Christmas Morning :)

Christmas Eve we enjoyed an Ethiopian feast, attended a candle-light Church Service, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and ate cake, and wound down with our annual watching of "Christmas at Yellowstone."  The kids have been eagerly anticipating this day for such a long time as we have been counting down and preparing our home and our hearts for the celebration of Christmas.  

Christmas morning, dressed in Holiday PJs, we hung our final Jesse Tree Ornament, unwrapped the first gift of Christmas: baby Jesus (we wrap up all of our Nativity Jesus' - we were only missing one), and sat down to a Christmas morning tradition of breakfast casseroles. 

This year, the kids were excited to exchange gifts, many under our tree since the weekend following Thanksgiving, nothing costing any money: re-gifts of books and toys, handmade bracelets and drawings, all carefully wrapped and excessively taped.  Big brother Hendrick thoughtfully wanted to spend some of his hard-earned money on gifts for each of his siblings.  He was intentional about finding a special gift for everyone, covertly asking what each wished for and then turning around to purchase.  He bought a noise maker for Tesfaye's bike; Legos for Davis, Burke, and Kolpin; Little People Disney Princesses for Dabney and Maclaren; a crystal grow kit for Hiwot; and a much hoped for pink stuffed animal unicorn for Maegli.  Wow!

Gifts could all to easily overwhelm our Christmas celebrations: anything times 9 can become very big very fast.  We are intentional to keep our gifting to a minimum.  The gifts we share Christmas morning are in honor of the greatest gift, the entire reason for the celebration: Jesus Christ.  It's a joy to give our children small gifts on this very big day, and the kids are excited to share with each other (and receive!), but we don't want the gifting to take over the day.
We enjoy filling the kids stocking with little fun treasures: art supplies, socks, undies, chapstick, bubblegum, Lego Mini-figures, hair bows, Rainbow Loom bands, harmonicas and train whistles, balloon rockets, HotWheels, playing cards, reading books and coloring books.

In addition to stockings, our traditional family gift is a game or something we can do together.  This year, we got the game "Sleeping Queens" (which we highly recommend!), and an Erector Set to share as a family.  We also give each child one gift.  I made a blanket and a set of "family" blocks (glued pictures on wooden blocks, one of each person in our home) for Dabney; Maclaren, Hiwot, and Maegli received dress-ups; and the five boys each got a Karate Gi, and Karate lessons for the coming year (!).

It was a very exciting morning.  Throughout the day, Mike took a few kids at a time into work with him to help serve Christmas meals to the crews working on Christmas.  The remainder of our joy-filled day at home was spent coloring, playing games, building Legos, feasting on a Christmas Ham dinner (and Ethiopian left-overs), eating Christmas cookies, reading books, and packing for our trip to Cincinnati.  It was a wonderful Christmas.  We are grateful. 

Merry Christmas!

December

Jesse Tree devotions

Christmas cards

bowling

The Nutcracker Ballet

Zoo Lights

Painted ornaments

Christmas Cookies (36 dozen!)
Handmade Gifts
Christmas movies

Wintry Mix and Chocolate Candies

The Hobbit movie in theaters

Christmas Symphony concert

Ethiopian Food

Christmas Gifts

Christmas Music

Live Nativity
Candle Light Service

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever performance

Christmas Lights
Caroling
Luke 2 memorization
Sweet deliveries to neighbors and friends :)
Gingerbread House
Egg Nog
 

School 2014-2015, Month 3

Thanksgiving to Christmas is a hard season for productive schooling.  I want to focus on Christmas: crafting gifts, baking and decorating cookies, reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa, writing Christmas cards, watching the Christmas parade downtown, attending candle light church services, participating in live nativities, Christmas coloring sheets, going to Zoo Lights and Holiday symphony concerts, and attending live productions of "The Nutcracker" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  When is there time for book learning?

This year has convinced me that we need to switch to year-round school and just plan to take a month off for Christmas.  Next year we'll try that, but this year we did our best to be semi-productive in our learning over the holidays.

In addition to our Chistmas-related learning and activities, we managed to keep up with math, handwriting, and reading (our 3 areas of "must-do" school focus).  And, we managed to finish out third full month of schooling (we started in September) at 78 days of school.

We also dove a little into a history study of the Indus Valley and Ancient China - reading lots of books and studying maps, and eating great food.  I'm proud to report, 2-year-old Maclaren, can expertly find India and China on any world map :)

We've also continued our reading in the Little House books - we've read "Little House in the Big Woods", "Farmer Boy," and are nearly done with "Little House on the Prairie."  Mike also read "The Hobbit" to the kids in preparation of taking the biggest boys to see the latest installment in The Hobbit movie franchise (part 3 of 4).
The big memorization this month:  the Kids all memorized Luke 2 (Linus' version from "Charlie Brown Christmas"). 

All said, I'm pleased with our schooling accomplishments in this very busy season :)

Speech

Kolpin, can you tell me what this is?  (pointing to a wintry scene with snowman)

"No!"

His therapist was taken aback, Kolpin is typically so eager to work . . . until she realized he was dropping his "s" when saying (s)now!

"It's a no-man!" 


This week she was working with him on "r" blends and "th" words.  She held up her thumb and asked Kolpin to tell her what it was:

"Thhhh-inger"

He did his "th" correctly, carefully biting his tongue with his teeth :)

He's working so hard in his weekly speech therapy sessions.  We constantly remind him to use his "big boy" voice - he tends to talk in a squeaky-cartoony voice, with lots of silly sounds - and we're trying to reinforce what his therapist is working on each week.  We've heard so much improvement! 

Slide

One of our most popular and most used toys: an indoor wooden slide.

This slide is over 30 years old.  I remember playing on this as a child, and it was passed on to my cousins.  When Hendrick was born, the slide was shipped from Oregon back to us.  A few years ago, Grandpa fixed it up: a new slide board, reinforcements, and a poly coat.  It's a perfect toy.

Dabney has discovered the best hide-away spot under the slide, when Maclaren and her dollies haven't taken over.  I'm sure Dabney will be climbing and sliding soon! 

Hair

After an overall trim, Hiwot's beautiful curls were loose and natural for a few weeks before we returned to our low-maintenance, protective style of choice: twisties.  She is thrilled with how long her hair has grown, and I am so thrilled with her healthy hair and scalp. 

She is such a beauty :) 

Stand Up

Dabney has mastered the art of standing up . . . in the middle of the floor!

Her other new tricks: blowing kisses, saying "ho, ho, ho!", waving when we say "night-night", nods her head yes, flicks the light switch on and off, will take found treasures out of her mouth when we ask "what's in your mouth?", attempts to put socks on her feet, and climbs onto the couch.  

Next up: walking :)

Outdoor Action

These kiddos come up with the craziest games outside.  There newest craze: massive games of hide-and-seek tag.  They play in the afternoon, and they bring out the flashlights at night for another round.  I am so glad they are good at coming up with ways to release their energy outside!

Toothless

Princess Boots

Maclaren's latest favorite (besides glasses): Princess Boots!

She insists on wearing these "princess boots" everyday.

They make her slightly sassy :)

Mr. Charming

Awww.  Dabney is just so cute!

Mom, thanks.  
You're the best mom ever.
I love everything you make.
Wow, this is the best ever.
You're a great cook.
We're so lucky to have you as our mom.

Maegli, I think you'll be a great singer.  
You'll be famous.  
You can do anything, I think  you'll be famous in anything you do.

Aw, aren't the babies so precious.  
I am so glad we were blessed with these babies.

Dad, you're the best dad ever.  
Thank you for being such a great dad. 

I can't wait to be a dad someday.  
I can't wait to be married and have kids.
Do you think I'll be a good dad too?
I can't wait to grow up.

I'm so glad we're family.  
We're so blessed.  
I really miss my first family.  
I hope I can go to Ethiopia someday, but I'd miss everyone so much.
I want everyone to go with me.  
Won't that be so special?  

Burke says the sweetest things, and then goes on to pester his brothers, throw pillows across the house, loudly burp and curse - d*mn! 

Our charming Burke Zerihun has been a precious part of our family for 7 years.
We are blessed :)

Home: November 30, 2007

can you find all 4 kids in this picture?