Family Musings

The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him! Proverbs 20:7 In honor of this special day for Dad's every where, I repeated my Father's Day Interview with Charlotte & Mary. What is something Daddy always says to you?  - "I love you." What makes Daddy happy? -  "Seeing me and Mary" What makes Daddy sad? -  "When he misses us. That makes me sad too" How does Daddy make you laugh? -  "By tickling me. I'm ticklish." What was Daddy like as a child? - " I don't know because I wasn't there when he was a child." How old is Daddy? -  "I don't know, 25?" How tall is Daddy? -  "Tall enough that he can get the beans down." What is Daddy's favorite thing to do? -  "Watch us dance and play together." What does Daddy do when you're not around? -  "He just, you know, like, he likes to sit around." What is Daddy really good at?  -...

We started our Christmas day off by going to church. It was a great way for us to keep our focus on the reason for celebrating and to remind the girls that we exchange gifts with one another as a way to remember the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus when he was a toddler.  I got the girls all dressed up and we posed in front of the tree for some sister love. We say " no to the dress " around here, so Mary is wearing a dressed handed down from her friend Clara and Charlotte is wearing a Matilda Jane dress I won from DesignHer Momma .   After church, we fed the girls a quick lunch (hot dogs and yogurt!) and then began opening gifts. It sure does look like a lot of stuff in that picture doesn't it? Fortunately, it wasn't all for those 2 sweet angels up above and it was divided between 7 of us. Charlotte loves her new purple hat... And Grumpy and Grandpa liked their new travel mugs. The girls had painted these and made finger print fish on...

Before the new year gets too far underway, I better hurry up and share our Christmas pictures and stories. For Christmas Eve I was able to convince my brother and his family to drive all the way to Lakeland to hang out with us. Actually, even though we usually go up to his place, he offered to come down here, which I thought was pretty sweet of him. And speaking of sweet, what about this picture of him hugging Charlotte? Guess he's still got a soft, sweet side. :) The grown-ups decided a couple of years ago (when kids started coming along) that we'd just exchange gifts for the children. It's worked well and helps all of us keep our spending in check. Nick and his wife Michelle surprised our girls with Littlest Pet Shop toys. Charlotte and Mary have played extensively with these toys every day since. And since we had all 3 girls together, I thought it would be a good idea to get a group picture. Well, it might have been a good idea to me, but the girls didn...

Carefully applying sprinkles... And some more icing... Mary did surprisingly well with the squeeze bag. Notice my Christmas card covered door? It's missing about half of the cards! Bruce joined in too. :) Enjoying the fruits of our labor... It's okay that she licked her fingers, we were done decorating! PS - Canned cake frosting isn't a good choice for cookies.

One of our new (as in, we've done this 2 years in a row) Christmas traditions is to have a Christmas card exchange for the littles in our life. It is a wonderful way to guarantee your children receive actual mail and its also another way to focus on others during the busy holiday season.  To set it up, I chose 9 other families with children my daughters knew well and asked them if they'd like to exchange cards. I tried to make sure that all of the families knew each other so no one was sending a card to a stranger. Then, we all posted our addresses and the proper spelling of our kid's names so no one had to dig around for the contact info. For me, a Facebook event was the easiest way to manage the exchange of information. Then, once you've got your participants, it's time to make the cards! Last year, I bought dollar store cards and Charlotte colored or wrote a note inside each one. This year, I wanted them to do something a little more handmade, but on the ap...

Believe it or not, 2011 is the first year that my family has ever really put up a Christmas tree. When it was just Bruce and I it never really seemed all that important, especially since we were usually traveling on the holiday itself. But last year, after Christmas was over, I snuck over to a clearance sale and bought a 6 1/2 foot fake tree. It's been hiding in my daughters' closet ever since. Well, until Black Friday. And then last night, it was finally adorned with ornaments that I've been collecting over the last 14 years. I especially love my tree topper, which has been sitting on tables for the last few years since it never had a tree to go on. It is a metal nativity piece featuring Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. For posterity's sake, I thought it might be a good idea to note when some of my favorite ornaments were acquired so my children won't have to guess one day. This ornament is from Charlotte's first Christmas. And this one is from Mary...