Christmas Highlights

Christmas Morning:

Anna's first Christmas nicely coincided with Atlanta's first white Christmas since the 1880's.
It did not take her long to get the hang of the present concept.

The oldest and the youngest!

The drum set:



Each year the kids draw names so each child just gets a present for the person whose name he has drawn. Scott came and asked early if I could "fix" it so he could have Peter's name as he wanted to get Peter a drum set (a cheaper used set off Craigslist). As cheaper used sets were not as cheap as Scott had anticipated, I said we would go in with him as we did not have Peter's present yet. I think I must have been heavily drinking at the time. Yes, our house is loud, but this takes it to a whole new dimension. We put the set down in the basement and as I listen to the drum sound coming up through the floor at night, it reminds me of the scene in The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings) where they are traveling through the mines and you hear the drums start beating from the depths of the mine. Not the most comforting type of sound to sleep by.

Eric's mom made the girls clothes for their American girl dolls.
She also made sleeping bags for the dolls - all very cute!

On to my parents for Christmas dinner and more presents!

Anna received a bike from my parents.

Our wonderful oldest 3!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Molly's Riding Party

Because we know the head wrangler at camp......

we were able to give a riding party for Molly's birthday.

It was a fairly reasonable day weather wise considering the frigid temperatures around here lately, and all the girls had a great time. Amy and Katie took the girls for a trial ride all around camp and then they were able to ride in the ring for awhile.


My sister and I did "pony" rides for all the little ones.

Happy Birthday Molly

Molly is 12 today. It is hard to believe that she will be a teenager next year! Molly is a very self-disciplined and determined girl. She is one of those that you turn to if you want something done and you need someone who you know will do it correctly. She is a joy to have in the house and we look forward to what the Lord has in store for her over the next year.

Annual Gingerbread House Projects

Starting out:

I realized that I should have show her some pictures of what we were actually doing.
When we laid out all the decorations she thought we were going to eat them!
Fortunately she caught on pretty quickly.

In the process of decorating:





The finished products:
The only bad thing is what to do with all of the houses - they take up quite a bit of space and I dislike having them all over the kitchen counters. I am for pitching them fairly shortly after bringing them home, but that doesn't go over with the kids so well.

Thanksgiving

Even though its been a week, I thought I would at least post on our Thanksgiving. Hopefully it will mend a little of my laxness in posting recently. Thanksgiving started at 6:30am as Amy and I headed down to run the Atlanta Half-Marathon. Amy has run this with my sister for the last two years and I decided to join them this year. Pre-race training went well except for the fact that at some point I injured my knee, but I decided to run anyway (maybe not the smartest decision). My knee began to ache at about mile 4 and then really hurt about mile 6. Since I wasn't even half-way yet I considered stopping, but I hated to quit the race so I continued. I did have to stop and walk a few times, but I finished (although because of the knee I did not get the time I wanted). I was limping pretty considerably after the race so my sister took me to the medical tent as she knew the doctor there. He told me what he thought was wrong and sent me to the table to get a massage. I thought "GREAT - a massage after running 13.1 miles!". Well let me tell you a sports therapy massage is nothing like Spa Sydell (not that I would know what Spa Sydell is like, but I envision it as being pleasant) - I thought I was going to die - I think the pain ranks right up there with childbirth. Anyway he thought my knee would be better by the middle of this week, which it is not. I am in fear of calling him again.

But on to better things. We had around 30 people for Thanksgiving and it was a great meal and great fellowship. I know we have the best Thanksgiving food ever (everyone chips in and brings something) and we certainly have great family and friends so all in all it was a wonderful day!

So Thankful for....

...friends who can do hair!

Cross Country Ends

Our cross country season ended last weekend. We had a great showing at the finals and it was a beautiful day, especially considering the weather at the finals last year was rainy and cold.



This was Katie's last meet as she will graduate this year. We are very proud of her sticking out the season. She was the only varsity girl and running is not her thing, but she showed great character in her attitude and her commitment. She ran on the team for 6 years and she finished well.

Our junior girls achieved second place! Molly placed 7th coming in 41 seconds under her goal time. (Her goal time was 11 minutes and she ran a 10:19).

Peter, since his football season was over, decided to run the last two meets of the year. He had been on the team the year before and so was still on the roster. He assumed that since he was in football shape that he was also in running shape. After he ran the first meet he realized the error of his ways. To his credit he did run the week between that meet and the finals trying to prepare better. Much to his good fortune the JV boys placed third and he came home with a medal.

Our team also had a great showing in the annual parent/coaches race. Our boys' coach placed 2nd overall and our girls' coach placed 1st. Eric was 3rd in the men's masters and I was 2nd in the women's masters.

Anna enjoyed going to the meets. She seemed to "get" the running thing. She was most confused by Peter's football games - didn't understand why people would intentionally knock people over, but running she could understand. It also helped that our team always has a great food table in the tent!

We closed the season yesterday with the banquet. Katie put together a great slide show that was the hit of the banquet. We have a great little team and we look forward to next year.

The Bue Angels

We spent this afternoon watching the Blue Angels. There isn't much to say about them except that they are VERY cool!!! Katie got some great pictures (click to enlarge).

Cross Country Saturday

Our Junior Girls team had a stellar Saturday. We placed 2nd, 3rd (Molly), 4th (Emily) and 5th!! Way to go girls!

Daniel Hannan

Thursday evening Eric and I were able to attend a dinner in which Daniel Hannan spoke. Daniel Hannan is a conservative member of the European Parliament who became famous after this video clip aired all over the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

Daniel Hannan is a very passionate and eloquent speaker. His basic premise is that he lives in what is our (the United States') future and that it stinks. His call is that we here in America will fight for our freedoms so that we will not end up where his country is. He certainly does not approach this from a Christian perspective and we know that God is the one who ultimately raises up and puts down governments. But Daniel Hannan in his speech pointed out that we are not a bunch of random people put here in a random time period for no purpose. I do know that God puts us each here for a reason and that our country is truly heading down the wrong path.

First Pointe Shoes

Peter and Football

Ever since Scott made the Tech team (he is not playing this year, but focusing on grades - or so he says), Peter has been wanting to play football. There were two home school teams in Atlanta, but they were not convenient to our house. This year a third team was formed and it practices relatively close to our house, so we allowed him to play. He very much enjoyed himself, but unfortunately received a concussion in one of the last games, thus taking him out for the rest of the season. I'm not so sure about this concussion thing - I told Peter if he gets another one next season he may have a very short football career. It was, however, overall a good first year of football.

Elizabeth turns 5

Breakfast with Dad

Doll from Nana and Grandpa

With Gramma and Papa