O Tannen Baum!

Because we moved to this house in January, this will be our first Christmas here! I had not given much thought to a Christmas tree, but one day Jeff said, "How in the world are we going to fit a tree in the living room?" Since practically the only solutions were to 86 the couch or suspend the tree from the ceiling fan in the middle of the room, we thought we would forego the tree this time. Fortunately, our friends the Cospers had a spare little tree that they let us borrow to put in our bay window. You can see in the picture that it's really pretty perfect! (They also gave us their tree trimmings to use as decorations.) A tradition that I began with our kids is to give them each an ornament every year. To represent their first year, I use their first baby shoes. Katie's is a little white crocheted bootie with pink ribbon and Joe's is a more traditional white leather shoe. The Willow Tree nativity scene was a Christmas gift from Jeff last year. I couldn't wait to set it up this year! (The books you see on the shelf beneath are Katie's school books.) Another tradition we do is to have an advent calendar, counting down the days until the birthday of the Saviour of the world. The tiny white stockings hanging across the mantel are what we use. Katie and Joe love taking turns opening a stocking each day to find the surprise inside. Well, they love the surprise part, not so much the taking turns part!

Poor Little Joe

Saturday morning Jeff rode with a friend to the high school state playoffs. The local team, Commerce, was playing Jeff's old school, Lincoln County, and Jeff was determined to go see the Red Devils win. (He wasn't disappointed!) I hated having to call him to tell him I was on the way to the emergency room with his son. Saturday afternoon Joseph was playing in his room and hit his head on the toy box, cutting himself above the right eye. (Just to the left of where he cut himself last time on the coffee table.) When I had him in the bathroom mopping up, assessing damage, Joe was fascinated with his reflection in the mirror. "My boo-boo!" he kept saying with a big grin. My friend Chrissy came and took Katie home with her and I took Joe on to the emergency room at the local hospital. Seven stitches were required to close up the cut and Joe and I both cried our way through the process. Fortunately we found a size three toddler football uniform, complete with pads and helmet, on e-Bay so we shouldn't have any more injuries.

New Layout

Blogger has updated their site and given people the option to upgrade and change their blogs. So, I'm experimenting with these options and adding information and generally trying to figure out how everything works now! I'll be done "tweaking" when I'm satisfied with how it looks. Until then, expect frequent changes!

Christmas Musical

Once again, pictures will have to wait until I get them developed, but I thought I'd go ahead and update everyone on what's been going on with us. Last weekend Jeff and I were in "I'll Be Home for Christmas" a 1940's themed Christmas musical. The story revolves around a family in 1941. The choir performs all the music and the shows that the family hears "on the radio". I played the mom, Norma, and even sang a duet! Jeff did a fabulous job as the newscaster who breaks in with updates about "the war in Europe" and delivers the news about Pearl Harbor. It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad life can get back to normal now. Whatever that is!

Jeff and Joe

I just wanted to give all of you a treat by letting you see both of my guys! They are handsome, don't you think? What a blessing they are! Every day, I have to answer the question, "Where's Daddy?" a hundred times. I say, "Where IS Daddy?" and little Joe says, "Daddy's at work!" Jeff has acquired a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle, and they both love to go driving in it. Jeff has been after me to post pictures of it, so I will one of these days.

What Happened to November?

I absolutely cannot believe it is nearly December! Thanksgiving was spent with my side of the family this year and we had a blast. We drove down to meet Mom and Berk in Wrens, where they left their car and made the fateful decision to ride with us! No, we had a nice, uneventful trip to Granny and Papa's in Blackshear. As always, the food was great (yummy fried turkey!) and the company even better. We played games and laughed and stayed up too late talking. We stayed the night with Mom and Berk in Aiken on Thursday night and left there on Friday. Let me tell you about what a lovely hostess my mom is. The children had two bowls of cereal each in addition to popcorn for breakfast. She made coffee for herself and let me have some. Of course, it was not flavored coffee, but plain -- because Jeff likes the plain better. When Jeff came into the kitchen, she said, "Hello, Jeffrey. Would you like some bacon? How about a bacon sandwich? Or a fried egg? How about a fried egg sandwich with bacon? Would you like cheese? Whatever you'd like!" When Jeff agreed to all of the above, my mother said, "Okay, well, Jeni, I'm getting in the shower. You can handle all that for Jeff, can't you?" On the way home we were blessed to be able to have lunch with Jeff's twin brother Joe and his wife Jennifer. Jennifer made a really good Chicken Chili, which we called soup so Katie would eat it. We also had that wonderful pistachio-marshmallow-pineapple, etc. dessert whose name currently escapes me.

Katie in Disguise. . . With Glasses!

At Katie's check-up this year, I requested that her eyesight be tested. Considering my eyesight (not great) and Jeff's (deplorable) I figured it was a wise move. I'd also seen little signs that she might be having trouble seeing. They did a preliminary exam at the doctor's office, and then recommended that we take Kaitlyn to an optometrist. When the doctor put up the chart for her to read, she got to the third line and couldn't read it. He was surprised, and turned to look at me like, "Is she serious?" Sure enough, our little girl needed glasses! She got them a couple of weeks ago and she absolutely loves them. They are wire-frame, and rosy pink. She is completely adorable in them. The only problem is that now Joseph keeps asking for glasses! Unfortunately, he'll probably get his wish before long.

From GA to NC to See Georgia

Last Thursday, I drove to Wake Forest, North Carolina to see my newest "niece". Oh, yeah, and to see her parents! Baby Georgia is absolutely beautiful and was so well behaved while I was there, though the picture doesn't show it! I expected to be up all night with her, but she woke up only to eat -- which I could definitely not help with! I also expected the six hour drive to be awful, since I loathe driving, but it was a gorgeous day and I loved looking at all the fall colors. (A book-on-tape also made the drive fly by!) The visit was wonderful. Leah and I never run out of things to talk about, and I always enjoy conversations with Nathan, too. I went home on Saturday, after Nathan and Leah went out to lunch together. I think they were a little nervous about leaving their two-week old baby, but that was overridden by the excitement of getting to go on a date. Of course, the best part of any trip is coming home and this was no exception. Jeff was just settling Kaitlyn and Joseph into bed when I arrived and they promptly attached themselves to me until I finally made them get in bed. The worst part of the trip had to be my fruitless search for a Hazelnut Caffe Mocha from Starbuck's on the way home. I settled for a Coke from McDonald's.

Happy Halloween!

For our church's Fall Festival last week, I scrambled to come up with costumes for Katie and Joe (at the last minute, naturally). There are thousands of cute, super-easy costume ideas out there -- and all you need is a plain, solid color sweatsuit in your child's size. The hard part is finding a plain, solid color sweatsuit in your child's size! After scouring four different stores, I gave up and brainstormed these costumes when I got home. Joseph is puppy dog with floppy ears sewn on his hooded jacket, and a brown dress sock safety-pinned to his rear end. Katie is a cat with felt ears sewn on a cloth headband, and a pink fuzzy sock safety-pinned to her rear end. I had to use my make-up to give them faces, so now whenever I start to put mascara on, Joe says, "Nose!" P.S. Brown eyeliner makes great cat/dog whiskers!

A Very Merry Unbirthday

We celebrated Katie's 6th birthday with a tea party for a few friends: Lydia, Danielle, and Karah. The girls loved drinking pink lemonade out of china teacups and getting to serve the food themselves onto china plates. They felt very grown up! After "tea" they gathered in the livingroom to open presents, with Katie getting some of her favorite things -- new clothes, snacks, and crafts! The girls dressed up in my nice dresses, then the mommies did their makeup. After that, I read Beth Moore's children's book, "A Parable of the King".