Snippets of Christmas Around Here

It's been a very busy, full of Christmas fun, kind of week. Kristen is working at Hobby Lobby again and you can imagine how busy that place might be at this time of the year! And that means we've had the girls alot - but they've been able to sleep at home most nights, which makes them happy - and us as well!

Last Sunday morning was one of my favorites of the entire Christmas season - the children's musical at church. This year's play was called "Christmyth Busters." Hayley had a lead speaking role, and was actually the "myth buster" for the other kids. She was called a "brainiac" by one of the kids in the play - I felt it was great casting on the part of the leader. The gist of the story was that there are a lot of traditions we celebrate that aren't actually in the Bible stories. The truth is that these are not essential parts of the story, but things that we've envisioned over the years - such as 3 wisemen (we know there were 3 gifts, but not necessarily 3 wisemen), the innkeeper does not appear in scripture (but if there was an inn, must there not have been an innkeeper?), December 25 was the date Jesus was born (we don't really know this as fact, and probably it was more like spring or summer that the shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks). But the bottom line is that the basic story is all we need - Jesus was born as the Savior of the world.

Livi played the star in the East -- and she literally smiled with joy through the entire performance.

It was fun watching the twins watching their sisters - soon they'll be up there too!

Friday night was the annual Walker Manufacturing Christmas party - it is always a lovely event with good food, Christmas caroling, a video presentation of the events of the last year at the company, drawings for prizes, and bonuses. Dwight's quartet sang again this year.

A tradition that never changes is when all the guys and their sons go to the front and sing "Silent Night." Hayley thinks there should be equal opportunity for the ladies and girls and that we should sing next year. Maybe it will happen!

Today (Sunday) was awesome at our church. We've been rehearsing for many weeks now for our adult musical. We had such a great group of singers this year, some for the very first time to sing in a choir. Our leader, Rhonda, is amazing and brings out our very best, and we are better than we really are.

My sister and our friend, Ruth, wrote an amazing narrative/drama to fit with the music. Ruth played the grandmother and our worship pastor's daughter played the role of the grandgirl helping her grandma decorate the tree. Maddie wasn't feeling well at all this morning, but she powered through with lots of prayer holding her up.

Before the musical presentation, my parents were given a great surprise. Dad and Mom were awarded with the Distinguished Service Award. This is an honor presented by our church to someone who has given of themselves to God and the church, often times in the background. My folks have pastored in Minnesota, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Washington. Dad has constructed buildings in many of those locations, often doing much of the physical labor himself. It was my task to find pictures of each of those places we lived for a power point presentation - a challenge indeed, but so much fun to surprise them. They were caught totally off guard, and that was the plan!




My sweetie took me out for a fabulous Sunday dinner at the Bonefish Grill - such a classy place with an amazing menu. Tonight we have our last meal with our 4x4 group, to end a fabulous week-end.


Every year I hang this crewel embroidery picture that I made years ago. I look at it briefly when I hang it, and walk by it many times while it's hanging as a decoration.




One day this week I was showing it to one of the twins when I really looked at it closely for the first time in a long time. I realized how long it's been since I was this creative and was proud that I used to be so good at this kind of thing. It's one of the many things of which I say, "I used to . . . . "

I can't imagine how much time it took me to do all those French knots for Joseph's hair!

So - now it's onward to another very busy week. I have to get to the podiatrist tomorrow to see what he thinks the next move is, since my foot isn't really "all better" yet. I hope, if it's a cast, that it can wait till after the 2 rehearsals and 4 performances this week.



Next up I think I'll share my collection of nativity sets with you. Have a wonderful week!

Friday Show and Tell - and Twin Update

Wow, what a week it has been for us - I am really tired, and have a little twin on my lap, keeping me company as I type. We'll have to see what happens here this evening!

This is #7, and probably the last episode, in my "I Used To . . . " series. When my kids were in the children's department at church, I realized that their cousins were having opportunities that my kids weren't because they were in a larger church. I could see how much fun they were having doing childen's musicals, so I decided that if we didn't have anyone filling that need in our church, I would take it on.

Our first attempt was small and very low tech. It was presented on Palm Sunday, and I still remember the thrill of the performance. This was before the days of even cassette accompaniment tapes - we had piano only. It was a wonderful story, and to this day I remember some of the songs. Two of them we used every Palm Sunday for years afterward.

I went to my favorite bargain store (predecessor to W*lmart, called Alco), and bought all varieties of cotton fabric, mostly striped. I made a dozen or so very simple costumes - just two straight pieces sewn together, leaving armholes and head opening. Add a simple tie belt, and you're good to go. I don't think I took any pictures of this first endeavor, or had anyone take them for me.

Then came the day that I went looking for those costumes for the next performance. They were nowhere to be found. After a considerable amount of sleuthing, I realized that boxes of used clothing being gathered for our Native American friends in Arizona and New Mexico had been gathered in the same room where I kept the props for the plays. I had a sickening feeling as I realized that our costumes had made their way to the reservation. I called the elderly woman pastor on our district, who had once worked with the Indian people and went down every year with the gifts, if she thought my suspicions were correct and the costumes had ended up down there. She said it could very well be, and if so, "Why, honey, they're probably wearing them and tickled to death to have them!" I knew I had to start all over again.

One year I thought it would be fun to have a choir performance instead of a play - I hunted high and low and finally found a pattern that would work for kids' choir robes. We had a marathon session of our young mom's Bible study group, where we cut out the patterns. Then we seamstresses each took about 6 robes home to sew. I was amazed at the difference in how they turned out - we made large bows for the girls, and small knotted ties for the boys.

Then one year we used the robes again for a smaller choir and a pageant on the side. That's one of my nephews doing the solo.

This isn't my favorite shot of myself, but I loved this outfit I made for the occasion. You seamstresses, please note the carefully matched plaid on the bias! And that's Kristen in the left background. She had accompanied at least one song with her flute.

The robes lived on for years as angel costumes, by adding gold or silver garland around the neck and bottom of the robes, when other leaders took over the musicals - as my children aged out of the children's group I stayed on for a few more years, then felt it was time for someone else to have the privilege! It's kind of like pregnancy - the performance is rather like the birth of the baby, where you forget all of the pain and labor. You swear you'll never do THAT again, but soon you are ready to "birth" another performance.

We did this next musical twice - it was so much fun. It was called "Get On Board, Children," and was the story of Noah and the Ark, with the premise of "What do you do on a rainy day in an ark?" if there are lots of children on board. You can see the replacement costumes I had to make for the ones that went on a trip to Arizona or New Mexico. The animal costumes were loaned to us by a church in Illinois. The kids provided their own footie jammies and brought the great variety of stuffed animals. I just noticed Pink Panther leaning against the baptistry in the back - do you think he was really on the ark?? (Oh, great - now I'll be singing that song in my mind all day!)

Here is Yours Truly doing a very rare solo as Mrs. Noah.

Another nephew designed the cover for the programs -

I found some really great cookie cutters in all sorts of unusual animal shapes, so the Bible study group again pitched in and made hundreds of decorated sugar cookies for a snack time after the performance.

I'll never forget the Christmas one we did called "Ebenezer, Jr.", which was a take-off on the Scrooge story, of course. We actually did this one twice as well. The second one ended up being my Swan Song - my last hurrah. My favorite thing to say about that play - if it is true that a lousy dress rehearsal means a great performance, this should have been the best ever. Kev was playing the teen-age lead and wasn't thrilled with the idea. He waited till the very last minute to learn his lines - and had to be prompted on a few, as I recall. The woman playing the mother in the story got sick that day and had to be replaced at the last minute - and we didn't exactly have understudies waiting to jump in with lines learned! But nobody else noticed all the problems.

It has been so much fun watching others take on the mantel and keeping children's musicals a big part of our church.

The twins got some new toys this week and have had so much fun experimenting and learning - and being happy for more than two minutes at a time!

For more Friday Show and Tell stories, stop by Kelli's blog, There Is No Place Like Home.

Have a great week-end!

Friday Show and Tell - and Twin Update

Today is #6 in my series called "I Used To . . . " It has been such a fun journey for me, and I hope you're enjoying it as well. This episode is about the matching outfits I enjoyed making for my family over the years. When Kristen was born, I began having fun making her outfits from the same fabric as mine. This was the first one when she was 4 months old.

The next one was for Mother's Day, when she was 5 months old. I can't get over how dark my hair got during each pregnancy.

This was our first Christmas with her - I'll never forget the excitement when I went shopping for this fabric and lace with my little monthly allowance - yes, I had an allowance. Sorry if you're young and think that sounds terribly uncool! That's the way it was.

When Kev came along, I didn't sew as much for him, but on occasion, I just couldn't resist matching the two of them. Kristen was 4 and Kev 2 in this first one.

We made this snapshot into a t-shirt for Daddy. Don't you just love the decorative garden hose??

I made these when Kristen was 5 and Kev almost 3.

I love this one of them standing in front of that Austrian Pine that's at least 30 feet tall now.

I should have shot this picture before they became a bit disheveled - they're trying on Uncle R's shoes - he's the tallest one in my sibling's shot that I showed in my last post - he wears about a size 13 shoe.

Then there was the Christmas when they were 5 and 3 - Daddy got into the picture this time. Doesn't Kev looked thrilled about his new plaid flannel shirt??

I don't have the year marked on this one, but I think they're about 7 and 5 in this picture - the outfits aren't totally matching, and I wish you could see them in their entirety - I think these are two of my favorite outfits I ever made - the patterns were extremely detailed (I am blanking on the name, but I know someone out there can refresh my memory - does Laura Ashley sound right?), and I was very proud when I finished them. That's our little dog, Fritzie, who was such a huge part of our family.

Last but not least, here is Kristen with two of her cousins and her Cabbage Patch doll, who is wearing an outfit matching hers. I hope to do a post on some more of the clothes I made to match her outfits for a different doll. She was 10 at this time.

The twins had their 7 month check-ups and they are doing just great - they are developmentally right on target - they aren't even talking about "adjusted age." The girlies are "talking" and blowing bubbles and rolling around, and Katie is really close to sitting up. They are about 10.5 and 11.5 pounds - are just about to grow out of 0-3 month clothes, and are in size 1 diapers. I love these two shots - holding hands . . .

. . . and playing footsie . . .

For more Friday Show and Tell stories, stop by Kelli's blog, There Is No Place Like Home.