Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

After this post, you will have seen all my pictures and heard all of my stories, at least for the time being. With 6 adults and 6 kids in our house for Christmas, we took a lot of pictures and opened a lot of presents. Here is a link to my final web album for now.
At our house, Santa comes on Christmas eve...usually after dinner. Its amazing how he always times it so well. We had fish and shrimp Christmas Eve, then Paul, Rainer and Krista took the kids upstairs to look out the window for Santa. Amazingly enough, while we were doing dishes, he came! We heard bells, and when we ran out to the living room, there was a pile of packages for all of us. The Nativity scene we had on the piano was now on the floor in front of the tree, complete with the addition of the Baby Jesus. The kids were shocked and we all stood in the living room and sang 'Silent Night' in English and German. Then it was time to open presents!
I had told the boys earlier that they could be responsible for reading tags and handing out presents, but as you can see in the pictures, Joey still felt so sick from our stomach bug that he laid on the ground for much of the time and just watched. Poor guy...what a let down! He did perk up by the end of the evening. I wish I could write everything that we all got, but at the risk of leaving out something important, I will wait and do that at another time. Suffice to say, we all were very happy with all our gifts, and you can see many of them in our photos.
Christmas morning the kids woke up to their stockings full of goodies and we got ready for church. We got some nice pictures of the kids in their new Christmas outfits. We came home from church and started in making Wienerschitzel for Christmas dinner. We have it other times besides Christmas throughout the year, but I try to make it every Christmas anyway, since everyone seems to like it and it is something special. I don't really have a good explanation as to why we are all wearing crowns in the picture, except they were in the box with some Christmas poppers I had bought. I think it is a British thing, although I wouldn't know, since none of us are from Great Britain. A good time was had by all and we are all very grateful that Christmas is here.
Everyone went home at the end of this week, but not before we went to Sears and had family portraits done. I already posted a picture a few posts down, so look for it if you want to see our formal pose. I will be sending some out as soon as I get the prints back.
Merry Christmas, again, to all our friends and family. May God bless you in the New Year.

Catholics for Ron Paul

click here

Christmas Cake

I made this cake, in this pan, for Christmas day. It was delicious with some whipped cream and coffee on the side. I would highly recommend it! I didn't put icing on...just some powdered sugar. I also didn't use nearly as much orange zest as they called for, and it was plenty orange-y for us. I used the zest of only two oranges, compared to their 4 large oranges.

Back in Time--Part III (Mid December-December 23)

What a last few weeks we have had! On 12/16, my parents, Krista and Rainer, and their two kids, Lukas and Maggie, arrived for 2 weeks. The only problem was that while they were here, a stomach bug made its rounds through the house. Luckily (or unluckily for him) Paul was the only adult to get it. It seemed like for a week straight, my kids were carrying big bowls around with them, 'just in case'. I won't talk anymore about that...its best left in the past.
I have yet another web album with a ton of pictures we have taken. In case you are wondering about the kids in the photos, there are our 4 kids, as well as my sister's 2 kids. Luki is 3, 5 days older than Anna, and Maggie is 14 months. They are really cute little kids. Luki is at an age that he loves Thomas the Tank Engine, just like my boys did at that age. Maggie is walking and has a mouth full of teeth, although she has less hair than Sophia does. My sister was like that when she was little too.
Just after they all arrived, my neighbor, Paulette (the lady with the blonde hair in the pictures) arranged for Santa to come visit. He came in, sat in a big chair, and the kids took turns sitting on his lap. He had a small toy for each child, as well as candycanes. It was a complete surprise for the kids and it was very fun for everyone. My sister's son was the bravest of all, and my daughter Anna was definately the most scared. She wouldn't let go of Paul's neck the whole time Santa was here.
There are also some pictures of my birthday, which was on the 22nd. My mom made a nice breakfast for us, and we opened presents. I got a nice Columbia coat from Paul and the kids, a waffle maker and some pottery from my sister and her family, and some more pottery, a chip and dip set, an apron, and some cute little things from my parents. I also got a garlic keeper and the promise of one of these from my mother-in-law and Jack (I can't wait!). I love all the things I got. It was a really nice birthday. I baked some cookies and we had a nice time. Poor Paul was in bed most of the day though...I wonder if he was faking?! :)
I will post some Christmas pictures later. Thanks for reading this much!

Back in Time--Part II (Early December)

We had some warm weather in early December, and consequently we had time to do some yard work. Paulie had asked to take the camera for a while, and I said yes because I love to see what little kids come back with after having the camera for a while. The first 9 pictures on this web album are from him...things that he deemed important enough to take a picture of.
Then there is a picture of Paulie and Sophia. Joey lost two teeth in one week...one on the top and one right under it...of course we needed a picture of that!
After that, came our party for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe...there were more kids than are in the picture, but they were boys and didn't want to stop their sword fighting to pose with flowers!
Then there is Sophia and one of the dogs, Daisy. It is amazing how dogs can tell that the baby has food and come running in case she drops something, which she usually does!

Going Back in Time--Part 1 (Late November)

I have been meaning to post these pictures, and just haven't gotten around to it, since we now have our photos on our laptop, but do most of our computing and internet stuff on our desktop. It makes it hard to go back and forth.
This web album has a bunch of pictures from late November. A sleeping baby, a baby sitting on the counter (no, I don't do that anymore, now that she will lean forward and try to fall off!--plus I was always in arms reach...don't worry!), lots of playing outside in the leaves during a cold spell here. Paulie was having a great time with Sophia that day, and for some reason he is the one that can always make her laugh. Anna was playing and climbing on our wysteria vines that are probably as old as our house, and have beautiful flowers in the summer. Joey had a stick and was beating the heck out of a rotten birch stump. He actually reduced in in size by about half after working on it for most of the afternoon. Also, there are pictures of Joey going for his third belt in karate. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of his front, but you get the idea. Finally, there are pictures of Joey with his puppets he made, and subsequently put on a puppet show with. He loves using the glue gun and gluing together random art supplies we have around.

Yet another bird.

Joey has been bugging me to put this one on here. He just saw it out the kitchen window the other day, and ran all the way upstairs to let me know that he found another bird.
Its a mourning dove!

Merry Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderful week. My parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and their two kids have been here and we have had a wonderful time. I have a lot of pictures, but again, I don't have time to post them right now. I did want to post this one photo though...we had it taken this week and I am going to send out copies to all (or maybe MOST) of you. If you don't get one, and you would like one, please let me know.
We hope you all enjoy the Christmas season and have a Happy New Year!

So busy lately

I feel very badly about how I haven't posted many pictures lately. I am sure you all are dying for some news from us! I have been taking pictures, but I just haven't been posting them. I am going to try to get to it tonight or tomorrow, so that you can all see what we have been up to. We have been getting ready for Christmas...I have been doing 90% of shopping online this year. I am sure the UPS man hates us, but it is so nice to be home with the kids, when everyone else is out fighting over things at the stores. The kids hate having to go shopping, so this is much better for them too. We have been reading a lot of Tomie dePaola books, since he has so many Christmas and Saint books. One of our favorites this year is The Legend of the Poinsettia, which we read and then made poinsettia pins out of felt to wear. I have pictures of that to post later.

Also, we have been keeping up with our bird watching. Today we saw about 10 Oregon Juncos and 10 House Finches --I think they like the new bird food I bought recently and there have been a lot of birds out there to look at. Here is a picture of a house finch...











Yesterday we had three other families over for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We made tissue paper roses, and the kids brought them up and laid them in front of a statue of Our Lady that we brought in from our garden. If you don't know the story.. you can read about it here. Tomie DePaola also has a book about this to read, so it has been on our coffee table for the past week.







Here is a great painting I found when searching for things for our party. We also ate Mexican food, since the apparation took place in Mexico, and was responsible for the conversion of 8 million people there. My sister and I were lucky enough to go to Mexico in high school, and we were able to go to the Basilica where the tilma is still held. I wish I had known then what a miraculous image I was in the presence of.
I will have pictures of our party to post as well. Keep checking back!