Ebay Christmas Goodies

Here's my newest round of auctions. And they are tanking. Ugh. Please bid 'em up. Please. I beg of you.

We Gather Together: A Thanksgiving In Pictures

Everyone at the feast. Notice how it's one of those tables that goes on into the sunset? Rich turned preacher and gave a nice mini-sermon. Short enough that the girls did not throw themselves on the floor in fits of hunger. All take note of the absence of Boy Wonder. He slept straight through dinner. Yep.

Josh and Sara were down for their official first Thanksgiving as married folk. I think only 50 people hinted for a baby announcement soon. Josh was unduly excited by stuffing. And Sara sporting cute new hair!

Very cute Joel and Liz. Celebrating their third Thanksgiving as married folk and their last as child-free people! WOO HOO!! Liz is expecting their first baby! Yeah! I get to be an aunt again! Yes, it is all about me.

Greta finished off her dinner with a nice Reisling. Yes, I did stop her before she actually drank it but hey, I know a great picture for her high school yearbook when I see one.

Happy Rich and Judy after a little food and a lot of wine. Amelia ends up in all the pictures.

Here's a quick photo tour of Rich and Judy's awesomely cool house. Lighting isn't great~I was playing with my camera. Here is the 2-story stone fireplace.Here is how my entry way would look is I never threw my keys and mail on the table. Or I didn't have 4 kids. And a husband. And I bothered to clean up one in a while.This is the happy place. Whenever our family therapist says "Go to your happy place." This is where we go. Maybe that is part of the problem. They have a fab wine cellar.A bunch of us sipping dessert wine. I'm not sure what it was but we bought a bottle. Jefferson bought 5. I think I'll go to his house for dessert.
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As per tradition, Tim's fam comes down for the rest of Thanksgiving weekend. We get a lot of Christmas shopping done, go to the movies, eat, and watch a Christmas movie. This year is was "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" "Grace? She passed away 30 years ago. THE BLESSING!"For the past 5 years we have gone to a Japanese steakhouse for dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The kids love it and we always have a good time and eat WAY too much. This was Amelia first year to go with . We get a sitter for the little kids and this year she got to go along. She was mesmerized by the whole process and particularly enjoyed her Kiddie Colada, complete with little umbrella. I tried to take her picture but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the grill.Just a shot of 5 of the 7 grandkids.Amelia had a B-I-G weekend. Goodnight.

Move Over. . .I'm Jumping on the Bandwagon

OK, I hate to be a joiner but since all my BFFs have cute new avitars, I so needed one too. Ain't I cute all animated?!

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours

I walked into this discussion tonight when the little girls had been sent upstairs for PJs. They were both nekkid from the waist down and checking things out, ahem, "down there."

Mom (very casually, as not to scar them for life)~Whatcha doin?

Amelia (very excitedly)~We're looking at the holes in our bottoms!

Mom (trying not to turn green)~OK, well, let's get our PJs on.

Greta (jumping up and down with joy)~I HAVE A HOLE IN MY BOTTOM!!!

As I am trying to convince Greta to put her PJs on she says,

Greta~Mommy, can I see the hole in your bottom?

Mom~Um, nope. That's private.

Greta~PUH-LEEZE!!! You can see mine!!

I Don't Want Water on My Baby Brother!

We had Wyatt's baptism last night and wow. What a night! Our church has recently starting doing Saturday night services~identical to Sunday mornings just a bit more casual perhaps. They were encouraging people to have their children baptized on Saturday nights to increase attendance and publicity so we went for it. It was so nice. Music was good~even though our friend who was supposed to sing couldn't make it. Jeff, our worship leader, sang our song instead. We have always picked a special song for each kiddo and it kind of becomes "their song." For Wyatt we chose a rocked-out version of "Savior Like A Shepard" originally done by Todd Agnew a favorite of ours. We liked the old-school appeal of a hymn with the hard guitar that we love. While Jeff sang Tim did what Doug called the "Simba routine" of walking Wyatt around so everyone could see him. Then our small group girls~Shawnie, Leenie, Megs, and Ree Ree (Dawn had a family party so couldn't make it~missed you guys!)~took the boy and passed him down the row and covered him with lipstick. It was so cool~like a blessing from all his "aunties"

The girls had a great time with the whole thing. At least Amelia and Caroline did. Pastor Kris asked them if they promised to be good big sister, love Wyatt, and teach him about Jesus. They got to answer on stage which they thought was just the bees knees. Greta on the other hand was not so sure about the whole thing. We told her at home that Pastor Kris would be putting water on Wyatt and she lost her mind. Threw herself on the floor yelling "I DON'T WANT WATER ON MY BABY!!"

We ended with a big ole party upstairs at Brickhouse, our student ministry center. I have never seen so many kids! It was great fun for them~lots of room for the little ones to run and lots of Playstations for the big kids. I made all the food. Aren't I domestic? We had chili, mac and cheese and cornbread. And cookies! And cookies! And Shawnie cookies! She surprised me with blue cookies with white crosses. Awesome!

I do not have any pics to post~sorry! We were too busy having fun! Here is our one attempt at a family picture before we left for church. Now on to Thanksgiving!!

Toss, Toss

I have never been to the theater. I have never wanted to go. I do not walk around my house singing show tunes (like some of my BFFs) I much prefer a good Sox game or Bulls game to a room full of gay men and melodramatic women singing "I Feel Pretty." Or so I thought.

This weekend I saw "WICKED" in Chicago. Wow. It was really good. There. I said it. I enjoyed the theater. The cast was amazingly talented. I had no idea people could sing like that. I guess I figured those who could had albums and those who couldn't, well, did theater. I do have to add that I was cursing the entire Communications Dept at Calvin College. Could I just go and enjoy the story and the music and the costumes? Nope. I had to disect the entire show for hidden Biblical references and Christian themes and metaphors. (Found a bunch of 'em. Thanks for asking.) I could now write a paper on "Culturally Relevant Religious Themes in Wicked" that Prof. Schultze would be proud of.

So now I have let loose with a few bars of "Popular" and even taught Greta "Tomorrow" this morning. Yes, I do realize it's from "Annie". That's the only other show tune I know. DO NOT volunteer to teach me more. This is already a shock to my system. I am off to practice my jazz hands.