Christmas 2014

Like all holidays, 2014 has been mixed for us.

There were some highlights:

The annual Orange Ball golf tournament lives on, though this year it was just Dan, Aaron, Poppy and Uncle Phil. Aaron and Uncle Phil won, though I'm told a good time was had by all.

Having dinner at the Ninja with Sarah and family and Bubby and Poppy for Andrew's birthday celebration and watching the kids enjoy different kinds of sushi. Even Oliver wasn't too horrible (he was busy eating most of the time).

Tuesday, the big kids got invited to a tea party with Bubby. By all accounts, they enjoyed themselves. Oliver got to run errands with me--but at least the errand included a stop at DQ to order a cake for Andrew's birthday and an ice cream for Oliver.

Andrew turned nine! We had a special birthday breakfast (crepes and sausage) and he got one last surprise present (a Pokémon wii game)--he opened most of his presents last weekend so they wouldn't get lost in the Christmas rush. (And, in keeping with his current mood, I have no pictures of him from his actual birthday).

Watching Lydia take her turn as Mary in the live nativity. Usually her big sister does this, so it was clearly a thrill for her to be the star. And in general, the Christmas Eve program was lovely, especially Jake's piano solos. Lydia deserves points for trying to play  her song without any music. (There were some minor hiccups--see below).

Having a lovely breakfast Christmas morning (bran muffins, breakfast casserole) at Dan's parents home and then opening presents in turn. The kids were mostly patient and gracious about waiting their turn, and it was fun to watch their excitement.

Evelyn helping Oliver with his stocking.

Evelyn apparently really loves the stuffed wampa Santa gave her. (We just watched the first part of Star Wars Episode 5 with her, and her response to Luke in the wampa cave was not, Scary! Get out of there, Luke!--but "Oh, poor, poor wampa.")

What was Santa thinking, giving A & E both nerf guns?

Oliver also likes Evelyn's wampa--when he can get it.

 

Sledding with the kids on Friday morning. We hit the local hill just right--only a few people were there when we arrived and they left soon after, so we had the hill all to ourselves for nearly an hour. And we managed to get there before the cold front really moved in.

Swimming on Saturday morning. The kids (Andrew) wanted to go sledding again, but as the temperatures were in the balmy teens, Dan and I said no. So we went swimming instead--which doesn't sound much warmer, but the aquatic center kept the pool nice and warm and the kids, especially Oliver, had a blast. Oliver's only problem is that he thinks he's invincible, and he keeps marching into water that's over his head.


But there were also some "low" lights:

I got released from my calling in the Young Women today. I'm going to miss the girls terribly--though I won't (probably) miss the weekly Tuesday night activities. One thing that does make the transition easier was the distinct impression during church today that the "mantle" has passed--the authority that goes with a calling is real, but the transmission of that authority is also very real, and I felt it today. Also, I don't think I could have asked for a better group of women to replace us. That doesn't mean it won't hurt sometimes.

Andrew was a little under the weather (at least, I hope that's all it was), which made him grumpier than usual. During the live nativity on Christmas Eve, he volunteered to be the donkey--and then tried to do his donkey kick while he was at the manger with Mary and Joseph. He also spent a considerable amount of time rolling around on the floor while we were trying to sing Christmas hymns. Neither Dan nor I was impressed. And the grumpiness continued the next day--he actually told me he was "disappointed" in what Santa brought for his stocking. (We'd made a conscious decision to scale down the stocking gifts. I guess we succeeded.) I think next year we're going to have to focus more on gratitude and less on gifts.

This is one of the pictures I shot Christmas morning. He was clearly excited by everything. (Actually, he did enjoy most of the day. I think.)

In the holiday mood

Some weeks I feel like the week slipped through my fingers like sand and I didn't catch much in passing. Anyone else?

We had a couple of sick kids this week (here's hoping this means we get a miss during Christmas). Andrew had a stomach bug that sort of kept him home from school: sort of meaning he went to school on Wednesday, but called within an hour because his stomach hurt. He came home, rested, threw up, rested some more, and claimed to be feeling better on Thursday. (I think the fact that it was his week to be "leader" at school influenced this claim. Sometimes, he's so clearly my son it makes me sigh a little. Ask my mom about the time I went to school with a burst eardrum without telling her . . .) Thursday he lasted until noon before coming home. But he did seem genuinely better Friday and (knock on wood) we haven't had any other incidents since then. His being sick did mean we had to reschedule a small birthday celebration we'd planned for him and a close friend.

Oliver started acting odd Tuesday night: he wouldn't eat at dinner--instead he sat on my lap and cried. He wouldn't calm down or tell us what was wrong. Suspecting maybe something hurt, we offered him some Tylenol, which he refused (also something he's never done). In any case, I took him in to the doctor's in the morning, and I'm glad I did---turns out he had a double ear infection! No wonder he was so uncomfortable. He seems much better now.

Outside of that, Dan and I both submitted our final grades, so the semester is officially over. I had a little snafu--I entered my grades and thought I'd hit submit ("thought" being the operative word), until I got an email from the registrar's office the  next morning informing me that now the deadline was past I needed to submit a change of grade form for each student. Sigh.

A week or so ago I asked the kids what sort of things they wanted to do for the holidays. They came up with things like making paper snowflakes, decorating gingerbread houses, baking sugar cookies, sledding, etc. With the exception of sledding (I don't have much control over the serious lack of snow), we've done several of them.

One of the things Andrew wanted was to make chocolate pretzels--I was confused until I realized he meant he wanted to use our chocolate molds with the giant pretzels. I convinced him that this easier project would work just as well (melted chocolates drizzled back and forth over pretzel sticks). The pretty ones are mine and Evelyn's. The globby ones are the ones Andrew insisted on doing himself.

Oliver didn't make any, but he ate more than his fair share. (Sometimes I forget how easily he can reach stuff on the counter).

The kids reading. We showed Andrew and Evelyn the first Harry Potter movie this week. Evelyn is gamely trying to read book 1 (I think she's about a chapter in). So far this week, Andrew has read the first four books. He read the first three during the two days he was home sick, so I guess that's his silver lining! I was a little worried about book four being too dark for him, but while he said it was scarier than the others, he seemed to be okay with it. We'll see how he handles book five.

Monday, I made gingerbread for the first time--real gingerbread, that we rolled out and cut and cooked into walls for the houses. They smelled divine, but I'm not convinced it wouldn't have been easier (and ultimately cheaper) to buy the prepackaged kind. (Excuse Evelyn's hair--she was just out of the bathtub).

Oliver was in bed when we started, so he got to decorate his own "tent" house the next day. I think he was more interested in the candy.

One of the great things about being two is that no one has told you yet that there are "boy" things and "girl" things and everything is equally delightful. Oliver and Evelyn had a great time the other day running around the house in pink outfits and pink fairy wings.

Here's wishing our few faithful readers a very merry Christmas this week. My hope for you is the same as my hope for myself: to be more caught up in the reason for the celebration than in the accumulation of things.

Recovering

So, just in case you didn't follow up on my semi-cryptic post from last week, I have a literary agent! Josh Adams from Adams literary and so far (a whole week in), it's been great.

In family news, life moves on. Dan and I survived finals week--his grades are done. Mine are . . . not. I suppose that's what I get by giving my students until the end of the week to submit their final. I had approximately one student submit early.

The kids continue to do what they do best: make life chaotic and wonderful at the same time. Evelyn was thrilled to go to a Lego Ninjago party this week for the little boy who's been crushing on her for the past two years (according to his mom). Andrew reads an astonishing number of books (at least one a day, most days), and Oliver continues to make messes faster than I can clean them up. This past week or so he discovered electrical outlets. He now knows how to turn on the Christmas tree lights. A couple of days ago, I was washing dishes and heard a horrific noise from the other room. I dashed in, to find that Oliver had swiped the hand-held mixer from the cupboard (sans beaters, thank goodness) and had plugged that into the wall. Yikes. Sometimes it amazes me that so many toddlers survive childhood.

Otherwise life is good. The kids have another week of school before Christmas. I finally put up outside lights--only one string, around the door--but it felt like a victory because a) Andrew has been asking for them forever and b) I don't think we've had outside lights up since we lived in Pennsylvania.

In other completely random news: this is my 667th post on this blog. Although I'm not normally superstitious, I'm glad I didn't see that last week was 666 until today.

Updates

I apologize in advance that this particular post is going to be a little me-centric. That's sort of inevitable, since all the posts about our family are written through my personal filter, but this week has been a particularly stressful one for me, and that stress (even if it was good stress) occupied a lot of my thinking this week.

Many of you know that I'm a writer (or aspire to be one): I've written articles for LDS church magazines, published some academic articles, write regularly at the Segullah blog, and so forth. But what I've really longed to do, since I was old enough to realize it was an option, is write books.

I wrote a lot of fiction in junior high and high school, less in college, and almost none in graduate school. A few years ago, I picked up writing again. I wrote a middle grade novel that didn't go anywhere (but taught me a lot) and then I wrote a historical fantasy young adult novel.

This one is finally starting to go somewhere. It might not ever get published, but it has gotten me one step closer to publishing--finding an agent. If you're not familiar with book publishing, let me just say that anymore, if you want to publish a book with a major publisher, you have to have an agent to submit your work. And finding an agent is a little like finding a job in a super-competitive market: you send a cover letter describing your book and your qualifications (with sample pages, if the agent asks for them) to an agent. If they're interested, they'll ask for more pages to consider. If not, they'll pass. And a typical agent (even a new agent) receives about 200 queries a week, from statistics I've seen. (And maybe takes on 5 new clients in a year, unless he or she is new and actively building their list).

Like I said, it can be competitive. I've been lucky this round to have a lot of agents request to see more pages. And even luckier that an agent offered to represent me. Actually, more than one, which is what made this last week so stressful--I spoke on the phone with several different agents, considered their offers, researched their publishing track record, thought about our personalities seemed to fit (for the record, they were all a pleasure to talk to), and tried to make a decision. I'd told the original agent I'd have a decision by Friday, and I did, but it was probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make, because I was deciding between several good offers, but also making a major decision for any career I hope to have as a writer.

So that's where I am. It's not official yet, which is why I don't have a name, but I will be announcing it sometime this week on my writer blog, if you want to keep an eye out.

In other news, we've had a fun weekend with cousins: Sarah's oldest was in a swim meet this weekend here in town, so while the adults watched the swimmers, we hosted the girls at our house. The kids seemed to enjoy each other.

Last night was our ward Christmas party. Dan seemed happy enough to leave early with Oliver (to put him to bed), but I enjoyed watching the kids sing in the program and visiting with friends in the ward. As hard as it can be dealing with crowds sometimes, I do like these communal events because they remind me that we live in a bigger community.

Here's hoping for a relatively painless end of the semester--and a considerably less stressful week than last week!

Giving Thanks

I posted last week about things I'm thankful for and I'm not going to rehash that--except that I am thankful to be home again!

I love visiting with family, but it's also nice to come home (and sleep in my own bed--and have my toddler sleep in *his* own bed).

Up ahead: finishing up the semester and getting ready for Christmas! My favorite holiday.

We headed up to my parents' house Tuesday evening. We spent Wednesday getting ready for Thanksgiving--and shopping. In the morning, my mom took the kids to the toy store while I had a work-related phone call. (Dan went to Winco by himself, which I'm sure he enjoyed). In the afternoon, we drove to my brother Justin's house and the kids played with their cousins and I compared notes with my brother. We've both been busy writing, but while I've been working on a YA fantasy novel, he's been submitting the book based on his dissertation--currently under consideration at Oxford press! I think his news was more exciting than mine--and I'm tremendously proud of him.

Thursday, both of  my brothers came with their families for dinner. I missed seeing my sister--I think this is the first Thanksgiving she's missed. (Living across the country makes it hard). We had lots of food: Dan made some kind of mayonnaise-basted turkey and Brussels sprouts with apples and almonds, my mom made stuffing and sweet potatoes, Jared brought rolls, and Justin and Lia brought pie.

The kids had fun running around with cousins (my mom arranged a scavenger hunt and Lia helped the kids make turkeys out of oreos, chocolate, and candy corn). Jared seems to have become the de-facto climbing toy of choice for the children. (Especially Oliver, who made it hard for Jared to play with the older kids because he kept trying to climb on at the same time).

My mom and I also hit some of the Black Friday sales and I'm happy to report I now have 3/4 of my Christmas shopping done.

Friday afternoon we drove south to Orderville for Dutch Christmas--what I always think of as a family reunion for Dan's mom's family, but what they think of as business as usual. There were around 60 people gathered at a lovely ranch managed by one of Dan's cousins. We stayed in the main lodge--each family had their own room surrounding a central gathering place, so lots of chances to talk with family. We also walked around the ranch, danced in the barn, looked at deer and turkey and pheasants, ate lots of food, exchanged white elephant gifts, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Dan's aunt put together some great scrap books of Dutch Christmases past and I had a lot of fun looking through them, seeing Dan and his cousins as teenagers and then the next generation as babies (the first of the cousin's kids is now 17, almost 18, and planning on a mission next summer). I think it's a great family tradition--I hope that my kids grow to be as good of friends with their cousins as Dan is with his cousins. 

Holidays like Thanksgiving certainly help with that goal.

It was lovely to see everyone--but now the introvert in me wants to hide from people for a day or two. :)

Gratitude

I don't have a lot to report this week--last week was stressful (for reasons that I can't share publicly yet) and Oliver gave me his cold so I spent most of the week sick. Evelyn was home Monday and Tuesday, also sick, and Andrew was home Wednesday with an ear infection.

All things considered, we're happy the week is over.

But today I got to hear some lovely talks on gratitude. And with my Young Women, we read a powerful quote about how gratitude for the gift of a testimony is the start of real conversion.

I have a lot to be grateful for, starting with my husband, who is unfailingly kind and generally unflappable and pretty much the best partner I could ask for in this whole parenting thing. Today I watched him with Oliver during sacrament meeting, their heads bent together, and my heart about burst.

My three kids, who are each challenging and delightful in their own way. Oliver, who wants to do everything his way, but who loves me with an intensity that astounds me. Evelyn, who can be ultra sensitive, but who is friendly and cheerful and kind (like her daddy). Andrew, who's drive to win will undoubtedly make him a great adult (but is sometimes uncomfortable in a kid with limited options), but who is also smart and thoughtful and insightful beyond his years.

I'm grateful to have extended family and friends who trust me to be part of their lives and not to mess things up (a trust, unfortunately, that isn't always fulfilled). For my parents, who have always believed in me. I called my mom earlier this week, feeling stressed, and asking her if they could pray for me. Her answer moved me deeply: "We already are." It's nice to have people in my life who know me so well!

A flexible career that lets me use my mind and help people with something I'm passionate about: words and ideas. I'm grateful for writing and books and all the many friends who share those passions with me. And Dan's career, which is pretty much exactly what he told me he wanted all those years ago when we were dating.

A home in a wonderful community.

And my faith, which lends an undercurrent of meaning to everything else I do.

So this year, going into Thanksgiving, I just want to remember to be grateful for all the things I have--and worry less about things over which I have no control.

Novembering

Sunny and frigid today, a layer of snow on the ground.

Oliver stayed home from church today, thanks to yet another bout of croup. Dan and I got to alternate, which freaked out the children who hadn't gotten the memo that we were switching and had tried, fruitlessly, to find Dan when I was the sole parent at church.

 

 This has been a pretty quiet week. School, work, activities (cub scouts, Young Women), etc.

Andrew has been taking charge of breakfast on a few occasions (his idea, not mine), which sometimes results in nutella and toast for breakfast. Not that the other kids have complained.

On Tuesday, the kids' school had a lovely assembly to honor veterans and, incidentally, recognize the winners for the school's Reflections contest. Andrew won in two categories: literature and music composition. (He really was happier than he looks in these pictures).

His best friend from school was the other winner in music composition for 3-5th grades. I don't think they intended to dress alike. But I'm glad Andrew has a good friend who challenges him academically. (Also, you'll notice the same little girl standing by Andrew in both pictures. The little girl in pink is the sister of the girl in the red polka-dot skirt from the first picture. I think their parents must have helped them enter every category, because all three girls ended up with a fistful of medallions. I'm a little worried, because I think Andrew might have ambitions for next year).

Yesterday, we got to help clean our ward building. It's not my favorite thing to do, especially with children, but I'm grateful for the opportunity because it reminds me to appreciate how much work goes into keeping the building nice. And I was happy to see Evelyn put so much dedication into working--she stayed with me until the bitter end. (Dan had to take the boys home early; Oliver was done).

Perhaps to liven things up, she had her very own 80s themed dance party while Dan worked on dinner.

I think she might be trouble.

Settling in

This week was a little quieter in terms of family activity than most. The kids went to school, Dan went to work, I responded to student essays, Oliver made messes. Pretty typical.

I got to go see Meet the Mormons with the Young Men/Young Women this week and enjoyed it much more than I had expected--it was thoughtful, interesting, and not especially didactic.

This weekend, Dan and Andrew went to the ward cleanup while Oliver, Evelyn and I attempted to clean our house. I managed to get the basement clean--and now it looks worse than ever, since Oliver promptly undid all our work almost as soon as I'd vacuumed.

Dan took the kids to see Hero 6. Evelyn loved it; Andrew is still deciding what he thinks (he was a little traumatized by parts). It never ceases to amaze me how Andrew can be so boisterous one minute and so sensitive the next.

Speaking of Andrew, we got some good news about the school reflections contest, but since that hasn't officially been announced yet, I'll wait and post that next week.

Also, in the spirit of true confession, I spent the middle part of the week a little distracted because of something called Pitch Wars (if you want to know more, follow the link). This week was the agent round, which meant literary agents were reading over the pitches and first pages and commenting if they wanted to see more. And well, this happened. I spent a day or two in a bit of a daze. I realize that just because they liked the first page doesn't mean they'll like the whole novel. But it's a step toward a goal I've had for over twenty five years.

This is Halloween

Last Friday the kids had crazy hair day at school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the kids spent most of this week in anticipation of Halloween, so we'll just skip forward to what was important this week, shall we?

Okay, so these first pictures are actually from a Birthday party Evelyn went to *last* Saturday. We had a hard time getting pictures because Oliver was convinced that the arm slits in the cloak were for him. Evelyn's Halloween costume was Cerise Hood, from Shannon Hale's Ever After High books (the daughter of Red-Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf).

  

 

 

The kids' school sadly has a ban on costumes for Halloween, but we tried to be festive anyway.

 

 

 This was my Halloween partner for the day. He woke up at 5 a.m., so he was charming from about 11:30-nap time. And by charming, I mean, if he was anyone else's kid I would have given him away.

 

 

 Oliver's costume was up in the air until sometime late Friday afternoon. I didn't buy  him a costume--I was waiting to see which of our already purchased costumes he would agree to wear. For a while we thought he might be a tiger, but the elephant won out. I think he liked the elephant head--I had a hard time getting a picture that included his face!

 

 

 Here's Evelyn, ready for her night out with her trusty wolf side-kick.

 

 

And Andrew, well, I'll let his costume speak for itself. We ordered him a black gi and I painted his face and he wore the Jedi cloak my mom made for him last year (ssh, don't tell anyone it's not really a Sith cloak). He enjoyed being menacing. 

We took the kids trick-or-treating at the dorms, and then Dan took Oliver home for bath and bed and the older kids went around our neighborhood. The weather was beautiful--mild and unseasonably warm--probably in the sixties when we came home.

This morning it snowed.

Today was fast Sunday, and I was so proud of both my kids for getting up to bear their testimony. Evelyn told me she wanted to get up, and I offered to go with her. She walked up to the front, stood on the step stool, looked out at the audience--and froze. I don't think she'd realized exactly what it meant to stand up in front of everyone and have them all look at her. She turned to me, eyes wide, and whispered, "what do I say?" I told her a couple of things she could say, and, brave girl, she turned back to the audience and said, "I believe in God. I think we need to be nice to each other and share. I believe in God" (yes, she said that twice) "and Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

And then Andrew got up. Sometimes he reminds me *so* much of my youngest brother, and this was one of those times. He sounded exactly like a miniature adult. Instead of spouting off the usual things most primary aged kids say, he said, "I'd like to bear my testimony about some things I've been wondering about. I know a lot of us mean to read our scriptures but its hard to find the time and I've been wondering when it would be the best time. If we read at night then it's easy to fall asleep, so maybe it would be good to read them in the morning. But I think anytime we read the scriptures is a good time to read them." He went on like this for a couple of minutes. It was funny to me how much he sounded like a grown-up thinking out loud--and a lot of people commented on his testimony to me at the end. He did bring it back and bear actual testimony about the church and the scriptures and I was so proud of him for being brave enough to stand up and say the things he believes.

Sadly, Dan was in the hallway chasing Oliver at the time, so he missed it.