Off with the old, on with the new!

As I wrap up the final hours left of 2012, I'll reflect on the last week! We so enjoyed our time with Wayne's parents and we kept  busy with a trip to the museum, several trips to the Quebec church and time spent indoors watching the snow fall outside.

The kids played Farkle with Grandpa and Grandma along with Monopoly and Zanna's newest game, Mousetrap. We made fun memories like an evening of rum and eggnog drinking while watching a silent Charlie Chaplin movie (which is funnier with rum and eggnog).

Here's my little angel and shepherd. They did a great job on Christmas eve with their memorized parts and music singing! We had great attendance at church that evening breaking our record - 124 jammed into our tiny church - praise God! 

For Christmas Eve dinner this year I tried something different - Shepherd's pie. To be fair, we learned in England that real shepherd's pie is made with lamb (duh). So if it's made with beef it should be called cottage pie, but that just doesn't go with my theme, OK? 

I love my Christmas Eve table - Grandma's retro tablecloth dressed up with some flea market finds and a center piece of ornaments.

Christmas Day's table is a bit fancier using my fancy dishes and gold silverware - 

And here we are eating after opening our Christmas crackers! Do we look like we're having fun?!!! What on the menu? Well, let's see..

Our tradition for Christmas dinner is to keep me out of the kitchen as much as possible so it's IKEA Swedish meatballs and gravy! We love it! Once a year and everyone's happy. I try to spruce it up by having some lobster tails on the side with melted butter. Yum! And I'm not even going to show you Jesus' birthday cake for this year. Let's just say, it was good to eat but not the prettiest cake you've ever seen. 

We've continued to get dumped on so the kids have been working on a super cool fort in the front. We've also been sledding and attempted a family outing of ice skating. We realized we're stupid parents. You know the ones - who don't love their children enough to bring helmets for them to wear? You've seen them - they can't even spring for some decent skates for their poor children? One kids got some hand me down "training" skates that strap on to her boots only to have them constantly fall off. The other child has been forced to wear his grandfather's skates from 1975 and is flopping all over the place - with no helmet, may I remind you. Yep, that's us. We lasted 5 minutes and spent just under $7 for this family friendly outing. We will not give up! We went directly to Sports Check for their after Christmas sales and purchased some decent skates for both children. We may even bring helmets next time. 
And on a personal note, I've decided to go with a new look for the new year.  You know, spice things up a bit? What do you think?

OK. Before you say anything, let's just all take a deep breath. The story is this - it's a wig and I got it for a Christmas present from one of our members. What?!! Lutheran pastor's wives don't usually get a wig for Christmas? The gal that got it for me is super fun, super cute and quite frankly, I'm honoured.  The fact that she would think I'd be groovy enough to try something like this is now pressure - where I am going to wear this?!!! "Off to choir, kids, and mommy's going to put on her hair!" or "I need to clean my floor. Maybe it'll be more fun with some hair?" or "I think I'll wear it to my home school support group tonight and see if anyone notices." 
I'm also thinking that the likelihood of ever having a conversation with another pastor's wife that would include something like "Oh, I remember the time I got a wig for Christmas..." is pretty slim. Yep. This'll be a hard one to top! It's really a gorgeous colour and I wish my hair would grow that long and curl in those lovely waves! So if anyone has any suggestions as to the appropriate time and place for me to wear this, or if you have a wig and wanna come over to just hang out in them let me know! Happy New Year!!

Snow Days

We're buried in snow here in our little part of Canada! Wayne just busted out the snow blower and cleared off our driveway. The kids have made a couple of snow men and I've got a bowl out back collecting the fresh fallen snow for a treat of snow ice cream for later. 

My mother in law and I ventured out a bit this morning to do some last minute shopping. Thank goodness for snow tires!

We're happy to have family visit for Christmas and the kids love having Grandpa and Grandma to play with!

I had intended to do some school at least for a few days this week but instead opted for doing some much needed baking, cleaning and crafts with the kids like decorating oranges with cloves and cutting out paper snow flakes.

Every year in his stocking, Will receives a nutcracker for his collection. He's up to quite a few!

My brother has a nutcracker collection also but apparently they freak his wife out. Guess it wasn't a question he thought to ask until it was too late... haha!

And on the baking front this year, I haven't done my usual nor did I participate in any cookie exchanges but I did do the wreath cookies - they're always a favourite! I also discovered what will be a new tradition - Eggnog Rum Bread.

 As I was scraping the last of the batter into my bread pans, I snuck a taste just to make sure it was all right. I don't usually do this to be honest - I let the kids attack it. But since this batter included rum I thought I better take this one. At first taste I started groaning enough to make Wayne peak around the corner to see what was wrong. What he witnessed I can only imagine was a most unfortunate sight of his lovely wife licking her mixing bowl clean with the grace of a cat. My point is this - go make this right now. I mean it. Right now. I have never.... Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go make this RIGHT NOW. I managed to give some of mine away to my neighbours but kept the big one for myself. I hide it in the corner and sneak bites of it for a treat. 

I love how the snow covers up the dirty ground and covers it with it's clean white. The snow covered evergreen cathedrals remind me of how baby Jesus didn't stay a cute baby but lived a perfect life for lost mankind, grew up to suffer and die and proved his victory of sin, death and the devil by his resurrection. The dirty ground of sinners is covered with his white perfection through faith in Jesus. This is the gift.

Advent Tidings

The first Sunday in Advent has passed, the calendar has been turned to December, we've had our first snowfall - is it that time of year already?! 

Our choir debuted with "Prepare the Royal Highway" and we continue to practice more songs.  Choir practice starts at 6:30pm and goes to at least 7:30pm but has been going later due to the amount of music we're trying to learn for Advent by Candlelight on top of everything else. The problem for me is this - my uselessness after 8pm but sometimes a little before. I'm not a night person. I'm not a morning person. I regret to discover of myself I'm about a 10am - 1pm kinda gal. Not ideal. Anything asked of me outside these peak hours is really a crap shoot. Crap. 

We thoroughly enjoyed (I was enraptured) with our visit to the theatre to see Pride and Prejudice. We had FRONT ROW SEATS! Zanna was swooning by the time Elizabeth and Darcy declared their love for each other, Will was hiding behind his turned up collar so as not to witness this embarrassing scene of affection and I was willing to go on the road and be the cast's groupie. 

Also included in the same busy week was a field trip to the Aviation Museum for workshops on "air". Zanna and I also attended a local ballet schools version of the Nutcracker.

Last year, we didn't put up our tree due to our England trip. I admit to missing the ornaments and the memories we recall of obtaining many of them. I also admit my delight in not having to take down the tree and wrap up each individual ornament after returning from our trip! So I was excited to get all 200 ornaments (or so) out this year. Most of them are mine from childhood, having collected them since birth. I entered my marriage 14 years ago with enough ornaments to fill up a tree by myself. My husband brought nothing - except his witty personality and you can't exactly decorate a tree with that now can you? So many of them say Rachel 1988 or Rachel 1981 or Rachel 1979 .... you get the point. So fast forward 14 years and in an effort to tip the ornament owner scales, everyone in the family has gotten at least one new one every year. 

New additions include Big Ben in memory of our England trip.

From our trip to Quebec City last fall

An oldie from our honeymoon

Earlier this week, my friend Ruth and I made a run for the border and shopped our brains out for a day. It was totally worth it for several reasons. 

1. We got lots of Christmas shopping done - much cheaper. 
2. We got carded at Olive Garden for the complimentary sip of wine they offered.
3. We ate lunch at Panera. Sigh. 
4. We wandered up and down the aisles of Target. She freaked out in the candy aisle and I lost it when I found the perfect tablecloth for $14. 
5. I mailed my US addressed Christmas cards and packages from the US Post Office there. I saved a ton of money on this and I've already heard word that the package made it in 2 days. Score.
6. I may have screamed in the grocery store as I read the signage for the price of turkey per pound at $.49. I don't really remember, I think I blacked out for a moment. Ruth tells me I screamed. 

Tomorrow I will be declaring a day off of school and naming it a PB day - parent baking. Tis the season for church bake sales and I'm on coffee hour. If you need me tomorrow you can find me in my kitchen with my William Sonoma red apron on and covered in flour. 

This year for Advent our family is using the book "Celebrate Jesus at Christmas" along with our advent wreath in the evening. Also rereading "Martin Luther's Christmas Book" which I find profound yet again! A free resource offered online and written by my Mom is called "Advent Ponderings". A free audio book from christian audio is "God is in the Manger" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In a season often rushed and stressful, it's important to take time daily and contemplate the Saviour that is to come!