Kathleen's preschool had their Christmas program last week. The children had been practicing for weeks (it was before Thanksgiving when I first saw them singing Joy to the World), and Kathleen was beyond excited. She might not have sung every word, but she was all about the choreography! (We know that three minutes is more than a little long, but stick around for the "dancing" at 1:35 -- it's pretty funny!)
We're so grateful that Kathleen's in a little Christian preschool, a place where her teachers help reinforce what we're teaching at home: that Christmas isn't about Santa or presents, but about the amazing gift of the Christ Child. (Because, let me tell you, it's hard to compete with Santa. We need all the extra help we can get!) Kathleen loved practicing the nativity play; she performs it at home for us, again and again. She particularly likes to be the angel. We will never tire of hearing her say, "You will call him Jesus, and He will come to save all people!" When I was growing up, we always acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve, and it's fun to watch our littles do the same thing.
In case you didn't get to watch real-live children perform the nativity story this year, I wanted to share this cute YouTube video from New Zealand. (I love their little accents! And the costumes!) We've watched it here again and again. The children and I love it!
Since clearly we haven't been blogging, here's a little bit of what we've been up to these past six weeks.
Being sweet and sleepy. (Though not, unfortunately, the sleep-through-the-night-type of sleepy!)
Loving our little brother.
Growing.
Goofing around. John David sports his Daniel-Boone-style cap, a gift from Nan and Grandpa (who might have been a bit concerned by the photographs of our boy in princess crowns). At the girls' request, Mama models a tutu-hat (The things girls think up!) The girls had me wearing that thing in the backyard for over an hour before I realized anyone in the neighborhood could see right over the fence. So much for dignity!
Taking family walks. The whole crew enjoyed any absolutely gorgeous Sunday afternoon at Shoreline park. With a wagon, a scooter, and a baby wrap, and two adults, we could move everyone along. It was Luke's first big outdoor adventure, and he was rewarded with a spectacular sunset.
Visiting Stanford's fountain, dyed red for the Big Game. (That'd be the Stanford-Cal football game, in case you were wondering.)
Cheering during football games.
Jim sneakily arrayed our children in Army gear to cheer with him during the Army - Notre Dame game. Luke was the only one who stuck with me in cheering for the Irish, and he was only in it for the milk. Fortunately for me, the Irish prevailed, just as they did at the Army-Notre Dame game eleven years ago, when I first met Jim. Kathleen was disappointed by Army's loss, but she was even more concerned about the cadets. "Daddy," she asked, "did you see the cadets? They look so sad!"
Gathering colorful fall leaves. We met Jim at Stanford for a leaf-gathering session just before Thanksgiving, while the leaves still had color. (Or at least as much color as they have around here.) We had lots of fun collecting them, and when we got home we dipped them in wax for our Thanksgiving centerpiece. It had rained earlier in the morning, but stopped in time for our adventure. We were glad for the break in the weather, not only so that we could go out, but also for the chance to wear rainboots! He didn't have rainboots, but John David didn't miss a chance to stomp in some puddles.
Hosting Thanksgiving. Hosting Thanksgiving sounds a lot more impressive than it actually was. Basically we cleaned our house and set the table, and my extended family arrived to do everything else. I was technically in charge of roasting the turkey, but my parents bought the turkey, brought the turkey to our house, and prepped the turkey for me. All I did was supply an oven. It was a pretty sweet deal! While my parents fixed the turkey and my siblings brought the requisite side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner, the girls and I watched the Thanksgiving Day parade and made these little gumdrop cuties. What fun! John David and his cousin Emily took turns playing with (and climbing all over) their Nan. This little cutie (along with his siblings) tops the list of the things for which we are truly thankful. God has been so very good to us! Kathleen baked her first pumpkin pie. She was much more excited about having baked it than actually eating it. Turns out, she prefers apple.
Growing more...
Attempting to contain John David (and generally failing). A kind friend from our community group brought us supper, including cupcakes. John David wanted those cupcakes. He dragged two toddler chairs across the dining room to the gated kitchen, somehow managed to lift one chair over the gate, used the other to launch himself over the gate, and then dragged the first chair over to the counter, where he was able to reach his cupcakes. That's when we discovered him. He was quite pleased with himself. The camera happened to be lying on the counter near the cupcakes, and so I was able to photograph him in his triumph... Keeping John David out of trouble is a full-time job. But since my attention is divided at least four ways, he frequently finds trouble.
Getting ready for Christmas.
The girls adore Advent! They love all the traditions of the season -- lighting the Advent wreath, reading the Advent books, hanging the numbers on the Advent calendar and the ornaments on the Jesse tree... And of course, they had a ball decorating the tree. John David seems to prefer un-decorating the tree; at various times our tree has been only half decorated, since he's emptied it of everything he can reach!
Growing still more.
Playing ball. I think he looks like some sort of super hero in this photo. (Think, "By the Power of Grayskull!")
John David is signing boy here. And it's true. That child is all boy.
Surviving the stomach flu. The entire family fell to the stomach flu recently. The three older children came down with the virus first, within twelve hours of one another. By the time they had started to recover three days later, both Jim and I had gotten it. To add insult to injury, our dryer was broken. (It had been, since about the time Luke was born.) We had clean, wet sheets strung just about everywhere in the house to dry. It was a brutal, brutal week, in which I have never been more grateful for the streaming videos from Netflix. But as far as John David was concerned, life was good, because for a week he had unlimited access to juice.
Life with four little ones is a whirlwind of meals and snacks and books and games and laundry and all that. Every now and then we manage to sleep a bit. It's busy. Really busy. But it's everything you'd expect from a circus, and we're just about crazy enough to love it!
It's loud. It's messy. It's alternately humbling and hilarious. And it's frequently rather sleep-deprived. Nonetheless, we love it. We're learning to revel in the chaos of our life, trusting that where we are now is right where God would have us.
