Why I Don't Pull Out the Paints Every Day

In case you can't tell, those are fifteen masterpieces drying on the line! Anyone need some artwork for their fridge?

.

A Home Ella Approves of this Season

Man, did we hear it last year! Ella is a total Christmas lover. She exclaims over decorations in the store. She is the first to turn the Christmas tree on each morning. She says things like, "I'm a little bored, what should we do? I know! Let's open just one present." And whenever she saw a decorated house last year, she reminded us that our own home was unlit and unbeautiful. So, we indulged her and bought a few strings of icicle lights on clearance at the end of the season last year and for the first time ever did a little outside decorating. The lights went up around 2:00 this afternoon. We've all trooped out to admire them, not kidding, at least six times tonight! Hey, what's an hour of dangling off the roof with a staple gun when it comes to the happiness of your daughters?

.

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! :)
.

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!

.

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!

.

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.

.

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!

.

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!?