In the Specific is the Universal

"In the specific is the universal" is one of my favorite sayings. 

Speaking of favorite sayings, for the past couple of months, Evan does this thing where, if you do something weird or funny, he'll say with a shake of the head "dads..."

Like when Jim pours water into their cup and lifts the pitcher super high while still pouring, he says:

"dads...."

or when Andrew takes ornaments off the tree and throws them on the ground:

"Andrew..."

or when I randomly sing a loud song:

"moms..."

shaking his head. 

Back to the title of this post...

the other day my friend texted me this link to an old Ensign article. 

Read it. 

I got her text early in the morning while I was laying in bed in that quiet time before the kids are awake. 

 I read that article, then sat up straight in my bed totally on fire about it. It was everything I want to say about blogging. And it reminded me that it is good and lovely to record the most mundane and trivial of Larsen nonsense. 

It is good and lovely to take the ethereal memories and turn them into concrete moments that we can turn over in our hands. 

In these specific small moments of the mundane is where the universal head nodding happens.

Like this moment on the way home from piano. I had all three kids in the car. The roads were icy, and we were crawling home. 

I pulled up to a parking area to take a picture of this amazing sky, and the kids freaked out. They did not like deviating from the snowy course. 

"Take only one picture!"

then I took about three pictures, and Evan got mad about that. 

This Sunday we woke up to snow falling.

It fell all entire day, so church was cancelled. 

Avery planned a lesson and we sat at her feet and were taught for close to an hour (she made a family home evening binder at activity days, so there was an entire script/lesson that she followed closely).

For the activity, she gave us a piece of paper and told us to make a "Christmas symbol" with. 

I made a ninja star, Jim made a cool cootie catcher that included all the symbols. 

Then Andrew ate Nutella out of a spoon.

Yesterday we went to CreativiTea to paint ceramic ornaments. 

Avery methodically painted a pattern on her snowflake.

Evan...had a hard time. We made the mistake of picking one that needed specific face details, which were above his skill set. 

Andrew was so confused when we didn't get to take his penguin home. Where did that penguin go? 

Try and explain to the little boys about firing the items in a kiln. 

Also last night, Avery had a low key piano recital at her teacher's house. This cute teenager is her teacher. They played a duet of "jolly old st nicholas". 

Christmas card prep. Our pictures are always so second rate compared to the masterpieces that come through our mailboxes. haha That's how the Larsens do. 

See those socks in Andrew's hands? He would not put them down, so our Christmas card features a pair of dirty socks. We took a thousand shots because most of the time he was waving them in the air. 

Lastly, here is our outside tree decorated with snow. 

Isn't that beautiful?

The Whatcom County emergency plan for snow/ice on the roads is to wait for rain. After an entire week of iced roads, the rain came. It was such a surprise to look out the window and see the black road once again. The rain did it's job and cleared that ice. 

Winter's Solstice

I like outdoor decorations because Andrew can't get to them and throw them all over the house. Our 25% decor is down to about 20% now because if it's on the floor, it gets put away.  Andrew is on a tare lately. 

Today I was pealing him an orange, and he found the sticker on the peal, took it off, and threw it on the floor. It stuck to the floor, and I had to get down on my hands and knees and pull the sticker up. 

Just stuff like that drives me crazy. You take a pretty simple mess and turn it into a fingernail job. 

Where am I going with this? I'm not sure. Just that, decorating the outside of my house is so much more enjoyable because Andrew doesn't come along and mess with it. 

So, Winter Solstice. It's the day that the earth starts to tilt back towards the sun. This is a day to celebrate. And so we did celebrate. I hung lights and got a bonfire ready, and we cooked up some venison that the Blacks provided. 

We feasted and we heralded the return of the sun. 

Our neighbor planted this little tree here in our back yard. It has doubled in size since we moved in. 

One day as I was back here making first tracks, I realized what a perfect Christmas tree it made! 

So we decorated it. 

And NO ONE takes the ornaments off and leaves them around the house! It's awesome. 

Snow Days!

We are going on our third snow day. It doesn't snow here often, so when it does we stop everything. 

So, I don't know if I've made it clear that in the past few years, I have come to dread (and even dislike?) the Christmas season. It was my own fault. I thought MORE everything would be MORE fun for the kids.

But as with everything, MORE is suffocating. I was suffocating and choking on all the MORE decorations and activities and candy. 

So this season, I have made no schedules. Very little plans. We only decorated 25% of the house. If an activity makes me groan inside, we aren't going to do it. 

I've made doing puzzles a priority. 

Me and my sisters were texting/preaching about puzzles the yesterday. About how connecting they are. The kids come and talk with me and "help" me. We aren't staring at a screen. I dare say it is keeping that yucky "seasonal effective disorder" at bay for me. 

As a family we are dialoguing every day about how we can serve others, thanks to #lighttheworld. 

We have done so much giving this season! It is constantly on our minds, and it is fun! and it has tuned out all the "me me me" the kids usually focus on. 

So yesterday, I suited up and made first tracks through the snow in our backyard, and I had this moment, or epiphany about how much  I love this Christmas season. 

Because of the snow days, everything is focused on the RIGHT NOW and the beauty of these exact days and these exact moments. Every layer I help my kids put on, every layer I help them peel off. 

Drying the wet clothes in the dryer, the clinking of the zippers as they tumble around and around while we refuel our bodies with warm food.  

The layers come out of the dryer toasty warm, and out the door they go. 

I don't even mind the little puddles of melted snow all over the house. 

We are living these Christmas moments RIGHT NOW, and we didn't plan them, and we didn't force them, and they aren't THINGS that clutter my house. 

Some things:

We had to force Andrew out of the house, but once out, he had a blast.

We borrowed the snow shovel from our neighbor, with the promise we would do his driveway as well. He and his wife just had their first baby and are positively glowing.

Avery decided that we would make things out of snow, then have a snow museum. 

Evan rode his scooter at the mounds of snow and "crashed" over and over, yelling like Kevin from Home Alone. 

The Season

Watching Evan sing was so fun this year! He opened his mouth big for every word. 

He's been singing the songs to himself around the house, so it was fun to hear them in true form. 

One song, "do! mama, do!" is one that was sung so much, we all started singing it, so when the whole 1st grade belted it out, Andrew got excited and joined in with them. 

It is so so cold! Today is 24 degrees, but with wind, it "feels like 16". 

My sinuses hurt when I walk home from the bus stop. It usually doesn't get so cold. Snow is in the forecast tonight.

The kids decorated the tree all by themselves! I did the lights, and I hung a few of my most precious and fragile ones up high, but besides that they did it all. 

Evan refused to stop until every last ornament was hung.

The white lights on the tree have renewed my love for Christmas Trees. They are much more soothing than neon colored lights. 

We went to Ye Olde Christmas, like we have every year since moving here. They are growing up. Every year they get bigger, turns out. 

This year more than other years, we noticed the treasures in each of the cabins. They are museums full of relics from the past. 

That boat thingy hanging there is a Native American boat carved out of a single tree, found in the Nooksac River. 

We always end the night by sitting in the church.

These pictures are out of order...

we start the night by writing Santa a letter. 

Jim is taking a picture of books. I will show you that picture in another post. I need to get them off his phone. So stay tuned. I know you are dying to see. 

Just one, Evan? 

Then we head over to the Post Office cabin and mail the letter. 

They were so enraptured by Santa this year! Star struck, even. 

Look how big they're getting. I'm going to find pictures from every year...

***

2011

Ok, I didn't plan on heading down this path of memories, but that's what happens when you look at old pictures. 

Look at these babies! 

Babies! 

 Evan hated it all and didn't want to talk to Santa.

 We didn't own any weather appropriate shoes. We were still set up for Vegas weather. 

***

2012

I was a giant pregnant lady. Evan drove his cars down Santa's lapel.

***

2013

Look at this giant baby. 

Giant baby in a little desk. With his mouth open. 

"feed me."

The giant baby didn't get in the Santa picture. 

***

2014

I tried to get Andrew in on this one...

***

2015

***

2016

And here they are currently. Excited as ever, having normal conversations with Santa. 

the end

I love time stamps like this.