate when I procrastinate posting and forget everything I meant to post. Of course, this doesn't actually stop me from doing it. Here's what I remember.

Aaron started the holidays off with an awesome choral concert. I know I say that every year, and I guess that's his job, but not one concert goes by where I don't just say "wow." He did a great job coordinating with the Orchestra this year, and his new concert hall is just awesome. We got there a few minutes late (I'm MORTIFIED by this given that we're the conductor's family, but it's still true--it did snow a lot that evening), and for the first time I brought ALL FOUR KIDS. I was nervous, but everyone did pretty well aside from Sera's bouncing around like a pogo stick through the first half because she realized JUST AFTER we sat down that she desperately needed to use the bathroom. Nice. Fortunately the new concert hall was TOTALLY PREPARED to distract her. We sat at the very very back of the auditorium, and there was a light show that went on along the walls throughout the whole thing. Lights slowly flashed, changing from red to green to gold to blue, and on the ceiling there were moving lights in the shape of snowflakes. It really kept the littler kids' attention. The programming was so well balanced between fun music, sacred music, and old-fashioned Christmas carols. Theo's favorite was "Merry Christmas" from Home Alone 2, Addy really liked The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy (which I have to mention Aaron did SUCH an incredible job at getting that choir to sound like a bunch of Jamaicans just chillin' and celebrating Christmas--he's awesome at that stuff), Emerson loved the jingle bells and whip cracks in "Sleigh Ride," and Sera's favorite was the Christmas carol sing-along at the end of the program--especially "Deck the Halls." My favorite was the arrangement of "Away in a Manger" with the choirs and orchestra. It was slow and ponderous, but the choir really pulled it off, leaning into their phrases, pulling the audience back to that lonely night in Bethlehem, where animals and a few shepherds alone had that privilige of witnessing the birth of the King of all. It was a very pure rendering, and it really set the scene for our Christmas season. One of the great things this year was how early in the season the concert happened--we were able to enjoy the Christmas season without so much concert stress hanging over our heads (and by "our heads," I basically mean Aaron's head).

We also had a nice time celebrating Aaron's birthday on December 1. Thirty-five (although we're both seriously considering knocking ten years off our ages at this point--or maybe that's just me). Anyway, we had a lovely dinner at the Mexican restaurant that's PRACTICALLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM OUR HOUSE, and let me tell you, I don't think we could have been more excited. Mexican food has been a rare RARE treat over the last three years, and having a delicious meal (since we were there on his birthday, Aaron's was FREE--love that place!) followed by the best fried ice cream I think we've ever tasted pretty much rocked. And we followed that with a German chocolate birthday cake. Way to start a sugar-laden month off with a bang!

The rest of the month was a continual balancing act. No Christmas shopping had been done in advance this year (we were a leetle preoccupied), so there was that plus as many holiday activities as we could squeeze in alongside the unrelenting race to get this house done furnishing-and-decorating-wise. After about a week, we decided against the live tree and put up the fake, which thankfully we didn't manage to sell at our yard sale before we moved. It actually looked not especially tacky this year when we decorated it with beaded garlands, ribbons, and red and gold balls in leiu of most of our hand-made ornaments this year. Surprisingly, the kids didn't seem to mind much at all that every pipe-cleaner snowflake and popsicle stick star didn't make it onto the tree, and I look forward to picking up a smaller tree (maybe a purple sparkly one) at an after-Christmas clearance sale so that next year they'll have a place for all their hand-made glory. I still love it and am sentimental about cute stuff they made when they were three, but I enjoyed having a tree that was beautiful this year too.

Around the house, we've nailed down nearly everything. We got the second-hand couches we hooked up with down the stairs, and even though they're not fancy, I'm glad we not only saved a bit of money, but that we don't have to be super-careful with our feet and such when we have movie nights. A week before Christmas, we finally made a TV decision, and we have a super-deluxe 42" flat screen for our movie nights. Though Aaron scored a great deal on a 55" and we were very temped to keep it instead, a combination of doubtful reviews and the fact that it wouldn't actually fit on the built-in shelf already installed down there helped us make our decision. After watching a few Christmas movies down there with surround sound? No regrets. We're still trying to make a decision about a kitchen table and find an amazing piano for a reasonable price, and Aaron has a way to go on organizing his office (though he's begun to make headway). BUT, the rest of our house is looking great, so we tried not to be annoyed about such silly little things that are missing, although it was very strange to sing Christmas carols without being able to play them. What can I say? We're piano people!

As for fun Christmas activities, we squeezed in a Nutcracker night with just the girls, making big gingerbread men, quite a few gingersnaps, a little gingerbread village, two batches of toffee (which mostly disappeared before being delivered), caroling to a grand total of three families, and nativity-centered Family Home Evenings. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough. We've had a wonderful first holiday season in our new home, and sometimes it's okay to just keep things simple.

Some other things were missed, and I hope they come back in the future. I missed my kids playing the piano--a recital or duet in church or something. They did participate in a little production of "The Grinch" put on at their school, so at least that was something. I missed doing something more service-oriented than dropping off treats and singing a song or two. Our family service projects have been so uplifting for our family, and hopefully for others too. I missed our ward Christmas party, which they skipped this year (and even though I missed it, I'm not sure we would have made it if they had had it, so really I'm grateful), and I missed going to a Christmas Eve service at a big fancy church--admittedly we've only done this a couple of times when Aaron has been an organist or choir director at a church, but now that our kids are old enough to appreciate something like that, I would love to make it a family tradition.

Here's the thing though: the Christmas season is always too short for everything. I've been around long enough to have figured that out. The things we really missed this year, we'll make sure to fit in next year, but we'll probably have to leave something else out instead. And that's okay. Life is too short not to enjoy the bursts of light and joy as they come, rather than fixating on every little thing that's missing. This season has been a season of love, a season of giving, a season of remembering Jesus Christ and the light He has given to the world. And if we've managed to remember that, we haven't really missed anything at all.

THANKSgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. This year we are just so grateful to be in our new home--WE LOVE IT HERE! Every single day we mention something that we love about it to each other. There's a beautiful view from every window, there are lots of windows, our bathtub is a place of watery-bubbly joy, I have an office (that the kids sneak into every five seconds) AND Aaron has an office, there is lots of cabinet space for our dishes, I watch the sunrise every morning out our back windows while doing yoga stretches, our kitchen smells yummy (most of the time), our coat closet holds all our coats (and boots and mitts, though at least half the mitts are missing their mates, and though having a nice big closet hasn't magically taught our children how to hang things up rather than flinging them on the floor), there hasn't been a single day since we moved here when it was legitimately too cold to play outside, the snow is this lovely powdery fluffy stuff that is not lethal, birds fly through all the time, the house smells awesome when I do laundry, we can barely hear the kids when they go down to the basement to play, our kids are mostly remembering to wash their hands after meals (which means our walls are cleaner), the master-bedroom closet is in the master-bath which has turned out to be way more convenient than I could have imagined, when I step onto our back porch I step into a little slice of nature, we have two fireplaces (that Aaron won't let me run yet because he wants them inspected first, blah), and well, it's just perfect for us.

So despite a quiet celebration with just us at home, we had a very thankful Thanksgiving. And hopefully next year everyone we know (well maybe not everyone) will join us!

The yummy food, which the kids really really helped prepare this year. It was delish!

And here are a few pictures of the house that we're so thankful for (there wasn't enough light, so they're a bit grainy). The kids rooms are pretty much done now, except that I'm sure more things will materialize on the walls in the future. It's so nice to have carpeted bedrooms again, and for someone who is not very decorating-saavy, I think they turned out okay. The girls' room looks out over our street to a little nature preserve behind the houses opposite us. Their view is especially nice in the snow. Also, Addy at last has a really, truly big-girl bed. That poor girl overstayed her welcome on a toddler bed by about a year, and is thrilled to finally have a place to stretch out and sleep comfortably!

The boys' room overlooks our pond in back, and they have an awesome view of the sunrise every morning (when they drag themselves out of bed in time to see it, anyway). There's a monkey theme on Theo's bed, and fleecy Diego sheets on Emer's. Both rooms have standing lamps that didn't make the picture, but in the girls' room there are pink shades on the lights, and in the boys room brown and green shades, so at night the rooms have a lovely, colorful glow to them. I'm planning to add some curtain hold-back hooks at some point, but they haven't gone on sale yet (they're like $20-40 a set, which seems exorbitant to me), so a couple of ribbons are doing the job just fine for now.

And I really like their bathroom, too (though the counter is rarely actually cleared off). I've been hoarding this cute rubber duckie decor that Grandma Donna sent a couple of years ago, and I love how cute it looks in their bathroom. There's a shower curtain, towels, and even these little sticky-suction guys that the kids play with at bath time (like the upside down one on the shower wall). At the rate we're going, there's a chance our kids might even start taking baths more than twice a week someday. Maybe.

So that's our upper floor with the exception of my little office, which is currently littered with Theo and Addy's afternoon of reading/dropping-everything-they-picked-up-on-the-floor, so no picture there until another day, I guess. But see? Don't we have a lot to be grateful for? I just love it here!!

Humorous Happenings

Most of these are from this summer--I always let too many months slide by between these, which is a shame, because there is a lot of laughter at our house!

Sera was SO excited to go see "Sandy Diego," (San Diego), who as we all know, looks sort of like this (with more sand):
She was a bit sad that we didn't get to visit "Sandy Dora" too.

One of Sera's favorite things is getting "polka dots" on her arms. You know, when you get cold and your skin starts to prickle and you wind up with polka dots? She also like Addy's polka dots on her face (freckles). She's just a polka dot kind of girl!

Theo and Addy were having a conversation around the dinner table about their new classes at school, and Theo took the opportunity to try to impress Addy with the fact that he had gotten an A+ on something. She wasn't--immediately she asked "have you gotten any Fs? Or, or B-flats? Have you gotten any B-flats?" Clearly too much music-speak at our house (not really though).

I loved taking the girls to see The Nutcracker--they both LOVED it! But possibly my favorite part was when Sera turned to Addy at the end and said "hooray Addy--you didn't go to sleep!" It was, after all, an 8 pm performance, and Addy's track record for staying awake at evening concerts is . . . about zero.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Super late, but . . .

For my birthday, we took a trip down to Cincinnati. Loved it. That city has become a centering place in my life, I think. Even though we were only there for three years, they were important years, grounding years for our family, and then, it was our trip there last year that led us to where we are now. It's a place where I can sort of evaluate where I am and what I'm doing with my life. We were only there overnight plus the bulk of the days on either side, but it wound up being both fun and poignant.

We went out for lunch at Maggiano's, Aaron's and my favorite date night restaurant while we lived here. We took our kids--linen napkins and all--and they minded their manners reasonably well. It's hard to believe we're at a stage where that can happen! Then we picked up a half-gallon of black raspberry chip ice cream and gorged ourselves while watching a Harry Potter movie at our hotel. Good times.

On Sunday, we attended church at our old ward, the Montgomery Ward (lol), and it happened to be the day of the ward primary program. What a cascade of memories washed over me! When we first moved into that ward, I was called as the primary pianist. I served in that calling for about two years, then was called as the primary music leader. Well, in the time between that first calling and now, the little sunbeams who used to poke each other on the front row grew into the graduating class. Wow. I totally got choked up, watching them leading the younger children in the songs, and speaking about what the gospel of Jesus Christ has meant in their lives. It was startling to see, quite clearly, how each of the helping hands in that ward have led and molded them into really spectacular young men and women. Some of them have always had strong families behind them, but not all of them. In the ones who haven't, it made me tear up a bit to see and know how important all those others have been--to think that I had been one (a small one, but still) of those. There were other children as well: the fire-cracker rabble-rouser who has grown into a really nice-looking, well-behaved (but still with a glint in his eye) ten-year-old, the cute girl Theo was just getting fond of before we moved, a couple of my little Joy School guys, the now-four-year-old mini-baby-boom that happened around the time Sera was born. They were all cute as pumpkins! I also got to chat for a little bit with Nan, the woman who served and pirmary music leader while I was pianist--her creativity and example are behind every decent idea I've ever had for primary. After all of this, I went away with a renewed sense of how quickly this time passes. We barely have time to blink before our babies become toddlers who become teenagers. And it left me wondering how to possibly cram all the important things into these few years.

Since we got back, I've been trying to be better. Our family bedtime rituals have become more consistent and important (and sadly more drawn out--10 pm bedtime for preschoolers anyone?) to me. I have a stronger sense of the importance of my role as teacher to the rowdy rapscallions in my 9-year-old primary class. I'm more accutely aware than ever that it really does take a village to raise a child, and I want to do my best to make sure that every child in our little primary here has the same sense of being loved and important that I know every child did there in that great big ward family in Cincinnati.

Also, I had a delicious cake and a promise of whatever (on sale) netbook I want once Black Friday comes around. It was a most excellent birthday!