Our simple little Christmas celebration...

Our traditional picture in front of the tree with the new Christmas pajamas.

When does Christmas with five children seem like a small celebration?  When just a week prior you had your extended family celebration with more like THIRTY people!  

We don't give a lot of gifts on Christmas, but the stockings are sort of amazing.

We take turns opening our actual gifts one at a time, but the stockings are fair game.  Just open!

It worked so well for the extended family, that we went simple on all of the meals again for Christmas Day.  This year my sanity was worth more than the fancy table and food!

Opening the gifts after breakfast.

Jen had been playing with her new doll for a little while when all of a sudden it started singing.  At first it scared her, and she jumped - but then she realized that the doll had just scared her and she threw her head back and laughed, and laughed, and laughed!

Tikvah helping Isaac get his Wii drum out of its box.

And add a guitar and we have a band!

Each of the younger kids got a set of the Magformers.  They were a big hit!

It was a low key day with just our family, and we enjoyed it a lot!

Awaited

Since adopting children "from hard places" it just doesn't work for us to run around and keep crazy hours, especially when things are so out of the usual experience on the holidays.  We do, however, try to pick a few things that will be meaningful and memory builders.  This year we chose again to make the show "Awaited" one of the things that we would make room for in our schedules.

Awaited is a creative retelling of the Christmas story, presented by one of the larger churches in the Cincinnati area.  They have written their own musical score, have highly skilled musicians that perform it, and the costumes and special effects are nothing short of amazing.  For instance, that was actually a camel suit with a couple of people inside it that just walked through, but wow!  It surely looked real!

There were giant fiber optic flowers carried by performers, dancers seeming to fly from the ribbons hung from the ceiling, and it even snowed - inside!

An experience unlike any other, it was well worth keeping the kids out late.  I hope we can go again next year!

The Shepherd's Crook Orphan Ministry

   The Shepherd's Crook Orphans Ministry has set up a dedicated fund to receive contributions on behalf of Susy, and to help defray the costs of her adoption. If you aren't familiar with them, they are a (local to us) non-profit organization dedicated to finding safe and loving homes for special needs orphans.

The costs of international adoption are overwhelming for a family budget, and we would be hard pressed to complete one without the kindness and generosity of friends and family who see the great value in these children and help in a tangible way.

If you would like to be a part of helping us to get Susy home you may send a check to:

The Shepherd's Crook Orphan Ministry
P.O. Box 773
West Chester, OH 45071 

Please specify on the Memo line that it is a gift for Susy being adopted by Ethan and Randi Lanz.

If it is more convenient, you may  donate online here.

Thank you so much for your love for the orphan and your kindness towards us!

Awesome News!

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooot!  Do you hear me yelling over here?  Last week I asked my Facebook friends to pray for my skinny minny Little Miss who is waiting on the other side of the world.  I have been so very concerned for her as she does not seem to be thriving.  After sharing some of the details with our homestudy agency I was surprised to hear that the lady with whom I had been speaking does some volunteer work in China, and might be able to help if the orphanage was willing to accept it.

This note arrived a few minutes ago.  "I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know I was able to talk with some LWB staff and we are able to send the best high calorie formula for six year olds to Susy's orphanage for her .  We will send 1 case for now and see how she does.  I hope this will help improve her health/nutrition while she waits for her family."

Please keep praying for the safe delivery of this case of formula and that they will actually get Susy to drink it!  Such wonderful news!

Five in a Row Curriculum -- Owl Moon

Owl Moon* is a delightful story of a little boy who has waited to be "big enough" to go out after bedtime with his dad to look for an owl.  This unit unfortunately fell between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I did a poor job of remembering to take photos or notes, sorry!

An especially good conversation starter for our family was talking about the rules the little boy had to follow in order for the owling experience to be successful.  That led into why WE have certain rules in our household that must be followed for everyone to stay safe and provide a calm and neat atmosphere in our home.

We also discussed flexibility - the father was flexible in allowing the little boy to stay up late -- and how sometimes we are flexible to allow for special events.  With the holidays upon us this was a good discussion!  Our children (who spent years in an orphanage) really depend on routine, but holidays call for being flexible!

It was actually a warm (for winter) sunny day so we went out to investigate shadows.  Here is where I say "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" because I know I took photos and they are just gone.  They had a good time chasing their shadow and guessing what other shadows were from -- ie the van, the house, etc.

Another thing my children really enjoyed was learning about the tracks that different animals make in the snow.  One can find several books along this subject line and here are a few that we enjoyed:

After learning about different types of tracks they worked on pictures where they stamped the foot print of various woodland animals and stamped and/or drew their habitat.

 

We studied a little about the moon itself and its different phases.  For a sensory experience in learning about it check out episode 9 of The Treeschoolers (from Signing Time) "In this episode, Simon gets worried when he sees the moon slowly disappearing! As Rachel and the TreeSchoolers set out to solve “The Mystery of the Missing Moon,” they learn about the sun, moon, stars, planets and the scientists whose questions and curiosity led to important discoveries about our universe."

We read several books about various types of owls (and I regret not getting the titles written down before returning them to the library!)  But probably the most favorite thing about this unit was watching a movie called  Owl Power on Netflix  It was so fascinating that the kids asked to watch it a second time - when it wasn't school time, just for fun!

I hope you won't let my holiday neglect of record keeping give the impression that this book was a dud.  Give it a try!  There is a lot of fun learning to be had!


*Affiliate Link

Christmas -- Extended Family Edition

Our oldest and youngest family member!

Our holiday traditions have changed as our children have grown up, gotten married, and had children of their own.  The demands on THEIR time has increased as they juggle spending time with our family and their in-laws.  I've learned to be flexible.  As long as the family can be TOGETHER I'm not picky about the date.  So we got together the weekend before Christmas this year.

   

 

 

As our number nears THIRTY we've also had to rethink how we do things. A gift given to each person FROM each person is a bit crazy.   AND we like to take turns opening the gifts one at a time so we can enjoy each one.  Can you even imagine how long it would take to open all of them if it was 30 x 30?  You do the math!

So this year we tried something different, and I didn't know if we would like it - AT ALL.  We exchanged names.  For those still living in our home it that meant we needed to purchase gifts for just seven people.  That was certainly more manageable, and the gifts given could be a bit nicer also.

 

It likely came as no surprise to most of my kids that "Grandma does what Grandma wants to do" and I put together a basket for each of our adult children containing gifts for each individual in THEIR family.  They were primarily little things (I made many of them) and some treats that I knew they would enjoy.  But they opened the basket as a family so it was quick. 

 One of my married daughters MAY have announced, "Mom went rogue" as she helped carry the gifts into her hosting sister's home.  I'm sure they forgave me!

We also decided to go more simple on the meals.  While we have greatly enjoyed the Christmas china and formal meals of the past, doing such a thing with my eleven grandchildren and seven minor kids borders on the ridiculous.  We instead chose to use disposable table wear and prepare easy meals.

Our family gatherings look a lot like a crock pot reunion, and this day was no different.  We had FIVE hams, mashed potatoes, and various sides and desserts that people chose to bring. The next meal was even more simple.  The previous day I put together a roaster full of chili and a roaster full of corn chowder.  All I had to do was plug it in when I arrived at the party and it was ready that evening.

Simplifying the gifts and the meals left us time to actually do things together as a family.  We read the Christmas story from Luke, sang Christmas carols,

 played games,

 even made sock puppets

 

and put on shows with them. 

I think it was one of our best holidays yet!

 Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!