Various Christmas Programs

The girls are in bed, we’ve had a good day together, Ed’s working on the computer, and so I thought I’d get a few pictures posted so that I am not SO far behind!

Elise singing with her StoryHour friends at my Wednesday morning Bible Study. And yes, all those children were as distracted as they look.

Last week Sunday evening was the multi-church Cantata in town. It was beautiful, as usual. My dad is in the Calvin College tie there.

This year there was a youth choir, which Sarah & Bethany both sang in. Loved it!

Sarah’s choir concert was about a week and a half ago or so. Can you find Sarah? That was a joke. Of course you can find her because I circled her face. She’s not singing here, but it’s the best picture I have under those lighting circumstances. Their choir was really pretty good and that’s all thanks to an awesome director and musician. The boys in their too-long-ties crack me up! Junior High kids are so awesome.

The whole concert was wonderful, as it included all of the high school choirs and they ended with “Peace, Peace” which is one of my favorite songs from having sung it in choir in our former church for 10 years at our Christmas Candlelight Service. Ed & I had decided that I would go to the choir concert while he stayed home with the little girls and he would go to the band concert the following week while I stayed home with the little girls. I think I definitely got the better concert. Next year, it’ll be his turn to attend the choir concert.

Sarah’s band concert was this past Tuesday. Ed took a couple pictures and again, I think there is some video, which we’ll have to work on getting online.

Elise had two preschool programs this year because she goes to two different classes. The Wednesday program was great and the kids were totally into it.

The Thursday program was really hilarious, though. One little boy, as expected, did not want to sing. That was all right. Another little boy, who has sung in two preschool programs previously, suddenly decided he wasn’t going to sing and spent the entire program on his dad’s lap with his hands over his ears. Another little boy first decided he didn’t like all the parents taking pictures and started ordering them to stop taking pictures of him. Then, during the singing, he slapped his head to the beat, and when all the parents clapped at the end of each song, he did his best Elvis impersonation and said, “Thank you, thank you very much!” I am quite sure it was the most out of control program that ever has been at my mother’s preschool.

There’s video, but I’m not sure I should post it…

Anyhoo, then, after all the other parents and preschoolers and grandparents left, we gave my mom her present of brandy beans and she promptly ate two. She deserved them. Trust me.

Elise was none-too-thrilled with the uncooperative little boys, as you can imagine. Plus, the little girl next to her was sitting in a different seat than when they had practiced, which was very concerning to Elise. She thought she needed to inform her teacher of all the mis-doings of the other students. She can be quite bossy when she thinks she needs to be. Of course, we all know that’s because she has to vie for attention in this house with 3 big sisters around all the time.

She did cooperate and smiled and waved for my picture, at least.

All right, my 15 minutes on the computer are up for now and I am current on Christmas program pictures until this past Friday. I still have some basketball stories to tell and pictures to post. Hope to get to that before Wednesday afternoon, but we’ll see how the to-do list for Monday and Tuesday pan out.

I have a lot to blog about

but very little time. It's been a busy week and even though Christmas vacation begins at noon on Friday, there is A LOT to do between now and when the fun begins next week Wednesday. There's the finishing of the Christmas shopping, wrapping, creating, mailing, & baking. There's concerts to go to, friends to hang out with, church to attend, and a house to clean. There's laundry to do, little girls to love, books to be read, photos to edit, cooking, straightening, and general tidying. There's dinners to make, stories to tell, performances to prepare for, and, well, you get the idea. When all of these crucial things are finished, I will get caught up on the blogging...I promise!! In the meantime, I sincerely pray you all enjoy this Christmas season, remembering the real reason we celebrate. I intend to focus on that and on my loved ones for the next many days. And if there happens to be a time when Aunt Julie is so overcome by the sweetness of the photograph of a nephew, a picture may pop up on this blog. And if one of my amazing daughters says something wonderful, you may get to read about it. But I don't plan on spending time organizing pictures and writing clever blogs for the next several days. Possibly even a couple weeks. We'll all survive.

And the winner is…

…going to be announced after this brief message from our sponsor.

Don’t you just hate it when TV shows do that? We watched the finale of “The Biggest Loser” last night (it was on while we did 1000 other things) and while as amazing as the weight loss on that show is, it’s really annoying that it takes 2 whole hours for about 10 minutes of weight comparisons.

Now, I was rather disappointed in the response to this giveaway. Seriously. Six people? Six? I KNOW there are more of you who read this blog. So I came up with 3 reasons why you might not have entered this amazing giveaway.

a. You are family and think you’re not eligible; plus you think I will make you anything you want on my Silhouette anyway. Well, you are eligible, but you’re probably right.

b. You don’t like the giveaway. Sorry, I don’t have anything to say to that. What’s wrong with free coffee?

c. You’re a silent blog stalker and you don’t actually want me to know you’ve read my blog every day for 2.5 years. I know you’re out there. There’s probably 1000 of you at least.

Oh, I just thought of a 4th reason. Maybe

d. You’ve tried to leave a comment, but you’re just not computer literate enough. All I have to say about that is, well, just call Ed next time.

All right, all right. So, I just wrote ALL six names on little papers and folded them up.

All the girls came over and mixed them up on my counter.

Bethany drew a name.

And the winner is…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just have to draw this out because there are TWO of you who REALLY, REALLY wanted to win.

And ONE of the two of you won.

But Dee, it’s not you. Sorry.

 

 

It’s your MOM!!

Congratulations, Alice! I’m so glad you won! Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking you want my cool Silhouette to cut for you. And it has to be for YOU. Don’t let Dee talk you into making something for her. She’ll try, you know. I’ll get your address from your granddaughter and send you your Starbucks card.

Something so exciting!

I know, I know, this is my third post in one day. But I just had to write one more tonight before I went to bed, because this is probably the single most exciting post I will ever write!

No, I am not pregnant.

This post, that you are reading right now, is the 500th post on Five Girls and Their Guy!!!!! Can you believe that? Amazing.

What I can’t figure out is why, after FIVE HUNDRED posts, am I not getting to be on the Today Show like Pioneer Woman?

I decided it must be because I don’t do giveaways. Did you know that LOTS of blogs do giveaways? Of course, most of the time, those giveaways aren’t actually from the blogger, they’re from companies, which contact the blogger to give away their stuff as a promotional items.

Funny, no company has ever contacted me. Huh.

But, you are lucky readers because I am going to do a giveaway ON MY OWN with no sponsors. How’s that for a cool blogger?

To be entered in the giveaway in honor of my 500th blog post, you must:

a. Leave me a comment on this post and it must be signed with your name so I know who you are if you win.

OR

b. Send me an email, again with your name so I know who you are if you win.

Oh, did you want to know what I am giving away?

I’ve been thinking about this since about blog post #453, so I’ve got something good, I promise. At least, I think it’s good. And since this is my blog and my giveaway, then that’s all that matters, right? Right?

So, I’m going to give away a Starbucks gift card worth 500 pennies! Wow is right!

PLUS I am going to make the winner anything he/she wants, using this little beauty that I bought myself Ed bought me for Christmas (a little early):

That, my friends, is a Silhouette SD. Anything you can create on your computer and print using a printer, it can CUT OUT! It can cut vinyl, tattoo paper, cardstock, iron-on paper, etc. A. Maze. Zing! So, if you are the winner of my giveaway, you will get to choose whatever you want that I will cut for you! Of course, it has to be something that will actually fit in that thing, so no more than 12” wide, and you have to pretty much create it yourself. I don’t have hours to spend designing some masterpiece for you. If you want an entire cardstock sheet cut with little itty bitty snowflakes, cool. If you want some vinyl words that say “Laundry Goes Here”, that’s FABULOUS! You get the idea? Okay, so, please leave a comment or send me an email (no, you don’t get entered twice if you do both) and I will enter you in the giveaway.

Oh, AND, In your comment or email, you must tell me what blog post has been your favorite of the 500 posts that I have written. AND you must leave your full name.

The deadline for entry is Tuesday, Dec. 14 at midnight, PST. I will draw a winner probably on Wednesday evening and will announce that winner right here on this blog! Good luck and thanks for being such faithful readers.

O Christmas Tree, 2010 Edition

Today was the annual traditional trek to the tree farm with my parents to cut down our Christmas tree. Only, it didn’t end up to be very traditional…

We decided to try a new-to-us, cheaper, tree farm. We should have known, cheaper=not-so-nice. It seems you get what you pay for with Christmas trees as well.

However, during our little jaunt around the ugly tree farm, Becca had a fun discovery!

Wow! That was cool. A perfect little birdie nest. It made our stop so very worthwhile.

We decided to stop at the next tree farm up the road a ways. These trees were very nice. And very expensive. Again, you get what you pay for.

We continued our journey farther up into the mountains and ended at the place we all know & love, which we have gone to almost every year of my life and almost every year of my children’s lives.

As we got out of the truck my dad asked Ed to go get an extra saw. Ed heads towards Dad’s truck. A little light goes on in my head.

Uh, honey, what did you do with that saw Dad gave you at the first tree farm?

Put it in Dad’s truck.

Uh, yeah, honey? That saw wasn’t Dad’s.

Oh.

Apparently we (accidentally) stole a saw from the ugly tree farm with the birdie nest.

On to the hunt.

We very quickly found two perfect trees at an expected price and proceeded to consume hot cocoa and donuts in the cabin before heading home (with a little side trip to return the stolen saw).

We have kind of a weird tradition in our family. After taking the family picture by the tree we are about to cut down, somebody gets held up over the top of the tree to be the “angel” on the tree. Well, this year, we spiced things up a bit (there I go again, being all spontaneous).

Mom & Dad’s tree. Thanks, Mom, for pointing it out. I wasn’t sure we would know which tree was yours otherwise.

This happened after somebody (I don’t know who) said, “I think that Grandma should be the angel on the tree this year!”

And then…

This next one is my favorite…

And finally, the angel, on top of, sort of, the tree…

Sarah was the official “tree-holder".”

Our turn…

There. I’m the angel, too. Feel better now, Mom?

That was after the donuts and hot cocoa in the cabin. Don’t they all look happy, warm, and like they’re about to go into a sugar coma?

After an afternoon of running around with various and sundry errands, a dinner of pizza, and baths, we finally got to decorate our tree this evening! They were so excited!

Everyone is digging into their personal ornament box to see which ornaments I will allow on this year’s tree. I always have rules…otherwise our tree would fall over with the sheer weight of all the ornaments.

Every year one of the girls gets to put the angel on the top of the tree when we’re done decorating as well. This year was Elise’s turn!

Some favorite ornaments this year:

I got eight of these old antique beauties at a garage sale last spring. I don’t remember how much I paid for them, but not very much. You could ask my friend Tamara, she’d probably remember.

This year Ed & I gave each of the girls one of these angel ornaments. Because they’re our angels. Awwwwww.

Also, they were white, cute, and $1 each.

The finished product. So beautiful. I love Christmas trees!

Christmas Recital

Last week Saturday was the girls’ Christmas recital! Despite the fact that we had a busier-than-normal fall, and that the recital was earlier in the season than normal, the girls still did pretty well on their pieces! This recital was also exciting because it was Becca’s first!! She started piano this year and LOVES it. In fact, while Becca is somewhat shy and not her typical dramatic self at school, she has had no problems warming up to her piano teacher and letting her piano teacher see the real Becca. In fact, I think there are a lot of similarities between my Becca and their very talented and very funny piano teacher.

There are videos which Ed will upload eventually, but for now…a few pictures:

Bethany played Minuet in F and then a duet with me on Joy to the World.

Becca played Fuzzy Baby Bird (with a little dramatic flair at the end – a fitting piece for my girl) and a duet with me on O Come All Ye Faithful.

Bethany played a Vivaldi Concerto on her violin which was definitely the most difficult piece she’s ever tackled. She did super!

Sarah played a variation on Hungarian Rhapsody which was beautiful and which she nailed at the recital. She was so excited afterwards! She said, “Mom, did you hear that? I totally got that part! I’ve never gotten that part perfect before!” It was awesome.

Our wonderfully talented friend Holly was also there and since her baby sister was sick, she came with an aunt and so this picture is for her Mom & Dad who couldn’t be there. I have a video of her also, J&D, that I will get to you soon, too!

It’s always kind of relief to have the recital done and to have a break from the lessons and the practicing for a while. Sarah, however, has had to keep working hard since she is playing Angels We Have Heard on High in church during offertory tomorrow; plus she & Bethany are doing a piano/violin duet of O Holy Night on Christmas Eve that they are both practicing. It’s not as though they don’t practice at all after recital, it’s just a little less intense and a little less time. I let them play around with favorite songs they’ve played in the past and just generally have more fun playing than when they’re working on getting a piece ready for performance.

Isn’t she cute?

Bethany takes everything very seriously and always makes sure she completes all required tasks. This past weekend she wanted to work on a GEMS badge that she had started with her counselor at GEMS a few weeks back. One of the requirements she had chosen to do in order to complete her badge was to “make kabobs for your family.” She decided on Fruit Kabobs. Of course, I didn’t really have any skewers, but I did find a metal whisk that had come apart and so she used those metal sticks from the whisk as the skewers. It turned out cute and everyone thought her kabobs were tasty! It’s amazing how fast food disappears when it’s served on a stick!

Being blessed

Today has been a strange day. All the details are not necessary, but my day was saved by the simple spontaneous act of buying two coffees instead of one and dropping by my friend Dee's house. I know that in the light of larger problems in the world and in other people's lives, my problems are miniscule and laughable. But sometimes things like not getting news when you expect news and having the power go out and weekly Bible Study canceled after one has already driven 10 minutes to get there can make one feel a little crazy.

So, when, while waiting in line to order coffee at McDonald's (because the Starbucks line was too long due to the power being out in the rest of town and no one could make their own coffee or go to any of the other many coffee shops in town) I received and read an email from Dee saying that she was going nutso and losing patience with her sick kids, I decided to buy two caramel mochas instead of one. I called Dee and said, "I'm coming over and I'm bringing coffee." She said, incredulously (and why wouldn't she be surprised? I never do anything spontaneous.) "Really?" I showed up at her house, handed her a coffee, and we proceeded to have 90 wonderful minutes of chatting while, amazingly, her sick two-year-old played happily with my now-four-and-a-half-year-old.

Truly, that very simple and last minute decision to buy two coffees instead of one changed my outlook on the day. We didn't talk about anything important - just your typical Mom-stuff, wife-stuff, friend-stuff - but I am so thankful for those kinds of moments with friends. I really gotta try to do that kind of stuff more often.

In fact, I was so inspired that I spontaneously stopped at another friend's house this afternoon. Sure, I just had to drop off a vest that her daughter had left at church that I couldn't return this morning at Bible Study since Bible Study was canceled, but it turned out to be such a blessing to stop and say hello and see what was new with her and to find out that I hadn't received an important email from her. I only stayed for 5 minutes, but connecting with her was good. And I hope I can connect with her again soon. And I hope to be more spontaneous. So, if you live in my county, get ready. I'm planning to be spontaneous again soon.

To make up for the previous post

I will now post two cute comments from my almost four-and-a-half-year-old (which you will already know if you are my friend on Facebook, but, oh well).

She was singing “Feliz Navidad” the other day, except her version goes, “Elise Mommy Dad.”

Tonight she successful peeled an orange all by herself and was apparently quite proud. She whispered, “I. Am. Awesome.!”

I’m bored

I don’t have enough time at one time today to accomplish any big tasks. I have a sick child at home. I’m trying to accomplish little tasks, but I’m uninspired. The few tasks I was inspired to do flopped due to technical difficulties. I was supposed to have coffee and go thrifting with Dee, but she has a sick kid, too. I’m bored.

So…I’m blogging. This post will be boring, plus it will have bad pictures.

Bethany’s Christmas chapel last Friday was wonderful! It was not boring at all! Bethany played her cello and had a violin solo during the orchestra performance. She also had a narration part at one point. I loved it.

We had kind of bad seats for getting decent shots of Bethany, and of course I couldn’t really use my fancy flash during the performances.

Then also last Friday we had a baby shower for my friend and fellow Logos wife, Melissa. Another Logos wife, Amie, hosted, and other Logos wives and ex-Logos wives attended. For not knowing each other super well, we had a really good time! And, because of the fact that I simply forgot to use my fancy flash, pretty much all the pictures are bad. I’m sorry, Melissa!!!

Checking out the diaper during a baby shower game.

More game work.

Here’s the mother-to-be, armed with gloves and a mask, opening a diaper in which she suspects there will be something gross. Fortunately for her, it held some serious moo-lah for the purpose of purchasing super-awesome, yet re-usable diapers. Yuck.

Here she is holding one of those super-awesome diapers. When we babysit your kid, Melissa, remind me to get some disposables…

A little of this and a little of that

Sarah’s playing basketball.

This shot didn’t go in, but I like how it proves she’s actually jumping.

She’s totally awesome at defense. Almost every picture I have of her playing basketball has those long arms of hers just bugging the heck out of an opponent. She actually got called on a foul because of those long arms. Her arms were STRAIGHT up in the air, I kid you not, but she still got called because the girl shooting kind of fell into those straight long arms up in the air. I know she could be a great rebounder with those long arms if she could jump just a little bit higher.

Next:

I love these people. We have been friends with all those people for 15 years, give or take. We all used to live in the same town and attend the same church. One by one, we moved away, but for the first time in probably six years we managed to be together. One other couple was not in town, but we thought this was pretty amazing. What a blessing it is to have friends that no matter how infrequently you are together, it still feels like home when you are together. It’s so easy. It’s so comfortable. It’s so warm.

Kind of like this:

December has arrived and with it, our Advent Calendar. We have tags for every day of December with activities for Advent (the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah). It was fun one evening to cozy up with Becca & Elise to work on a Christmas I Spy book.

And then it was pretty fun to tickle them.

Fun with Friends

The day after Thanksgiving, some long-time friends came over for the afternoon and evening. The girls played, the guys conquered fictional countries, and Beth & I did some crafting. Then we had dinner. Then we got down to business with settling some Catan. Guess who won? It wasn’t me!

And it wasn’t our guests!

So, that, of course, leaves Ed. Who almost always wins. My theory is that he complains and whines so much about how things aren’t going his way that we let down our guard and trade with him and don’t pay attention to the fact that he has 3 cities, largest army, and two upside-down development cards (victory points).

Brothers of mine: get ready. We’re gonna take him down at Christmas.

Anyway, some pictures from our fun evening:

Thanks for coming, dear friends! It was great to have you here! Unfortunately, I don’t think Ed’s ever going to let you win.

Calvin Light Brigade

Last Saturday, Ed put up the Christmas lights. This year he had an assistant.

Notice that they are wearing maroon and gold, which are, of course, Calvin’s colors. Those are both Calvin sweatshirts. They make the putting up of Christmas lights a pleasurable task, of course.

I posted this picture on Facebook and a friend commented that HE should get an assistant whilst putting up lights this year. I commented back that they better wear their Calvin gear. He commented back that they only have t-shirts, so I commented back that they better wear their t-shirts over their sweatshirts. He commented “Yes’m.”

I don’t believe I’ve ever had that said to me. It’s quite nice. I think I will start making my children answer me with “Yes’m.”

Anyhoo, just got these pictures from my friend and his family:

Our friends totally rock.

Anyone else up to the challenge of spreading Christmas cheer while decked out in Calvin gear?

P.S. To my Dordt friends: First, I love you anyway. Second, you may borrow my Calvin gear if you wish.

ohmyword

I know I have more blogging to do and more updates to write and more pictures to post.

But I saw this one particular picture. And ohmyword.

Yes, I know it’s blurry and it’s a terrible picture, but, Oh. My. Word.

Do you see it?

If you know my baby brother, you should see it.

That face. Sarah’s face. It’s my baby brother.

I mean, it’s not, of course, because it’s Sarah. But from the day of her birth, my mother said, “She reminds me of Michael” and there have been many times when I have thought the same thing, especially watching her compete in athletics over the last couple months.

But now I have actually captured it in pixels. Sarah, you are your uncle’s niece.