We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year

This has been the coldest week I can ever remember in Georgia. Probably because I've been out in it every morning feeding horses. Two days ago it was 11 degrees, yesterday it was a balmy 12. Today I waited until mid-morning and it was 28, which was a lot better. I remembered to unhook water hoses at the barn but I didn't remember to drain them, so I had to haul water from the spigot to the trough.

I'm finally getting around to posting Christmas stuff. We went to my folks' house in McDonough the Wednesday before Christmas on Friday. I finished a little Christmas shopping, and enjoyed a little alone time...with 158,000 other people doing last minute shopping. We stayed at mom and dad's through Sunday, and enjoyed time with mom's side of the family on Christmas eve day. We went to Jonathan and Lisa's Christmas eve service that night, leaving six kids with the folks. ("Don't leave us with the babies!")

Amelia and I worked on food for family events Christmas Eve morning.

Uncle Ned, my mom's brother.

Amelia and Jaidyn, my cousin Casey's daughter.

Shannon, Avery, and Nanny.

Amelia and Grandad.

There were presents from great aunts and uncles on Christmas Eve. In true little kid form Elizabeth thought taking things out of packages and putting them back in was really fun.

Jonathan and Jordan.

My niece Reagan, now 6 months old.

Reach into the bag, take it out, put it back in, do it again.

My cousin Luke and Jaidyn.

Nanny loves babies as much as she loves air, water, and food.

Christmas morning we got to sleep in until nearly 7:30 before the kids remembered it was Christmas. We made them eat breakfast first before gifts, meanies such as we are. They didn't seem to mind, since everything was wrapped up anyway and they had been looking at most of it for days at home under the tree. What was a few more minutes? When I was a kid all of our gifts were laid out unwrapped and I never felt like I could look at it all at once. It's work to wrap everything but I think it's fun that way. We've chosen not to make the Santa thing a big deal so the kids already know where the gifts come from anyway. Santa Daddy and Santa Mommy, of course!

Amelia went to get her hat before breakfast.

It may not always be this way, but right now Elizabeth gets more excited about food than presents. Yay for breakfast!

She wasn't too thrilled about helping set the Christmas tone for the morning with a hat.

We did stockings while everyone else finished breakfast. Last year I remember saying we could have just stopped there and everyone would have been happy. I think that would have been the case again. Maybe we'll have to try it next time.

A real live tape measure.

Loot!

The kids opened presents from Mimi and Papa, Uncle Jason and Nelissa, and Aunt Jeni(left with us when they came to visit at Thanksgiving), and then Uncle Jon, Aunt Lisa, Grandmom and Grandad. They did the ones from us last. It was a feeding frenzy with six little kids opening stuff.

Aunt Jeni made everyone dinosaurs. She's very creative and they are really cute. Avery has been carrying his around today and is sleeping with it.



Here's what happens when you make a one-year old give a swiped toy back to her brother and don't get something else to open in front of her fast enough. Cute, eh?

Shannon got a guitar from Uncle Jon and Aunt Lisa and says maybe if he keeps practicing he'll get good enough to play a real one. We plan for that to happen someday. No kids of camp people should grow up unable to play a guitar, it would just be wrong.

Jonathan and Reagan, who was happy to observe the whole thing from the comfort of a lap.

James picked out a special gift for Shannon.

His own Red Rider BB gun! You'll shoot your eye out, kid. Which is why he won't be turned loose with it, but now he's got something to carry when he goes out with Daddy and can practice learning to safely carry a "real" gun.



Gorgeous.

Shannon showing off one of Avery's toys from Grandmom and Grandad. I ended up with zero pictures of Avery Christmas morning, mostly because he's in a phase where the camera makes him either turn around and hide, or make a ridiculous face. This was a turn and hide kind of morning and since forcing the issue doesn't make a good picture, we have none. (I did take some, I just ended up deleting them all!) I find it hard to manage gift opening, chasing a one year old, and wielding a camera all at the same time so I didn't make heroic efforts to get another shot.

The kids opened gifts for so long that we adults didn't have time to open ours before we needed to get ready to go to Granny and Pa Pa's for lunch and time with my dad's side of the family.

Go Nanny! Go Nanny!

Having Christmas Eve with mom's side of the family and Christmas day with Dad's side has been a tradition for as long as I can remember, probably since before I existed. That's one of the nice things about growing up near both sides of the family. Traditions can be exactly the same year after year.

One of the things that makes it different now is the sheer number of people. Granny and Pa Pa had four kids, they created nine grandkids (us), and we've added 11 great-grands so far, with another due in February. It's also different since Granny's stroke, now going on three years ago, which has really aged her. Granted she is 80, but it has forced my formerly independent, outdoorsy, determined Granny into dependency on others for most everything. I know aging and sickness are part of our fallen world, but may I just take a moment to state that it sucks? (Sorry, didn't mean to wax poetic there. I am so gifted with words.)

We enjoy each others' company and had fun on Christmas day. After dinner and before gift opening time we had some special presentations from family members.

Christmas carols with Gracyn, Bailey, Abi, and Kendel, my cousin Gary's daughters.

Granny made sure her kids took piano lessons and not only did they end up all four being good pianists, they also all play at least one additional instrument. Then they passed it on to their kids. A few family members didn't get the memo about the impromptu Christmas concert, so three or four who would be playing instead joined the rest of us singing Christmas hymns. (Chorus not pictured. Sorry.) Granny and Pa Pa enjoyed it so much that Granny called her brother and held up the phone so he could listen in.

There would have been more picutres but once again it's hard to manage a camera and a bunch of gift opening kids.

Shannon and Great Uncle John.

Avery and Deannea.

It has also become a tradition for the great grands to read the Christmas story, so they all took turns. Gracyn started it.

Then Bailey.

Then Amelia took a turn, her first time being able to read well enough to tackle hard words from the Bible out loud. Bailey was on stand by to help with the really hard ones.

Cody finishes it up.

We stayed most of the afternoon then headed back to mom and dad's when the littlest ones couldn't stand the fact that they had missed naps anymore. After feeding them and putting them to bed the adults opened gifts. It feels weird to think of myself as one of the adults. Christmas at home does that, I think, even though it's not the house I grew up in. My dad says "home is where your stuff is," a mantra he came up with to help my mom adjust to the four moves they made in eight years after living in the same house for 17 years. I'm not sure that saying is necessarily true.

Mom opening stuff.

Dad reading stuff.

Here's where I would have put the pictures of Jonathan and Lisa, and James and I, but I put the camera down and forgot to pick it up again. We enjoyed hanging out and opening gifts, and all of us got some very nice things.

Jonathan and Lisa and the girls stayed most of Saturday, and we enjoyed spending time with them. My gift from James was to be a shopping spree at Horse Town near my folks' house for winter riding gear and a replacement pair of boots for the ones I blew out, so we headed there sans kids Saturday morning. And it was closed. James wasn't happy, but I ended up getting stuff cheaper online anyway. That's okay, the cycling computer I got him for Christmas was missing one of the most important parts, the heart rate monitor, because I didn't order one with it.

We got out bikes and one of Shannon's presents from the grandparents during the afternoon.



It's called a Rip Rider, and it's basically a tricycle with casters for the back wheels. It does 360's everywhere. Shannon thinks it's a blast.



So do I.



So does Grandad.

We got up Sunday morning and went to church with my folks, then headed home after lunch. Good thing we brought the truck, because it was FULL! Another fun Christmas, a new set of toys to find a place for, and everyone is happy! Thank you Lord for a great family heritage and time to enjoy one another.

The week after Christmas was pretty low key. We did school each day so if I need a little breathing room through the winter and spring we can choose to skip a day here and there if we want. Thursday was New Years' Eve, and we had an impromptu party at our house. We started by inviting the Thursday night crew and kept adding famiilies until we had seven families plus a few singles and a few extra kids who were hanging out with those families. There were 17 kids nine and under. Sometimes you wonder if older kids will teach your younger kids words they don't know, and that was the case that evening. Shannon came through chasing a bunch of boys with guns and said, "The boys said the girls are the criminals. What's a criminal?" We had a blast, ate lots of food, drank lots of hot chocolate and coffee, and enjoyed each others' company.

I interrupted a game of Farkel for a photo.

Guys.

Kids.











Around 10:30 we lost one. Meg has always been able to sleep anywhere. Everyone stayed until almost midnight, except Rebecca, Amanda, and the Davidsons, because we had a game of spades to finish. We toasted the new year with sparkling grape juice, then finished our game around 1:30. The kids all stayed up watching movies except Elizabeth, of course, and acted like they weren't a bit sleepy. Our kids slept in until about 9 then got up and went through the rest of the day no problem. Elizabeth was up at 8 and James gave me the greatest gift ever- he got her up and fed her breakfast and I slept until 10:00! Truly a first in six years, and highly appreciated.

I got in a few horseback rides over the weekend, which were fun, though very cold. I'm looking forward to the winter riding gear I ordered getting here. Ruth spent the night with us Saturday night, and we worked on putting away the last of the Christmas decor.

As dessert, that is.

They pulled off rock hard stale candy and enjoyed somehow. It was, in fact, not good candy, but they didn't seem to know that. I popped some off with a knife because icing turns into superglue when it dries, so candy was flying all over the place.

It didn't take Elizabeth long to figure out what was going on. She wasn't happy that I was taking her picture instead of giving her a part in the fun.

"That!" When frowning isn't enough, point.

I snapped a picture this week of Elizabeth with Avery's boots on in her PJ's. She loves shoes, especially boots, and is good at putting them on by herself.



To continue the Christmas fun, we got presents from Uncle Jared and Aunt Laura this week. I envy their talents and crafiness (not the sneaky kind of crafty). Aunt Laura made capes for the kids, which were an instant hit.

Aren't they great?



Super Elizabeth!

One last picture of Elizabeth, who once again dressed herself.

Doesn't she make a cute bag lady?

There is nothing of great interest to write about this week, except that it snowed today. They were predicting it, and decided yesterday that today would be half day to make sure kids got home safely. Amelia knew that, and asked me this morning if we could just do half of school. I'm not sure she understands the WHY of a half day!

I hope to post snow pictures soon. After I take some.

Farewell!

Twas the week(s) before Christmas

Well, I accomplished my goal of getting this post about pre-Chrismas fun done before we took the tree down. We SHOULD take the tree down since Christmas is five days past. The beauty of a fake one is that we could leave it up all year without it dying and dropping parts all over the floor if we wanted to. Amelia asked if we could.

I almost didn't get Christmas cards done this year. It's such an effort to get everyone dressed up for a picture. We happened to already all be dressed up at Amory and Blake's wedding though, so we borrowed the Christmas tree at the reception and took some pictures. This was the best of the bunch. Elizabeth was hungry and grumpy.

It's always nice to get Christmas cards from folks, especially if they're photo cards. I've considered not doing them anymore since most folks keep up with us online anyway. We'll see how I'm feeling about it next year.

We had fun the weeks before Christmas. The kids and I made some Christmas ornaments. Nothing is ever as easy as it looks like it's going to be in the magazine article. They turned out cute though.



We hauled out the tree and got it decorated the first week of December. The tree stood lightless and garlandless for a day or two while I worked up the motivation to put it all on so the kids could work on the rest. They love this part of Christmas.

The kids unloaded the boxes.



They put most of the ornaments on by themselves.



Elizabeth was a lot of help moving them around, mostly OFF the tree. She finally mostly left them alone after a few days.

There are a lot of things I've had to let go after having so many kids, like some of my housekeeping standards, need for vehicular cleanliness, etc. It was let them go or go nuts trying to maintain them. I've yet to be able to shake the need for evenly spaced ornaments on a Christmas tree however, so after everyone was in bed I rearranged a bit.

The finished product.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care. Actually, with hooks.

A random picture I took that week because bed head can be funny.

Except to the bed head wearer.

Another random picture. Because Shannon hasn't shown an interest in drawing or coloring for very long I'm always surprised when he draws something.

Loaders and dozers.

Elizabeth likes art. And the occasional crayon, though we've all tried to convince her they aren't tasty.

The first week in December our church had its Christmas production, which consists of a Saturday performance, two Sunday performances, and four nights of a dinner theater. We went to the Saturday evening one so there was no reason to go to church on Sunday. Amelia had gone home with the Davidsons, and they met us at the bowling alley/skating rink after lunch.

We had taken the kids bowling once before when I was pregnant with Elizabeth. About one game is as long as their attention span lasts right now, but they had fun.











Amelia and Ruthie

Go Daddy!

With ball ramps and gutter bumpers the kids were very competetive. They scored better than we did most frames.



Maggie

Stylin' shoes. A kid I went to high school with wore bowling alley shoes every day. Wear cruddy shoes into the bowling alley, leave with cool (sort of) new ones. If you can get past the fact that's it's stealing and that you have a bowling alley's name and your shoe size printed real big on your feet, it could be a good way to go I guess.

Next we tried skating, something not attempted in our family before. Amelia really started to get the hang of it by the end and begged to come back later in the week for more practice.

Our kids were the only ones in the skating rink with bicycle helmets on. No parent likes to be the over-protective looking dork, but more than one said it was a great idea. I'm okay with looking like a dork. I've had a lot of practice.

Shannon persevered but fell a lot. One or two more practice times and he'll probably have it. At one point he looked at me and said, "I'm not sure this is the best idea." What, strapping eight wheels to your feet? Probably NOT the best idea anyone ever came up with.

Because they gave us skate rental for free we did let Avery try it- but it was ridiculous, so we took them off of him right away. He had no interest in falling and let us know loudly.

When James and I moved to Cleveland we hung out with the folks that owned the barn where I was keeping Taffy. We met them each week at the Rink N Roll for rollerblading fun. Since then my rollerblades have dry rotted and both bindings broke. James' were still in good shape so he dusted them off and brought them along. I had to use uncomfortable rental ones, but it was still fun. (Wonder what the girl in the background is thinking. "Oh no! That girl's gonna bulldoze into something for sure trying to skate backwards like that!")

Before Christmas we also made a gingerbread house. Actually the nice folks at the gingerbread house factory made it. We just decorated it.

We did mix up the icing though. Shannon decided to go with the gangsta look and wore that hat all day.









Elizabeth watched everybody else and then went and got her own clean whisk out of the drawer to lick. She missed the part where you stir icing with it first.

We did it!

In spite of my inner need for order and symmetry, they did stick the candy on by themselves. I just came up with the ideas and directed traffic when needed. And wielded the icing.

The week before Christmas we:
Had the Strong Rock year 'round staff over for dinner Monday evening.
Had friends from Camp Skyline days stop by for the night Tuesday.
Had Thursday night dinner at Rebecca's on Wednesday. (Huh?)
Went to our Sunday School class Christmas party on Thursday.
Had the Strong Rock summer staff Christmas party on Friday.
Took Saturday off from partying.
Went to the D's for dinner and Rock Band on Sunday.
Went to a Christmas potluck for homeschooling families from our church Monday evening.
Packed stuff Tuesday.
Headed to McDonough for four days on Wednesday.

Our Tuesday night guests were Lindsay and Morgan Myers, who were campers when we were on staff at Camp Skyline and became staffers as we were leaving. They are now respectable 25 year olds, soon to have more degrees than James and I put together. Morgan is in school in Ohio, and Lindsay is in school in Pennsylvania, and both were on their way home to Florida for the holidays. It was great to see them and catch up on the last almost decade.

Wednesday night at Rebecca's most of us worked on gingerbread houses after dinner. We thought it would be fun to have a contest but we all ended up taking too long with it.

Sara and little Ansley, born in October.

Anne and Nikki assembling a house.

Anne, Amanda, and Rebecca

Turns out Amanda has a hidden gingerbread house decorating talent.

Our second gingerbread house of the season. The next morning Shannon looked at the two together and said, "Hey, we have a neighborhood!"

Friday was the Strong Rock summer staff Christmas party. Staff from several summers attended, and it was a lot of fun catching up with everyone. We played a game with wrapping paper where each team had to come up with a scene describing a Christmas movie.

Here's Mary and Baby Jesus.

It's The Little Drummer Boy. (Truthfully I don't remember this being a movie. Was it?)

The Grinch. The guy laying on his back is the Roast Beast.

Cindy Lou Who

No Christmas party is complete without a white elephant gift exchange, and no gift exchange is complete without a giant Dr. Pepper pillow.

Cornhole will be the new summer hit at camp. It's a beanbag game, rather cornbag game, and if you don't think it's a big deal you can Google it and find 1,210,000 entries (I tried it), containing rules, game specifics, places to order cornhole boards, etc. Rick made two sets for us and this one stayed busy all evening long.

Sunday I got to go riding with Mali and Abby (summer staffers) and in spite of it being VERY COLD, had a blast. My winter riding hasn't gone like I had hoped. I thought once the time changed I would be good to go again with morning rides, but this time of year it doesn't get good and light until 7:20, and I have to be done and home by 8:00. This has also been a particularly cold and rainy winter, so that doesn't help either. So I feed, turn out, and leave, but am still grateful for time at the barn.

As we rode by the house James took a picture for me. Starbuck and Mali are on the left, Twister and Abby are on the right, and I'm on Reggie, my favorite midget horse. I didn't realize how small he really looked until I saw this picture. Good looking horses if I do say so myself.

I'm going to end this for now, and plan to post Christmas pictures soon. Like, sometime before next Christmas.

Happy New Year!

Imaginations at work

In case I don't actually get to finish the post I'm planning to work on today, I thought I'd summarize the conversation I just heard between the eldest two Himstedt children. They each had baby dolls they were taking care of, and put them down on the couch and came to the table when I made hot chocolate for them.
Amelia: "It's great to have an evening out without the babies."
Shannon: "Yes, it is."
Amelia (picking up a pretend phone): "I'm going to call and check on them. (To the pretend babysitter on the other end),"Oh, oh no! The babies are passing out? Oh my goodness!" (Turning to Shannon), "We have to go home right away! The babies are passing out!"
Shannon: "But we haven't had dessert yet."


For school we've been working on nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Last week Amelia made a list (on her own) of adjectives that describe me. I was flattered: Pretty, nice, sweet, busy, and sorry (she meant empathetic- that one hasn't reached our vocabulary list yet!). I asked her which one described me best. "Busy," she said. I figured. Thankfully "nice" was her second choice.


Last week Amelia also took to calling me, "Miss Divine," pretending we were doing school. (Even when we weren't- surprising.) Shannon, as her dad, was outside in his Jeep waiting for her to finish "class" so he could take her home. He waited a LONG time too, she didn't get ready to go out in the cold for at least 20 minutes. She said, "Miss Divine, my dad says I will marry somebody like him some day. He doesn't listen to me." Hee hee.

It was nearly dark outside when she finally decided to get her coat on to meet her "dad." In the meantime he had grown weary of waiting and was walking to the front door. She saw him through the window and said, "He's parking! WHAT is he doing?! I don't want to walk home!" She stormed outside, had a few words with him, then they came in together. He explained that they had flashlights and were okay. She said, "I was like, 'What, are you nuts?!' But we found our way home in the dark."

Thank goodness.