Christmas Happenings....

Christmas was over a month ago. Marc & I were just talking the other night about how January is such a dark month. It's dark because all of the Christmas lights are down; the days are short; it's cold. Right after Christmas, I was just reading somewhere that Christmas should be celebrated all year long -- NOPE, not the Santa stuff, obnoxious gift giving, etc... -- BUT, the birth of Christ, our Savior in this world. I couldn't agree more, but I'm not completely sure how that looks from a practical standpoint other than keeping Christ as the center of our home -- something Marc & I strive to do but fully realize we fall short. BUT, since Christmas is so completely & utterly important AND I do like the idea of celebrating it all year AND I honestly haven't done well at keeping up on this blog, how about some belated Christmas pics? These are pics from our official two weeks of celebrating (a.k.a. school was out; Marc was home). (AND, I fully realize that was a complete run-on sentence for all of you grammar nerds out there -- of which I am one some of the time).

If you don't know, this year, we have Emma living with us. Emma is a foreign exchange student from France. It's been completely awesome having her with us, and it's been equally as fun teaching her some "American things." Emma had never experienced making sugar cut-out cookies. AND, my mom is the QUEEN of cookie cutter collecting. AND, my mom does a much better job with sugar cookies than I do. So, when my mom suggested we all make cookies with Emma, we took her up on the offer (Marc took her up on the offer of supper since he really doesn't care much about making sugar cookies). So, there was an American tradition we all did together (only had to postpone one day because of poor weather/driving conditions).

If you aren't around us regularly, you need to know that in December, Kate decided, at the ripe ol' age of 18 months, that it was ok to finally start walking. I had seriously held off on putting shoes on her until she learned to walk -- which meant having her in no shoes several times when it was quite cold. Before she started walking, my mom had told me she wanted to buy Kate her first good pair of shoes once she started walking. SO, two days before Christmas, my mom & I took Kate to a good shoe store to have her feet properly fitted for a good pair of shoes. Kate's a hard one to figure out...SO, needless to say, she didn't like having a stranger measure her feet (something that her brother has always let us do, despite his disdain for strangers as well). But, we succeeded in finding a CUTE pair of shoes for her that are properly fitted. BUT, she let us know, in a cute and sad way, that getting her feet properly fitted wasn't exactly her cup of tea.

Shortly before Christmas, our small group had a white elephant gift exchange -- which is ALWAYS a funny and good time, EVERY year. (Trust me -- a lot of laughs occur having a white elephant exchange with close friends). Anyways, Marc received a bowling ball complete with the Kansas City Chiefs logo on it. It just so happened that we had a host family/foreign exchange student party two days before Christmas -- with bowling as the activity. So, he got to use this precious gift!

Up until this year, I always thought everybody here in town knew about our little donut shop, Druber's, on Christmas Eve. BUT, in case you live here and don't know this, Druber's gives away ONE free donut and one FREE drink to each person in Druber's on Christmas Eve. Santa Claus is there for the kiddos, and kiddos even receive a little gift sack. It's very busy AND very fun. We wanted to make sure Emma experienced this phenomenon -- donuts on Christmas Eve at Druber's. Neither one of our kiddos wanted to sit on Santa's lap, and quite frankly, I don't care if they ever do....not something extremely important to me. (AND, I emphasize the ONE free donut because Christmas Eve is Marc's "Three Donut Day" -- in other words, we had to pay for two donuts for him).

I know many already have this tradition, but for some reason, I hadn't started it until this year. That tradition would be to have a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake. SO, I made a triple layer, yes, triple layer, chocolate cake for Jesus' birthday (I figure Jesus deserves the very best since He is the Savior of the world). Since Luke's one sibling is too young to blow out candles, he got to by himself (we'll see about next year -- Ha). If you look closely at the pic, you might notice a large crack in the cake. Yes, the cake didn't stay together as well as I had hoped (and I had made triple layer cakes before). After we cut into it and were eating our cake, Emma suddenly said, "Oh no, the cake." Yep, it fell over. BUT, it still tasted good!

This last pic is rather comical. Here's a little background: Marc worked at our local hospital for about 1 1/2 years (right before Luke was born). Their cafeteria, every other Thursday, has what is affectionately called "Taco Salad Thursday" (at least by the hospital employees). Basically, they sell taco salad, which one builds him or her self, by the weight of the salad. During Marc's tenure at the hospital, he really enjoyed this taco salad (as I think many of the hospital employees do). Since he left the hospital, shortly before Luke's birth, if he's off work and we're around that week of the taco salad, we actually make the trek into the hospital to eat this taco salad. WELL, Marc has now rounded up quite a crew of our friends to eat this taco salad with us. Last year, another family (some very good friends) joined us. This year, Marc managed to round up a total of 18 people for this event the day after Christmas. A 19th person joined us once we were there. Two more people had originally planned on coming and then had a change of plans at the last minute. It's quirky, yes, we know. BUT, it's a fun thing to do with good friends. And admittedly, the taco salad's pretty good. It just seems odd to go in the hospital with perfectly healthy kids when there are quite a few sick people in the hospital this time of year. We'll see about next year -- Ha! "Taco Salad Thursday" falls on Christmas Day!