I did not pick out the older ones’ clothing. I just made an announcement that people were to wear red, green, or white. And this is what I got. As you can see, Rich always does his own thing. He is also somewhat color blind, but I don’t think he can use that for an excuse for wearing GRAY in the Christmas photo. Oh well. I think it still looks just fine and I am much happier taking a picture with my own camera and tripod than trying to get a portrait done at a studio. The very thought makes me nervous. Anyway.
Seth’s expression makes me laugh. I think Grace is lovely. And my husband is handsome.
After our Christmas picture (it was freezing outside, by the way, poor Seth and his bare feet!) Rich left with the children to pick out our Christmas tree.
The chickens were so funny and very curious about what was going on as Rich trimmed off the bottom of the trunk and some of the lower branches.
I’m afraid, we are all in love with the chickens. Never did I believe it was possible. But, they really do have personalities and endearing qualities to them.
Our dear Miss Grace was in her very first piano recital. We were so proud of her. I never did make those popcorn balls for the reception afterwards. I ended up with what I believe is possibly low blood sugar or something (I could have used a popcorn ball! LOL)….every once in a while I get weak and shaky. I decided that buying cookies, although against my personal principles (everything is better homemade, dontcha know) was the best way to go. And the children were absolutely thrilled with them, of course, LOL…..store bought are a TREAT.
But, back to Miss Grace. She picked out her own outfit, a long khaki skirt and a red top. I fixed her hair a little, and off we went. She was about half way down the program and she did SO well. I was nervous for her (I used to play the piano and it’s meaningful to me that my daughter is also learning to play) but I tried to mask those feelings. All of the students did well, Rich and I especially enjoyed this one little bitty boy who got right up there and POUNDED out his pieces just as loud as he could. And one precious little girl, probably about 7, she actually was SMILING TO HERSELF as she played, very naturally, you could just tell she was full of joy over being able to play her songs.
When we got home…..the snow was starting to fall.
And we began to decorate our trees. Can you believe that? Snow, at the perfect time to make us feel all Christmasy.
The children had a wee tree that they decorate all by themselves.
After they are done you wonder if it’s a tree or one big hodge podge of ornaments.
Then, we all decorated the big tree, the biggest tree yet. It’s about 9 feet tall, I think. We did a gold and red theme this year.
Rich tried to get Caleb to put the star on top but he just cried and howled in fear.
So, Davy-do did it.
This picture gives an idea of why on earth Caleb might have been a little worried. Perhaps he is afraid of heights? Rich is 6 feet tall.
After the star was put on top, we turned on the lights and admired it.
And began to teach Sethie to leave the ornaments alone.
He took his first steps this week but please don’t make a big deal out of it because I’m in denial.
This morning, we woke up to a white wonderland. My eyes enjoyed the beauty of the snow and the children were itching to get out and go sledding.
This is an extremely random picture of Caleb’s Thomas train. The one on the right has about 25 layers of paint on it, from several years of paint jobs. Caleb was waiting for the latest coat to dry and brought it to me this morning to show me.
Wow.
Come to think of it, it might be a James train underneath all that paint. I’ll have to ask Caleb.
Instead of spending the morning sledding, we all got dressed for church. The boys rarely wear ties or suits but this morning they did, so I took a few pictures in front of the tree right before we all ran out the door to get in the vehicle.
After church we went out to eat at an Italian place and I had the most wonderful pasta dish with tomatoes, mussels, scallops, shrimp, olives, and capers. Oh my it was such a treat. Rich also had a pasta dish and the kids shared a pizza. It was really nice to sit down together and eat. Our waitress was so nice and enjoyed seeing the children. Seth was a busy body, though, and dropped everything he could on the floor as he laughed right at us. I gave him a lemon and then it was my turn to laugh.
Now that we are home, I walked 2 miles on the treadmill and Rich took a nap while the older kids finally got to go outside in the snow. They are back inside now and the five of them all played a game of memory together. It really made my heart happy, to see them all sitting around the game together. Ethan won. He said, “Even if you put all of their matches together I would have still won. David just got one match.” David piped up and explained cheerfully, “I’m a dummy.” We laughed and I said, “No you are not, David!”
Thank you to all my sweet friends who take the time to visit my blog today and say hello. It means a lot to me!
Blessings and love~
Shanda
Good to be Home 
I love reading your blog…and I like it that I find myself smiling or chuckling unconsciously as I read your posts. You and your family are beautiful, inside and out. :)The photo of David putting the star on the tree is hilarious. He IS brave. Grace looks so serious at her recital! I’ll bet she is going to be really good at it…and she seems to embody her name. Caleb always seems to have this mischievous gleam in his eye that makes you wonder what he is doing when your back is turned. š I think it’s cute that Jacob takes such good care of Seth. He and Ethan seem so grown up and responsible for their age. And Mr. Man standing up touching that ornament…. 8-)…And the chickens are hilarious.I feel like I have just watched a Hallmark Movie. All warm and fuzzy. LOL.It seems like you are well on your way to a wonderful Christmas.
Shanda~ You’re home looks like a winter wonderland. So beautiful and abounding with snow~I was wondering if the last picture of the children, (which btw, is adorable!) is them trying to match Daddy in his grey? hee hee Your family photo is wonderful. I agree a hallmark movie for sure!Merry Christmas ~Cinnamon
Wow, thank you so very much for sharing your life with us!! I always enjoy coming to your blog. Reading about you and your family has become a daily dose of comfort and happiness for me. I hope to have some children to share my life with in the future! Bless you and your family this Christmas season!!
Grace really IS lovely ~ I love her dress in the Sunday pic. All the kids look so nice in those pics. Happy day to you ~
Well, if I wasn’t in the Christmas-y mood before coming to your blog today I certainly would be now. Thank you for sharing everything. I don’t think Seth is walking…maybe it’s a new form of crawling…like two-legged crawling. Hmm??
man I love the winter wonderland picture! Wish we had snow like that. We got 15 mins worth here and it was actually our first freeze. Since we get so little we count ours in mins š
I love Grace’s dress in the last two pictures – she it quite the young lady! And I like the way you give the kids a tree to decorate however they like – what fun!
Your family photos are lovely.I like your idea of your family dressing in Christmas colours.We are about to put up our tree. We have no snow here, just hot weather in Australia.Angela
Shanda, what a beautiful post. i felt like i was right there with you guys. i love Christmas pictures. there is always a little bit of a story behind them but they are one of the links that help us remember every year at a moment with our families. we usually do our after Christmas (i’m not sure why that is). i loved the color coordinating. and your kids all dressed up on sunday morning. what absolutely beautiful children you have. i’m so proud of your daughter. getting herself all dressed up and doing so well on that piano recital. i love recitals cause there is such a purity and youth to them. i like going to profession stuff as well, but when kids do it its just so awesome to see their personalities there. i love that picture on the chicken’s face try to figure what on earth your husband is doing with the tree. wow that tree is huge..i love the idea of having the kids do their own. our tree is often a mishmash of things…but i love its personality. i love that you have the kids do it. soo beautiful..and your big one looked like it was right out of a magazine. i liked the one of seth tentatively touching the tree š i hope that he will come to learn to enjoy it…without taking the ornaments off..they can be a big temptation. (i’m just chuckling to myself thinking about your chickens and what kind of a reaction they might have to your glowing tree…perhaps it would be a fascinating thing to see! )May you be blessed this week. thank you for your xanga blog. It is a blessing.
Such a happy Christmas post! Love the family photo, and Rich is just a good base for the family…in every way! How wonderful and perfect to have the snow come in. The chickens/girls are a crack up. Pretty too. Great, lovely trees. I am trying to get the lights on ours so we can decorate tonight, but I need my men, can’t quite reach. OK, I am in denial too. What is that little guy thinking? Tell him to stop it! Tell Davy-do good job on that star! What beautiful children you have. I would have smiled to see you all come in. We ate lunch with Grandpa and admired all the seniors. They called me a kid there! He is happy and content which makes us doubly so! And Miss Grace looks so beautiful playing the piano. Tell her I love the outfit she picked. She looks so pretty. I remember being nervous when I played piano recitals. One of my pieces was Greensleeves, and I still remember how to play it by heart!
I love the pictures. Oh, what fun, snow!!!! I really miss snow. We have to head to the mountains to see any snow. Seth looks so cute with his little bare feet.
Your tree is lovely. The snow did add to the festive feel in the air around here too:). Oh the chickens…love them too. Love your stories and pictures about them. (and who would have thought? )Have a blessed week.
Thanks shanda for sharing…so lovely to stop by eac day and just get lost in your stories full; of love!
What a lovely, Christmasy post! I just love your Christmas photo! So much better than a stuffy studio – in my opinion! {grin} And your Christmas tree – gorgeous!! I cannot believe your Seth took a few steps! My Scotty, who will be 16 months this week, has still not taken a step. I will keep him that way for a wee bit longer!Even though I jumped the blogger bandwagon, I still love coming to xanga to read your blog! Thanks for being an encouragement!http://www.amomentcherished.blogspot.com
Your Christmas Card is so lovely — that’s quite a feat to get so many people looking good and happy all at once! Love the snow piture from this morning, too!
I love all these photo’s Shan. The family photo is beautiful! Love you. Lish
You have a beautiful family. That i sone beautiful Christmass tree all covered with love. I can understand how you can fall in love with your chickens. My friend has pet chickens and they do have thier own personalities.
I had never read your blog before but we took supper down to “earthmechanic” and his wife and he was telling me about your interesting blog and now that I have read it,I am hooked. You have such an interesting way of writing and so realistic, I love it. You have a beautiful family and it sounds like you have a good time together. Blessings to you!
Hugs to Caleb! And to you.
I love your Christmas picture — I’m all for candid vs studio pictures (even though you are posed somewhat!) Your children are growing so fast — as I’ve said before enjoy them as it won’t be long and they’ll leave the nest and you’ll wish for these days again!! I can’t wait for Levi to come and touch the tree and mess things up a little!! I remember when our children had piano recitals — I think I got more nervous than they did! Grace is such a lovely young lady!We had a little snow here yesterday and I guess we’re supposed to get more later in the week.Enjoy this Christmas season with your beautiful family — Blessings friend —
Wow! a photo-genic family! Great shots. Have a blessed week!
wow. i’m going to hire you next year to take our family shots~ can’t believe how good you got from a tripod and self timer! the kids picked well. i like grace’ jeans w/ the detail down the leg. your tree looks lovely~ send some snow our way so maybe i’ll get more in the mood to decorate ours. :)kate has a piano recital tomorrow night~ and yes.. i too get more nervous than she does.
What a beautiful beaming family! The tree is massive and gorgeous!
I really wish I’d gotten a chance to say hi to you today š¦ I was so distracted and trying to do too many things at once, so I missed you. I love all the pictures, as usual. I hope you had a lovely evening, and hopefully we can catch up soon. Much love you. ā¤
Not only is Grace old enough for a recital, I see she is wearing a necklace! I’m considering getting a small tree (I may even have 3 fake mini trees in the attic) for the children to decorate. How fun!
Love all the photos, and your tree is gorgeous! Looks like our Davy Do has a knock on the noggin. LOL! The picture of him up there in the air putting the star on the tree was really something! He is fearless! Congratulations to Grace for a job well done with the piano recital. As a child, I sweat through a few of those. What a happy day when my mother finally admitted that the piano was just not my instrument!
I have hardly been on xanga AT ALL lately, but your post caught my eye and I just had to swing by and say hello. Love your family pictures, and even that bottom one of all the kids dressed for church is so sweet. . .loved Caleb’s hair combed with water to try and tame it. That is the story of my Sunday mornings. . .desperately trying to tame unruly boys’ hair! They all need haircuts and then that will help a bit. We were able to get a great family shot too the day after Thanksgiving, surprisingly, which even includes our dog, Zeke. Amazing, really. . .anyone with many children (or even just a couple of little kids) understands the enormity of such an undertaking! No one listens to me when I request certain clothing, or else they complain mightily, so this time I just said, “No torn jeans or play clothes!!”. Those orders were followed, and we got a wonderful family shot taken by our friends who were w/us for Thanksgiving. I’m in the process of making our cards now, so hopefully they’ll be out before Christmas. . . š Loved the snow falling!! We don’t get much of that down here, but we’ve had seasonally cold weather, so it definitely feels Christmasy here too. Many blessings!
Your Christmas card family picture is so lovely! Since not all of our family was around for a picture, we decided to do one with just Grandpa and Grandma and the ten grandchildren (ages 6 and under). It was like organizing grasshoppers! Needless to say, it turned out less than picture perfect, but I’m using it anyway. Love your snow picture. I enjoy other people’s snow pictures, because it’s doubtful we will get any snow in Ga.
I like the first picture for the Christmas card as much as the one with them in ties and all! That tree is huge! Loved the winter wonderland photo, on the way to church I said “Everyone look out the window the whole drive so we can see all the pretty snow!” I love it when it is the sticky snow and covers every little thing, I can just imagine that your property is stunning in the snow like that!
I really enjoy coming to read your blog. Your pictures are wonderful as usual:) I’m glad the recital went well! Grace is such a little lady. We got snow to and it was so nice to watch it and see the kids outside playing in the snow.
My face hurts from grinning all the way down the page. A laugh here, a giggle there and a sigh of gratitude that God has blest you so much. (I like the grey BTW, very distinguished really) We decorated our tree on Saturday as well. Sweetly, two grown kids not only picked out the tree but purchased it. Two grown children still putting up the same homemade ornaments they put up when they were your kids age, with grown up smiles and exclamations of delight. “Oh! There it is!” Egg nog and wassail and music. A lovely time. Someday you two will find it the same. I am so glad you know to enjoy it now, sweet one. All my Christmas love, m
OH! PS. Lolagirl69 is a dear friend of mine. I am so glad to find her here!
I love the snow pictures! We were in the running for some snow this weekend – but it didn’t happen. Darn! Our kids are still addicted to Ticket To Ride and Blokus right now. Those are the games of choice. Oh. . .and Uno. . that’s never a game that sits on the shelf!
I love it all, I don’t know where to begin. My favorites are Seth in front of the Christmas tree, and the white wonderland. I hate being cold but it is soo pretty to look at. thanks for sharing!!!
delightful post ~ pretty as pretty pictures – the family shot is wonderful and I love the kids all dressed up for church! SNOW, real snow – Bubbie is looking on w/ me here right now and I am showing it to him as well. It’s raining rain outside š not cold enough today for even white flurries. He has no idea what a sled is lol! beautiful tree – ! the girls and I decorated last night – I invited the boys, but they wanted to play some kind of softball shoot out game upstairs and have a “war” instead… so we enjoyed the girl moments and lovely girl time. ~blessings on this Christmas season!Alyssa
The family pictures are fabulous! The chickens are adorable and it’s so cute that they were interested in what was going on! It’s fun to hear about what everybody is doing; the painted train is so funny! Love, GAil
sounds like a lovely weekend……….warm, cozy, christmasy, and full of family.
grace looks beautiful at her recital. and i love that all the boys wore ties to church – so handsome!!
My goodness you guys have been busy! The trees look fabulous! It has been cold enough here for snow, but we haven’t seen even one flurry. I mostly try to stay warm (lots of cardigans these days) and keep the kids’ tummies full–seems like they want to eat ALL THE TIME. That Seth is another Davy–I can just see it!!! Lucy is still cruising!!! She just had her first birthday last month! I bet they’re about the same size too. I was looking at her tonight in the bathtub, and I just can’t believe she’s nearly 13 months–she really doesn’t look it; she’s so small! Oh well, she’s my miniature girl! xoxo Amanda
Shanda, I always love reading your blog in the evenings and admiring your photos – it gives me the same feeling as lighting my new cinnamon candle does, warm and happy and like I’m giving myself a little gift.God bless you and your sweet family tonight. Sleep tight.
Your Christmas family photo is absolutely lovely! And the photo of your beautiful home in the snow hit me with a moment of nostalgia for this time of year in the States. Have a wonderful Christmas!