Fringe Benefits

For many years, one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season has been the making (and eating) of many goodies.  Now, it's even better, as the kids are old enough to help.

This year, my goal was to make only goodies the kids could help me make.

Our goodies were simple, but delicious and made good gifts for friends and teachers.

This mischeif maker, supervised from the floor

while we lined up pretzels,

unwrapped Hershey's Kisses,

and did all sorts of other big kid baking tasks.

Grandma Mary & Grandpa Tim came for a few days of Christmas.  While they were here, I finished up some last minute Christmas presents,

while Grandma kept the girls occupied with baking sugar cookie cut-outs.

Even daddy got in on the goodie making action.  On Christmas Eve he helped Xandra and Theia build a graham cracker house while I worked on dinner.

We didn't eat the house

despite the girls' frequent pleadings to the contrary.

They did, however, get to try one piece of each kind of candy that went on the house when the house was complete.  A nice fringe benefit of helping create goodies!

Upon further review, it is now unclear to me how much my kids enjoy helping with the goodie making and how much they just enjoy the fringe benefits.

The Troublemaker

Kids are good at calling it like they see it.  At our house, they can oft be heard calling the littlest among them, "The Troublemaker."  It seems they may have good cause for their nickname.

as he climbs on step stools in search of

forbidden candy buckets,

ventures up ladders he's not supposed to climb,

apprehends purses he's not supposed to have,

sits in a basket that instead belongs on the shelf (this is one of his favorite playing spots),

and eats chocolate he found who knows where,

that he's too young to eat, at least by the Pull house standards.

They may have it right, he is a bit of a trouble maker, but when he flashes that winsome, slightly mischevious, yet striving for innocent, smile at you,

one has a tendency to momentarily forget and possibly forgive any kind of troublemaking.

Packed with Care

Recently, our friends, Joe and Carolyn Liller, have joined the GAIN (Global Aid Network) staff.  GAIN is the disaster relief arm of Campus Crusade for Christ.  They do lots of things besides disaster relief, including sending CarePacks across the globe.  CarePacks are full of basic school supplies and, in many cases, enable the children who receive them, to attend school.

This summer our Care Group set a goal of packing 100 CarePacks.  We collected school supplies through the back to school season and then in late November, we gathered to pack the Care Packs.

We brought in some reinforcements for the evening.

Our girls were very excited to help pack the Care Packs as they had helped me gather and sort some of the materials. 

Each CarePack included 1 notebook, 2 pencils, 2 pens, a sheet of stickers,

a pack of colored pencils, a pack of crayons, a pencil sharpener, an eraser, and a toothbrush.

Julie L. & Doug H.

Andrew G.

Maureen H.

Jon L.

It didn't take long to get everything packed up.

This is the packing crew:  The Hesses, Glenns, Lockards & Pulls.  There are others in our Care Group, all of whom helped in some capacity with the CarePacks, unfortunately, they just weren't able to join us for the event.

Another bonus of the evening, was that Joe and Carolyn, who live in Pennsylvania, came down for the evening and shared about themselves and GAIN and then personally delivered our CarePacks to the GAIN distribution center.

Giving Thanks

It's no secret:  I love traditions.  As a consequence, I've tried to incorporate several into each holiday we celebrate (Joe likes to tease that I'd create a tradition for everyday of the year, if he didn't reign me in).  The good news is that the girls are now old enough to start to remember and anticipate some of our holiday traditions.  It was no surprise, then, when they knew just what to do with these

a few days before Thanksgiving.  It's still unclear if this crew knows exactly what a pilgrim hat is or who the pilgrims were,

but they have no problem making these chocolaty pilgrim hats year after year.

Another family tradition developed over the last few years is inviting a crew of people over to enjoy a meal with us on Thanksgiving Day.  This has resulted in another tradition of  me buying the largest turkey I can find at the grocery store.  This year's turkey topped out at 26 lbs.

He was a challenge to lift in and out of the oven, but he was no match for me.

He also happened to weigh more than this one year old turkey that spent his day wreaking havoc in my kitchen cabinets and drawers.

For a moment, each year, it seems a shame to cut into such a beautiful bird. 

Then my stomach growls and I happily asked one of our guests to do the honors of carving the big bird.

Mr. Holmes (Brad's father) got right to work and carved the bird up while the rest of the spread got put out.

Others, like Beth, kept busy entertaining the nine small children, aged six and under, on the premises. 

We had several special people join us for the day:  The Holmes (Brad, Lauren, Jillian, Faith & Anna), The Tangs (CheeKin & Niina), The Holmes Grandparents

The Lockards (Jon, Julie, Ava & Andrew), Doug Noble, and the Amans (not pictured here, James, Nancy, Josh, Tim & Beth)

After dinner, we gathered in the living room to play a game of Thanksgiving Jeopardy!

Joe, sporting his Thanksgiving Turkey pin made by the girls (another kind of tradition), was Alex.

There was a lot of fierce competition between the three teams,

but in the end

the Aggies won on a question involving their favorite president and the state of North Dakota. 

To my knowledge everyone was still friends afterward. 
 

We were grateful to spend the day with so many special people.

We ended the day with an over the top dessert bar

provided by our guests,

and with hearts full of gratitude for the many blessings God has so generously and graciously poured into our lives.