Christmas 2012

 Christmas Eve

 This is the "Feeding Station" the kids made for Santa's Reindeer. They even came back out and put name tags so each deer would know which snack was theirs.

 

Putting out the magic Christmas key.Santa needs it because our house does not have a chimney.

 Christmas Day 2012

 Stocking treasures

I over heard the girls telling a friend last week that on Christmas day they could eat whatever they wanted all day long. Today was FULL of chocolate. I am not sure anyone ate much else, even the delicious ham dinner I cooked.

Santa brought every one bikes this year.  It was beautiful today, warm and sunny. Not very Christmas like, but we had fun riding bikes outside for a long time.

Christmas Best plus One

Poor Luke is sick again. He woke up with a fever of 102. So these are the kids who went to church today, plus Luke. He is feeling a bit better after sleeping all day.

Contentment

This is what I see most mornings now when I take Molly for a walk. It is not snow, or majestic mountains, but it is beautiful. I am working on choosing to be more content in life. But seriously, I miss the snow.

Update

 This is our bedraggled Christmas wreath. I loved it when I got it 10 years ago. I tried to spruce it up when we moved here by adding some metallic flowers and leaves. It looks so ugly to me I didn't even put it up last year.

This is my made-over wreath. Makes me happy when projects actually turn out! Yay to Target for cheap and fun Christmas things and for my reunion with my long forgotten hot glue gun.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

 First thing this morning we made a list of things we are grateful for. Here are some highlights from each of the kids.

 Noah: I am "thank" for Jesus, family, teacher & the Earth

 Sophie - among many other things- is thankful for "cures for pneumonanultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconosis-and other dieses and sicknesses" according to her dictionary that is the longest word in the english language right now, it is a lung disease volcano scientists get sometimes or something like that.

 Luke: Molle - Molly,Omm - mom, pucmpins, and rules. He did the rules all by himself. When I asked him why he was grateful for rules he said that if we did not have rules our house would be a crazy and messy place.

Grace's list was really spread out, here are a few of hers: the ones that are a bit hard to read are sunsets, heaters, turkeys so we can kill you for dinner, & socks

It is a tradition now that Jason cooks the turkey. Here was today's masterpiece.

Fall

The other day on NPR I listened to a program about color and sight. Human eyes have 3 cones which allow us to see variations of violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Dogs see colors, but not the same way humans do. Dogs have only 2, so they see some of the colors we do and not others. Dogs can only see blue, violet, yellow and some shades of gray.  Many animals have different abilities to see colors then humans. Sparrows have 8 cones, they see colors beyond the spectrum of what we see as humans. There is a small Caribbean shrimp which has the most advanced eyesight discovered in the animal kingdom so far. Mantis shrimp have 16 cones, they see color far beyond the spectrum of what is visible to human eyes.

I never knew there were colors I couldn't see. It is so amazing to me. Our leaves turned late this fall, we are towards the end now, but I still see the most vibrant red, oranges and yellows. With the light just right, the colors are so intense that they almost seem unreal somehow.

I have always wondered how the celestial kingdom could be more beautiful then this earth. I wondered if maybe it just had more beautiful places? But what if we could then see the entire spectrum of light,  not just the limited slice we get now? This idea has been rumbling around in my brain for quite a few days now. Thoughts of faith, and seeing with spiritual eyes, of beauty and light and color.

I remembered this scripture,  ... Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor. 2:9.  I learned very similar verses are also in Isaiah and the D&C.  There is so much more then what I can see now. At some time there will be more colors, greater light.

Halloween 2012

Sophie was not feeling well and did not want to carve a pumpkin. She decided to wear her kimono from Sis. Hashimoto to trick or treat. It was cold...40's. For Halloween in the south we froze! I just realized the kids costumes all went together- 3 ninjas and a Japanese princess.

PS - From Sophie - some of the kids let Molly lick their lollipops!