A New Place
Well, it looks like this is my new blog home. I’ll be testing it out during the free trial period and seeing how I like it. If all goes well, I’ll move in completely in January.
The Nativity, a Play in 5 Acts
Our Catholic Homeschool group on base performed their Christmas play yesterday. The children wrote the play themselves and came up with most of the ideas for the songs and staging. We rehearsed every day last week, with a dress rehearsal in the chapel on Friday afternoon. The children invited their dads to attend an evening performance, followed by a pizza party. We were all so proud of how hard the children worked at learning their lines and stage directions. It wasn’t easy rounding up 15 children and getting them to pay attention, especially with 4 babies/toddlers roaming the set and playing with Baby Jesus. At times it felt like a scene from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But in the end, it all came off beautifully and the dads were suitably impressed.
Real Shepherds Wear Plaid. Pumpkin Girl as a sheep, with Boo, her shepherd and their best friend, Andrew.
Singing “Silent Night”
The shepherds have announced that “The Savior has been born, Alleluia, Alleluia” and the entire ensemble sings “Joy to the World.”
I’m Still Here!
After the recent maintenance here at HSB, I was one of the many that was unable to access their blogs. As you can see, that issue has been resolved. We’re still busy unpacking. Most of the boxes have been emptied, just a lot of stuff needs to be put away. In fact, I really need to get back to work. Just wanted to let you know that I have not abandoned my blog!
Something Close to My Heart
Please pass this information on to every single person you know. I know it’s late notice, but if you have a blog, please consider posting the information there, too. I ask that you join me in remembering children of all ages who have died way too soon. Please keep their families in your prayers as you light a candle on Sunday night and especially during this time of year. I know that this candle lighting is easy to forget, maybe you could go right now and place a tea light or pillar candle on your coffee table or dining room table to help you remember.
The Compassionate Friends
Worldwide Candle Lighting
Held annually the second Sunday in December, this year December 10, The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe as they light candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.
Believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.
The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. A memorial message board is available during the event at TCF’s USA website www.compassionatefriends.org. Hundreds upon hundreds of postings are received each year from all over the United States, as well as dozens of other countries. Some messages are in foreign languages.
Here in the United States, publicity about the event is widespread, being featured in the past in Parade Magazine, Ann Landers column, Guideposts magazine, Annie’s Mailbox, and literally hundreds of U.S. newspapers, dozens of television stations, and numerous websites. Information on the Worldwide Candle Lighting and planned memorial candle lighting services is posted on the TCF website at www.compassionatefriends.org each year as the event nears.
The United States Senate has, for many of the 10 years of the Worldwide Candle Lighting, joined in the remembrance by unanimously passing resolutions declaring the second Sunday in December of each year National Children’s Memorial Day to coincide with The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting.
The Worldwide Candle Lighting gives bereaved families everywhere the opportunity to remember their child . . . that their light may always shine!
Advent
I’ve really been enjoying all the advent blogs I’ve found. Lots of women are so creative and seem to have so much time. I wish I was able to dedicate the time and energy into creating such wonderful, homey crafts and baked goods. I’m having advent envy. Of course, this year, I’m spending all my free time trying to unpack our house. It’s going much slower than I had hoped. Since we moved into an identical house, you’d think that everything would just go right back into the same place it was in the old house. Not so much. Unfortunately, we were not well organized to start with and the packers don’t really care that you’ve got homeschooling books in three different bookshelves that really should be packed into the same boxes. They also don’t care that that big pile of papers should just go out into the recycling. They just dump it all into a box, label it something helpful like “guest room papers” and seal it up. In some cases they literally dumped stuff into a box. Playmobile pirate ship, remote control car, vintage Little People village from my childhood, Hello Kitty playhouse all in one box, with some books stuck in the empty spaces as filler. Two bowling pins (don’t ask!) on top of the Justice League Watch Tower.
OK, this was supposed to be a post about advent. Even in the best of circumstances, I’ve not given much thought to Advent beyond counting down the days. I’m not big on kids crafts, even though I’d like to be. I get frustrated when I can’t find the craft supplies I need for a project and gosh darn it, don’t you know that a 5 year old and an 8 year old just won’t make the project perfectly! Doesn’t add up to a lot of Comfort and Joy. However, in reading some of these other blogs, I’m seeing that Advent crafts do not need to be lengthy, done perfectly or involve hard to find supplies. Instead, they should reflect the season of joyful anticipation and should be heartfelt and simple. I would like to try some of the ideas I’ve found. I love Dawn’s blog in general and she’s got a lot of great advent ideas. I like her sequin ornaments, tissue paper stars, and star candles most of all. I think I’ll add them to my holiday plans binder for next year. Hopefully I’ll be in a better place to accomplish them. Over at O Night Divine, a blog devoted to Christmas, take a look at this homemade advent wreath that is a beautifully simple departure from a traditional wreath.
What I would like to share is the wonderful advent calendar that my mother made for me when I was about 4 years old. I hang it up for my children now and they take turns pinning an ornament to the tree everyday. I absolutely love my advent calendar for so many reasons – because my not-so-crafty mom made it for me, for it’s simplicity, and for the fact that it has been a part of my Christmases for as long as I can remember.
Something else I would like to share is our family
advent wreath. This is the latest one that we made at our church’s advent workshop. We first made one 4 years ago and it was then that my husband said he wanted to have an advent wreath every year and make it part of our family’s tradition.
O Christmas Tree!
We did manage to get our Christmas tree up this weekend. We have a permanent tree. You know, the kind in a box. It’s like an old friend that we see every year. Then at the end of the season, it goes back in the box until we see it again in December. I’m so sentimental and prone to weeping, that as a child, when it was time to throw out the beloved Christmas tree, it would just about break my heart. My dad would even cut off a little branch for me to keep as a souvenir. Even as an adult, I thought it was so sad to see all the trees laying out on the curb for the garbage man. So we got a permanent tree.
The first year we had it, it took Philip and I about 2 hours to figure out to put it up. It’s gone faster each year and now it takes maybe 30 minutes, depending if the children helped or not.
Getting the tree up was really helping in improving my mood. When Charlotte came downstairs and saw the tree, with the lights lit but no ornaments she cried, "Oh how beautiful!! Mama!" and gave me such a big hug. How can anyone be uncheered by a Christmas tree?
So we played some Christmas music and hung the ornaments. We all have our favorites, of course. Batman,
Bugs Bunny and the Hairy Monster, 
Candy Doll, 
Angel, 
Rebecca’s Angel, 
Santa peering out of the Hurtgen Forest 
(what can I say, Phil was a tanker).
So it’s December
I have a new winter look for my blog, but I have to admit that I’m not feeling too festive. I have always loved Fall and Winter, but lately my heart’s just not in it. Part of it is seeing all the lights and decorations and hearing the music. I am reminded of December 2003, as I entered the final weeks of my pregnancy with Rebecca. What a joyful time that was! As the world prepared to celebrate the birth of Christ, I was preparing for the birth of my own baby. The clever little thing arrived just 3 days before Christmas and we came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve. What could be more perfect, than a brand new baby for Christmas? It would be the only Christmas we got to spend with her. And so now, as the world again prepares to celebrate the birth of a baby, my heart aches for my own baby. It doesn’t make for a very merry season.
I have a sign that says "It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" but I don’t put it up anymore.
I think that knowing that this season brings me such sadness it what drives me to be so organized for Christmas. While everyone else is bustling around buying presents, I would much rather stay home and pull a blanket over my head. So keeping things simple and organized keeps me sane. I have to "do" Christmas for my other children. They deserve the happy times, because God knows that their little hearts have already been smashed into enough peices.
And to top it all off, our house is filled with moving boxes once again. Our unexpected, emergency move has really put a damper on the season. Taking pictures of our ruined, moldy possessions for our insurance isn’t exactly my idea of holiday fare. My husband says that he does know where the decorations are, so we will attempt to put them up this weekend. I have managed to get a small portion of the living room unpacked and set up, with enough room to put up the tree. As long as all the Christmas pictures are only taken facing the tree, the chaos of the rest of the house won’t be seen. I just hope I can figure out where all the Christmas presents got packed away to.
As you can see, I’m really struggling here. Maybe after this big cold front passes us and our temperature drops from 74 degrees today to 43 degrees tomorrow, my mood will improve. Maybe seeing Christmas lights on our house will help, too. Some nice thick eggnog and John Denver’s Rocky Mountain Christmas album might do the trick. Maybe some prayers from my faithful blog readers, all 12 of you.
More Pictures
As you can see, I’m back. We moved into our new house on Thanksgiving Day and spent the day unpacking. We lost our internet connection when we moved around the computer and finally got it fixed on Tuesday. I know you’re all dying to see the pictures of the our damaged house, so here they are.
The water leak started in the upstairs master bathroom. Our entire carpet was soaked, as was much of the room next to ours. Most of the damage was done to the ceiling directly under the flooded rooms. So I present to you…our kitchen.
And the “office” area/junk depository:
Everything on, under and near the little roll top desk was completely soaked.
The hooks on the wall were holding portraits of our children, which our neighbors rescued. The bookshelf held mostly school books. Out of thousands of dollars worth of curriculum, I only lost about 8 Explode the Code Workbooks. That wet wall is a common wall, but fortunately, the neighbors on that side have not seen any damage.
Believe it or not, I had cleaned up this area ALOT before we left.
Just for the record, Longaberger baskets dry out beautifully. They will also grow mold if thrown into a box while wet and left there for 3 weeks. Luckily, the mold washes off and if caught in time, doesn’t even leave a trace.
Pictures!
So which pictures do you want to see first, Disneyland or our damaged house? How about the fun stuff first.
Our Disneyland trip was a great one, despite everything. We went all out this year and got a suite at the Disneyland Hotel. The extra expense was well worth the convenience of being right there to return as needed, being able to have our souvenirs sent to our room, and the chance to swim in the Peter Pan themed pool, complete with pirate ship. This was the view from our room.
Now that Boo is 8, he was able to go on many rides by himself. He was most excited about solo-ing on Dumbo. He also rode alone on the Gadget Coaster in Toon Town and in a moment of parental lapse of judgment, I let him ride alone on Big Thunder Mountain. We all love Big Thunder Mountain, but I haven’t ridden it in years because I have been pregnant each of the previous 3 Disneyland trips. So I was really excited to ride this time and Phil stayed back with Bip. I must have been overcome with anticipation when the attendant asked us if we wanted 2 cars. I said yes and Boo climbed into the car in front of me and Pumpkin Girl. Then it started to dawn on me that I had just let my first born son sit by himself on a roller coaster with just some bar holding him in. No seat belt, so safety helmet, no 5 point harness. He’s buckled in more safely into our minivan! And while he is indeed old enough to ride alone, he’s really tiny and likely to slip right out of the “safety” bar and go flying off. All these thoughts went whipping through my head in the split second before our train started going. My enjoyment of the ride was extremely deminished by worrying about Boo. Every time we slowed down, I would lean forward and beg him to hold on. He’s fine of course. Me, not so much.
The rest of the trip was blissfully uneventful. Besides the whole house flooding thing. Pumpkin got an opportunity to meet several of her favorite princesses. This is my very favorite picture of her having a heart to heart talk with Jasmine.
Jasmine told her that she was a very pretty princess. I think she walked on clouds for the rest of the day. It was well worth the 40 minute wait, complete with an eye-rolling, bored-out-of-his-mind older brother.
Boo got to meet several of his Disney favorites, too.
Bip really enjoyed seeing all the sites. He leaned forward in the stroller and pointed to all the things he liked . Sometimes, though, the expression on his face clearly said, “Does my Nana know I’m here?”
He didn’t enjoy the YoHo-ing Pirates as much as Boo did at the same age. He squeezed Phil tightly every time it got dark or he got nervous. Unfortunately, It’s a Small World was getting a Christmas make-over while we were there and was closed.
I think Bip would have liked it.