christmas eve

this year we took a new approach to christmas.  we felt like we've way overdone christmas in years past and while we put a great deal of focus on what it's truly about, we felt our actions weren't necessarily following our beliefs.  so, we decided pretty early on that we were going to adopt a new tradition.  we take no credit for this, a sweet friend told me about it, i read about it from another blog and combined the two into our newest tradition.  we told the kids we were going to do five gifts this year:  something you want, something you need, something to play with, something to read, and something to give away.  on christmas eve when they opened the advent calendar, we had a note in there that told them they would be receiving their first gift for christmas and that it would be the gift they gave away.  we gave them each some money and they looked through the world vision catalog and the samaritan's purse catalog that we had received in october and began searching for the perfect gifts.  i should rewind and say that last year, we did this as a family and used some money the kids had saved to purchase gifts as a family.  but, we pretty much had the final say.  so this year, i think they enjoyed being able to spend the money the way they wanted.  it was so much fun watching them pick gifts that really represented their true personality.

luke was the first to pick his gifts.  he's a boy who knows what he wants and makes quick, confident decisions.  he chose to provide fruit trees and to feed a hungry baby for a week.  anna took a while longer to pick something.  and she had been pouring through the catalogs for several weeks.  she eventually landed on clothing and shoes for children in need and two rabbits.  two rabbits will multiply into 52 rabbits by the end of the year (i assume they work out the male/female aspect of all that.)  and sam decided on a share of a dairy trio that provides three families with a goat, a cow, and a sheep for milk and wool.   he had a little bit of extra money left and decided to provide a stuffed lamb that plays jesus loves me.  i normally am a "no more stuffed animals mom," but who can resist that.  plus it wasn't going to be added to our collection.  :)  and if any of you know sam, you know that the stuffed animal fits him perfectly.  that boy LOVES stuffed animals!

i know they loved giving and we hope that this will be a tradition they carry on in their families someday.  we ended the evening with the worship service at our church and dinner at our house with gram and pops.  here are a few pictures for us to  remember the wonderful day!

a family picture of us all dressed up for church

games with gram and pops

and snuggled all on one air mattress (another tradition) ~ note the stuffed animal bucket in the background all belonging to sam

christmas fun

we love celebrating the birth of our savior!  it's a really special time in our house!  the first couple of weeks of december always seem a bit crazy with school projects ending, piano recitals, and the list goes on.  but as soon as thanksgiving is over, we cherish the month ahead.  every year the kids look forward to our advent calendar.  this is a calendar i bought at target several years ago.  however, they've caught on to the tradition of a piece of candy for each day and sometimes a fun surprise activity.  this year was no different.  on december 1st, the kids opened these fun suckers for their first surprise.

we decorated cookies, made gingerbread houses, visited santa, opened christmas pj's, looked at christmas lights in new jammies, got hot chocolate at starbucks. and most importantly, ended each night reading from behold the lamb of god by russ ramsey.  it was a little over our kids' heads, but i know they will get a little more out of it each year.  here are some pictures to recap.

new christmas jammies

visiting santa in downtown fort worth

our gingerbread village

christmas cookie fun

the finished product

piano recital

luke and anna both had their piano recitals on the same day.  luke started taking piano lessons one year ago and this marked his second recital.  anna started this fall and had her first recital this month.  they both did great.  their teacher mrs. lamb is precious and is always bragging about their talent.  another thing they inherited from allan.  i married up, people.  :)  here are some pictures and a video of their performances.  this first picture melted my heart.  i love how they are holding hands.

right before the performance.

anna

 

luke

their sweet teacher mrs. lamb

wouldn't be complete without a picture of sweet sam who sits through lessons each week and a recital without complaint.

spelling bee

so right before thanksgiving, the kids' school has a class spelling bee.  each class receives a list of words to practice, and they have a class contest with a winner and runner up.  this year, luke and anna each won first place in their grade.  luke also won the second grade class spelling bee last year.  i hear spelling is hereditary and let me just let y'all know, it didn't come from my genes.  the reason i know this is because i just had to look up how to spell "hereditary," and i have no less than three spelling errors in each of my blog posts.  also, i have to look up the word restaurant each time i spell it.  :)  they did however inherit this from their amazing dad.  he won three spelling bees in his life, like really won his school spelling bee.  anyway, back to luke and anna, they would be competing in the school spelling bee for 1st through 8th graders.  we got the list of words less than one week before the school spelling bee.  here's a picture of the stage where their chairs were.

anna was so nervous, like i thought she might break into tears at any minute nervous.  luke was probably nervous, but it didn't show.  they each made it through several rounds and both ended up tying for third place with each other and a sixth grader.  they were in the top five until anna missed the word "chorus" and luke missed the next word "quarrel" right after anna.  then, the sixth grader missed the next word.  so basically, the three of them tied for third place.  we were so amazed!  they did fantastic and we were extremely proud of them.  the last two standing were a fourth and sixth grader. i think the sixth grader won.  here's a picture of them at the end, probably relieved it was over!

great job luke and anna! and for the record, i just did spell check and not a single misspelled word.  maybe i do get to take a little credit.  no, probably not.