Christmas Dinner

We had a festive Christmas dinner...

We enjoyed a wonderful meal of

Filet of beef

roasted fennel and asparagus

smashed new potatoes with thyme

and red velvet cake with cheesecake frosting

Ian led us in a sweet devotional and to the table we went.

We voted and stayed casual for dinner this year....that was a first!

English Christmas crackers made our meal extraordinarily fun.....

hats, riddles, jokes, trivia, trinkets and games

made for great conversation

lots of laughs and 

good times.

"Why are we wearing these hats???"

The fun lasted through the whole meal and we were still solving riddles

while we all did the dishes!

What a great day!

Christmas 2012

The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. 

He was in the world and the world was made through Him yet the world did not know him...

and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us 

and we have seen His glory, 

glory as of the only Son of the Father 

full of grace and truth.

Merry Christmas family and friends!

Our family has certainly had a wonderful day so far....

started out with a home burglary a 4:30 this morning.....

interrupted no doubt by our dear Kirby and Zoe

{but not before they made off with items from our vehicles 

and entered our garage for a few things, too!}

. . .then a thunderstorm.

Here are David and Charlotte before our gorgeous candlelight service last night.

It was so special to be with our church family

to worship our Savior as the Shepherds did so long ago.....

to celebrate the peace, joy and love that comes only from CHRIST!

Christmas morning...

at supplies for the Claire Bear

Buddy Biscuits for our brave dogs!

Charlotte talking to family in Minnesota and Chicago and Connecticut!

Thankful for the blessing of family!!!

Batman strikes again....

a wonderful montage of photos from the Nutcracker for Mimi!

Our country boy wanted a guitar.  

Say cheese!

Pete's favorite Viking besides Adrianne Peterson

Charlotte received a james Avery charm bracelet with three starter charms...so special!

And a little Baylor for our Baylor girl!

Enjoying a relaxing day together and preparing a lovely Christmas dinner with my girls.

May God bless you all in your celebrations and in the New Year!

Rosettes...A Christmas Tradition

Many Christmases ago, Ian's parents taught me how to make

Scandinavian Rosettes.

And it has been a Christmas tradition ever since.

I wish we were making them today with Ron in the kitchen.

He is the expert rosette maker

{and lefse maker...but we have not ourselves ventured that deep into Norwegian culinary delights}

I adore cooking or baking from recipes handwritten by

those who have passed on the recipe and thus, the tradition!

The rosette iron

{we made snowflakes and stars}

My ready helper who herself was trained by Papa and has helped me year after year!

Light

Delicate

crispy

sweet

goodness

We will share these tonight with families

gathering for Christmas Eve 

and hopefully have a few left over for taking to Dallas where we will

celebrate with Ian's parents and his sister's family later this week.

A tasty treat and sweet memories......a wonderful tradition!

It is the last day of school

before Christmas Break.

YAY!

For David it is a day of celebrating....

It's a Polar Express Party!

Everyone wore their jammies and they were making a special lunch

and exchanging gifts and watching the movie!

How cute that David and his teacher matched in their penguin jammies!

Meredith and Peter are finishing up their finals today.

Charlotte is also enjoying a special Christmas lunch with her class.

What a special time of year indeed.

How grateful my kids can and do celebrate CHRIST at school.

The world is a very dark and lost place

and that is more evident at some moments than others,

but Jesus Christ is the Light of the World.

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light

on those living in the land

of deep darkness

a light has dawned.

--Isaiah 9:2

Christmas Recital

Claire played beautifully in her Christmas Recital today.

She played

Christmas Day Secrets

Here are a few pictures from her performance. . .

The bow

All of Miss Ksenia's students.

They all did an amazing job.

Proud of you, Claire.

We so enjoy the gift of your music in our home!!!

Joy to the World

Our school's Christmas Concert was last evening.

And as always, it was a beautiful evening of worship.

All the elementary choirs sang.

The high school choir sang.

The musical theatre class sang.

And Mr. Horn our choir director offered a most beautiful singing of

O Holy NIght

signed with passion and emotion by

our ASL teacher.

It was gorgeous...very moving.

Claire sang with the 3rd graders.  She loves to sing!

So grateful that my kids are at a school that 

celebrates Christmas

and

worships the King born to be our Savior!

JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME.

LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING!

Decking the Halls

What a glorious Thanksgiving  we shared with friends.

The day was beautiful in every way.  

I didn't take ONE picture....so sad!

The highlight was our Texas pecan pies 

made from the pecans we collected a few weeks back, remember?  That's HERE.

Today, Meredith led the charge to deck the halls for Christmas.

Ian and Peter brought down all the boxes from the attic and the kids went to town.

I delighted in Meredith's interest and careful attention.

She did the mantel all by herself with greenery and berries and flowers

It is lovely and she was quite pleased as well!

The Jesse Tree found its place in the family room

My favorite angel sits atop the piano

The creche is assembled

(a youth group fund raiser from many years ago!)

Charlotte is outside working on lights

My kids are taking over this year....and its kinda fun!

Christmas music is playing and we made a Starbucks run for warm drinks...

If only we would have had the dusting of snow that MN received this morning...

nonetheless, it's been a great couple days being all together as a family

sweet, sweet memories of another Thanksgiving

and we look forward to the Advent season as we

prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ!

I pray your Thanksgiving was a blessing, too!