Peek-a-boo!

Snowman!

It was nice and warm this week, so the snow was wet and slushy.  We took advantage of a sunny, early-out Wednesday to make a snowman/reindeer guy in our yard.  The snowman supply bucket sure came in handy!

Lincoln's first day of preschool

Lincoln had his first official day of preschool at St. Johns Lutheran Church in Waverly just down the street from our house.  It's a new program in its second year.  I have several friends with kids there, and they have great things to say.  Lincoln is enrolled in the 3/4-year-old class on T/Th mornings. 

He had a great time and jumped right in like he had been there all year.  I knew he would.  After a great experience at the high school last semester, I knew that he needed people and I needed a break.  We now have the best of both worlds!

This is how I spent my first preschool morning. :o)

A new year

It's that time of year again.  The Christmas decorations come down and the purging/organization bug hits.  I don't have any plans for a major organizational program like I did last year.  I fell off the bandwagon with that last April.  In the process, I realized I am already more organized than I give myself credit for.  However, there is ALWAYS room for improvement and modification!  This time around I have a list of small projects so I can take advantage of little pockets of time when the urge hits.  I have already purged the condiments in the door of the fridge.  It's really rather disturbing how many items had freshness dates back in 2011! :op  I was also dusting after putting away decorations and ended up purging a bunch of toys the kids have outgrown.  It's a never-ending battle!

After falling about 6 weeks behind by Christmas, I'm also restarting the year listening to the Daily Audio Bible podcast.  I made it all the way through from August 2011 to August 2012.  I highly recommend it.  They are on every form of social media.  In addition to the podcast, there is a great web site, an app, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc.  Let me know if you have any questions about it!

There will also be a few other changes in our family.  We enrolled Lincoln in the St. John's Lutheran Preschool just down the street for two mornings/week.  Lincoln & I are both excited for that!  Austin also received a promotion at work and officially starts his new role today.  He is now leading a team of five people who are doing what he has been doing the past two years.  It is still unclear if that will mean more or less travel, but he is excited for the new challenge and opportunity.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2013!

December 2012 Videos

New Year's Eve

We attended the annual "It's Midnight Somewhere" family New Year's Eve party hosted by a good friend.  After a potluck supper, the highlight of the evening is always the countdown and release of confetti setting on top of the ceiling fan blades.  And the noisemakers.

6 years + 2 months

It is appropriate that Emily's picture this month is taken in pajamas since that's pretty much the only thing she wore while home for Christmas break.  She spent hours and hours taking apart, reassembling and role playing with her growing Lego Friends collection.  It has been a great source of imaginative entertainment for her.

The holiday season was quite a learning experience for Emily this year.  In school music class she learned a lot about Hanukkah.  She asked a lot of questions at home and even made her own menorah.  I have absolutely no problem with her learning about the traditions and history of a Jewish holiday at school.  I do, however, find it a little annoying (and hypocritical) that it's fine to do a unit on Hanukkah, mention Kwanzaa and spend three weeks learning Christmas "carols" about Santa, jingle bells, snowmen and reindeer for an all-school "Santa Sing-along," but not a single mention or note was uttered on anything remotely Christian related.  I don't really fault the school.  I just consider it a sad commentary on our current culture and society.

The other major thing Emily learned this month is that Santa isn't real.  We have never talked about or played up the whole Santa thing, and she has always been somewhat skeptical when the topic came up in the past.  They never mentioned it in preschool.  Exposure in Kindergarten got her thinking, though.  She badgered us about it for weeks, trying all sorts of sneaky angles (including revealing her contrived plan to use the video monitor to spy on the stockings all night).  I tried to remain vague and non-committal without outright lying.  Finally, I asked her if she wanted to really know the truth.

We had a talk about the story of the real St. Nicholas and how the legend of Santa Claus came out of that.  We didn't talk about the whole naughty/nice/being good thing because that part really irritates me--sorry all "Elf on the Shelf" fans, but I had to get that off my chest.  That thing is just plain creepy.  We did, however, talk about the joy of secret giving and random acts of kindness.  The kids did get small things in their stockings this year on Dec. 27 with no real mention of Santa.  Emily & I discussed starting a tradition of leaving secret presents for each other in our stockings in future years.  We also talked about how other families have fun traditions that include Santa Claus, and it wasn't our job to tell them if that was right or wrong (in other words, don't be the kid who ruins another kid's Christmas by blabbing about how Santa isn't real).  Emily was satisfied and actually seemed a little relieved about the whole thing.  Now she's contemplating the tooth fairy...

**Side note** I have begun to realize how much influence the outside world has on our kids.  Lincoln has mentioned the idea of "Santa" way more than Emily ever has.  Yes, there are lots of innocent, heart-warming books (The Polar Express has convinced Lincoln but actually caused Emily to doubt), and you can't miss the image of Santa around Christmastime.  I think the thing that annoys me the most, though, is when people (in absolute, complete innocence) ask the kids what Santa is going to bring them or if Santa was good to them or what they got from Santa.  It's always an awkward moment because Lincoln doesn't completely understand the concept since we don't practice it at home, Emily knows the truth and doesn't know what to say (especially after the talk about not dissing other people's traditions), and I don't know what to say either.  I don't want to come across sounding all self-righteous by replying, "We don't do Santa in our house," but I sort of feel the need to explain the kids' silence-bordering-on-rudeness-shyness whenever the question is asked.  What would/do you do/say?

Emily's December artwork from school

Christmas vacation fun

The kids had a lot of fun playing with toys and each other over Christmas break.  Here are a few snapshots...

Emily's first loop weaving project--a doll pillow

Fun in the snow

Race track

Christmas pajamas

I also had the chance to catch up with a dear friend who now lives in Washington, D.C.  Angie & I fit in a lot of words in our brief hour together!

Our Christmas

We celebrated our own family Christmas when we returned home.  Emily acted out the Christmas story using the Little People Nativity set, additional Lego people and various scenery while I read it aloud from Matthew and Luke.  The kids opened their gifts and stockings.  They received a few small things and Tidmouth Sheds as a joint gift.  The rest of the day was spent playing happily with all their new toys. :o)

Great-grandparents

We had the opportunity to visit all of our grandparents/great-grandparents.  After having us over for lunch, Emily played a piano concert for Great-Grandma Freking.

At Great-Grandma Boote's Christmas Eve dinner, the great-grandkids and younger grandkids had fun playing with race cars.

Emily performed another piano concert for Great-Grandpa Vander Kooi at the nursing home.  Then he was able join us at my parents' house on Christmas night.

Austin & I also visited his Grandpa & Grandma Lorenzen on Christmas afternoon.  Grandpa Lorenzen has Alzheimer's and is in the nursing home.  It was bittersweet, because we're pretty sure we said goodbye for the final time.  We're lucky to have been able to visit all of them as much as we have.