All Things Christmas

 

As I walked into the boys' bedroom the other day, I paused as I took in all that was in front of me, because this pretty much sums up what life has been like lately. 

I mean, it's the holidays, the "most wonderful time of the year" right?! 

Right after Halloween, it all begins. 

I blinked and it was Thanksgiving. 

Which meant it was time to cook a "1/2 a pie a person", a turkey three different ways...and try out my new farmhouse table I received for my 40th birthday. My vision for this table was for this very day: to be able to seat the entire family. 

Mission accomplished! 

Evie made her traditional turkey vegetable platter, which gets more Pinterest worthy every year.   

Thanksgiving commences the hustle of the holiday season. 

I have the tendency to get overwhelmed this time of year; but this year, I wanted to be very intentional to focus on the things that are most important. 

Every year on Thanksgiving night I surprise the kids with Christmas pajamas. 

This year, I surprised them with Golden Retriever Christmas shirts. 

Whenever I start to feel stress rise up inside me, I felt like God has been giving me little reminders to keep in check what is really important. 

Like for example, I saw this as I drove down the street in my mini van one afternoon after school pick up.

A rainbow right over our house!

The kids and I were simply amazed! 

We marveled, and it reminded us to pause and thank God for his goodness to us. 

                                                                        ...And this moment of "a silent night"  reminded me that all kids want is a good dog to lay their tired head on.  

This fall I took each of the kids out to breakfast individually before church, just the two of us. Sitting across from sweet Caleb as he savored his hot cocoa at Shari's made me realize that nothing else is really that important. 

If we can recognize these small little reminders and gifts throughout our day, the view becomes clear of what we are supposed to focus on in life; our heart of "rushing" and "doing" and "stressing" become a heart of gratefulness. 

And as I tell my kids, if we can have a baseline of gratefulness, we are able to more easily love, be patient with each other and live joyful, carefree lives without the burdens.  

So I kept in mind this through the hustle and bustle of the season, remembering that only a year and two years ago how very much I longed for all the Christmas gatherings and festivities I now was so consumed with. 

Christmas songs and dancing have been taking place in our home since October as Evelyn has been practicing her Christmas jazz performance for school. The theme was 1940, so a vintage style dress was requested. Ordering a dress (and crossing my fingers it would fit) from Amazon in plenty of time, I realized that having a Prime membership doesn't really mean express shipping these days. So as the days got closer to the show, so did the delay notices I received from Amazon. 

Evelyn was a part of a special "umbrella" dance, so she really needed to have this dress. 

So, two nights before the big night, she and I did what I dread doing the most: going out  in the dark on a cold rainy night during Christmas season to shop. 

Whenever I am shopping in desperation, it never turns out well, and what we ended up with by the end of the night was a not 1940 vintage dress. Instead we grabbed the only thing we could find: a poofy Christmas dress-the last one---the only thing we could find---way too much money---and not at all what we needed. 

We also couldn't find shoes that fit properly or looked the part. 

So despite Evelyn's disappointed and depressed demeanor, I made her buy black slippers (the ballerina type) because it would look better than her track shoes. 

"I really don't want to wear Grandma's slippers on stage...." she bemoaned. 

Well, what do you know! On the morning of her performance, at the crack of  6am there is a package being tossed in front of my house by Amazon (I didn't know they worked these early hours!)

And as I opened the packaging, my eyes fell on the perfect 1940s vintage dress and shoes. 

And she looked marvelous. 

Sometime when I look at her lately, I just can't believe that this is my little girl. 

She's not so little anymore. 

And the BOYS!

Those boys. 

They ended soccer and went full steam ahead into basketball. 

Triple threat

Once again, the three of them playing together on a team is a bit unfair to any other team. *humble brag* but they truly read each others' minds and just dominate. 

So far this has been another undefeated season. 

I just love being a soccer mom....and a basketball mom...and a boy mom! It's so much fun sitting on the sidelines cheering on my athletic dudes. 

But back to the Christmas season....

Besides Evelyn's school show, the calendar has been full of school parties, parties with dear friends, and concerts. So many concerts! 

Evelyn and Caleb performed a Christmas violin concert at a local coffee shop. It was their first time performing and playing with other people. 

Our church also had a beautiful Christmas concert as well. The lighting and Christmas tree took my breath away. It was a wonderful family night, complete with Cinnabon and egg nog. 

We are a few days away from Christmas and our tree is still holding up. 

Actually this has been one of my favorite trees ever!

We got it the weekend after Thanksgiving. Someone in our neighborhood posted online about a family nearby having a "secret tree farm" with limited trees. 

They were untrimmed, uncut but $25.00. 

$25.00 for a Christmas tree is pretty darn good, so we set out to get one of those trees before they sold out. 

Our perfect tree. It has character!

We decorated it that night with hot cocoa.
Lucy likes to come around and sniff out the hot cocoa (and eat ornaments if we don't watch her)..like the manger ornament she destroyed one afternoon when she was mad at me for being out all day. 

It was Levi's turn to put the star at the top of the tree this year. 

                So YES! 

JOY is the theme for this Christmas season, and so far we have had a lot of it! 

October Fun

 Within a 24 hour period, summer was gone and fall/winter commenced. 

The day my parents flew in, the clouds rolled in and the rain began. 😝

I was glad that my parents decided to visit us for 10 days at the end of October. The kids were having such phenomenal soccer seasons and we really wanted them to experience this big part of our fall family fun! 

They planned their trip so that they were able to see two games each. The boys ended their season undefeated. Not only did they not lose a game, they played the entire season without any team scoring a single goal on them. I know that John had such a fun time coaching and being apart of their fantastic season. 

Evelyn really enjoyed the game more than ever this year. She ended her final game in victory, scoring the final goal of the season. 

We did a lot of special things while my parents were here. Yes, they did babysit so John and I could go out a few nights, but they also partook in many fall festivities. 

We spent a Sunday afternoon at the pumpkin patch. The sun broke through and the kids found their perfect pumpkin. 

We also took a muddy hike. John actually picked Lucy up on his shoulders to avoid some of the mud. 

A few days later our church hosted their annual "Hootenanny" at a local farm. Again, the weather was lovely for this event and it was a fun afternoon spent on hay rides, cow trains and oh SO.MUCH.CANDY.  

John was out of town on business, so it was just my parents and the kids. 

We managed to make it through the corn maze unscathed. 

My Dad also had a great time watching the World Series with his three baseball fans. There was a lot of hooting' and hollerin' going on and the excitement of the game ignited some energetic ball players. 

And finally on Oct. 31, the big day arrived: Halloween. We had a large group traipsing through our neighborhood; my parents, John's parents, some friends from another neighborhood dominated the streets. 

Levi and James teamed up with their friends to be FBI agents. They had ear pieces and aviators; I was intimidated!

In true Evie fashion, Evelyn joined forces with her friend and the two of them were crackers and cheese. 

The night was a little wet but overall a perfect evening to roam the streets in search of sugar. Each year the kids get more and more independent; we covered a lot of ground! 

James collected his usual train of Snickers bars, and Lucy casually tried to glean a bit for herself when she thought no one was looking.  

Rolling into Fall Time Fun!

 The first month of school has been the best. 

My days have filled up to the max with such good, life fulfilling things!

This year I took on the role of volunteer coordinator for the school. My passion and vision is to restore the community that was lost during the pandemic. I love our school, West Hills Christian, and part of the reason it is such a great place to be is the amazing community. I am hopeful that the walls and rooms will once again be filled with parents! There are many ways to volunteer daily. 

One day I volunteered to serve pizza at lunch.

It is really interesting to be in the cafeteria. This is when the kids let loose and their true colors shine socially. It is truly a joy to be a part of the lunch time shenanigans. I also get insight on who they sit with. I don't know why, but I assumed that my three boys all sat together at lunch. 

They definitely do not! 

Caleb sits with a table of boys and apparently leads a "magic club." He amuses the table with fun tricks and illusions and encourages the other boys to try their skills. It is a table bursting with laughter and activity. 

Levi sits with the jocks. The boys have cool haircuts and cool shoes. They score goals and make baskets at recess. 

I found James sitting with some nice second grade boys. They seemed friendly and happy to have James, a cool 3rd grader, sitting at their table. 

All three boys mustered up the courage to still give me a hug and show enthusiasm that their mom was in the lunch room. 

During Evelyn's lunch I found her alone. Apparently she didn't want to sit with her friends because she knew I was there and wanted to sit and visit with just me...or maybe she didn't want me to sit with her and her friends. Either way, it was just Evelyn and I who sat and chatted for awhile before I gave her a hug and told her to go back to her friends. She kept making eyes at them and I knew she was curious about what she was missing. 

Soccer season is in full swing. Every single day this fall has been blue skies and sunshine. I have never remembered a fall-or any soccer season-so lovely. The boys have absolutely been killing it this year in soccer. So far their team has scored 47 goals with zero scored on them. It probably has to do with the fact that the three of them, plus the goalie who lives down our street, play soccer in his backyard year round. They are totally dominating the league. 

It's a little embarrassing how good they are, but also really exciting!

Evelyn is totally excelling at soccer as well. She has really improved this year and consistently passes and scores, running up and down the field. At times she gets frustrated because her team in not as good as the boys, but I've been encouraging her to be the one who builds others up and stays positive. 

So, our weekends have been full of soccer and our social calendar is bursting at the seams. John and I also ran our third and final half marathon and we did the best we could have done. We both achieved PRs and finished the face at 1:41. 

Extended summer weather has also meant extended treasure hunting for the boys. Its amazing what you can find at the bank of the Willamette River. 

Levi dug up a Chinese coin.

James found a rusty ring. We surmised it was probably a horse hitch from the pioneer days on the wagon trail. 

Lucy is still her spunky self, who eats my pumpkin decorations and eats whole cups of butter off the kitchen counter.  I wondered why my strawberries didn't produce as much as they did last summer....and then I discovered why...................................

Sometimes I take a pause on all of this and just want to enjoy the day. Because the days have been so glorious, I've been trying to get outside.

John and I have been trying to be international about going out for coffee or walks while the kids are in school. 

 Last Sunday we took a family bike ride to downtown Tualatin to have lunch at a new pizza spot that opened a few months ago. 

A simple bike ride is not really simple when you have six bikes to maintain. Someone inevitably has flat tires or faulty chains that need to be fixed. This time it was my turn. When we finally got everyone mounted on their bikes, my chain fell off and both my tires deflated. Admittedly I have not taken care or ridden my bike in the past year. But, not wanting to be the reason to  stop the family fun, I hopped on an old street bike we had sitting around under the deck. It had no gears and only foot breaks. Needless to say, I worked the hardest on the trek to the pizza place. But I was determined. About half way there, Caleb toppled over on his bike, skinning his arm and knee. I almost called this memory making experience to a halt, but we preserved and it was worth the alfresco pizza lunch. 

And with Halloween right around the corner, we've officially been "booed" (twice actually) Our neighborhood has this tradition during the halloween season to ring a doorbell of a home and leave behind a bag of goodies. The recipient is supposed to then "pass it on." The highlight for our family though  is being the one that does the "booing". 

Elaborate plans are made; black hoodies are adorned; and excited children shriek and run through the black of night ringing door bells and running away.  

The adults have their own tradition too however; and we have yet to be "boozed" this year. ;) 

I have a feeling it's going to be a great Halloween......