Christmas 2011

The following pictures are from the month of December.  They are in no certain order but glimpses into our last month's activities.

The four kiddos in their Christmas Eve PJ's from Grandmom.  Actually Jedi had a more Christmas type of PJ but our dryer was on the fritz and after hanging for quite some time they still weren't dry.  We went for a set of PJ's that matched the big brother.  

For each of my kiddos I've tried to do professional baby shots at 3,6,9 and 12 months.  Well, living in this culture and having professional pictures taken, that are similar to my taste, is not always an easy task.  I usually prefer a simple background- white or black.  I prefer few to no props.  In previous years I've had to plead with the national photographers to please leave out the cow print backdrop or ask them to stop shaking the tambourine in the baby's face- "it only makes them cry louder".  Chris encouraged me to just try it at home by ourselves.  Well, this year I enjoyed a quiet photo shoot at home with Jedi.  A friend watched the older kids for couple of hours, I cranked up the heat in the living room, took him down to one layer of clothes and took tons of pictures.  It was nice to not have a gazillion people watch our photo shoot, which usually happened in the photo studios where we previously went and never proved helpful in getting the babies to relax.   Having a quiet setting at home was great to get some of Jed's natural smiles.  Here (and the last picture from the month) are two of my favorite 3 month pictures of Jedidiah (no, I can't make up my mind what I will call the poor boy- I use every variation of his name that I can think of :).

Below is our family's Christmas picture this year.  Chris- with crazy goatee (which he recently groomed per my request :).  Karen- short hair (first time in 8+ years).  CJ- 8 3/4 years. Miriam- 6 years. Eliza- 4 years.  Jed- 3 months.

CJ helping decorate Christmas Tree cookies.  Before we made the cookies I told the children they could eat 2 for snack.  While the kiddos decorated I turned and saw Eliza (not remembering the protocol for cookie making) was eating the raw cookie dough with decorations off the tray.  I told her we needed to wait till they were cooked and she replied with an "Oops!  I forgot!"

Three new friends that we've met November and December.  They were a few of the students that came to our house to learn more of how our family celebrates Christmas.

Chris' Cultural Exchange business hosted 12 American students for 2 weeks in China, this December.  During their time in our city they visited our home and participated in the above mentioned Christmas party and other activities.  Here is a picture (l-r) of one of the American visitors, Miriam, Bunny and Eliza as they played a Christmas game that is similar to "Hot Potato".  I don't think Eliza wanted to give up the loot.

CJ and Mama- holding a vase that CJ had bought me for Christmas.  This year CJ has been working diligently to earn money by doing various tasks around the house.  It was so sweet to see him plan on how he would spend his hard earned money to buy gifts for his sisters and parents (he told me Jed was too little to get anything this year :).  He bought Miriam and Eliza purses made by a minority group in China, he made Chris a gift certificate good for 10- ten minute back scratches and 3 bottles of coke.  He KNOWS his Daddy well.  After a few days he informed his Daddy that a ten minute back scratch was too long and should be 7 minutes instead.  Hee!  And for me- a cute little vase.  He was having a hard time keeping it a secret.  He kept telling me that he bought me something glass and it started with the letter "v".  

Christmas day was a whirlwind but such a blessing!  After waking the boys for Christmas morning and feeding Jed, we read the Christmas story from the Bible together.  We then proceeded to open presents (with one of our American friends joining us).  At 2:00 we swapped presents with American friends that live in the area and at 3:00 the American Cultural Exchange Students joined us for the rest of Christmas day.  We ate and ate and ate.  Read the Christmas story together (CJ and Eliza helped in narrating parts that they memorized from the Luke 2) and sang carols.  What a wonderful way to celebrate.  

 Life in our home was too hectic before Christmas to manage a Ginger Bread House but we were able to pull it off in the days that followed.  I have made ginger bread cookies before but never a house from scratch.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be and everyone LOVED it.  They are actually still loving it (still picking treats off the house).  I think it will become a tradition in our home, along with Christmas caroling in China.  This year was the first time for us to do both of these and I loved it.  We only sang in a few locations but it was warmly received and was a great opportunity for us to build a relationship with those around us and to give a small gift of a meaningful Christmas card and a candy cane.

Here's our Ginger Bread House- notice some imported candies on our house- Good and Plenty (only Miriam and I enjoy these, we have Oma's taste for licorice) and candy canes.  Yum!

Sweet Eliza- she always loves posing for pictures!

Miriam poking cloves into an orange.   The idea for this activity we got from a devotional book we were reading during Advent this year.  Doing this activity, and smelling the aroma of the cloves and oranges in days to follow, was to help us remember the aromatic gifts that were given to baby Jesus by the wise men.     

Oh my- what can I say about this boy- "Sweetness"!  This Christmas, having a new born in the house, I thoroughly enjoyed my life full of blessings.  It seemed more hectic than normal and a bit more difficult to accomplish the tasks that I had before me, as I tried to balance his feeding schedule with all our other tasks but it was such a blessing to look into Jedidiah's face, especially in a quiet home during our late night feedings, and meditate on my readings in the first few chapters of Luke.  I sat and tried to envision what it was like for Mary as she held Jesus and I remembered the many occasions of worship of our Most High God that took place in those early chapters of Luke.  Mary worshiped: Luke 1:46 "And Mary said: 'My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...".   Zechariah worshiped: Luke 1:67 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,..."  The heavenly hosts worshiped in Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven..."  The shepherds worshiped in Luke 2:20 "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God..." I'm overwhelmed with thankfulness at the gift of this sweet boy (as well as my others, of course).  I'm overwhelmed at the gift of my Savior, God's own son, that he willing sent to the world.  It was a meaningful Christmas and I'm thankful!