Early Christmas gifts

Our family is so blessed by the love and generosity of so many. Having a pastor as a husband many times means that more is expected of your family.  You are supposed to be models of parenting, your children are to be models of behavior, and you sacrifice family time for the demands of the church.  Though sometimes these expectations seem more than we can handle, God is so faithful to strengthen us through the love of our church family!  

We have always been blessed by loving congregations who show their appreciation and support in many ways!  One of the ways that Alleghany Baptist blesses us is a yearly "pounding."  Members of the church bring in different items to stock our pantry, fridge and other necessary items (aka toilet paper)!  It is always so much more than we deserve!  I don't  have a picture, but really I could list at least 40 different grocery items they brought.  They even try to bring us our favorite brands and preferences.

Also many from our church buy gifts for our girls.  This year Uncle Bob and Aunt Debbie came over to bless the girls with some toys and dresses.  I didn't get a picture of the dresses because a couple had to be returned due to size, but I will try to add a picture soon since replacement dresses were found already.  

Here is Sarah with her new Lego set.  The girls have never had a mini set and she was so thrilled!  They enjoyed putting it together almost right away.

Hannah loves her new game they bought.  She is just the right age to appreciate the humor of this game and learn a few things too!  Uncle Bob and Daddy even played with all the girls that night!

This was the first Mary or Lydia heard of a Lalaloopsie doll.  They were so excited and have been checking it all out on the internet!

We just love the hair on this one!  Lydia has had a good time styling it.

The next day the girls were in for another surprise.  Most of the time we open all our presents on Christmas day.  If we open any on Christmas eve, it is usually pajamas for them to sleep in.  This year we decided to give them their "big" present early.  We were supposed to go out of town the day after Christmas and we wanted them to have time to enjoy it.

 Here they are getting ready to open the gift.  :)

They have now realized that they have a new Wii!  Much squealing and jumping around ensued. 

Time to give it a go after Mom spent an hour setting it up. LOL 

I asked the girls if it was a let down to open the best present first.  They all assured me that it was not a let down.  Instead they were excited about playing with it as well as opening the other gifts.  :)
It has been fun that we have all enjoyed together.

With All My Heart~

Family Christmas Party 2012

A Christmas Forest

I am not a very crafty person.  Nor do I enjoy baking for looks. However, when I saw something similar to these at public school one day before Christmas I thought we might give them a try.  The teacher at school used a waffle cone turned upside down on which the students had spread a thin layer of green icing.  Then they had sprinkled coconut shavings on their trees. I knew my girls would enjoy this except only one can stand coconut.  So I decided to pick up some M&Ms to use for decoration and Memaw Rose knew that a sprinkle of confectioner's sugar would be the finishing touch for our forest.  

Here is an aerial view of the trees.  I forgot to tell Alpheus to buy the waffle cones that were flat on the round edge and he bought the ones that have one high side to the cone.  Rose had to cut them down to sit.  You can see that Hannah chose to have one leaning tree.  The girls each decorated two trees.

The girls used quite a bit of icing and lots of candy too.  I love how some trees have a pattern and some are just randomly thrown together.  It was easy and pretty.  We used them for decoration at our family Christmas gathering the next day, and then the girls ate them. :)

Speaking of family gathering, we had a wonderful time at the Short Christmas Party for 2012.  We just hope to get all the family there for the next one! 

My wonderful parents!

Bruce and his son, Ben.  I missed getting Leah (wife and mom) in the picture, but she was there!

My sweet girls who enjoyed decorating before we started!

My brother Monte and his wife, Sharon.  Bryce, Monte's youngest son was there, but we missed having Aaron, his oldest and Kyle, Sharon's son.

So glad to have Uncle Harry (mom's brother) and Aunt Lisa with us!  It would have been so nice to have all my aunts and uncles there, but alas, only one lives close enough.  

Here is everyone that made it except for my sister, Lorilyn, who is taking the picture. :)

P.S. Did you see the trees? :)

ABC Christmas Program 2012

 Here are the pictures from our Christmas program this year.  So thankful that Alpheus was willing and able to take stills and Dan took video.  Our story was called Papa Panov's Special Christmas by Leo Tolstoy which I adapted for the play.  The modern side of the stage represented a family reading the story one night before Christmas.  You can see Mary at the piano here.  She played jingle bells at the beginning as if she was practicing at home.  Then Hannah (seated on the back of the couch) read a poem she wrote for the play.  River was coloring a picture and I was the mom who would read the story.

The fluffly thing beside Papa Panov's rocking chair is Sarah's stuffed puppet dog that looks pretty realistic if we could see his eyes! LOL

Close up of Mary

Close up of Hannah reading her poem.  Do you see the cookie in River's hand.  They were treated to real cookies during the "family story time." :)

Papa Panov, the cobler, entering the stage.  The costuming probably could have been better (my fault), but Sarah was tickled to have Granddad Short's hat for a prop! :)

I didn't know she added a scarf.  LOL  My back is to her the whole time.

Here is Papa Panov reading the Christmas story...

And wishing Jesus would visit him.

River is pretty reserved on stage but she always looks forward to doing her part.  She is a sweet heart!

Papa Panov notices some cold street sweepers and offers them some warming coffee.  Well, in this case, hot chocolate was in the kettle.  Mmmm, yes the real thing.  Oops we got it too hot though and our actors can hardly swallow it between lines. :)

Ariana and Kimber did a great job!

:)

A mother and her child also enjoying Papa Panov's hospitality.

Papa Panov gives his most treasured gift - the best shoes he ever cobbled.  

Notice Lydia is holding on tight to that hot chocolate! :)

Papa Panov sharing more food with the needy. 

After this portion of the program,
Cheyenne read the account of the birth of Jesus from Luke 2.  

Time for hand bells.  This is something our girls enjoyed when we were at Joppa Baptist in Florida. They love it!

Then Ariana read the most beautiful poem which she found that was a perfect end to the play!

Alpheus joins the girls for a cast picture.  The girls were glad to be finished and ready to party downstairs!

Thank you again to Rose Nobel, Ruth Moran, and Gwen Ekhaml for your help in making it all come together.  I am already looking forward to next year.

Christmas Activity List #11: Daddy's Special Dinner

Before Alpheus and I were married, during his bachelor years, Alpheus found a love for cooking.  On our first official date he grilled shish kabobs and other delights on Skyland drive.  It was raining and I was sitting in his truck while he cooked over the open flame holding an umbrella over his head.  Thankfully on that 4th of July, the sun reappeared and we enjoyed our hike and the view of the fireworks from Red Oak Mountain.  It may have been our first official date, but I had learned two very important things.  #1  This man would go through a lot of trouble to please me. #2  His culinary skills were greater than mine!

During our first 4 years of marriage he did much of the cooking!  In recent years, I have been working on my skills and teaching the girls.  Then this past year, Memaw Rose moved in and has taken care of the cooking since then!  But when we made our Christmas activity list, Alpheus wanted to do a special dinner for all of us. 

He did all the shopping and cooking.  Rose and I napped and relaxed while he made a delicious dinner for us!  Pork roast wrapped in bacon, with a parmesan/garlic/apple topping, seasoned red potatoes, broccoli with cheese, shrimp and a fancy salad! 

That is sparkling white grape juice in our glasses. The girls loved the fancy shaped cups which were actually plastic! :)

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the humongous yeast rolls with butter!

But he didn't stop with dinner.  He also made the best parfait I have ever tasted!  The cream part is made from marshmallow cream and cream cheese.  He layered it with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries!

Thank you DH/Daddy for a wonderful dinner!

Christmas Gatherings



One of the most enjoyable parts of Christmas for me is getting together with my family.  I remember as a young girl, when my older brothers and sister would be living on their own in various states and how lonely my twin brother and I would be at times.  But usually everyone would come back to Mom and Dad's for the Christmas Eve/Morning sleep over and Christmas party.  I have very fond memories of sleeping on mattresses on the floor of rooms at the Lakehouse when trying to close off some rooms and save on the fire place heat.  We would talk and sing in the night hours until we finally all drifted off. I think I know many Christmas hymns by heart from these sing-a-longs!  Then when my brother and sister-in-law had the first grandchildren of the family it added a completely new side of Christmas for us all.  I am so thankful we have the year of the puppy on video and many other special Christmas memories.



Grandmom with Sarah's gift to her.  We missed getting the Christmas tree Hannah got her, and also Granddad with his traditional gifts of raisinets and a Christmas mug.


Every once in a while we would even have a holiday spent with extended family.  I loved being with my aunts,uncles, cousins, and grandmoms (my granddad's had already passed away before I have any memory of them)!  Such wonderful times to hear my parents reminisce of their childhood days and to see them with their siblings teasing and loving each other.  I was raised in a very happy and God-fearing family, so these times are blessed memories.

 Grandmom Short and Memaw Rose enjoying a chat.

I am so thankful to be doing the same with my children.  I remember the first Christmas Alpheus and I were married.  We celebrated with Dan and Lorilyn, but it felt really strange not being with our parents.  I am sure we were there a few days before, but for some reason (maybe Christmas was on a Sunday and we couldn't stay?) we were in the parsonage the first year.  I think I would have been really sad if I hadn't had at least one sibling there!  The next three years were full of babies and my parents living with us or near by.  Then we moved to Florida.  During the 7 years that we lived in FL we sometimes had family down for Christmas.  Sometimes we came back up to VA.  Sometimes we just celebrated with our church family.  But in each case, our children were blessed to spend time with people who loved God and them and remembering wonderful times together. 

Sarah getting a picture of me with Mary and her new dolly.  She has gotten 4 just like this one in her eight years of life.  We keep putting the "all loved up" ones away for memories!

As my children get older I wonder what they will remember about our family gatherings and what makes them the most happy.  I would ask them now, but they are asleep.  Maybe I will post their answers later.  On Monday, everyone who could, traveled to my parents' home to visit and let the children open the presents from Grandmom and Granddad.  As usual there was lots of delicious food!  There was also  a lot of teasing and talking as we tried to play Mexican Train.  I sat by my nephew Ben, who was featured on a recent post! :)  It was so wonderful to spend more time with him and everyone.  My girls enjoyed playing with their cousins, talking with various family members and guessing at what might be wrapped up under the bear trees! ;)  The only thing we didn't do this year was sing any Christmas hymns. Sharon even made fruit cake for my parents.  (Yes, we have nominated her for an award!)  It was a wonderful time!

Lydia with her doctor kit.  She was so thrilled. She doctored innocent bystanders all day today!

Keeping with the medical theme (sort of), Lydia was just as tickled with the Buzz operation game.

When we finally all gathered in the living room to watch the presents being opened, the girls were so excited and happy. But what really makes them happy isn't the toys, but the love they feel from these people who care about them all year round!  I know that years after they have forgotten what the toys were they will remember the grandparents, aunts and uncles that loved them.

What doll loving girl doesn't also want a spyware set! :)

Sarah holding her own copy of Kung Fu Panda 2.  She also received a lovely pink heart watch.

Ariana sporting her new Alvin the Chipmunks hat!  So pretty!

Hannah (with Memaw helping) holding up her new long awaited for art supplies!

Lydia was so excited to play her new games that she could hardly wait until after breakfast.  We all sat down to play the first time.  This was a new twist on an old classic with doctor and specialist cards and money for retrieving the endangering organs.  We had loads of fun, especially Daddy who won! 

Last night as I walked passed the older girls room out of the corner of my eye I noticed a strange shape in the room.  Hannah had set up her easel and was all prepared to paint as soon as she woke up.  This was painted before breakfast at 9AM! :) 

We really missed having Ed, Traci, Brandon, Logan, Kamryn, Jacob, and Aaron and Bryce at our get together this year! (Though I hear someone is turning 50 and we will be seeing Aaron and Bryce at that party in a week! :) )

I pray, dear friends, that you are able to spend this Christmas with family.  Whether you have blood relatives or in-Christ's-blood relatives ~ enjoy being with ones you love!

With All My Heart~