Christmas Vacation

Here's a Christmas Break highlight reel!  Generous presents, a visit with my sister, purple crabs, the sun setting over the Pacific, competitive golf, and strong skating were a few of the big things that made this break another fantastic one!  Little things, not pictured, included cashing in various gift cards for meals and activities, time with friends, and tons of game playing.

Thank you to every one of our thoughtful family members who once again sent such perfect presents to open!  

Ella got Uggs and Delia got a mini donut maker from Auntie Karen and family-- two of the favorite gifts this year.

 But, every gift was wonderful and has already been put to use.  Here we are realizing that the fitness tracking watch we gave Delia can take remote pictures with my phone!

 We had a fun fondue dinner on Christmas Eve.

Then, around 11:15 pm on Christmas Eve, we got a special visitor!  It wasn't Santa...it was Auntie Heather!  We were delighted to share Christmas and the first week of break with her!  She pulled this awesome Ivy blanket for Delia out of her sack of presents along with new roller blades for Ella.

One outing we took with Heather was to Half Moon Bay, where we strolled the beach, hiked the shoreline, explored the tide pools, and watched the sun set.

 This is sadly the last picture you will see of Ella because she was fighting a nasty virus the whole time Heather was here.  She was a trooper to join us on our outing when she was feeling so miserable, and did what she could to keep up, but ended up spending a good part of the day napping in the back of the car. :(

The tide pool system here is pretty amazing.  As the tide starts rolling out around 2:00, it just stretches wider and wider, revealing a whole new world of underwater life.  

We crossed the usuals off our tide pool wild life sighted list: star fish, anemones, urchins, hermit crabs, etc.  Then we found these HUGE, bright purple crabs to admire!  I had some fun playing with filters on the above picture to show just how vibrantly colored these new-to-us creature were.  We all worked up the nerve to pet it, even though it shook its giant claws at us menacingly, evoking much hilarious screaming.

 In Colorado, Heather led us to big horn sheep, elk, and moose.  In California we petted sticky anemones, prickly urchins, leathery star fish, and scary crabs.  If my sister and I are trying to one-up each other with cool wild life experiences native to our states, I'll just say, "Your move, Heather." ;)

This outing is best taken in the afternoon, to work with the lowering tide, so it also works perfectly to catch the sun set before we head back home.  Heather and I chatted about the coolest places we've ever caught a sun set while watching this one turn the sky pretty colors.  Her list is admittedly way cooler than mine, but this conversation proved we've both been pretty remarkably blessed with travel opportunities!

The girls and I gave Dave Top Golf for his birthday, so this was another fun outing we shared with Heather!  Top Golf is essentially a fancy driving range, which is completely computerized allowing for this neat competitive experience .  You rent a bay and then get an hour to play as many rounds as you can against each other, wacking golf balls into big targets.  Your computer shows your hit in replay and then awards you points.  The bay has heaters, couches, and a server who brings you food and drinks.

 I needed a little golf refresher since I haven't touched a club since before Ella was born.  I was far from winning, but didn't do terrible either, thanks to the many different ways you can earn points in this game.

 Delia gets nervous about trying new things and she loved it!  It was fun for all-- even Ella who still wasn't 100%.  Heather beat Dave by one point!

Even though my sister had to leave, we still enjoyed her generosity with her birthday present for Dave-- an ice skating outing for our whole family, which we used on New Years Day.  We try to skate once a year and I loooove watching my girls lace up and take right off on the ice.  They are becoming such strong skaters, my Midwestern heart swells with pride.  It does not seem that long ago that we were teaching them how to skate and coming home with all the aches and pains of keeping their heavy little bodies upright.  Yesterday there was only one fall!

 I also love that my 12 year old still likes to hold our hand while skating, even though she doesn't need to anymore.

It's been a great Christmas, a great break, and a great birthday for Dave!  Though Delia started the week taking her turn with Ella's virus, we are on the mend and celebrate all the fun things we got to try and new memories we got to make!

2019 Holidays Plus

Well, here's a first.  I am rolling 3 holidays into 1 convenient blog post!

 Halloween was a bit different for us this year.  We had two girls working the church Harvest Party, so we just dropped them off with these put-together-that-day costumes.  Ella was a pig in a blanket and Delia re-purposed a dance costume to be a flapper girl.  Ella later went trick or treating with her friends, where she switched to her old milk carton costume to match her cow-costumed friends.  Halloween with older kids felt a little strange this year!

Thanksgiving looked a little different for us this year too.  Some years we get to host a house full of family visitors.  Some years we are blessed to sit around someone else's table.  Some years are a little more relaxed and low key, so we get to try new things-- like helping at the Community Center Thanksgiving dinner and a late night pajama party at the movie theater.

A word about our awesome kids.  Above was an email one of Delia's teachers sent us this fall.  Below is a super fun date I got to take with Ella and her cast of Singin' in the Rain.  We all went to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers performed by an impressive college in Sacramento.  The play was incredible, but my favorite part was watching this encouraging group of high school actors be the first to leap to their feet for a standing ovation.  Ella said they all just know what it means to the people on stage and wanted to be sure to give the college cast that same gift.  Ella loved touring the college too and starting to picture herself in that sort of life in just a few short years.

Now for Christmas-y stuff!  Christmas traditions are alive and well, though a bit scaled back perhaps. I had two nice meals with the fun teachers I work with.

We decorated our house-- including Ivy's dog kennel!

 We viewed Christmas lights.

 We spent the first few days of break catching up on sleep!

 We did our annual before-Christmas toy purge.  Fun for Ella and I (who tend to run on the more organized end of the spectrum) was spending a day digging through the LEGO tub and bagging up all our sets.  Good times! ;)

We watched a Christmas movie or two, were visited by Sinterklaas, baked cookies, read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", drank plenty of warm drinks, and we sent out our Christmas cards.   

As the kids get older and busier, our holidays and traditions are starting to look a little different.  Things like gingerbread houses, the Nutcracker, and the Elf on the Shelf taper off, and get replaced with youth group parties and white elephant exchanges with friends.  I once again feel that perfect contentment that we're in a great stage of life, but carry sweet memories of fun holiday times from when the kids were small.

The Messiah

In 6th grade, our teacher had us memorize all the scripture texts of The Messiah, then he took us to see the Chicago Symphony perform it. For the first time since 6th grade, Dave and I experienced the power of The Messiah’s message of salvation, being proclaimed by world class musicians. Hearing another big city's symphony sing The Messiah (this time San Francisco) was Dave's Christmas present and we're happy to report we appreciated it a bit more than we did in 6th grade! 

Half the joy of experiencing this was taking our music-loving kids  Though they've been listening to The Messiah their whole lives and can sing along to most of it, Delia did confess some nerves that she'd be bored.  But, when it was over, they declared it "awesome" while we clapped till our hands hurt for a standing ovation that brought the soloists back to stage 3 times.  Between the exuberant, arm-waving conductor, the impassioned, almost-falling-off-their-chairs strings players, the booming chorus of 100 voices, the goosebumps-inducing soloists, the gorgeous symphony hall, and all the Bible verses I had for her to look up, there was enough to keep the girls' attention for almost 3 hours.

The whole night was lovely.  We had dinner at a cozy little bistro halfway between our parking spot and the symphony hall.  It had just right (read: not too fancy or expensive ;) delicious food and drink for all of us!  And we got there early enough to enjoy a stroll around the festively-decorated lobby and the outside balconys' views of the neighboring iconic City Hall building.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of kings, Lord of lords.

 I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power to be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen

2019 Family Photos

A budding photographer friend of ours is going on a mission trip and had the great idea to raise funds for it by selling family photo shoots.  We love to support mission trips!  And, Dave's appearance has changed significantly this year and he was not loving any of the pictures we took this summer with mountains, waterfalls, and deserts as the back drop, so we were in need of some good pictures anyway!  Win-win!

Of the 50 pictures we got back, these are my 12 favorites.  You'll be seeing some combination of them on this year's VM Family Christmas card! ;)