The Gate of the Year . . .

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."  And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!"

From the poem, "The Gate of the Year"

written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins

and spoken by King George VI on 12/25/39

after having declared war on Germany that Fall.

He who trusts in the LORD will be exalted. Proverbs 29:25

Happy New Year!

A favorite set of shots from our unseasonably warm Fall . . .

Had loads of good fun together again this year.  While sometimes I'm at total whits end with how loud it can get in this house, it stops me when I realize that most often it's of siblings having fun together!

Love that!

(also helps to post those sentiments when the house has been quiet for hours while some boys are in the D watching hockey, the other is quiet and lethargic from an oncoming cold or something, the 3 year old has fallen asleep on her own, the oldest gal is at the mall and I've even had the luxury of a hot bath!)

This Year's Food Creation . . .

A Christmas Wreath!

 Start with these lovely, refrigerated crescent rolls (in roll form, not crescents), bake into a circle and top with all the goodies.  Easy breezy, tasty and pretty (if I do say so)!

Here's the link.

Last year's creations here. (-:

Some favorites from the big day . . .

 Shadow of a third grade snowflake project on the hallway wall.

 1:30a.m.-ish!

 Pretty sure this is one of my favorite shots.

(although, the new matching jammies didn't come Christmas Eve so we get what we get with that...(-:)

Plus, who knew...that trampoline has a counter so for a little while at least they've been trying for a "high score" not related to computers, yippie!!

 Pretty sure she managed to get everyone in that castle tent with her by day's end!

Slept in it last night, cute.

Here's the crew Christmas Day afternoon.

So many wonderful blessings from the day!

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and 

the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his 

name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty 

God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

In the kitchen . . .

Ohhhhhh, how I love when she puts that skirt on.

On our tree . . .

Love this one!

(-:

Hey Dad . . .

You need a trampoline!
(Click on it, it's a video)

This boy . . .

LOVES being a cub scout.

His enthusiasm for it even convinced the 11 year old to consider rejoining!

Schedule won't work for him though.

But that one up there, oh boy, he's thrilled.

Next up, working on the ol' pine wood derby car, whoo-hoo!!

Awwww . . . 

Then this showed up after tonight's cub scouts meeting.
SP had texted me the above photo earlier tonight.
Isn't technology awesome??!!

The highlight of tonight's project was that William drilled a hole in his finger..."by accident."

And a . . . 
Short bedtime conversation with Harrison:
"You know, for a long time I've been looking people in the eye and deciding if I was taller than them or not.  But recently, I realized I am taller than a lot of them because I wasn't taking into consideration all this above my eyes." (picture him now measuring the distance with his thumb and fingers between his eyebrow and the top of his head) . . . heehee . . . 

I'm not feeling good about my mystery audition right now . .

But (I hope) . . . 

I'm not giving up!

To be continued...

Cousin Quizzy . . .

Arrived last night!

Can you even imagine???

No sign of Fuzzy this year though.

(and...yes...Quizzy knows he spelled his name wrong on his note, heehee)

Today . . .

We tried to visit Santa!

(-:

That's a pretty nerve wracking thing to do for some three year olds.

I can almost guarantee I would never have done it at three.

We stood outside that gate pondering for quite a while.

Then...Santa noticed us and started to wave.

Hmmmm...thought the three year old...

And she waved back...

So I asked again, "Do you want to go in there and tell him about the white horse you want for Christmas?

"You tell him," she said.

"O.K., I'll tell him, you come with me."

And we went in...and she took his candy cane and ran...pretty much.

She wasn't having any part of that guy!

So, headed off to the other part of the reason we were at the mall...

A (little late) birthday treat!

(fyi, we shared that drink!!!)

We had our (little late) birthday pictures before we went searching for Santa.  She did a little better this year than last with the pictures.  last year after one click she was outta there, crying, no more! This year we got a few cuties.  I was thisclose to considering no birthday picture for her this year, ("she looks pretty similar to last year really" I thought quite a few times over these weeks since the 20th), but I just couldn't do it.  I've been going to JC Penny for thirteen years now, starting when the kids are six months old, then just their annual birthday pic from age 1 and on.  Haven't missed even one! So, with the five kids, ages 13, 11, 9, 6 and 3, how many times have I been to that studio...oh whoops, for the last 11 years I've also done a summer shot with siblings together...who's good at math??? (-:

I am currently contemplating though that hitting age 13 is old enough to stop the pictures.

Any thoughts on that?

Biz.E . . .

We have just been on the go, go, go with the busyness that December brings with it every year. Great things all...singing Messiah, kid's activities, getting ready for Christmas (veh.ree.slow.lee mind you), thinking about making ice rinks (one boy actually rolled out some measurements for me over the weekend thanks to Uncle J...it was the six year old though so I'm not going to buy supplies yet (-:), and more.  As it is I was out grocery shopping tonight until 10:30p.m. and now it's the next day already (12a.m.-ish) and  I'm posting this quick.  It's all I got:

One of the few decorations up so far (though we did get the tree in the house tonight, and it's a beaut!  Pretty sure Fisbee arrives with the tree...according to Harrison at least, who has been on the look out since December 1st).  Love those "not sticky" stick-on word things.  Took the picture at night with my phone though, so not the best result.  Really wanted to remember to take a picture during the day with my camera...hahahahaha (that's slightly maniacal laughter at this point, (-:).

Chow!

If I thought the 1st was nuts . . .

I better start mentally prepping for the 8th now!

Oh my goodness was this past Saturday nutso with activities! I was thrilled to have ab.so.lutely. NOTHING written in today's square (so then I only had to do laundry, dishes, care for a three year old, bring some Christmas stuff up from basement, organize the mess of videos/dvds, dust...a little, more laundry, shop for a cheerleading hair bow for their Christmas party...um, yeah, for real...homework, reading, dinner, piano practice,  bedtime.  Yay for days with nothing on the calendar, HA!

My sweet, "Do it himself because he's the fourth child" boy was super excited to grow his magic dinosaur in water this weekend.  The dinosaur started out the size of about a dime I think, I had about a 2.5 second glance at it Saturday.  There was one little detail he didn't think through though...

(-:

And I suppose it'll just be cool to note, if we ever have access to this blog many years from now (I wonder about that every now and then, will this just be wiped out some day due to who knows what???)...anyway...amazing 50 degree weather today (Livia was on the deck doing bubbles) with, I think, I saw 57 degrees and rainy tomorrow.  Sure wish I would've gotten that rink up this past weekend, supposed to drop to the 30's again by Wednesday, but hey...you saw my weekend...

Goings on around here these days . . .

 Ah, sweet #5, playing the role of cheerleader for one of many big sibling's sporting events she has to attend.  Today she was thrilled to have watched Ben's team fight back from being down 0-3 to a 4-3 win.  I'm telling you that was just as exciting as any ol' Wings game! (btw, Share, you know any Antillas that would play for a Novi team?  saw that name on the back of a jersey)

During the hockey game we were receiving reports of a raccoon circling the house and then landing on our back deck, staring in the window (yes, I know...a window that could use some washing...oh, yep...and a deck that could use some stainin', anyone out there have the energy to do it 'cause I feel like sitting around on my computer now, ha!).  Ended up calling the Humane Society, no symptoms except he was shaking occasionally, and, well, hanging out on our deck in daylight.  The guy thought it might be some disease lethal to pets, said to keep the kids inside...thanks buddy! In the end, Rocky had a fun ride down our deck slide and right into a critter cage, we don't need to know the rest of the story.

Let's end today with, 

"Conversations with Harrison"

Setting: Car ride home after Chess

Time: 8:22p.m.

Mom: "So, how was your first time back at chess class?"

Harrison: "Well, it was pretty good, I mean, I won my game though it took a lot longer than I thought it would.  I had my five move plan in my head, but... Oh, and the kid I was playing had some kind of accent and well, I kinda slipped into his accent a bit and, um, I think that kind of helped him."

Mom: Speechless, yet needing to speak..."Hmmm, helped him? How so?"

Harrison:  "Well, he was pretty quiet and when I talked with his accent he seemed to start talking more."

Mom: "Oh...................................my....................................wow..............................................yeah, that might have made him more comfortable............................................

(-: