So This is Our Christmas

Christmas at the Patterson household...

Christmas Eve with the Noble side has come and gone - this year we tried something new and got together in the afternoon so the kids could play outside.  The annual feasting, Christmas Eve service, stockings and present exchange went well. 

Back at home, the little ones slept in on Christmas morning.  Our traditional Christmas runs like this:

When the kids (and parents) wake up, they discover their stockings at the foot of their beds!  They can open them as soon as they're awake.  The kids usually end up with a good dose of candy before breakfast (although we went easy on the goodies this year - only a handful of special treats).

We have a special breakfast.  This year was chocolate crepes, stuffed with berries and bananas, served with chocolate flavoured whipped cream.

Daddy said grace, and we all ate together, taking our time.

Next, Daddy read the Christmas story from Luke.

At this point, the kids are getting a bit impatient...Mommy, too :)

Then, we open presents! 

 Here's Graedy, with his Black & Decker tool kit.  He's been "drilling" anything and everything in the house.

Maddie got a pogo stick.  She needs to gain a few pounds to make it work right, but she's been trying hard to get it to bounce.

Eva with her very big doll.  She named it Lucy-Anna.

Baby Gen was my best present this year!

Later, we congregate at Grammy & Grampy Patterson's for the traditional Christmas turkey dinner. 

Merry Christmas from all of us!

Our Nativity Scene

I looked all over for a nativity scene the kids and I could craft up. I wanted a simple, free, printable project and I couldn't find one! Then, 2 days before Christmas, I stumbled across one online.

Here it is, a very realistic (?) example of Jesus' humble birth.



Mary, Joseph and little Jesus.



The donkey that carried Mary over all those miles to Bethlehem. Poor donkey. It looks like I feel.



In Maddie's opinion, Mary should have ridden a cow to Bethlehem. According to Mad, cows are much faster because they can run. Hunh.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

You thought I'd forgotten about Christmas, right? Curiously, it's been absent from my blog. That wasn't on purpose. This year Christmas was a bit more tame than usual, and we went very simple in our partying.

We did decorate, put up a tree, bake a Birthday cake for Jesus, send out cards (well, okay, a handful), buy some presents and all that stuff, but it was noticeably less than the last few years. Perhaps it was lack of funds or energy, but, it was what it was.

Just to show you that we didn't totally skip out, the next few blogs will present some Patterson Christmas pics as proof.

We had our First Annual Stocking Race.



It quickly turned into our First Annual Stocking Tackle.



And our First Annual Stocking Meltdown.



'Tis the season!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Every year, we bake a birthday cake for Jesus and sing Happy Birthday. Here are some pics of the occasion. For some reason, Blogger uploaded them backwards, but maybe you can read from bottom to top!
Here's Graedon having enjoyed his piece of birthday cake.

Eva and Maddie blowing out the candle. Richard suggested using 2008 candles, but I vetoed that idea.

Icing the cake...notice the tell-tale pink smudge around Eva's lips. Tsk, tsk, tsk!

Waiting patiently...

My little taste-tester.

Merry Christmas!

Here's our family wishing you a Merry Merry Christmas! Much love, family, and many blessings in the New Year - the Pattersons

Funny Girl!

Last weekend Rich and the girls braved the weather to choose a tree at the local tree farm. As Rich was zipping up Maddie's coat, he told her, "You'll have to help me choose the right tree, okay?" Eva piped in with, "And I'll help you choose the left tree!!"

I love that kid!

O Christmas Tree!

I love Christmas trees! It makes me curious to see what people deem worthy to display on the tree - after all, that's the most prominent decoration in the house at Christmas. I've seen all sorts of different themes - the Disney tree, the Edible tree, the We Love Our Pets tree, the Snowman tree, the Castoff Ornaments from Grandma's Last Yard Sale tree...mine's a mix of all of those! Personally, I like hand made ornaments. My mom and siblings and I used to spend hours making ornaments. 20 years later, Mom is still hanging the tissue/cardboard doves on the branches. They're looking a bit ratty, but the memories are great!

The girls and I made these during school. I did the prep work, cutting out cardboard stars and covering them with aluminum foil. They glued, spread, sprinkled, glittered and generally made a mess. We had fun, though!

Can you see the "Edible" and "Grandma Castoff" themes in the picture? :P Also, you can't see them very well, but my awesome neighbour made us cute cotton batting snowmen - they're hiding behing the branches on the right. Very sweet!

I'm still scraping dried glitter glue off the table top. Worth it, absolutely!

Ho Ho Ho Hum

'Tis the season! In my mind right now, there are a bunch of topics I'd like to broach - and yet, I'll try to stick to one! Good old Super Jolly Fat Man.

I only have one memory of actually believing in Santa Claus. It was Christmas Eve and my mom was tucking us snugly into bed. She must have been exhausted, for she uttered those famous Christmas Eve words, "If you don't shut your eyes and go to sleep, Santa won't come!!" Good times! I also used to believe that dinosaurs roamed the first floor of our house at night because as I lay with my arm under my head, I would hear the blood rush through the veins in my arm. My pulse sounds a lot like T-Rex foot steps. I digress.

Early in our parenting years, Richard and I decided that we wouldn't encourage the Santa myth. Already, Christmas has become such a stressful, commercial time of year that we felt that adding Santa to the mix would be taking away from what Christmas is supposed to be all about. This summer, our wonderful babysitter told the girls about him - perhaps playing the "Santa won't come" card? - and this led to a truthful, and gentle talk about Santa, Jesus' birth and Christmas. As we told our girls, Santa is a fun story but he is just pretend.

Some people don't agree with this - rather than dashing through the snow, we are dashing our children's Christmas memories and robbing them of a precious, essential childhood memory. I don't believe that. When my children are adults, I want them to remember Christmas as a celebration of our Saviour's birth, as a happy event like a birthday party, cuddling on the couch with Mommy and Daddy, participating in concerts and caroling, hot chocolate, visiting relatives and friends, etc. I want them to associate Christmas with Christ, his birthday with giving to others (and I don't mean stuff, I mean time, volunteering, charity, etc). Yes, there will be gifts, but they won't be the focus. Yes, Santa will be at the mall and on Christmas specials, but he will not be an idol. Yes, we will probably spend too much on diverse Christmas paraphanalia (spelling?), but we will try to keep it in line with our budget to discourage waste and excess.

Merry Christmas!