Let the Freedom [School] Bell Ring.

You likely haven't heard, but it was National School Choice Week- a week to highlight "effective educational opportunities" and "empower parents to choose the best educational environment for their children".  I'm 100% in favor of allowing parents this freedom, and I encourage all parents to be active in the education of their children... but I can't help but thinking about how difficult it can be to choose.

I was with some good friends today and many of them spoke about how it can be overwhelming to order at a restaurant.  You want to make the right choice, and there are so many options.  So many things look good...or nothing may look good...or there's just too many choices and your brain shuts down.

That's how I can feel  about schooling choices.  There are many options: public school, private school, a "specialized" school, or homeschool.  This list may be longer (or shorter) depending on where you live.  I want to get all the positive aspects of each one.  Unfortunately, I can't have it all; I have to make a choice, and the effects of the decision will last much longer than a full stomach.

[Evelyn on a trip with a homeschooling group at the Butterfly House]

We homeschool...and we don't.  I have one school-aged child in public school, and one at home. I have this paradigm where I feel half of those I know think I'm crazy for homeschooling, and the other half think I'm crazy for not. But, what do I think?!  That's the tricky part.

I love homeschooling. It's difficult to argue with the list of benefits.  I can give my children an individualized education.  We work at their level and their pace.  The student to teacher ratio is unbeatable.  Even if you have a large family, it's not going to be 27:1 like at my son's school (unless you have a very large family!).

I also get to spend more time with my children.  There are days when it can feel like a little too much time, but I wouldn't trade time with my kids for anything.

 [Who doesn't read in a leotard?]

Our education is Christ-centered.  We can talk about how all education points to our awesome God because He made science, He designed math, He established different languages, and He wrote history, etc. 

Our schedule is flexible.  Especially at times of big life-changes this has been a huge blessing.  When my mom passed away, we didn't do school for a week.  I didn't have to worry about how my kids were doing emotionally, because they were with me.  We spent some time loving on each other and spending time at my dad's farm.  It's beneficial in little ways too.  I feel it now as we try to plan trips, we always have to be mindful of the school calendar.

[A song Nathan recently wrote for my mom] 

However, once/if I decide to homeschool, I have to choose (or write) curriculum, and the list of options becomes insurmountable again!  This does get easier every year, but it's more time consuming and expensive than sending my kid to public school.  We have enjoyed Classical Conversations this past year, which helps with curriculum decisions somewhat, but also adds to the expense.

[The girls making ABAB patterns]

Homeschooling also isn't all sunshine and roses.  It involves difficult kids (why are kids so much more well-behaved for other adults than they are for their own mother?!), and a phone call to Matt about once a month declaring my sanity may be lost for good and I don't know if I can do it any longer.  This may just be me though...

[The girls with their "bodies" they constructed at Classical Conversations]



On the flip side, public school (this is our first year) has gone well for us also.  Our son, is at an advanced-placement school and has had many opportunities that he wouldn't have received at home.  We have been very watchful of what he is learning, and have not had many issues at all. We were skeptical of the math program, but have found it to not be that different from what we had done with him at home.  Early in the year he studied Ancient Egypt, which fit in perfectly with the timeline we were learning at home (yes, Nathan still does learn at home) as well as the Bible study he was doing on the life of Moses.  It was an answer to prayer. We've seen God work out many other things as He has empowered Nathan to speak up and ask questions when things he's learned at school didn't quite match up with the Biblical worldview he's taught at home.  Nathan enjoys public school and he likes working with his peers.  He gets to hammer out ideas and fix problems with his classmates in a different way than he would get to at home.  He also has a great teacher who has had very open communication with us the entire year, and has been very easy to talk to when we did have a question or concern.  He loves recess, gym, Spanish, and music...all classes that become more enjoyable when done with other people.

 [Columbus Day, making foil boats and seeing who can float the most pennies]



But there are disadvantages:  the education is secular, there's the schedule as mentioned before, kids can be mean, he's gone from home, the system as a whole can feel broken, and please let's not even mention "Common Core".
I'm also sensitive as to whether Nathan feels left out.  He's the only boy, he's the only kid gone during the day, all the girls share a room, etc.  But, perhaps it's in a mother to feel a little guilt.

[A page from Ella's Bible study.   11. God showed His special kindness to the Israelites and kept them safe.  How has God shown His special kindness to you?  Ella's response, "He gave me a sweet momy."]



Ultimately, as a Christian, sending my child to public school felt like a calling.  We are not to conform to the ways of this world, but we are to be active and living in this world.  Imagine what the public schools would be like if they were abandoned by all Christians.  It's easier for me to build up a large hedge around my family, stay home, and avoid the world.  However, I don't think it's what God would have us do.  I'm challenged as to how I can better represent the Gospel in my community.

 [Nathan reading to his sisters]



In conclusion, as I think about what we'll do for school next year, my answer is "I don't know!"  I'm pretty certain the girls will still be at home, but Matt and I are still pursuing God about what Nathan will do.  We've always made decisions year by year, and God has been faithful to guide us.   You can see how I may be a little jealous of those who "know" they're homeschooling through high school, or who don't even consider it and "know" their kids will go through public or private school though.  Sigh...

The happy ending is that we have freedoms to choose, and there's not a "wrong" answer.  God is sovereign and will lead His people according to His will.  No education system is perfect, but God can take the pieces that are lacking and knit them together for His glory.

To further help me in my pursuit, I'm going to veer from my monthly reading challenge of reading a classic and a non-fiction and read two non-fictions.

The first is, The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education by Leigh Bortins.  The author is the same person who started Classical Conversations.  I'm hoping this will better inform me about classical education before we make our decision.  (We don't have any classical schools here, so to do classical education we would have to homeschool).

Also, I'm going to read Going Public: Your Child Can Thrive in Public School.  This is written from a Christian perspective as to how to nurture the power of Christ in your child as you send them to public school to show God's love and even be a light in the darkness.  It explores what the Bible has to say about education and why everyone should also homeschool in addition to public school.

So, am I alone?  Does anyone else struggle with this decision?  I'm looking forward to finding how God will direct us!

A WALL GALLERY (ISH).

 I think I said it previously, but January I've given myself the challenge of decorating some of the walls in this home.  It's going fairly slowly, but I did tackle the big blank wall in the living room!

I had originally hung some photos on this wall a year or so back, but took them down when we were having our floors sanded.  I wasn't motivated to put them back up because I wasn't in love with the arrangement I had going on.  The largest photo in the grouping was an 8x10, and since the wall was so expansive it just seemed...small.

I pondered some larger print sizes, even 16x20, but when placed next to our 19 inch t.v. it made our television look....well, small.

Then the day came when our whole family when to Costco to look at a t.v. on sale.  The kids and I never actually thought Matt would go through with it, but the price was very good and we walked out of there with a 40 inch t.v.  So, not only could we now host movie nights and Super Bowl parties, we could also hang some larger photos without it looking ridiculous!

About the time of New Years I got an email from unitprints.com advertising their 16x20 prints were on sale for $10 (normally $20).  This was a great opportunity to order some big prints and save some big $$.  So, I ordered a 16x20 of each kid, plus two 11x14 sized prints, two 8x10 prints, and even an 8x12.  My goal in putting up "artwork" on the walls has been to keep it frugal and keep it personal.  My final total was definitely not "cheap", but I spent about $75 on all 9 prints with shipping and tax. (I should also note that I wanted professional quality prints, it may be cheaper to print at Target, etc. but I didn't look into that).

I will admit that when I received the package in the mail, I was a bit nervous to open it up.  The box was b.i.g., which meant the photos were b.i.g.  I honestly had never ordered anything larger than an 8x10, and now those looked puny.  

I should have taken a photo of the process, but I cut out each photo's dimensions from newspaper so I could place them on the wall.  This is where it started getting troubling for Matt.  Matt dislikes holes in the wall, which means he also dislikes photo galleries.  

Sometimes for fun, I like to show him Pinterest projects like this:

And then I act like this is a project I'd like to do.  This above gallery also contains a plethora of IKEA frames...another strong dislike of Matt's!

(sidenote:  I just showed the above photo to Matt and he shook his head in disbelief and commented, "That is so pointless...")

So, I do have to keep his preferences in mind when I decorate any wall.  Matt can be a stickler, but the truth is that he's usually right, and so I'm thankful for his judgment to guide me (most of the time)! 

I left the newspaper cutouts up for about a week and moved things around from time to time. Then I had to find and purchase frames.  I had 8x10 frames, but that was it.  I looked at a couple of thrift stores, but couldn't find anything I liked, let alone seven frames I liked.  I looked online (some frames are ridiculously expensive), but ended up purchasing frames at Target.  It was another investment, about $140, but I used some money from Christmas.
Then I laid out the frames on the floor (ideally I would not have left these on the floor for three days...thankfully none of them broke even though Evelyn walked across several of them several times!)

Finally one night Matt and the big kids were busy changing the oil in the truck and finding constellations (true story, he's a great dad), and Evie and I hung some photos.  I found out that I'm very bad at measuring and nothing really ended up exactly where it was suppose to (Matt made a joke that it's good I'm not a pharmacist), but I was pleased with the end result.

It was super bright and sunny today, so getting a great photo without glare was difficult.  However, I'm not going to complain about sunny and 50 degrees in January!

Yes, our "media cabinet" is a little small, that may change or it may not.  Eventually the t.v. will be in the basement.  And yes, that's an antenna from our rabbit ears in the corner!

Here's the photos a little closer, but with some glare.

The photos are from left to right: Evelyn (1 day old); scrapbook paper with "t";  Nathan (8) from last summer in WI; Ella (1 1/2) from a trip to CO; Ella (6) last summer downtown Sioux Falls; Addie (4) on a fishing trip last Summer in WI; Evelyn (2) last summer dtsf; Matt and Addie (3) a couple of summers ago at the Ingalls Homestead; Evelyn (2) at a CO Rockies baseball game; and Evelyn with Great Grandpa Bob (though you can't really see it in this photo below, it's more visible in the first photo).

The good news is that Matt also likes the end result!   I'm glad we went big; it's much more proportional and visually pleasing.  I've even left some negative space for growth in the future...though Matt does feel like adding anything is "completely unnecessary"!

Losing teeth.

There have been a couple of big changes for Ella this week!

First, this happened...

 Ella lost her front right tooth...with the help of some dental floss and a door knob.  She's so brave.  They did it while I was gone because I can't stand the idea of it!

Later that week we were sitting as a family reading our current read-aloud (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH), when out of the blue she asked, "where's my tooth?".  Turns out it was loose and just fell out on its own.  (We did find it in her chair).

(It's bottom right, next to her two middle teeth...which she lost a while ago.  Addie was trying to sneak in and give Ella bunny ears).

Sweet Ella, she's growing up, getting very tall, and losing teeth!  She's very pleased with her smile right now though....and the cool $0.75 she got per tooth!

Book Projects: Fall 2014

Nathan doesn't have a lot of homework (which I like).  However, each month he has a book project to complete at home.  I've already posted about his first book project from September, but for archival purposes I thought I would do a wrap-up of his other book project from the Fall semester 2014.

Matt and I's rule is that he must choose a worthy book for his book project.  There are so many good books out there, and since this is an educational pursuit anything with "underpants", "wimpy", or "Yoda" in the title likely isn't going to fit the bill.  (If you have a son in elementary school you may know what I mean!)

October's book project was focused on the main character.  The students could select any book of their choosing as long as it had a strong main character they could write about.  They then had to complete a character web about the main character and create an artistic representation of the main character.  Students could use whatever media they preferred...paper, paints, clay, etc...even a pumpkin.

Nathan chose from the books in his case that he hadn't read yet, and ended up reading Gulliver's Travels. Though I usually frown on adapted versions, this one was a Classics Start, which retold the original story by Jonathan Swift at a 2nd-4th grade level.

Overall Nathan enjoyed this story, and perhaps he'll read the original some day (though he doesn't have much ambition to do so now).  The biggest challenge he discovered with this book is that the names of characters and places are very strange and very long.  The character web (which I didn't take a photo of) ended up to be more complex that it probably needed to be.

Though I was pushing for a pumpkin, for his main character creation Nathan painted a portrait of Gulliver using acrylic paints.

It looks just like him, right?!

 

For November's project, the students created a story "sandwich".  Their teacher gave them pages with each piece (bread, cheese, tomatoes, meat, onions, lettuce) of the sandwich.  The first page was a title page, the second told the characters and setting, the following pages had guide words at the top like "first, then, next, finally."

For this project, Nathan read the very first Hardy Boys book, "The Tower Treasure".

Nathan did a great job and received the highest score possible!  Admittedly Matt and I did make him write out a rough draft which we edited, primarily for spelling and length (his original would not have fit!).  But, I think that's part of the learning process too!

December was a short month, so instead of a book project Nathan kept a reading log.  He also  had to answer some reflection questions about the types of books he's reading and what he wants to read next.

You can't see everything on the log, but you get the idea.  There's definitely twaddle on this list...Nathan is an excellent reader and every time he reads a classic he ends up liking it. But he would definitely lean towards much easier, "fun" selections if left to his own devices.  In his defense, there are also some good books on this list too!

So, that was it...we're proud of Nathan and all the hard work he has put into his projects (though often with a little prodding).

I realized this weekend that Nathan has not even selected which book he's going to read for his January project....

Baby, Write This Down.

2015 is here and ten days strong!  

New Year's Day seems like a long time ago.  Since then Nathan has returned to school (except when interrupted by the weather), the girls are back in the swing of school, Matt is working five days a week again (sigh), Evelyn is being cute (and rascally), and I finally got caught up on the laundry.  We also spent this week at the hospital visiting my dad who had knee replacement surgery.  Thankfully things went very well and he's now at my sister's recovering and moving around.

 Like most, I like to take this time of year to reflect and make some goals for moving forward.  December was kind of a "loose"month (nothing was written down on the budget and much sugar was consumed), so it feels good to get back into normal routine.

For my sake I thought I would write down some of my 2015 goals.  There's nothing big or major (yet), and it's definitely not an exhaustive list, but hopefully it will help me to be successful!

For visual interest, I thought I would include photos of a New Year's Day tradition.  Besides taking down the Christmas decorations, we also enjoy decorating a gingerbread house.  I just buy a kit at the store.  They're simple, and if you wait until after Christmas they're 50% off.  Ella and Adeline did 90% of the decorating this year, though I did help with a lot of the frosting.  The neighbor boy came over as we were beginning, and Nathan chose to go play at his house instead.

Back to goals...

1.  Each month read one classic book and one non-fiction book.  I think I make this goal every year.  I really enjoy reading, I just need to make it a priority and schedule time to do so.  I've started so far with Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (my first time), and The Gospel by Ray Ortlund Jr. This second one our church gifted to every family in the congregation, so I would've read it anyway.  I already know what I want to read for the next couple of months...

2.  Complete 14 weeks of real food "mini-pledges".   We've been slowly changing many things about how we eat, and so honestly most of these are (thankfully) no longer a big challenge (week #3 and week #12 will require some effort though).  There are many different levels of eating real food. I need balance or my mind and time become consumed with food.  We try to eat and live simply.  This is an easy baby steps way to begin if you're interested. 

3.  Run a 5K in sub 26:00.  I just got in my first 2 miles today.  I don't plan on running my first 5k until Mother's day weekend, but this was my goal last year and I missed it by a minute and a half.  I forgot about the hill factor.  To some this is slow, to some it may sound fast, for me this will require pushing myself.

I would also like to add run a half-marathon here.  This is something I say every year and have never done.  Perhaps I just need to sign up and do it (and maybe find a running buddy!).

 Finished!

4.  As a family, participate in Life 96.5's Hands & Feet opportunity and/or our church's ministry opportunity each month.  These are typically simple ways to bless others.  I like that our children can be involved.  I think it will be a good chance for them to give, serve, and think of others.

5.  Improve this house, in a wise, meaningful way.  This year I would like to concentrate on the kitchen, garage, and basement as far as big projects go.  (I cannot confirm at this time if Matt is on the same page).  I'm also making it a January mission to get things up on the walls.  I don't believe in just throwing up meaningless things to take up space.  However, we've lived here for over two years and it's time to invest some time and money to make things a little more homey, especially in the living room and bedrooms.  (I don't even want to mention the half torn-down wallpaper in our bedroom.)

Evs did help decorate some as well.  The house was together for an afternoon....that evening they ate all the candy!

6.  Be hospitable.  We'd like to invite more friends and family into our home.  I'm also including schedule dates (and ladies' nights) into this category!

I feel like six is a good number to start with!  These are simple I know...hardly earth-shattering, but perhaps a good beginning.

Christmas on the Farm.

 One more Christmas post...this may be the last!

Our family had been building up to Christmas for so long, and on Wednesday December 24th it was finally here.  Growing up we always got together with my dad's side, the Widmans, on Christmas Eve and then that evening we did our immediate family Christmas.  Christmas morning we usually drove to Sioux Falls to celebrate with my mom's family, the Garners.  I loved going to the Garners for Christmas, but there was something special about just our little family of 6 being together Christmas Eve night that always made that my favorite (and honestly it likely had something to do with presents...my mom was big into presents!)

Still, for the Widmans Christmas Eve is the big day.  It definitely looks a little different now since we've all multiplied, but it's still one of my most favorite days of the year.

Though we don't need to travel far, and we only spend one night, getting ready to go is a big chore.  Christmas Eve morning I got all my food ready (2 appetizers for dinner that night and a salad for lunch).  Cookies and other goodies were already baked and at my dad's!  

Evelyn is always right where the actions is.

Because our family has grown (I count 49, give or take, if every one is there), the matriarchs and patriarchs of the family have decided it's too crowed and too much work to meet at someone's home.  So, for the past several years we've met at the American Legion hall.  My kids cannot get this name right though...they call it the union, the pavilion, the region, or the pancake house (we went to a pancake feed there one time about four years ago).  It's not as warm and cozy as a home, but after you do something for so long it becomes comfortable.  It seems bizarre, but I'll always have warm thoughts about the Legion and associate it with love and family.

The kids do a name exchange and so they all get one gift at the Widman Christmas.  The adults do a white elephant gift exchange.  Gifts can range from practical to humorous.

Uncle Rog, who may or may not get the concept of white elephant, received this beautiful wig.

Matt received a white elephant re-gift from cousin Ross.  It's a journal with Ryan someone on the cover.  It's titled "Hey girl", and every page has a quote like "Hey girl, let's snuggle."  Here Matt is reading Ross' journal entries dated 12-24-2013 and 12-24-2014.  

It's classic.

There's one other boy second cousin that is similar in age to Nathan named Stran. They usually get each other's name.  They did again this year.  Nathan got Legos....score!

We eat, we exchange gifts, and we sit around talking or playing games.   I'm so thankful to have so many members of my extended family that are nearby.

Here's a group from the Andersen family.

Ninja Turtles were very popular this year.  

Here's Evelyn learning about TMNT from Jacob and Miles.

I don't think it's an official Widman get-together until someone plays Spoons.  No blood was drawn this year.

Matt, Nathan, and Stran decided to take the Jenga challenge.  It was Ella's gift.  I like that Nathan is also sitting with my sister's white elephant gift...a black purse and beautiful gold chain.

There are bonuses about meeting at the Legion, such as gavels and flags.  There's also a plethora of fly swatters and the potential to play some serious bingo.

At 4:00 we go to the Christmas Eve church service, and from there we head to the farm.  It's a busy time of getting food ready (because we need more food, right/?) bringing in suitcases and of course, changing into pajamas.

Nathan and Micah love their gaming time, so that is what they chose to do.

Evelyn has always adored my dad.  She's definitely Papa's girl.  You can also get a glimpse of the new recliner all of us girls (and our husbands) bought my Dad for Christmas.

 (You may have noticed Homer Santa...he's becoming a regular attender to Widman Christmas also.)

Still gaming...

Matt took this (terrible) photo of me.  Though it's not a great shot of yours truly, it does show the fullness of the counters.  I'm doing dishes to make more space.  I think my sister Brenda was even doing laundry (hence the open closet door behind me).  

(Besides Spoons and Homer Santa, wine is also essential at Widman Christmas).  :)

The house is filled with people and presents, (and usually some yelling and/or crying).

It's almost the way it should be; there's just one recliner we wish wasn't empty.  My mom was so good at Christmas.  She made everyone feel loved.  Her presence will always be missed.

The cousins all draw names.  There are ten of them total so they each get one cousin gift.  My dad gets each child gifts also (he enlists us to do some of the shopping for him).  My sister's and I exchange gifts with each other too, but the husbands get to just observe and take it in.

Nathan got a RC helicopter that he loves, Ella got some books and shoes for her doll, Addie got an "American Girl" doll (from Target), and Evelyn got a stuffed penguin.  There were other gifts too of course, just too much to write down!  I think the most popular gift ended up being the $5 skeins of yarn I bought for Ella and Addie.

The tricky part of doing Christmas together is different views of Santa.  We've always (or almost always) been honest with our children about "the man in the suit".  We've taught them about Saint Nicholas, and how he gave gifts to those in need to show God's love.  We've told them that now people like to continue to give gifts in secret from Santa as a fun tradition.  We do get our kids a gift from Santa because all of their cousins (who believe in Santa) will get a gift from him Christmas morning.  (Yes, we've also talked with them about being respectful and non-argumentative to other cousins!)

However, every year when in the moment of putting out cookies and milk they get caught up in the excitement and think maybe he's real.  This year there was even a Santa-tracker!  I definitely do not want to be the mom to spoil Christmas cheer, but the anxiety level was getting high for some.  So, when we laid our kids down to bed, we had to go through all the truth about Santa, in a gentle, loving, Christ-honoring (I hope) kind of way.  I should be clear that if families choose to "do Santa", I'm completely okay with that.  We have just chosen not to, and it worked out for the best because we have one child who is especially a little anxious and wouldn't sleep knowing that a strange man was coming into house in the middle of the night.  (I should also add that if my kids flat out ask me if Santa is real, I can't seem to tell them no.  I usually skirt the question by talking about St. Nicholas and Christmas traditions, which may be why they get confused!)

Christmas morning came and all was well.  Everyone (dad's included) received gifts in their stockings.  The children were very excited to find all their little treasures.

Evelyn was most excited about a candy cane filled with Skittles.

We used to head out to Matt's family in Minnesota on Christmas morning, but the past few years we've met with them on the most convenient weekend near Christmas.  So, we were able to spend the day with my dad again.  My sister Brenda and her family stayed as well, and we had a lovely Christmas dinner of turkey and the fixings.  

The kids played with new toys and even got outside to play in the newly fallen Christmas Day snow.  We headed back home that afternoon since Matt worked the next day, and Christmas on the farm was officially over.  

Again, I'm so thankful that our whole family could be together...I know that's a luxury not many people have.  Our Christmas may not always be perfect, (we are not perfect), but we love each other!

Family Christmas; Christmas Traditions Part 2

Yes, New Year's is over, but I still need to get caught up on Christmas posts before I can think of resolutions.  (What does it say about me if I wait until the 2nd week of January to make resolutions?)

Our next Christmas was our private family celebration.  But, first I thought I would mention something new and non-traditional.  

 For the first time in our marriage, Matt put up Christmas lights!

It was before Christmas, around the 10th of December, and it was abnormally warm.  The year before I literally bought over 1000 lights for about $5 at an after Christmas clearance. So, since it was warm and there are already hooks in place on the house Matt put up a string of lights.  It took about 10 minutes.  Addie and I also wrapped another string around a tree trunk in about the same amount of time.  It's not an impressive light show by any means (I didn't get a final photo), but it's something we can build on for next year.

Moving on...
My sister Amy and her family were visiting from Denver the entire week of Christmas.  Monday and Tuesday they stayed with us, so we did a couple of fun things with them.

Another first for us was a light show at a local mall.  We didn't tell the kids what were were doing, but just that it was a "Christmas surprise".

It was a little different than what we were expecting.  I believe Nathan's comment when we got there was, "Is this some sort of joke or something?".  However, the kids all ended up having a good time.

It is basically a lighted castle with a bunch of trees, stars, hoops, etc. They go through a list of five songs, and the lights blink and change with the music.  It's a fun atmosphere and the kids can dance around. 
(The final song is, of course, Let It Go.)

It was a bit like a junior high dance.  At first everyone was self conscious, but after a song or two everyone was warmed up and dancing.

They're so cool.

 The next morning the girls put on a play.  It involved a lot of "Oh no the castle is messy."  It ended with Addie saying, "Tah-dah I cleaned the castled."  I was on the edge of my seat.

That afternoon, my sister and her family left for my dad's house.  The kids and I did some last minute Christmas shopping, and then shucked our popcorn!

We planted popcorn in our garden last summer, and though I feel like we harvested five or six ears, we had 4 left.  

After picking popcorn, you need to dry it out for three months.  So, if you pick it in September it is ready just in time for Christmas...I'm hoping this can be a tradition that continues.

That night, December 23rd, we did our family Christmas.  For the past several years we have made homemade pizza for dinner.  This year we had Papa Murphy's.  We like to have pizza and root beer and do our Christmas birthday party style.

 We lighted our Christmas candle, and finished our Advent countdown.  

We didn't want to leave our last envelopes for after Christmas, so we read 23, 24, and 25.

We didn't do any gifts this year (except a few smaller things in the kids' stockings).  We don't usually buy much for our kids because they get a lot of gifts from grandparents, but this year we bought a new t.v. right before Thanksgiving, and told the kids that was our family Christmas gift.  It was cute how even Nathan, who loves gifts, would remind us that they weren't getting gifts because we got a t.v.  Even when they had small gifts in their stockings they were surprised, thinking it went against what we told them!

However, since it is Jesus' birthday, we like to get Him a gift.  We try to teach our kids that what we do for the "least of these" we do for Christ.  So, we can gift Him a birthday present by giving to someone in need.  This has looked different in different years, and sometimes we've had the kids earn and contribute money.  This year, they all got to pick out an item from the Gospel for Asia giving catalog.  We didn't want to limit their generosity so we let them pick whatever they wanted.  We knew that if they picked something expensive like a water buffalo or a well we would only be able to purchase a share, but we didn't tell them that.  They all picked very practical things though...Nathan chose a mosquito net, Ella picked out a pair of rabbits, and Adeline chose Bibles.  I'm not sure why we didn't have Evelyn pick out anything, we'll have to involve her next year!

After dinner clean-up, all the kids get on their pajamas and hop in the van for some Christmas light viewing.  We've done this for three years now, so Matt is able to remember some of the more impressive neighborhoods (that are somewhat near us).  We like to end with driving through the light display at Falls park.

Evelyn's gift to us was falling asleep on the drive home.  So she went up to bed.  The rest of us popped our popcorn and made some hot chocolate.

I surprised the kids with the Charlie Brown Christmas video, but when we opened it, the wrong disc was in the case.  We tried watching part of it thinking the real Charlie Brown Christmas would be on it somewhere, but it was a fail.

Thankfully our new t.v. is a smart t.v. so we went on YouTube and found a clip from the movie.  So, we just watched the best part at the end where Linus recites from Luke 2 then all the kids decorate the tree and sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

I then got a "nice" picture of the kids in front of the tree before heading off to bed.

It was an enjoyable night.  I cherish these times when the kids are young and our family Christmas can remain simple.