Five on Friday - Fond of Traditions

Five on Friday: Christmas Tradition Edition
1. We started out on December 2nd by enjoying candy canes while driving through Christmas Card Lane, a neighborhood decked out with beautiful lights and "house-sized" Christmas greeting cards.
2. Christmas at Old Poway Park was festive with carolers, twinkling white lights, and a ride around the Midland Railroad station on a steam engine. choo choo!
3. A starry-night at our church was a wonderful way to remember the reason for the season: Jesus. That He came down from Heaven to be our sin sacrifice, and that He would overcome death, and make a way to Heaven for us.

4. We enjoyed Horizon Christian Fellowhip's Living Nativity for the first time, and it's likely the most memorable activity we've enjoyed this season and past seasons! Both boys loved it. Our older one's only complaint was that it was too short :) We just received gold coins from "Roman Soldiers" to pay taxes when we arrive at Bethlehem

Almost to the entrance to the Roman gates: passage to Bethlehem

All of us with our narrator and guide, an actor dressed as Jesus

After enjoying the walk-through theater, we enjoyed the activities in the Bethlehem market place. Here are the boys with the "Follow Jesus" bracelets they made.

5. Since 2005, we enjoy December Lights (Wild Animal Park). this year is it's 20th anniversary and final celebration.

see the snow falling?

enjoying falling "snow" at the main gate

p.s. also memorable was Seaport Village - live music and an ornament activity made from real sand dollars**

Merry Christmas!!!

Raising the Roof

With our visit to Uncle Mike's place,

a highlight for our older son was "looking down from the roof."

The place was built around the 1920s - check out this elevator. "I loved that we could take pictures there. It was verrrry rainy!" say the older one.

It was heartwarming to enjoy my kids, the two brothers, hang out with another two brothers: Pete & Mike.

We also watched Ratatouille for the first time!

Mmmm Mmmm good!

We enjoyed car trip up for an evening & sleepover visit with Aunt Sammie. Part of her special treats for us was making a dairy free Carmel Corn. Fun to make and Mmmm Mmmm good!

Countdown to Christmas

It's time prepare for Jesus' arrival!! I've been excited for this time of year since the summer :)

We enjoy Advent devotional time in the evenings.

The kids remember the Christmas stories and look forward to them year after year.

This years favorite story is "What God wants for Christmas"

We start our time by lighting candles, then we read a Christmas story & scripture (Jesse tree), pray, and end our time blowing candles out.

Here's our construction paper Jesse tree.

Each ornament reminds us of a Bible story

(from Creation in Genesis to Jesus Birth),

we read scripture ...

and we place one ornament each day til Christmas on our "tree".

We used to have a make-shift or homemade advent wreath. now we put the candles next to our nativity.

The kids especially enjoy blowing out the candles!

Christmas Stockings

Each Christmas we hang our stockings with care,

and fill them with small gifts for loved ones to share.

But do we remember that the first Christmas night

God gave us His Son who gave us His life?

A sacrifice so great- how can we repay?

We can say, "Thank you Jesus" on this His birthday.

Hang a stocking for Jesus and fill it with love.

Do good for others and thank God above.

-Author Unknown

Last year we found that Berean marks down merchandise 50-75% off before Christmas.
We found this great tradition & started a tradition of a Stocking for Jesus.The boys' piggy banks have 3 sections, one each for: God's work, savings, spending.
The kids and parents will pool our money set aside for "Church" to share with people less fortunate than we. The children look through the Samaritan's purse Christmas gift catalog and picked "Share the gospel with boys and girls" (bottom of the pictured page).
On construction paper hearts, we wrote our 'gifts' ---the things we've done or will do to reflect Jesus' love-- and put them in Jesus stocking

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;

as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 13: 34-35

On December 6, we remember Saint Nicholas' love for Jesus, by placing small trinkets (race cars that say "Go with Jesus", fruit (apple, orange), office supplies (paper pads, pencils say "God is my ruler"), and candy (candy canes, candy bracelets) in the children's stockings hung by their bed. We remember how the real Saint Nicholas, former Bishop of Myra (modern day Turkey), had thrown a bag of gold coins through the window of a poor family and the coins landed in the stocking of the daughter, and blessed the family as it was used for a wedding dowry. Saint Nicholas did this for the younger two daughters of this impoverished family also. Saint Nicholas' love for Jesus prompted his giving.

The Ants go marching 2 by 2, Hoorah! Hoorah!

Harvest Ants are our newest pets!

If you've been around our older son at a park, his affinity to ants may have stood out. We found an ant farm at 80% off at the end of summer ($2.99). For his birthday, his aunt's family populated the farm with Harvest Ants. They arrived before Thanksgiving.

We filled the ant farm with sand to prepare the ant colony's new home. just before placing the ants in, we start their first tunnel for them.

A bit of water is added in case they are thirsty after their long trip to our house.

Cheese!

Thanksgiving Artwork

Young kids and big "kids" alike helped to create artwork on thanksgiving evening.

Each of us contributed to the THANKFULNESS TREE - Let's see what was shared:

on each leaf is written something the person is thankful for.

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR:
- You.
- For friends and family, and a very productive and positive year. also thankful for turning 30 and not freaking out!
- For all the family being together in thoughts and love. For healing me from my heart condition. Bless Gina & her family for opening her house this Thanksgiving. Bless Rojielynn, Ron & Eric also. I love you God.
- For forgiveness. That Jesus was my sin sacrifice...that I get the opportunity to spend eternity in heaven with my brothers and sister in Christ, and tonight, with family and friends, I have a taste of heaven on earth.
- Family & Friend. Sharing Special times.
- For my family and friends. also, for Nico having a great year so far in 1st grade.
- A gracious God, a loving family, a supportive boyfriend, and the many blessings we have.
- My family and friends, my health, my job.
-That Lola Arcega is recovering from her recent illness
-GOD. FAMILY. FRIENDS.LIFE.
- THE 3 'F's: FAMILY. FRIENDS. FAITH.
-Husband. Son. my puppy. Family, Friends & Community.
- I am very thankful for GOD who is the Head of my life, I am thankful for Eternal Life, I thank God for hearing and answering my prayer. I thank GOD for a place of worship service, I thank God for salvation. I thank God for my life, health, and strength. I thank God for the rain. I thank God for fellowship with new people. I thank GOD for all his blessing. I thank GOD for seeing my 53rd birthday. I thank GOD for waht HE has done in the past, present, and future.
-That all my children and grandchildren live in California.
-I am thankful for my entire life.
- Family. Friends. Food. Sleep!
- We are really thankful for family and really good friends. We are thankful for our freedom to worship how we choose and mostly for the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
-I'm thankful I don't have to get my house dirty. instead we can get mess up Pete's. I'm thankful that FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE JOHN 3:16.

And what the children wrote on their thankfulness leaves

-that God sent Jesus as our savior

- my pteradactyl

- for the gifts I got on Christmas

- for drumming sticks

- for Christmas lights

- that I like God

Here's the crayon art:

Mousecapade

Watch this video AFTER you've reached the bottom of this page.
Grand Finale Video of Mouse-capade SOLVED?!
This is how the story ENDS =>
this mouse has been affectionately been named DaViD (minus the vowels). Well, DaViD is M.I.A....we think he's lingering back there and possibly activated the open/close button? we'll see.

=================================================================

HERE'S HOW THE STORY BEGINS:

Strolling through the Wild animal park with sis, nephew, & kids....phone rings...

Me: "hi"

Marnster: "it's a random call. Well...susan picked me up and came in through the front door, we left through the garage. when we got back a few hours later, the front door was locked but wide open. i know we shut it, but it didn't latch shut. we went through the entire house with a bat. then we kept hearing a sound in the family room...over and over...it was coming from the TV stand! i pushed the coffee table up to keep the tv stand door from opening and keep the mouse inside"

Me: "oh NO!!!"

Marnster: "we stared at it pushing against the tv stand door for half an hour. it really wants to get out! what should we do?"

Me: "pete is used to handling mice at work. i'll call him"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later...................

dear husband arrives at the empty place, and we can hear the rhythmic thuds of something pushing against the door of the TV stand! it's pushing hard too, it keeps moving the door forward a quarter inch.

The excitement is building!

We keep the kids up on the stairs to watch.

My parents advised trying to catch it with the trusty vacuum extension, so that's ready to go.

We've all got gloves on!!!!!

Big sis and I are VERY jumpy, and squealing LOUDLY, as we have to hold open the TV stand door..that magnetic door keeps shutting, we have to hold it open....

for pete to catch it!!! well that mouse wouldn't come out of the half open door...so look at what we see here............

Five on Friday

1. What a fun filled week!
2. No shopping for me today. too bad payday isn't til NEXT friday
3. We started with an almost empty fridge on Wednesday morning, and now it's packed full of all those wonderful leftovers.
4. Maybe i'll make turkey soup out of the turkey bones that were left.
5. I'm thankful for friends, new and old, and family -- especially those who blessed us with their company yesterday :)

Thanksgiving Time

It was an honor to host the annual Thanksgiving potluck for the first time.

This tradition of five families joining together for dinner has been celebrated for at least 25 years...plus, friends, friends of friends, extended family, and on and on.

The history starts with the 'guys' who met in the US Navy in the early 1960's, friendships continued to blossom and grow,

as their families grew (thru marriage & children),

and circles of friendships grew.

The special thing is that each of us know that each year we can count on this gathering happening at someone's home. This year, it was especially true, as husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings, grandparents & grandchildren, were separated by many many miles.

At this moment, many of the "guys" were hanging out in the family room.

Everyone is facing toward the camera in this wonderful family of six!
"Turkey!"
Kitchen talk
Cheese!
Laughing out loud!

Cheek-to-Cheek is my favorite way to take pictures Buzz & Bizz are so thoughtful to include Lolo & Lola in the picture :)

All arms wrapped around and smiles

Decorating our CHRISTmas pine

On thanksgiving weekend, our tradition is to decorate our pine tree to remember Jesus coming down from heaven for us, celebrated on Christmas. This year we decorated before turkey-day because our special guest, Grandma, was visiting a bit earlier.

Here's baby Jesus from our nativity scene

"Je(s)us!" says our little one.
Our tradition starts with a story about the First Christmas, our saviors birth, and ends with cocoa as we watch our claymation video of the First Christmas.

Grandma is reading "The REAL night before Christmas", a book she gave us.

Next is a book with Christmas stockings that can be filled.

Our tree is a hodge podge of a variety of ornaments. We decorate our tree with ornaments given to us over the years and a simple prayer for the giver of the ornament. It's a great way to reflect back on the people that have blessed us by being a part of our lives, even if just for a season.

The evening ends with Aunt Sammie's arrival. By this time, grandma and the boys are singing CHRISTmas carols...and Aunt Sam joins in too (she even keeps the beat with her dancing feet!). That video of the four of them is for "their eyes only".

Here are the boys though:

We've always loved this season of remembering Jesus' first coming...so it's a pleasure to start a few days early!

This one's for you, Lola!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOLA

You are loved as you are

Have a wonderful day

Things -to be thankful for- Thursday

Our little one has had the childhood transmitted disease (in the chicken pox family) oral virus since wednesday the 12th...
Every cloud has it's silver lining, right?
Between my husband and I taking turns being caregiver and going to work, we were able to find the blessings of caring for a very needy, clingy, uncomfortable, child with fevers from 101 to 103.7 over a period of six days:
1. Watching movies under a warm blanket
2. Bonding with Daddy


3. As a family, with so much time at home, we got the Christmas tree and lights up -- ready to decorate thanksgiving weekend -- which is our tradition.

4. When he had an appetite back on day 6, we had pancakes!

5. We enjoyed "puppet shows" when our sick little toddler had some energy: here's kessy, our pet one-eyed snowy owl..... 6. Although most of the day was spent like this (below), the small part of the day that he dozed off, our older son and i got to do "artwork" which actually ended up in the completion of all my scrapbooking projects, minus journaling!

7. The dentist recommended yummy stuff that'd the kids and adults would enjoy: here we have sorbets, dairy free frozen desserts, we also had soy yogurt, soy cocoa milk, popsicles, liquids, soups.

8. A bowl of soycream with rainbow sprinkles, soy cocoa milk, and strawberry sorbet soothes the mouth

9. A chance to pull out some toys that we haven't played with for awhile

10. A "care package" (only part of it is shown here) that lasts and lasts and is full of the sweets for the kids

30 + 8

We all had a chuckle after watching this 16 second video being played back. There are enough candles on my cake to illuminate the room...and also darken the room to a "black out" when we blow them out! The funny thing is that there were a few candles shaped into the numbers 38 -- there weren't even 38 candles on this cake!