Lil’ A’s First Christmas

We had a blessed Christmas. All this little girlie wanted for Christmas were her two front teeth and can you believe she didn’t get them?!

She did however, get lots of other things.

:)

Emmanuel, God With Us!

Merry Christmas to you and yours…

The Joy of Giving

I love to give.

And I’m trying to foster the same in my children. So this year since we’re in a country that has a wonderful thing called The Dollar Tree, I split up our family members, gave each of the kids a list and took them shopping on separate occasions. They could buy anything in the store, ha!

It was a joy.

Seriously.

We poured over the list and talked about what each person on their list might like, or what they like to do, their job, etc. Both of the (big) kids did awesome at picking things out. I was so proud.

Then I would set them up with a little gift wrapping station in my bedroom. Being in Mommy’s bedroom is extra special because they are normally not allowed in there. So that was double the fun…

H went to town. He wrapped his pile of gifts in NO time, wrote his own tags, hauled them to the Christmas tree and declared he was done all by himself in a MUCH shorter time than I expected!

And he did a good job.  Proud. Again.

Girlie needed some help wrapping, She was so excited to do it herself, but alas, she needed help with the whole getting-the-paper-around-the-gift-and-taping-it part.

It’s a bit challenging, I admit. She’s great with tape though. She had no problem doing the tape part. She has a passion for tape, frankly.

I wrote the ‘TO’ name on the tags and she wrote her name on the ‘FROM’ line. She’s really good at writing her name for being three years old.  That also makes me proud.

I hope you family members enjoy opening the gifts that were picked out and wrapped for you by my little kiddos/ I think they are learning the joy of giving!

And P.S., someone else also spent time in Mommy’s room

Oh my.

And while I’m at it, I may as well show you that we did manage to fit all suitcases, children, adults AND gifts into our minivan several mornings ago (5:30am to be exact!).

Two days it took us to make it safely to Ohio and since then, lil’ A has still been busy with gifts…

Mostly climbing on them and eating them.

The rest of us decorated the tree.

Or we got held so that we didn’t get caught in the trample.

 

And there has been another type of Christmas tree decoration.

Some finger lickin’, of course.

And also some pizza judging (no joke). For those of you from our parts, we sent delegates to the three Longbranch Pizza locations to decide who makes it best.

We came to a unanimous decision at the conclusion of the blind taste test. So now we have the answer for ourselves, once and for all. No more wondering people, I feel so relieved.

Merry Christmas Eve’s Eve!!

My heart is overflowing.

December Randomness

Baby and skateboard. Cute.

Sometimes when baby is army crawling around the big kids will get on either side of her and just do whatever she is doing. It’s the BEST.

I wore this little pink outfit when I was a babe…

Love.

Baby blues.

My kiddos and books. *contented sigh*

Lil’ A and Sweet N playing on the kids bunk beds. Each of them has so much joy!

Silly face!

Today’s Footwear (Courtesy of Colorado)

Today my older girlie and I wore conflicting footwear.

I chose a pair of flip flops.

She chose Dora the Explorer snow boots.

Both were valid choices… 66 degrees and sunny AND snow on the ground (curiously not melting).

I love this state. Seriously.

Cross That Off the Christmas List

You can imagine my happiness when digging through the glove basket as I discovered a pair of those special gloves that allow you to use your smartphone while still keeping the rest of your fingers warm!

Great! I guess I can cross that one off my Christmas list!

;)

Goodbye Tours–Our Pajero

We went through several cars during our years in Africa. The first three did not have A/C (in 120 degree temps!). One was literally 30 years old. Another was periwinkle blue. All of them were old and expensive and dented and had issues.

In our last couple years we had the opportunity to purchase an old Pajero from some friends.

We.Loved.It.

It was old. But it wasn’t crazy expensive. And it was dented. BUT IT HAD A/C. And it had 4 wheel drive. And it was big and bigger means we had more power and intimidation factor on the crazy-drivers-not-many-rules roads we drove on.

When you live in a place like the place we lived… you soon learn that you have to create your own fun. And one of the things we loved to do for fun was head out on desert road trips with friends. A big, somewhat reliable vehicle was an important factor in this equation and we were so thankful to get this vehicle for that reason too.

Here’s some photos of one of my all-time-favorite memories from our years in Africa. It’s when we took my parents camping with some of our dearest friends. We drove to see the pyramids, with lovely road-side stops along the way where we’d pull off to sip coffee that we had carefully packed…

Don’t you love how the other vehicle has things piled up SUPER high on top?

I love it.

 

L and I got to sit in the back. If it weren’t for her company back there, I probably would have been a cussing, fuming maniac. It was hot. And bumpy. And tight. And I’d do it all over again.

My boy! Oh my word he’s so small. And yes, it was always that dirty. Welcome to life in the desert.

After the pyramids we’d set up camp in the go-to camping spot for the ex-pats. Some slept out under the stars, including my parents! I’m still amazed and blessed by their joy in taking on any challenge we offered them during their visit.

Time spent with loved ones around this tree in the valley between the rocks was so so special.

Aaaanyway. Funny how a vehicle can be such a blessing and somehow get a piece of your heart? It’s silly. But it’s true.

And so, before we left our beloved country, the kids climbed in and said…

… “Goodbye car”…