fa-la-la-la-la and happy 2008

I remember several months ago, my blog was stuck on “yuck, yuck, and more yuck” for several weeks. Finally, my friend Rachel commented, “I’m so tired of seeing ‘yuck, yuck, and more yuck!’ and in an effort to save my friendship, I relented and posted again. Rachel didn’t comment on it this time :) but, for the sake of you not having to relive (exhale) over and over again, I finally am back.

To start with, here’s the weeks-ago promised chopsticks pictures. I will say that since the achievement, she has yet to have a repeat performance. Maybe it was just beginners luck?!

And this was a little foam project we all did together one night, before all the holiday festivities began. (emma was so proud of her little caterpillar!)

So, anyway…December, wow! It was a super-busy month, but I don’t think there’s much I would change about it. You all know we had several Christmas parties, so I was busy many days in the kitchen. Also, we did the insane-midnight-oil cookie bake again this year. Rachel, Amy and I all went to rach’s house this year and baked well over 200 cookies – chocolate mint snowballs, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip cinnamon Mexican cookies, and traditional sugar cookies. Even though I was super disappointed with the two cookie doughs I brought (they were both brand new to me – the recipe SWORE the orange zest made the chocolate chip cookies taste “warm”…I should have known better), I somehow managed to eat my entire way through this holiday season. Fortunately, I had lots of mouths to help me eat and lots of hands to help out…

And more pictures from another party – trying to choose answers (there was some cheating going on…) for the trivia game….

But emma didn’t cheat…

And mantha wanted to make sure she got in on the fun…

And one group picture where the girls were looking AT the camera, and not actually making weird faces or anything! Wow!

By the time Christmas Day came, all our parties were over, but we still had our little activity that we were doing at a local preschool. Ok, so the plan was to tell a 3-year-old version of the Christmas story, do a little craft (make the wooden spoon angels from our ghetto nativity), and then teach them “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. We also brought Christmas presents for all the kids and wrapped them all…something made WAY easier since I just had my house helper do it all. Who wants to wrap 30 presents? Not me. :) Anyway, the short version is that it was chaotic. It was cute, fun, rewarding, glad-I-did-it…but still, a little on the chaotic side. The bright side is that ghetto nativity scene got taken along for added Christmas enjoyment, and we got descriptive pictures of the whole ordeal…

First is Samantha sporting her “why-are-you-bugging-me-I-don’t-know-you” look…It’s pretty accurate if you haven’t met her for the first time… :)

Next is the polka-dot, Emma…the little dot of blonde in the sea of black…

All the little kiddos hard at work with their angels….

And the real polka-dot of the group – the preschool’s English teacher, from Kenya playing some games outside with the older kids…

After the super-charged frenzy of the kindergarten, it was too late to go home and get something to eat, so we finally managed to get a taxi after walking through a lovely construction site that borders the kindergarten and went to pizza hut where there was an HOUR wait to get a table! Yikes! Anyway, the pizza was good and I certainly didn’t want to cook anything, so we waited and ate and then went to Baskin Robbins where the girls had free pick of anything they wanted. Of course, they would choose the little bat looking creature (probably left over from halloween) because he was chocolate, not the cute little snowmen or penguin ice cream creatures. No, no…it had to be chocolate. Like mother, like daughter, I guess….

Well, I got chocolate too (as if there was some question!) and once they were savored down to the last spoonful, we headed home where we were going to make popcorn balls and tell the Christmas story one last time before heading to bed. When we arrived on the 10th floor (where we live) and started walking down the chilly corridor, I waited at the door for josh to pull out his keys, like I always do, and one look told it all – in spite of all the things that made it out the door that morning (the 30 christmas presents, craft materials for all the kids, diaper bags for the girls, homemade cookies that would be passed out, said ghetto nativity, both children, a husband and our house helper, the keys just somehow didn’t make it. Luckily, Amy had a spare set so we trekked back over to her house and scratched the idea of popcorn balls and just went to bed.

The next day, we got some pictures of mantha with her "hey-you're-my-mom-my-most-favorite-person-in-the-world" smile, to make up for the one at the preschool... :)

But a truly merry Christmas it was, and with all the fun opportunities to share not just the story of Christmas with others around us, but with our own children who understand much more than last year, it was a very heartwarming and meaningful Christmas as well. I feel so thankful that we have been able to incorporate some fun traditions to our celebrating and that our kids were able to actively participate in the most important ways of all – helping others find the Light.

We had a rockin new year’s party last night and set a record for ourselves – I think around 3:30 or so we made it to bed. But that’s not the record – the record is that we took down our Christmas tree and all our festive décor today! (In college, our tree usually got taken down during spring break!)

This morning, we opened all our new year’s presents, and emma even pulled herself out of her three-day funk sickness to participate in the fun! They had a great time FINALLY getting to open all the stuff under the tree and played happily for hours this morning with all their loot. Thanks to everyone who sent thoughtful gifts our way this Christmas!

On a more reflective note, Christmas Day marks our 4-year anniversary of living overseas. And though these last four years have brought so many changes to our lives (namely, emma, Samantha, an unexpected move from south to north and many others), I feel so at peace with where our family is, what we’re doing, our life, and everything. That is not to say that even at times during this year there haven’t been hard times – of course, there have – but on the whole, I think about my life and where God has us, and a sigh of deep contentment falls on my spirit. This year has brought new friends to my life (like amy and her family), has reconnected me with old friends that I haven’t talked to in a while (becky and her family), so many of my sweet friends are at places of great happiness with new babies on the way (Alicia and rachel) or are about to tie the knot (kim), I feel like some of my frustrations from November have seen some resolution, I have great family on both sides that I’ve been able to hug in the not-so-distant past, and I just have a great sense of contentment at the end of 2007. It seems like the first time in a while that I haven’t been looking forward to the next year as a way to bring me out of a slump, or like some big to-do list of things I want to change. I feel excited about 2008 if it will be half as good as 2007.

So, on that note, I shall join my husband who has already gone to bed without me and Happy New Year to you all!