Merry Christmas

Boston Pops

We surprised the kids with a trip on Christmas Eve to see the Boston Pops.

We all had a great time.

Keeping Busy

Decorating Christmas cookies.

Playing around the Christmas tree.

Third Sunday of Advent

My girls were Acolytes this morning at our church.

 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

Luke 1:57-66

Jo got to lit a candle for the victims of Friday's shooting in CT.

In my kitchen

 Today I was busy baking in my kitchen. I haven't done any Christmas baking so far so I have a long way to go. If I can keep the little fingers off of them I should be all set.

Nativity Scene

This is my latest project. It took few (or three) years to finish it but I am glad I did it. It is all cut out of pater and glue onto dark blue background. This is a Nativity scene Czech style.

Sneak Peak

I worked on our Christmas cards today. Here is a little sneak peak.

Gingerbread House

The girls had a blast decorating their own ginger bread house.

They looked cute working on it as well.

Emma and Jo proud of their job.

The boys came down to see the final product and to see if there were any candy left they could get their hands on.

First Sunday of Advent

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "how will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

Luke 1:26-38

Shopping with my girls

My sweet little girls were the proud owners of a few American Girl gift cards they received for Christmas. However, they are no longer owners of these gift cards since they spent it all in one shopping trip. We headed to American Girl in Boston shortly after Christmas since they couldn't wait to get their new treasures at the store. It was my mom's first trip there so she was a little in shock that such a thing existed. It was packed with girls and their dollies and tons of people everywhere. The girls made their choices quickly. However, we had to wait a long time in line.

Then they insisted on caring their loot through the mall.

Jo couldn't keep up with us but she didn't need or want any help from us.

 We stopped to pose for pictures for my mom.

 How about if we could see your faces?

 Never mind.

It all made it home even though we lost Emma's bag in Lego store and Jo gave up on caring her box and let uncle Vitte to help her. They are now the proud owners of a Biddy baby wagon and tons of new outfits for their babies.

Life is never dull with those two.

Nutcracker on Christmas Eve

Thanks to Fil's parents, we got to enjoy a new experience this Christmas Eve. All of us (including uncle Vittee) got to go see The Nutcracker in Boston. The kids had no idea but Emma figured it out as soon as we got off the exit (I did take her to Boston Ballet last spring). The girls have been talking about The Nutcracker for a long time so it was a big surprise for them. The boys were not so sure about it thinking that ballet was for girls but seeing all the families around us they did enjoy the performance very much.

(The boys did not get crowns)

Right after the ballet we went to church and after we enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (including honey, crackers and garlic. And this year all of the kids did eat it).

THANK YOU GRANDPA AND GRANDMA VERY MUCH!!!

Merry Christmas

... the night before Christmas

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came fro the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sigh to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angle. praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angles had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all there things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told.

Luke 2:1-20

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Making Christmas gifts and my FIRST GIVEAWAY

A while back I wrote I was working on Christmas presents. Somehow in the busyness of the fall I forgot to post what I was working on. Well I came across someones blog in which they were melting old crayons into fun shapes. I too have been collecting broken crayons over the years and it was time to do something with them. I put my girls to work right away. They did not last too long. I do have to say be careful to whom you assign this job to. Jo has been peeling all the crayons she can get her little hands on since.

Then I remembered that I had a big box with tons of crayons boxes.

And this is what I ended up doing. All the kids love the little crayon's 'rocks'.

That being said (written) I am giving one set away (total of 24 colors). All you have to do it to leave a message :) the kids and I will draw a winner next Monday.

Let all your friends know. This will be a great stocking stuffer :)

Trade As One - Christmas Shopping

Trade As One

Christmas Morning Fun

Every Christmas Eve we sit down right before the kids are off to bed and we read the Christmas story (from Luke). We all participate and play different parts of the story.

These pictures are from Christmas Eve evening. Each year the kids get new pj's.

And here comes Christmas Day morning. I guess Jo picked up on Emma's style with her goggles and you can see she is wearing a pair as well.

Jo was so cute. It was her first American Christmas. She would find a box and sit down and unwrapped it all by HERSELF. She did not care if it took her a long time as long as she did it on her own.

Here are the boys enjoying a new Wii game.

Jo trying to look through a kaleidoscope.

We are so happy to spend Christmas with Fil's brother. He is the greatest uncle. He loves to read to the girls and play with the boys.

We had a great relaxing Christmas Day. The heat on our main floor is not working. The one upstairs is so it is not that bad. It would be more comfortable if it was working. However, since it is not an emergency we will have to wait until Monda for somebody to fix it.

Merry Christmas to ALL

Wishing you ALL

A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

This has been a very busy year for us but we feel so blessed.

I have been looking back at my blog and what we have been up to this past year. You can read about it here.

To those of you in the adoption process this can be a very frustrating period of time because of the holidays. Especially if you already have that referral for that precious little someone. We went through this at the end of last year into the first several months of 2008. At that point in time we had been waiting for our court date since our referral date of Oct. 19th and we knew nothing. We had only one picture of our Jordan and we had no clue when we would hold her in our arms. As most of you know we did not get to hold Jordan in our arms until March 15th of this year. In a way I want to encourage all of you who are in the middle of adoption process that it will happen. I know it seems like a long time at this point. Especially if you feel stuck and have been waiting for that last little something to move on in the adoption process. But it is so worth it and you will get to hold your little one.

Gingerbread House

We finally got around to make our annual Gingerbread house. I did not make it from scratch just in case you were wondering.
Jo was all smiles when we started.

Nate did not stay too long to help with the decorating.

(You can see Jo in the back round trying to reach a forgotten piece of candy. It made it into her mouth)

Emma was very into it.

(And eating the candy)

As you can see Jo got mad. She got VERY mad. She wanted to eat all of the candy and I was not going to let her.

Emma putting finishing touches on the gingerbread house.

Sam and Emma showing off their gingerbread men.

Jo is happy again. Part of the house broke down and I just gave it to her.

(It got quiet with her mouth full :)

!!!Power outage update!!!

To our dismay, yesterday we learn that we were one of three families from our church who did not loose power on Friday. Most families without power own generators to keep basic things running and most of them own wood stoves to keep the houses warm. Even though a majority of the families got power back by Sunday there a few which are still left in the cold and darkness. We offered everybody our house. However, everyone needed make sure their pipes wouldn't freeze. We hope that today's warm weather help to get most of the roads cleaned and power back on. Fil was shocked this morning to see so many trees still by the roads. We feel very blessed at this point. Schools are still closed at this point and as you can guess we are still in full swing with our school at home. We are looking forward to our Christmas break coming up next week.