Bethlehem Supper--Christmas Eve

Since we have moved to Alaska, I have been trying to figure out just the right way to spend Christmas Eve. It is probably the time that we most miss having family nearby during the entire year! Year after year, our attempts to gather with friends have been only moderately successful. None of our attempts over the last 8 holiday seasons in Alaska were really meeting what I wanted to get out of Christmas Eve. So this year, I tried something completely new.

Our Menu was: Pita bread, leg of lamb, roast beef, hummus, tzatziki,fig jam, tapenade, goat cheese mediterranean green salad, grapes, white grape juice and baklava for dessert. This turned out to be just the kind of tradition that settled in for me. It is something new for our family, it was very meaningful, and it gave us a reason to gather our friends around our table.

Our guests included Shasta and Joshua Petersen, as well as the Elders, Elder Urrutia and Elder Steadman.

Alina had her very own table and chair at the corner of our big table.
One of my favorite things about the evening was that Alina said "Mmmm, mmmm" the entire time she was eating her food. Clearly she enjoyed her meal!

Bob and Sonia McCants joined us as well. Can you see the wooden plates I pinned down for the occasion? They are actually disposable plates made of palm leaves. Over the next year, I want to pin down another item to add to our decor--maybe special cups or utensils?

Kicking off our Christmas celebration with the Bethlehem supper was very meaningful. It brought the true meaning of Christmas into our holiday celebration. I didn't get a picture of the center piece when I set the big table on Christmas Eve, but I recreated it the next day so it was the center piece of our table all day on Christmas. Yes, this tradition is here to stay.

Sweet

 I tried getting some pictures under the tree of my sweet children, and was met with moderate success. Somehow, a button was switched on my lens from "Auto" to "Manual." This has happened before, and since it's not where the rest of the dials are that I usually play with, I don't think to check it until I see a pattern of blurry pictures over several different events. I took lots of photos, and the children were playing into the moment with their charm and smiles . . . but the rest of the photos are blurry. *Sigh*

Whether or not my camera worked for me this time, these children are beautiful.

I love them so.

At least I got a few, right?

Christmas Nativity 2014

 We had our annual Christmas Nativity night with friends. We are so grateful that friends will join us for this to help us "beef up" the number of cast members. This year we had Jon and Hannah Moses and family, Kenny and Lindsay Weston and family, and Brandon and Emi Grimshaw with their cute kids. I'm usually too busy hosting to get really good photos, but I managed to snap a few this year. 

Also, I keep trying to find a script for the nativity that works with small children. The verses from the bible seems too abbreviated for the children to understand their parts. We used one published in the Friend Magazine this year, but that was even more abbreviated. I don't want a long one--just a script where everyone has a cue to enter and exit. Anyway, it seems like the actual "acting out" is a bit out of sorts--but I think the kids had fun anyway.

David really wanted to be an angel again. At the last minute, I couldn't find my costumes so we improvised with only a few costumes and a few pieces of fabric between 13 kids. Pretty simple, and it still worked.

In the middle of the chaos, Alina went over and sweetly picked up her dolly from the manger. Her little heart was broken when one of the kids corrected her (I don't remember who, maybe it was her own brother), and she felt like she had done something wrong. All she wanted was her dolly. It was the kind of broken heart where she left the scene, crawled to her Daddy, and started bawling once she had her head on his shoulder. She was really confused . . . it was her dolly, after all! Anyway, Mary was sweet to her Baby Jesus, even if he was wrapped in a pink blanket.

After the quick nativity scene, we pulled out the pipe chimes my parents sent us for Christmas this year. They are made of electrical conduit cut to size to match tones, each one has a number. The kids and adults enjoyed playing a few Christmas carols together before we enjoyed our cookies together.

Alina loves Baby Briggs! I don't know if she woke him up or if he was already awake, but before he left to go home, he was lovingly patted and tucked in by our sweet Alina. She was rewarded with a super-sized smile, Briggs style!

Candy Trains--Tradition 2014

We polished off some of the candy from Halloween that we set aside for our candy trains with the Swift family one evening. We were hoping that the Fischers could join us as well, but at the last minute they came down sick. We hope to have the Fischers over soon for another activity!

This little boy was elated to have access to a limitless supply of candy for an evening. His design approach was to put a big pile of frosting snow all over his tracks, then dump the candy on. It was sugar en masse, even if it didn't have too many recognizable details.

Alina wandered around a bit, found a lap here and there, and was her overall happy self.

No denying that evidence that she found some sugar to enjoy as well. This girl has a little twinkle in her eye that is emerging with her personality. Every now and then she'll do something like stick out her bright red tongue just to get a few laughs.

As always, David had an explanation for why he designed his train the way he did. This boy knows how to create stories and "logic" on the spot . . . then he expands on them as long as he has a listening ear . . . I hope he always hangs on to a portion of this enthusiasm to let me into the turning gears inside that head of his.

Visiting Santa 2014

I still think Bailey's is the best kept holiday secret in town. Two weekends with Santa and sleigh rides each December. We've been going there for 4 years, and have yet to stand in a line.

David had no problem hopping up there and telling Santa that he's been a good boy this year, and yes please, he would like some legos. Lots and lots of legos.

Believing in the magic of Santa is so natural to this boy.

Next stop was out to the sleigh ride around the parking lot with the clip clop of horses and jingle bells around their neck to accentuate the holiday spirit. Can you see that I left my coat in the car this year? It was a warm afternoon of 30 degrees (this photo was about 3:30 pm, at twilight on December 13) and for the first year, the sleigh was propped up onto wheels because there was not enough snow on the ground for the sleigh.

With the breeze of the moving sleigh, these two were happy to cuddle up and enjoy the ride.

As per tradition, David stops to thank the horses for the ride and to pet their velvety noses.

See you in 2015, Santa!

Unsteady

Alina's funny way of learning to walk was not to find help in using the furniture. Instead, she would go to the middle of the room, stick her bum in the air, attempt to stand up, and even before she caught her balance she would throw the momentum in to taking a step. This picture is the closest I could come in capturing her haphazard attempts. She rarely made it past the first step before she was back on the ground. True to her nature, she would immediately try again. Her repeated attempts were funny, so after a few weeks of this she figured out this was a way to get us to laugh. The silliness of the game eventually won out over the practicality of learning to walk, so her efforts to walk halted for a bit while she enjoyed showing off her antics.

On this particular day, she stopped to admire the new tree that was in the process of getting set up

Personally, my favorite detail of this photo is the profile of that cheek. It makes me want to smooch them right now!

Just one more item to point out . . . Alina's shoe is untied in the top photo. That is her own doing. I can tie that shoe in a double knot 15 times in a day, and it still gets untied, and even unlaced by our girl. Those are some skills to have, little girl! Great dexterity in fine motor . . . taking out knots of all kinds is something she has already mastered.

Bath Friend

Alina coos at all things with a face. 

She especially likes the little girl that seems to join her in the bathtub on a daily basis.