Merry Christmas!!!

 This week, we had a lot of traditions to keep up with. 

We showed off the Christmas songs we've been working on during a family zoom meeting last Sunday. June played "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" and Gwen played "O Christmas Tree".

There were several great musical numbers on the Zoom call, and Grandma Sandy shared a poem she wrote that included the names of each and every grandchild. 

We had another Zoom meeting with my extended family. My Uncle Ray (my father's brother) shared a thought he had about Grandpa Beck's coin collection. He collected pennies from any and every year, shiny or not. But the most interesting penny was the 1943 penny. Because of the war, pennies in 1943 were made of steel instead of copper. 1943 was also the year that Grandpa Beck volunteered to fight in the war. Uncle Ray then talked about the Beck legacy of rising to the occasion when times are tough. The Beck family motto has always been "We do hard things!" He talked about life during the pandemic. It is undoubtedly not as tough as life during WWII, though I never want to minimize the pain people have felt this year because there has been plenty. But he called on us Becks to rise to the tough occasion and to see where we are needed and to help and do the right thing. It was a really great message.

Back to the traditions:

We made sugar cookies.

We built a snowman.

We went caroling. As we have in the years past, we dressed up the kids like Rudolph and then sang Rudolph. This year was our best singing yet, mostly due to the lack of stiff competition from other years. Gwen and June finally sang all of the words this year, and it contributed greatly to the cause. Of course, the fact that it was pouring rain the whole time we caroled on Christmas Eve sort of detracted from said cause. 

We read a lot of books. There were many, but here are some we will repeat every year.

I believe we have read this book three years in a row now. Barbara Cooney is my favorite author/illustrator-of-all-time-the-end-amen.

Another favorite, and we've probably read these stories every December for four years now. Maybe one of these years I'll remove the price tag.

This was a new one to use this year, and it was really really great. Will be repeating.

And of course! The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (the shorter, picture book version). Always makes me laugh when they talk about stealing a baby from the grocery store and then the end catches me by surprise and melts my ice cube heart a bit.

I tried to dress up our rather casual dining situation by using the fine china, black chargers my mom gave me during her last visit and real, cloth napkins. I noticed a marked improvement in my kids' behavior during the meal. I need to do this more often.

Christmas Eve is always crazy. We went caroling, we took meals to people, we ate dinner ourselves, and we had a special Christmas Eve program with just our family. In the middle of this, the girls realized they never wrote letters to Santa and were busily writing any chance they had. We finished our 25 Days of Christ ornaments. We acted out the Nativity with puppets. We sang carols. We watched the Christ Child movie. And then we put kiddos to bed. Dan and I stayed up and prepped the living room for the next day while watching my favorite, White Christmas. And yes, I made it through the whole thing and didn't fall asleep once, all of you doubters!

Christmas morning:

Dan put a scavenger hunt together for the kids to find their initial presents. The first clue was in their stocking, and they were able to figure it out pretty well.

A friend gave us a big wheel they didn't want anymore, so all we had to do was buy a new battery for it. Harris' face was amazing.

Rollerblades for the girls. We have a lot of work to do before proficiency takes place with these!

The girls in their new robes:

Sewing kits from Grandma Kristi. Now if only a mom who knows how to sew came with it . . .

The hotly-debated Wii.

June is really good at tennis. Gwen is really good at boxing. Which surprises no one.

The mail system was just not great this year. My mom mailed this to us two weeks before Christmas, but it did not arrive until the day after Christmas. But it was fun to get another present after Christmas was over.

I am sure people everywhere chilled all day the 26th. But chilling some of the day on the 25th made me pretty antsy. There were presents everywhere, and I hadn't figured out to store them, and I always feel like the Christmas decorations start to taunt me the second Christmas is over. I woke up on the 26th ready to get to work.  Much to Dan's chagrin. He was a good sport though and helped me (read: did all of the bad parts) with the following projects:

• Installing extra shelving in the pantry, linen closet and master bathroom closet.
• Installing extra hooks in the garage for storage.
• Finish painting kitchen chairs. (Lots of drama with these dang chairs. More on that later.)
• Taking apart the kitchen stools we just put together to add a layer of vinyl to the seat for easier clean up.

(If you're taking notes at home, yes, this means that I decided that we should work on all of the chairs we sit on for meals. At the same time. This was a terrible idea. We've been crowding on a single bench ever since.)

• Buying and installing new shelves for the food storage downstairs.
• It was about this time that I started to lament over the bookcases I want for Dan's office. They were out when he went to IKEA. I tried ordering them online. They are not available. Wasted an hour on this fruitless endeavor.
• It was about this time that I started to panic about our lack of 72-hour kits. We've been working on long-term food storage but don't have short-term kits available. Watched youtube videos and made lists but nothing bought. 
• It was about this time when I realized that I never contacted anyone about getting some work done on the basement. Made an appointment for next week.
• Installed broom holders in the pantry.
• Cleaned the bathrooms.
• Walmart run.
• Hobby Lobby run.
• Repair toilet paper roll holder.

If you're thinking "WOW that is a ton and how did you get it all done?" Well, we didn't. Dan did a ton of work while I ran around thinking of more projects and buying things for more projects, but of course nothing got done. I'm just trying to paint the picture of what it's like to be married to a maniac. 

At the end of the day, Dan said to me "We are going to have a busy Monday. I knew you were going nuts but I didn't do my job to stop you and now we have to finish all of this stuff next week."

He probably can't wait until he goes back to work in a week.

And today, SUNDAY! And one of the best Sundays of the year. The best Sundays are, in no particular order:

Christmas Sunday. Easter Sunday. The Primary Program Sunday. AND the Sunday we sing RING OUT, WILD BELLS. In other words, today. 

I know this hymn is controversial. I know many who do not like it. They are wrong. It is the best.

We still aren't singing but I am the organist so I was able to play it, and I played it SUPER loud and spookily.

Ready for church:

The End.

SNOW.

We received a foot of snow this past week. And I didn't cringe. I recognized its beauty. It was a huge step for me. We even went out and about in it. And I have a great coat and so it was wonderful.

We made snowman pancakes.

The past several days have been a repeat cycle of getting everyone bundled up, getting them back bundled down to go to the bathroom, getting back bundled up, kids coming in and out of the house, wet snow clothes all over the mudroom, cleaning up the mudroom, and kids crying next to the fireplace as their frozen bodies go from that painful numb to thaw phase.

Our neighbor built a snow slide in his front yard, and the kids have never been happier.

Friday night, Dan announced he was going to IKEA to get the bookshelves we need to make some fake built-ins in his office. But IKEA was out of a lot of the stuff we need. So he bought some stools for the island instead. The kids helped put the first one together, and then Dan put the remaining three together in about half the time it took the kids to put the first one together.

Of course the kids have been fighting over whose stool is whose and then I told them that I wanted a stool too. June piped up and informed me that I'm "too old" and "too big" to sit on a stool. And then Dan told her that wasn't very kind, to which she responded, "I'm sorry, Mom. These stools are very wide so your bottom is probably the perfect size."

Also, we continue to go Christmas caroling as in years past. I forget to take a picture but we're going again this week so I'll snap one. I just wanted to document here that I'm keeping up on my promise to Dan to embrace winter because this was the weather when we went.

All of our neighbors looked at us like we were absolutely insane. It was a bit different this year too because we moved the singing to the end of driveways to be covid-safe and all that. They probably wished that we moved the singing down to the end of the earth because we are not very good singers. 

I've had quite a few people over the years (people who didn't know that we carol) tell me how uncomfortable they find being caroled to. I understand because the carolers just keep singing and the recipient doesn't quite know where to look or what to do in the meantime. But I still think caroling is important. I think we have to get over the awkwardness and appreciate the gesture.

Miscellaneous: 

I found this great photo of Gwen washing windows on my phone. All of my kids clean with smiles on their faces. Just like their mama.

Church! Sunday before Christmas church!

Christmas colors and fancy hair:

Tried to do a bow out of June's hair. Gwen informed me that it was much too messy. So many compliments from the kids lately!

Here's Beck being how he is all of the time lately. 

And of course refusing to join the photo.

I played a piano solo at church today. I played an extremely sour note and am in mourning. Mourning! I cannot get over it even though the world seems to moving on. It's almost as if everything doesn't revolve around me.

The kids were so wired from the Christmas spirit. I spent a lot of time between playing the piano solo and songs on the organ chasing Harris around chapel. Once when I was up on the organ, Dan dropped Harris off at the bathroom and then ran back to get a crying Beck. Then he went back to help Harris, and there was Harris, just outside the chapel, with his pants and underwear down. 

Sometimes we are in way over our heads at church. 

Since the three older kids were wiggly at church, they spent 30 minutes in silence on the couch after church. Well, the girls did. Harris was still crazy. He's taking a nice, long nap.

So even though church wasn't perfect, I will close with some liberties I took at the organ today. (By the way, when I told Dan that I was planning to change some stuff on the organ, he rolled his eyes and said, "Oh yeah, Heather. You're a real renegade on the ORGAN." And then I realized just how nerdy my life is.) Since I'm playing the hymns and no one is singing, I don't feel as concerned about keeping a stiff tempo the whole time. While playing, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", I took a lengthy pause on the fourth verse after the words, "God is NOT DEAD!" and of course I played a crazy long ritardando on the fifth and final "OF PEACE ON EARTH GOODWILL TO MEN."

Because that is my testimony. God is alive, and He still speaks to us. And I want to love my fellow man.

The End.

Potty Training.

Oh yeah, that's right. We've been potty training, baby! My least favorite parenting task thus far (though I imagine teaching a kid to drive can be worse).

Harris is 3. Full disclosure--Harris will be 4 in April. He's not even a young 3. But he has expressed ZERO interest in potty training. We bought him a potty for this third birthday. He never used it. I asked him if he wanted to be a big boy. He would tell me he wanted to stay a little boy.

I asked him if he ever got sick of diapers.

No, he did not.

I finally got some courage and decided to make him do it anyway.

The first day he cried a lot. And told me he wanted his diaper back. And asked me if he spun around a lot, if that would make him a little boy again.

What? I don't know either.

But after the first day, he caught on. We are not 100% yet, but we are doing much better.

Do I bribe while potty training? Absolutely. I don't think my kids understand how much negotiating power they have in this situation. If Harris would have told me, "I'll never have a stinky diaper again if you give me $500", I would have gone for my checkbook.

But since Harris doesn't know what money is, I told him to pick anything he wanted for the prize. He picked a potty watch. It has a timer on it to help him remember to go. June also has one. So of course Gwen was feeling left out and I bought one for her too. And now Gwen will only go to the bathroom when her timer goes off. That's what we call regression, folks.

Those first few trips to the potty we cheered like we were at the Super Toilet Bowl and Harris still expects some of that same appreciation one week later. I have to admit it takes a lot of effort to smile and look into the toilet to see what he has done, but he pretty much insists. Such glamour.

In other news, things are starting to get Christmas-y around here, and I couldn't be more excited. We are taking a three-week break from school because I said so.

Some of the festivities:

We spent the weekend stuffing envelopes with our Christmas cards, and the kids helped out with the address stamp. Which means that our address was stamped everywhere except the upper left hand corner of the envelope.

We made fudge yesterday.

Dan periodically receives samples of upcoming Hershey products in the mail, and we always do a big taste test and rank our favorites. This time around, an organic Reese's cup won. 

We have started watching Christmas movies. Can you name these?

Please note the top half-only decorated Christmas tree. It's my signature special. Thanks, toddlers!

June looks naked in the above photo, but alas those are just light-pink pants.

The Jolley Family Christmas Movie Musts:

Elf 

Muppet Christmas Carol

White Christmas 

It's a Wonderful Life

The Snowman

Charlie Brown Christmas

Home Alone

The Family Man

The Preacher's Wife

While You Were Sleeping

We don't all agree on every movie on the list, but this is my blog. So there!

I also found Brady Bunch Christmas at the library and could not be more excited to watch it. I grew up with that movie!

Adding to that Christmas feeling: it snowed today.

Randomness:

We're painting our kitchen chairs.

And our church photo from yesterday:

June has started wearing a mask even before getting into the van for church because she says our van smells bad. She's not wrong.

The End.

Valley Forge.

 My mom came for Thanksgiving, and we were able to take her to Valley Forge. I didn't realize how big it would be (same with Gettysburg), and there were many entrances to choose from. So of course, the one I put in our GPS took us to an empty field. Gwen, who had already grown impatient with the two-hour car ride, "What is there to do here? NOTHING!?!?" 

To which I replied, "Gwen, there are tons of walking trails. We'll go for a walk."

To which she replied, "Walking? Terrible walking?"

I remember similar complaining to my parents about every suggestion they ever had. It's amazing how I've grown this thick skin where I keep insisting on day trips to places where my kids claim complete and utter misery the whole time. It's a gift, really.

Luckily, we found another entrance. You know, one with things and people. And walking, but not just terrible walking. 

I was especially excited to be there because the girls and I have been studying the American Revolutionary War for a couple of months now and just finished up a book about George Washington. It was just a tad chilly while we were there, and I found myself repeatedly saying out loud, "I'm cold!" 

Which, having just studied what the troops went through at Valley Forge, was really a dumb thing to say. 

I love history, but Dan loves and knows history. I feel like I read a lot, but Dan always has me beat on war history. Here he is explaining how a cannon works.

We are buying a used Wii for the kids for Christmas. I have big issues with video games, and this Wii has taken a lot of discussion to find its way into our home. Dan had to convince me that the kids will be using it for Wii Sports more than anything because they need P.E. time, and there's a long winter of inside time ahead. So Dan found a deal on a Wii but it was two hours away. I was all prepared for him to be gone for most of Saturday, and then on my Saturday early morning run, I thought to myself, "I like long car rides with Dan. We finally get to talk." And so I came home and informed him that I wanted us all to go. 

We told the kids that Dad had "business" in a town called Bellefonte and raced to get ready. We made Dan so late. I was embarrassed. I love being prompt and have always been rather prompt but lately I have been late to everything and it kills me. The kids thought the car ride was too long (shocker). Dan had warned me beforehand that he thought it was going to be a middle of nowhere town with nothing to do, and sure enough, the whole drive was nothing after nothing. But then we reached Bellefonte, and it was perfectly cute and quaint.

The first thing I wanted to do while we were there was ask someone how to pronounce the town name. My natural inclination was to say "Bell uh fon tay" but dear reader, let me tell you something about Pennsylvania. Nothing is pronounced how you think. 

Take the following Pennsylvania towns:

Lebanon is pronounced Le buh nin

Reading is pronounced Redding.

Palmyra is pronounced Paul-myra

Schuykill is pronounced School-kull

Avon is pronounced Av-in.

And sure enough, I found out that Bellefonte is pronounced Bell-font. Color me embarrassed!

Dan was supposed to meet with the guy at Dollar General, and the kids had a ball picking out junky items that would break shortly thereafter. 

Also, I found out that not two streets from that Dollar General was a house-turned-museum that had once been part of the Underground Railroad. Which we are going to learn about! I was so excited.

This Quaker family built secret rooms in their attic. They weren't even discovered until several years later. Some people are just courageous, and I love it.

Also, some school updates:

We made brain hats as part of our study of the human body.

Some handicrafts, just for fun.

And finally, today we went to church and we decorated graham cracker houses. Which we built with a hot glue gun because we finally got smart this year.

This picture says it all: Gwen's face and Beck always runs toward me instead of taking the picture.

The End.