Trimming

Staying in Maryland for Christmas and having our home on the market altered a few of our traditional Christmas plans:  like celebrating Christmas on December 15th and buying a tree the day after Thanksgiving.  Instead, we left it all to the end:  Christmas on the 24/25 and tree purchasing on the 22nd.  It turns out that sometimes fortune smiles upon the procrastinators of this world.  Our late purchase allowed us both an adventure and a good deal.  For $15 we were able to visit a local tree farm/orchard and pick out our very own tree and cut it down.

It was a rather unseasonably warm day (notice the absence of jackets) as we ventured out with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tim to cut down our very own Christmas tree.

When we'd found the perfect tree, Grandpa offered to let the girls cut it down.

They decided instead, to supervise.  They had to give him some pointers on where to cut,

but eventually he figured it out.

After the tree felling,

he carried the tree for us,

until he got tired and couldn't carry it anymore.

Then daddy helped him carry it the rest of the way and tie it to the top of the van.

Once home, Grandpa Tim and Joe put it in its stand and hung the lights.

We turned off all the lights to admire their handiwork.

Then we turned on the Charlie Brown Christmas music and got to work decorating.

It all looks so serene and peaceful in picture.  Lest anyone have any doubts what it really was like, here are a few videos:

The next video is kind of long, but it captures a few funny things:

1.  Aliyah did not care anything about ornaments.  She just wanted to play with Gramps.  I don't think she hung a single one on the tree this year.

2.  Joey was oblivious.  He sure liked that box, though.  Midway through the video he broke the box, but that didn't stop him, he just carried on his merry way.

Favorites

For the second year in a row, we joined the Aman family for their annual caroling party.

The kids are still too young to sort out many of the lyrics,

but they're happy just to hang out with one of their favorite people:

Beth.

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.