We had a wonderful Christmas these last few days and and did not let a little old lupus flare up get in the way of a joyful and family-centered celebration.   Of course, the lupus flare up necessitated it being family centered…but we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Christmas Eve, we read Luke 2, the Christmas story from the Bible, and gave each of us a part of it to read.  Even Kenan!  He was very proud of his part and read:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

We also acted out little bits of the story, which made it seem more real to all of us.  Mommy got the parts where she could just sit on the couch, of course!

Late at night, and the stockings were stuffed…

All the gifts under the tree….

Merry Christmas Morning!  We’re ready to open the gifts!

I’ve been wondering what’s in this one….

It was new train set pieces from Mommy and Daddy!  (So they can play with the train set for the next week of vacation!)  Below is a joint gift they are actually cooperating on opening, and here is the Reader Kenan again, wanting to read the card first!  “To Shana and Kenan, from Grandpa A and Grandma B”

All those gifts made us hungry for the perfect Christmas morning brunch…waffles with the works!

And I mean the works!  Yes, Mom and Dad, we finished up that chocolate sauce that was languishing in your fridge.  Yum yum!

Later on in the evening we actually managed dinner too, and Shana made us a pumpkin pie for dessert!   She was given the recipe and mixed it up without much supervision at all, I think Nate helped her pour it in the crust, but we didn’t check her seasonings or measurements to anything!  Not only did it turn out beautifully, but was delicious as well!  Good Job Shana!

With love to all our family and friends out there, may you have had a blessed Christmas as well.  Yeshua has come!

We went on a fun family outing the other night, we all put on our jammies and piled in the car and drove to view some houses with extra special Christmas light displays.  They were set to music transmitted at a particular FM frequency!  There is a website (lightenupcalgary.com) where people with fancy light displays around Calgary can register, and we saw 3 amazing and elaborate Christmas decorations all to jammin’ music!  These were not fancy houses in rich neighborhoods, just regular people who probably could live in a bigger house if they didn’t spend $10, 000 on their Christmas light display!

We couldn’t manage to upload the video, so you’ll have to imagine!

I’d love to see one with a Nativity, and choir of angels, and music that spoke of Jesus…maybe Handel’s Messiah or something.  Anyone up for the challenge?

Quick Takes

1. Yesterday was spent in a fever of anticipation, waiting for the delivery of our new grand piano.  Today was spent coming to grips with the fact Phyllis bought it for her family, not ours.  Drat!  Congratulations Tony, I hope we can hear you play one of these days!
2. This morning I (Nate) went shopping with Shana for clothes.  Things got slower and slower as the day progressed.  Socks at Sears shortly after they opened, nice and quick.  The library next door was also fast.  More clothes at Gap involved a half hour in line (only two of four cash registers open–wassup widdat?).  Followed by a car wash with a 45 minute line up.  Fortunately we were both happy to read our library books and eat our lunches quietly in the car.  I decided I didn’t need to shop for boots after all.
3. This afternoon I watched The Dawn Treader.  Excellent movie.  Different than the book, but still felt true to the message.  Will Poulter did a great job acting the part of Eustace, turning from nasty to nice in a very believable way.  I look forward to seeing him again in the next movie.  I think I could even show The Dawn Treader to our kids when it’s out on DVD, something I can’t say about Prince Caspian.
4. Got our stocking stuffers taken care of.
5. Now we’re watching Fantasia 2000 before bed.
6. Oh, movie’s over, better get the kids into PJs!

Wow, remarkable lunar eclipse experience last night!

My scientist daughter didn’t want to miss this for anything, so she set her own alarm clock for midnight just in case I slept through mine.  We woke Kenan, and everyone pulled on several layers over top of their pyjamas.

Then we grabbed a couple of blankets and laid out in the snow to watch the spectacle.

We had a clear sky in the middle of a snowy week, with the moon perfectly located for backyard viewing.  We got outside when it was a little over halfway eclipsed and watched as the moon slowly crept into the earth’s shadow.

Besides talking about the physics of the whole experience, we also learned what “lunar” and “solar” mean, what Lunar Jim has to do with these new words, we praised God for a beautiful spectacle, and we formed some lifelong family memories.

Awesome.

Happy last day of Chanukah!

We had some balloon twisting fun for Chanukah tonight, trying our hands at a balloon menorah.