I guess it really is all about preparation, because Christmas this year was probably one of my favorites ever--I think I finished my shopping back in July. For once in my life, I didn't try to cram too many things in, and if something didn't fit into the schedule, I didn't force it. We skipped some traditions, we enjoyed some new ones. But mostly we just had a chance to soak everything in and
enjoy. Maybe it really is the most wonderful time of the year!
We started off, as I mentioned in my last post, with a visit from Aaron's dad, which happily extended over Aaron's birthday on December 1! We woke Aaron up with singing and enjoyed some tasty pancakes for breakfast before sending the kids and Aaron off to school. I should probably never have asked Aaron what kind of birthday cake he wanted, because his answer was not nearly elaborate enough: he wanted chocolate layer dessert, which is basically a layer of nut-crust, a layer of sweetened cream cheese, and a layer of chocolate pudding, all topped with cool whip. Not nearly fancy enough, right? I guess I should be grateful that he's so easy to please, but since we have chocolate layer dessert at least a few times a year for dessert, I decided to make it a little more "interesting." Instead of the nut crust, I baked a batch of brownies, and then put the rest of the layers on top of that. Aaaaanyway, he wasn't too impressed that I couldn't even pull off his pretty simple request (too rich, which . . . good point). That's what I get for following my life-rule of more chocolate=more happiness. Obviously I should come up with a list of exceptions and provisos. We did, however, enjoy a trip to O'Charley's for Aaron's birthday dinner, and in addition to the little presents the kids got for him (candy mostly, haha, they know their dad so well!), Aaron's dad had brought some special books for him, and he got his traditional jammie pants from me (I swear he wears them right to shreds every year)--penguins this time.
Over the weekend, we took a trip out to Van Wert, Ohio, to see the Nutcracker together (also mentioned in the last post, I think). The Nieswonger Performing Arts center is only about an hour away, and is a really gorgeous facility that they built in a town that normally wouldn't get many visitors, to bring in wonderful performing events (and audiences to see them!). I sat on one row with the girls, and Aaron and his dad sat a row in front of us. Theo was fully prepared to hate the whole thing, but by the end of the first act he had to admit that "it actually turned out to be pretty cool." He particularly enjoyed the misbehaving boys in the party scene (a loud spank was his favorite), and of course the Russian dancers. Sera was in heaven throughout the whole thing--she's so into ballet, I really need to sign her up for a class--but probably liked the "tall girl with the big dress" hiding the polichinelles in her skirt the best. Emerson enjoyed the whole thing unabashedly (especially since the whole second act took place in a bakery/sweet shop), but probably liked the swordplay best, and Addy was pretty impressed with Clara, as she realized that she was played by a girl not much older than she was. Afterward we stopped at the most elaborately decorated Taco Bell we'd ever been in and chatted for a while before hitting the road and heading back home.
The very next night, Sunday, we all crowded back in the car and headed twenty minutes south of town for a free
Messiah concert. I seriously have been waiting
years to get to take our whole family to
Messiah together. The kids weren't perfect, but they were pretty darn well-behaved, and really perked up when a few of the songs we have played for them before were played. I probably had the hardest time staying quiet of everyone, because I kept wanting to lean over and tell Addy to listen for the "fluttering of the angel wings" and this or that musical word-painting. Silly me! Too much musicology in my blood, apparently (and too little--I'm really itching to be back in school studying that kind of stuff lately).
On Monday we carted everyone
once again to a concert. This time we enjoyed the chance to watch Aaron's Home for the Holidays performance at the university, where for the first time, the entire concert was broadcast
live on PBS--talk about an extra element of stress! Everything had to be timed perfectly. The whole concert went off really well, and I was pretty darn impressed that the kids
once again managed to behave themselves (with several reminders and a few threats to take away treats this time)--even after three solid days of this! We really do have good kids. And can I just say that every single concert makes me more impressed with the work Aaron does? Even just since the last time I saw his choirs, a couple of months ago, the sopranos are developing this gorgeous unified sound, there's such body in the sound the men put out. It's amazing, what he does.
After all that beautiful music and sending Aaron's dad home, we settled in for a cozy Christmas season. Two weeks before Christmas, we feasted on the result of my having followed a link on a flyer that said "Breakfast with Santa, kids eat free!" that I had picked up from the mall. The link gave me a phone number, which I called for reservations for our family. Only after that did I find out that the breakfast was being held at this awesome restaurant at the mall that I'd been dying to try--Flattop Grill. Though we still had to pay $10 each for the adult breakfasts (somehow when I signed up I really thought it was just going to be some kind of big, free pancake breakfast for the kids), it will be a long time before I have a better breakfast! You had to choose a certain color of bowl for either omelette, egg scramble, french toast, or pancakes, then you went along this bar to choose mix-ins for whatever you'd chosen--fresh chopped veggies for the eggs, berries and other yummy things for the pancakes and french toast. Then the chefs whipped it all up and brought it out to you.
So good. We also got to see Mistletoe the flying reindeer once again, and of course dear old Mr. Claus. I felt a little bad for our kids, who mostly requested pets and computers/cell phones, but I guess they thought it couldn't hurt to try. Haha, who knows, maybe they'll get lucky (or not). Luckily Emerson asked for Legos, and I hear Santa's elves did some really top-notch work in the Lego department this year.
Once school finally let out (though I should be grateful, I think many schools spent an extra week after rather than before out of school), we had some really lovely time together. For one, the kids all got to do some shopping for each other. This year everyone got everyone something, with most gifts between $1-2 for the kids, plus one $5+ gift for a drawn name. I'm not sure if we'll do this again next year or revert to a one special gift/name-drawing methodology. Choosing out gifts is a special and really fun thing to do, but we usually do it for birthdays anyway (two of those birthdays are in January), and it does end up resulting in lots of "stuff." Aaron is definitely in favor of the name-drawing, and I think I might be leaning that way too.
For Christmas baking this year, we trotted out our old standards--a batch of toffee, gingerbread people, M&M pretzels, and tons of gingersnaps (probably my favorites). Ooh, and I also hit on a great recipe for "hot chocolate cookies" which were chocolate cookies with a soft center topped with a big toasted marshmallow--yum! Instead of making mass quantities of any of them for friend/neighbor/teacher gifts though, we hit on an easy, fun, earth-friendly idea this year: hot chocolate jars. I compulsively save all our glass jars because they're so pretty and useful, but I had a bit of a backlog--I ran out of space in the cabinet where I save them! So for gifts we filled them with hot chocolate mix and a couple of handfuls of miniature marshmallows, then tied a little fabric and ribbon over the jar lid and labeled them with a shiny gift label. It saved me from sending stale cookies in to teachers (as kids forget for two days before remembering to bring them), and the kids loved
loved dropping a few jars off anonymously to friends.
Another lovely event of the season was our church Christmas party, which featured a musical program this year. All our kids had a chance to participate by playing a Christmas song on the piano. Theo played "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, Addy played "Small World," Emerson played "Away in a Manger," and Sera played "Jolly Old St. Nicholas." Both the younger two played theirs as duets with me, and they all did such a fantastic job!
By Christmas Eve we had actually accomplished most of the things we meant to (the big exeption being a fund-raising activity the kids started for Operation Smile that never got followed through on, mostly because Aaron thinks I'm overly ambitious and a bit silly for trying to spearhead these kinds of things), so we put on our annual Nativity Play which got pretty funny in places when the innkeepers (all played by Aaron) took on Indian and Chinese accents and dialogue to match. Afterward we opened new pajamas, sang a few carols, and headed to bed. Where the children slept through the night for once! Even with parts of two or three of our light strands out, the tree looked so beautiful and twinkly as we went to bed.
On Christmas morning, we had just enough time for the kids to enjoy their stockings and open one gift before leaving for church. Addy especially loved a beautiful new dress that came with a matching one for her doll, which she was allowed to take with her to church just this once. We managed to snap a cute picture before going out the door, and I just love seeing it--it is so full of the joy and happiness we've shared as a family this year, and of our gratitude for the wonderful blessings we've received. If you remember, our theme this year was "We Give Thanks," and I really believe that by focusing on being grateful for our blessings every week of every month of this year, something beautiful has happened in our family--definitely for our children, but especially for me. I think and hope I have gained the ability to see a little further past myself more often, to appreciate the bounteous blessings in my life and not get quite so bogged down with the day-to-day, keeping-everyone-afloat mindset that so easily creeps in. I have found that consciously replacing anger and frustration with gratitude changes me and makes me more awake and aware in my own life. As we forge ahead into a new year, I look forward to seeing our family growing and stretching more, but I hope we will retain the ability to feel thankful every day.
After church we spent another couple of hours basking in each other's love and the lovely gifts that had been so thoughtfully chosen for each of us. Following that, we closed out the year in almost perfect harmony. We stayed home, read, played, talked, ate, and just soaked up the lingering beauty of the season. The one sour note was mostly Aaron's (poor guy), as he slaved over figuring out how to mount the fabulous super-size plasma 3-D TV he bought for the family this year. Just as he spent hours poring over Consumer Reports to find the best product at the best price, he went on to find a Blu-Ray player and sound system that met the TV's capabilities. Over the course of the week (and then some) he had to figure out how to mount the darn thing in our too-small television nook. I'm not kidding when I say slaving, because he had to find and mount a mounting board, then a mounting device that would work, all hinging on finding proper studs that wouldn't electrocute him via the electrical wires mounted on them . . . I should spare you the details, but it was hard, very time-consuming work that finally resulted in our possession of the finest home-theater system around. After a while he even managed to talk me out of complaining that it was too big and extravagant and just enjoy his very thoughtful, long-lasting gift to our family. We now can have not only fantastic movie-nights, but also 3-D movie nights! I hope our kids really appreciate this amazing gift as they grow into their teenage years and can invite their friends over to share movies with!
I know how very blessed and spoiled we've been this Christmas. We've had peace and security at a time when many have not. We've probably not done enough to reach out and help those who need it, so I hope we will do better in the coming year. But for now, at the close of this beautiful season, I am simply so very thankful for the peace, happiness, growth, love, and friendship that we have in our lives. Merry Christmas!
