Tidings of Comfort and Joy!

One Family Night, when Dan was out of town we went to look at Christmas lights!

Comfort and Joy. Those two words are apt to describe our Christmas this year.

Dan was home all week (except Monday) He ran a trail through the Everglades Tuesday morning, while we decorated candy houses with the neighbors. (I think I forgot to take pics) Tuesday night we had an awesome caroling experience complete with guitars, violin, and piano! Wow! My kids were hoping for carolers this year and boy did we get them!

We enjoyed traditional Cuban Christmas eve dinners (La Noche Buena) and reconnected with friends. We actually lucked out and were able to make it to two of our friends' dinners, one at 5pm, the other at 9! And Dan and I still had the kids in bed by midnight and were in bed ourselves by 1:30! Christmas Eve was wonderful and we are so lucky to have be surrounded by such wonderful people.

Christmas AM was an exercise in patience for poor Danya (our early riser). The whole thing would have been over by 6 am if she had been in charge. But she was not allowed to open presents until after breakfast. Eventually she was able to get Caleb up and they kept busy with their stockings (as well as checking everyone elses too!) until I finally got up to start breakfast.

Dan and I were laughing because, after several interruptions, "quick questions", eventually waking everyone up, Danya brought us the card she had made in primary. We were supposed to have opened it Christmas Eve, but forgot. After I am up, dressed, and moving, Dan, still in bed, hands me this card Danya had brought him. "Merry Christmas," it says, " I will let you sleep in until 7:30" I look at the clock and it reads 7:16. Hmmm... "Uh, I forgot I wrote that," she says. (If you have ever stayed at our house, you are not that surprised!)

One fun gift that I received was a bike! I told the kids I haven't received a bike since I was either 7 or 8 years old! So Christmas morning when kids are taking their new bikes out for a ride...so was I!

Emily's First Babysitting Job

Saturday night Dan and I were going to some friends and i could not find a sitter. But i thought I it would be a good opportunity for Emily to try her hand at babysitting. I have left her for less than an hour during the day with the kids, and usually just have them watch TV the whole time. So she has been excited all week with this grown up responsibility on the horizon.

Things went well, but bedtime for Carson was a little hairy. In the end we came home at 10pm because she was getting upset. But we called as we pulled out of our friends driveway to come home and he had stopped crying and gone to sleep. By the time we got home she was asleep too!
All in all a successful first time, and showed me she will be more prepared to sit for other families in a year or so if she has some experience she can get from her own baby brother!

On to Christmas

Okay now that the Thanksgiving is over, we can get on to Christmas! you will soon be getting our card and letter, it is printing even as I post!

Here are a few of my favorite things:
1) Putting up the Christmas tree and explaining each ornament to the kids. Down to the "handprint" treeskirt, even the poinsettas just like Grandma Corier had on her tree (maybe that was a phase or maybe she still does).


2) One of my favorite things are houses decked out in Christmas lights. I included a pic of our lights out front, although I am not a good photographer, so Christmas lights don't turn out all that great. They are one of the things I REALLY look forward to at Christmas time, so I included a photo of ours!


3) Another favorite thing that we do is to have all the neighbor kids over to make candy houses. I love this tradition because we learned it from the Scott family, and because we just love all of the neighbors. (I don't know if we will do it this year, I will see if I have the energy)(I also love Heather's idea of glue gunning the graham crackers--I know some die hards would object, but it is much sturdier for little hands, and much faster if you are making a large number!)

4) Christmas Cards and gifts are more of my favorite things. I love the season to remember people who are important to us, and when purchasing gifts to remember who the person is and what might make them happy.(this is a picture of Emily being happy--in case you didn't catch the connection)


5) Mostly my favorite thing is the warm spirit of the season, which I know to be the love of Jesus Christ. The music that rejoices in the miracle of his birth and who he was. The stories that remind us to be selfless and christlike. The quiet and calm when a nativity scene is presented.

Thanksgiving fun

We had a fun Thanksgiving. We had a few families over from church. There were 29 of us all told, but it really wasn't as chaotic as it sounds...okay, yes it was! But let's face it what are the holidays without a little chaos! The meal was nice there was enough room and most the kids at outside anyway.

Dan took a couple of our kids to the Turkey Bowl that morning, where the young men proceeded to strip the old men of their dignity and beat them pretty badly. Our kids played at the park and enjoyed doing the same to one another--at least from all of the sand in their hair I figure there was some sort horseplay.

I stayed home and cooked with our friend Joyce Purcell. She was awesome and peeled and cut and mashed 15 pounds of potatoes (we probably only ate about 7 of them). But it was fun to have someone to make the final preparations with, this is kind of a tradition to spend Thanksgiving day with Joyce.

The kids ate almost nothing and terrorized the neighborhood--well not exactly, but... At one point I chase two toddlers down the block. At another point the neighbor lady asked the kids to please be quiet (although it was the middle of the day on Thanksgiving--come on!). Another neighbor brought back one of the toddlers. And at one point one of the toddlers had gone into a neighbor's house and Danya couldn't get him out and in the process let their dog out (did I mention she was dogsitting!) Whew! I don't know that I will do that again for awhile! But the kids had a blast and really enjoyed themselves!


That being said, when I wasn't chasing one year olds, the company was very pleasant and I had a great time visiting with friends. The weather was beautiful outside and at one point the men were out throwing the ball with the kids and the women were out visiting. Everything turned out very nice. I had a lot to be thankful for!

We put up a couple of swings in the yard and the kids played on them almost the whole time. Caleb especially has wanted to be out on the swing almost everyday. For the Corier side: it is like the rope swings by the parking lot at Camp Bethel.


Well, since I know blogs are only as good as the picture they narrate, i will include some of those as well. I only have a couple, they don't quite do the day justice!