O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

The tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree lived on today, and for the 7th year now at this particular forest! As we do every year...

1. We scouted out and debated

2. Decided on and chopped down

3. Brought home and decorated this Christmas' Perfect Pine.

To really see how much we've grown, click here and here.

Christmas Kick-Off

Even if the rainy weather prevented us from getting our tree or putting up the outside lights as we planned to do yesterday, we still got in the Christmas spirit. Amy had invited our whole family over for a start-of-the-season cookie baking and decorating night. As you can see, a fun time was had by all! (Though, with good friends and cookies can you really go wrong?)

A Country Thanksgiving

To those who find us on Google Reader: This is an old post that I just got the pictures for. Since I blog for my own memory preservation, I'm just gonna let it archive in November, when it occurred and was written. Enjoy a glance back at our Thanksgiving! :)
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Three turkeys, 8 pies, a long buffet of all the classic Thanksgiving dishes. Sixty-five people. Countless laughs, hugs and rounds of horseshoes. This was Thanksgiving as only our California VM Family does it (and we know, we've been to lots of different homes for Thanksgiving!). What a blessing to be so heartily welcomed into this family. Yesterday was the epitome of the holiday-- good eats and good times with friends. Once again, I couldn't help contrasting the Thanksgiving we were experiencing with the one our family was having in the Midwest. We didn't need heaters in the garage, turned dining-room, or even coats, it was a sunny warm day. And our after-dinner walk was not through the neighborhood, but across the pasture, where we even sighted a coyote. ("I go pet doggie, okay?" Delia said as she chased after it.) While some years there is skeet shooting to keep people busy, this year it was just playing on the harvest equipment. It was a great day that, hopefully, gave us the fuel we need to tackle the Christmas decorations in the next few days!

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Counting Our Blessings

We are so grateful for the invitation to share Thanksgiving with families from our church. If we can't be with our own immediate family, there is nothing better than to be with some of our best friends. There is something to be said for consistency and tradition, however. This is partly why I wanted to make our own meal and enjoy it just the 4 of us this year. This is what we did tonight. We made our favorite dishes-- corn souffle, apricot/sausage stuffing, cranberry and apple salad and another delicious brined turkey, and participated in our favorite Thanksgiving tradition-- going around the table and sharing what one thing we are most thankful for this year. The girls are old enough to participate and really blessed us with their answers. On her own, Ella ended our time of sharing with a prayer that thanked the Lord for each of the things we had just talked about. So since we won't be sitting around Karen's table in Chicago tomorrow, I'll offer our answers via the blog:

Ella: "I am thankful for my mommy and daddy."
Delia: "For playing. I like playing the hippopotamus game" (Hungry, hungry hippos).
Dave: "That we live in a place that everyone in our family loves and that each of us have such great friends here."
Jen: "For all the great vacations we've enjoyed this year (San Diego, Mt. Hermon, Michigan, Hawaii and most recently LA). That travels have allowed us to see some cool places and spend time with the people we love most."

Let the Thanksgiving Festivities Begin!

Today Ella celebrated Thanksgiving at her preschool. As a member of the 4-year-old class, she got to be a pilgrim. Each month the students have a themed party provided by a parent. The Thanksgiving Party was the one Ella wanted to host when the sign-up went around at the beginning of the year. So we've been busy this weekend, making and frosting leaf cookies, buying fall plates and stuffing goodie-bags with all the pieces you'd need to make an "Enter With a Thankful Heart" turkey door-decoration craft. Like last year, Ella took part in a handful feast and brought a bag full of items she gives thanks for. A craft, book, dog toy, picture of our family, picture of her teachers and snack stuffed her decorated bag this year. Now we have the rest of the week off from school, Awanas, youth groups and meetings. Hooray! On Thursday we look forward to celebrating the holiday with the local VM crowd. Tomorrow night, I'm going to make some of our personal Thanksgiving favorites for dinner, mostly just so we can have the left-overs. We wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving Week and much joy as you meditate on your blessings and prepare your feasts!

And Now, a Word About My Man

All the good times in LA I've been chronicling were able to happen for one reason-- my super husband. When the idea for our family reunion being an all-girls edition in Anna's city was born last summer, Dave was nothing but encouraging. When I booked the flight, he assured me he and our daughters would be just fine without me for a long weekend. Sure, youth group retreats, leadership conferences, trips to Chicago and service projects have had Dave taking off without me a number of times each year. But, it's different. When he's gone, I just continue my work as a full-time mom pretty effortlessly. When Dave is the single parent, he has to balance full-time parenting with full-time pastoring. After a tiring day of playing with, cooking for and cleaning up after the girls, he can't just flop on the couch. He has to do things like attend council meetings or plan Sunday school lessons or write sermons. He sure gave me a generous gift when he enthusiastically agreed to let me indulge in 4 whole days of meals out, exciting outings, and basically a break from responsibility. And not only did he genuinely share my happiness for this getaway, he expertly cared for the girls (no Delia hair-cuts or broken bones!), dealt with an insanely busy schedule and even managed to get the house clean for my return. Did I marry the perfect guy, or what?

Starstruck!

I'm not gonna lie, I was just as excited to see Conan O'Brien as I was to see my own family members. I've been a fan since his early days on the Late Night show. As soon as the LA trip was planned, I asked if we could try for some Tonight Show tickets. When we learned Heather's email won the lottery, we screamed. Another freak-out came when we learned that Anna's boss, knowing Conan's agent, upgraded our tickets to VIP!

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Being VIP meant we did not have to get to Universal in the morning to get in the first-come/ first-serve line. We could arrive minutes before the doors opened and know our parking and seats were not only secure, but AWESOME! We were excited and did arrive about an hour early. After passing through the gate and taking our free parking spot, we were met by an NBC page. He told us to enjoy a VIP waiting area with food and drinks while we waited to be escorted in. We chose to instead take a peek around the backlot and speculate about what was all filming on the stages. We saw trailers for CSI and golf carts for Desperate Housewives, a tram tour went right by us and lots of production guys were busy with work.

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Once in the VIP line, we were offered water and juice and told that we'd be escorted in after the first 90 people (assured that they'd fill up the first 3 rows which were not the best seats since they were blocked with camera equipment). We waited and giggled about how long the general admission line was and how important we felt. We saw the night's guests, Kristen Stewart, Judd Apatow and Carrie Underwood, drive right by us in their limos.

We were also warned that taking pictures once we were inside the studio was totally forbidden. These are the only pictures we got of this experience. Above is the outside of The Tonight Show studio. Below is us with our Conan armbands.

Being a VIP was soooo cool, but the experience of the show was even better! We did have great seats, 3rd row behind Andy Richter. You can't ever see us, but we're sure you can hear us! There were a few things that surprised me about attending this taping. One was that the studio was really small. Our high school auditorium is actually bigger. The stage is much more compact than it appears on TV. Another thing that surprised me was how effectively they pumped us up. A comedian came out for 15 minutes and warmed up the audience and the band actually circulated the studio playing high-energy music in the aisles. Things I would never laugh at while watching the show on TV were hilarious during the taping! We went home hoarse and with tingling hands from screaming and clapping so hard. I was also surprised by how little is edited out. The show is filmed start to finish with no stopping or second-takes. One joke with Kristen Stewart is all that we saw that folks at home did not. There were a few treats just for us in the audience, though. We heard Conan film promos for the night's show and sing us "The End of the Show Song." It was so weird and so awesome to see the set and the people I watch regularly on TV in real life. Since they kind of came up and interacted with the audience, we were close enough to touch Conan, Andy, LaBamba and other members of the band. I could go on and on, but I'll just conclude the description of this experience by saying it was first-class and one-of-a-lifetime. I still smile thinking about it!

Even the Churches in LA are Fancy!

On Sunday we went to church at the Crystal Cathedral. The sight of this gleaming, all-glass spire and sanctuary and massive campus is really something to behold. Truthfully, the worship experience was, um, less than worshipful. Apparently times are tough and when you're running a ministry that requires marble bathrooms and serving PF Chang in your restaurant, some begging for money is going to be required. More time was spent selling their products during the service than actually singing or learning from God's word. But oh well! Another life experience!

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The best parts of Sunday happened after church. Anna took us to the nearby neighborhood of Orange and showed us around Chapman, where she completed her grad work in film studies. Then we wandered around the picture-perfect streets. I learned that some scenes from one of my favorite movies, That Thing You Do!, were filmed in the quaint streets of Orange, since it still retains that 50's-60's vibe. Sure enough, I stared to recognize sites!

Heather, Anna and I ate a late breakfast at Watson's, an old-fashioned drugstore diner that is also featured in the movie. We took some stools at the counter and really had some laughs as we watched the short order cooks flipping pancakes and hash. This meal totally hit the spot and was one of my favorites.

With tummies full of waffles and eggs, we browsed through some of the stores. Most of them were cool antique shops and Heather found some neat vintage travel plaques to decorate her walls with. More than once we all exclaimed over items that were duplicates of toys we used to play with or kitchenware we grew up with. Really? Are we that old that my Disney school bus lunchbox is for sale for $50 in an antique shop!?

Surf, Sand, Sun and Fun

Our second day took us to a totally different locale-- the beach at Santa Monica. This day started with something we simply cannot resist doing when the three of us get together, shopping and Starbucks. Santa Monica has a great promenade with shops in our budget and a whole line up of talented street performers.

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After Old Navy and mochas, we hit the beach! We laughed as Midwesterner Heather frolicked in the surf with her shopping bags. It was a beautiful day to walk with the waves lapping at our ankles.

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We walked the boardwalk, which was much like Santa Cruz, but surprisingly smaller. We all settled on the fact that riding the famous Ferris wheel was a life experience we could not leave without having.

In our Ferris wheel bucket we snapped 100 pictures as we took in the great views. The ride was really really long!

Back at the promenade we ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's, then returned to the shore for some play at the famous Muscle Beach. We spent a great deal of time here trying out and falling off of all the equipment (balance beam, rings, uneven parallel bars, parallel bars, swings...) and trying to best each other with cheesy poses.

We decided to just walk until the sun set. As the sky turned pink, we strolled by dogs, surfers and ritzy beach hotels.

The sunset was gorgeous and the huge Mexican dinner we ate that night at El Cholo was a great way to end beach day.

Hooray for Hollywood!

Here comes yet another series of posts describing yet another fabulous getaway! I knew going into this long weekend in LA with Anna and Heather that I could expect interesting sightseeing, fun meals, and plenty of laughs. Anna was the hostess with the mostess, taking time off work to show us around, making us feel welcome in her apartment and planning an itinerary with one cool thing after the next on it.

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On our first day we did the Hollywood touristy stuff-- Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Walk of Fame, Kodak Theatre and the LaBrea Tar Pits

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Grauman's Chinese was way cooler than the last time I was there (5th grade) because I know so much more about movies now. We loved strolling around and seeing all the hand and footprints of the mega-stars, old and recent (some of the classics dated back to the 30's!). Heather and I just had to snap a picture by the John Wayne footprints since it's featured in one of our favorite I Love Lucy episodes.


We walked down the Walk of Fame, taking in the sights of super-trendy shops (stopping in the H&M, of course!) and eclectic people (a dude dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn't leave us alone!).

I loved seeing the Kodak Theatre, sight of the Academy Awards. We were able to climb the grand staircase, read all the Best Picture winners sculpted on the massive pillars and peek inside the lobby, perhaps standing in the exact spot Tom Hanks or Nicole Kidman have stood in! Maybe someday we'll return, when Anna is accepting her Oscar for Best Screenplay!

Anna was an expert meal planner, showing us a variety of neat restaurants, each with amazing food and impressive history. For lunch we went to Pink's, which is a famous hot dog stand. Their extensive menu of hot dog options rivaled their extensive wall of celebrity head shots thanking the owners for a great meal.

Last stop was at the LaBrea Tar Pits. This was crazy! Right in the middle of the bustling city was this park with a calm lake of tar. The tar flows naturally (something about geology and prehistoric times?) and was stinky and bubbling with these random elephant statues floating in it.

What was most interesting about the tar pits was finding little holes of bubbling tar along the path as we walked around the lake. We took a cue from the others there before us and dipped a stick into the tar to add our names to the graffitied wall.

Dinner at a cozy and delicious little Italian restaurant, a drive down Rodeo Drive and crashing on Anna's big couch for some veg-out time concluded our first day in LA.

Bragging Alert! (You may want to skip this one if you're not Grandma...)

Miss Debbie opened up the parent-teacher conference with the observation, "Well, you have a very bright little girl here." We smiled in agreement, then bit our cheeks to keep our mouths from gaping open as she pulled out the graph showing the results of Ella's tests. The first thing we noticed was the yellow 4 year old average line, then we saw how Ella's points fell way above it-- in the 6 1/2 year old bracket! We listened for 15 minutes as her teacher explained the near-perfect report card, went through every detail of Ella's academic development, showed surprise that she's not actually reading yet and gushed about how wonderful she is. We left this year's conference glowing with pride and patting ourselves on the back for producing such a blessing of a daughter!

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The one area of concern Miss Debbie expressed is that Ella is very quiet and all business at school. She takes the rules, her work and even attempted conversation with her teacher very seriously. Her teacher told us to encourage Ella to have more fun and show her silly side at school. Dave remembers being this kind of strict, rule-following student and I recalled my desire to just blend in by keeping quiet through most of grade school. We assured Miss Debbie that Ella is, of course, full of joy at home and we're all going to work on getting her to show that side more in the classroom.

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Goofball evidence: Ella created this outfit on her own then insisted on the photo shoot. Each pose is all her! Minus the bikini top and pajama bottoms, we hope Miss Debbie will see this Ella before the end of the year.

"Delia Do It"

"I do-a by-ya-self." This is something we're starting to hear more and more around here from our youngest. We recognize this as the next stage of life and enjoy that it's presently more about proudly showing off rather than defiant stubbornness (evidenced by Delia congratulating herself with a "I so proud-a ya!" when she does accomplish something on her own). There are still plenty of times I hear, "Pees, Mommy help ya?" With this declaration of independence comes lots of tests of patience: shoes on the wrong feet, inadequately brushed teeth, soap everywhere, spilled food. Good thing lots of laughs come with it too, as you can see from the inside-out undies!

Every Sunday...

You'll find us walking home from church like this. As we collect pictures of church life for our new photo directory, this is one Jeremy took and shared with us.

Some Truth

As you know, we are the perfect family. Whenever we spend time together it is always happy, fun and full of adventure. We plan phenomenal vacations that go off flawlessly. My husband is superman, ministering effectively and constantly, yet finding time to come home and be a dream dad. I cook my family fabulous meals every day and am proud that every activity I introduce to my children not only engages them, but makes them smarter and more creative. You know these very things because you read them here on this very blog. I am aware that I tend to share just the good and probably over-emphasize the highs of life in each thing I post about. I don't lie, but most of the time, I intentionally leave out the melt-downs, tension, stress, sickness, fatigue, sibling squabbling, accidents in the undies, disappointment, sadness and junk food that plagues our daily life.

I debated if I should write about this or not. The break from blogging somehow convinced me that I should. Here's the truth: I am far from the perfect mom. Two weeks ago, I lost Delia. Yes, that's right, I left her unattended for what I thought was just a moment and she took off. This happened at Family Fun Night in a gymnasium sized space with at least 500 people crammed inside. I quick got up to get some dessert with Ella and when I returned to our table, she was gone. I thought, since we were sitting with people we knew well, "She's just with someone. A friend took her to play games." This thought stopped comforting me, though, as I ran around searching and not finding. My panic grew as I realized HOW many people were in this mob and HOW many different places she could be in. I flew around with my heart pounding, ignoring the "Hi Jen!" I kept hearing from every other person in the vast crowd who knew me. I told a few people and the word just spread until a whole anxious search party was out looking for Delia. And we debated. Do we get on the loudspeaker and make an announcement? Do we start running down the sidewalks and searching the neighborhood? It was unbearable to think about finding my baby scared and overwhelmed in this busy and unfamiliar place. It was even more unbearable to think about not finding her at all.

Well, I did find her after what felt like an eternity, but was probably more like 10 minutes. She was outside playing on the playground. She was not huddled in a corner sobbing and she didn't fly into my arms as soon as she caught sight of me. She joyfully informed me, "I play park, Mommy!"

There is no redemption in this story. No cute anecdote to conclude it with. I won't even try to teach some lesson, except, perhaps the obvious, don't take your eyes off your children-- especially the ones you yourself have described as "adventurous, wild, spunky and curious." Days after the incident I was sitting in my Beth Moore Bible Study still feeling rotten, when she reminded me that even Mary lost Jesus when he was a boy. And he was missing for 3 whole days! I guess I just tell you to confess that life is not always as rosy as you read here on the VM Family Blog. And I suspect there are a few out there that can even relate. :)

Playground Monkeys

Yes, I avoided all stores and money-spending completely for the past week and a half. But no, I have not just been cooped up inside the house. We made 3 different trips out to 3 different parks. I have been loving the park lately. The girls show me they are capable and confident of all sorts of climbing without me spotting them or freaking out. If we go in the morning, school is in and we have the place completely to ourselves also. Four and two seem to be perfect park ages.

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Since the start of preschool this year, Ella's love has been the monkey bars. Her school has a short set that she flies across on her own. For taller bars, like these, she still needs help, but remains eager to try.
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Delia is as much of a fearless climber as she has been since before she could even walk, but now she has better strength and balance. This lets me trust her more.
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You can just barely see it in this picture, but I post it to show you Delia's self-cut Kate Gosselin hair-do. A little while ago, Ella was doing a craft when Delia some how obtained possession of the scissors. Ella lost 2 chunks out of the back of her hair and Delia now has this stick-up spike off the side of hers. Just for the record, this happened on Dave's watch. :)