Getting ready for Christmas Day

Making cloverleaf rolls to take to Grandma's for dinner on Christmas. It was fun rolling the little balls of dough together with the girls--having fun working together.

The bouquet is one Jonathan surprised me with!

 

Making popcorn balls!

The girls used a recipe from a Little House book, using brown sugar and molasses for these popcorn balls. It was a fun Christmas eve--nothing fancy to brag about, nothing grand. Just home and family and candlelight and making memories and loving one another and listening to a story Mom wrote and having Dad read it about Christmas three years ago when we took propane to a homeless man who was freezing in his tent, and how God got involved in our small efforts to show Christ's love. 



Rose with the bird feeder they got for Christmas.

An effort that we made to give a gift very practically to Jesus this year (inspired by the example of Ann Voskamp's blog) was to let each child choose a project from Christian Aid Ministries to send a certain amount of money to. They looked through the projects catalogue pictured below and the boys chose to sponsor a goat and a pig!

The girls chose to do a layette bundles project. 

And here is the special gift the children were given Christmas night from our mama poodle!

The very best Christmas gift, they said!

IT is not what great things we do or give. It is the little things we do with great love, as Mother Teresa once so simply stated. So this Christmas wasn't about grandness, but about small things done with love to and for those we love and for others.

Wishing we had pictures of Christmas caroling with our church group Sunday evening. That was fun!

Crystal's and Sammy's Birthdays

We had a friend of Crystal's and her family for her actual birthday.

 

 Because of extra sweets at Christmas time, Crystal made the cake with a cream cheese and honey frosting and decorated it with orange slices and swirls.

This is back on Sammy's birthday, when we celebrated both birthdays together with guests, to save an extra trip for relatives.

Sammy has a very simple cake and a very glowing smile.

Our good friends, the Albertsons, came for Crystal's birthday, spending 2 1/2 hrs. on the road. We really appreciated their efforts to make Crystal feel special.

Sis. Albertson's hair is growing in so beautifully after her chemo.

Beth and Emily, their mom and Grandpa watching the children open gifts.

Christmas Eve

The boys opening the box with the train set.

 

A set of Pyrex bakeware since mine exploded on top of the stove a few months ago.

 





 Dad has to show off his handful of nuts.

In Mom's lap is a little calendar of photos of andn for the three little ones.

The girls are delighted with the birdfeeders.

Christmas at Grandma's 2012

The three Lucas brothers: Dave, Jonathan, Rob

 

oops--this one is out of order. This is at our house, when the three little ones built a bridge of split logs and hid the kitty in the box! 

Three cousins--one of which did not want her picture taken!

All in new coats they got for Christmas!

So thankful for new warm coats for our girls.

The gift basket of edibles we put together for Grandma--with jars of homemade applesauce, apple butter, molasses from Illinois, Colorado chokecherry jelly, pie crusts, brown sugar, powdered sugar, a bag of home ground buckwheat flour with a recipe for buckwheat pancakes, a hot mitt and dish cloth knitted or woven by the girls, a kitchen apple towel, and popcorn balls and candy canes.

I told Jonathan, "It looks almost boughten!"

And he asked,

"Why does it have to look boughten?"

It just has to be made with love!

 



The three oldest cousins: Cheryl, Stacy, Crystal

You are allowed three guesses as to who this crew is.

 

The children all playing with the train set the little boys got, which we found on Craig's List. 

 

The Simplicity of Christmas

When I found this picture that the children had taken of our cat,

I immediately thought of the Christmas verse:

"The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light:

 

"...and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death,



Light has dawned!"

The above Christmas ornament is a cutout from a Christmas card we received. I like simple, homemade ornaments. Ones with meaning.

In my family growing up, we never had a Christmas tree. My mom felt that as a girl, she worshipped the Christmas tree, and my parents, basing their feelings on the chapter in Jeremiah where it talks about cutting down a tree and decorating it and turning it into an idol, felt that they should not have a Christmas tree.

But we couldn't help liking the beauty of most of the Christmas trees we saw. And we would sometimes drive around looking at Christmas decorations.

After marrying Jonathan, I felt that he should be head of the home, and since he wanted a tree, we have had trees.

But the part I kept from my childhood was that I wanted everything about Christmas, even the tree if we had to have one, to point to Christ.



I was thinking about getting a few new decorations this year, but when I asked Jonathan about it, and he told me that he didn't have work beyond the middle of next week, I quickly decided that we did not need new decorations! Jonathan had brought home some evergreen boughs from a job where trees were being trimmed, so we cut some pieces, and the girls made these simple but charming decorations.

The pinecones in the canister are ones we gathered while on a hike a while back. I find tremendous satisfaction in simplicity--in not having to spend money in order to make a happy home.

Plus I believe it helps a husband to know his wife will do what she can to make ends meet instead of wasting money on frivolities when he is staring at being out of work within days. 

Frivolities,

when what really matters is

Jesus.

To my dismay, after taking the picture, I realized the figures were not all quite centered or arranged well...

But then I realized that the way they were crowding around gave the distinct impression

that the focus was on Jesus.

Do we too often worry about what we look like to others, when what really matters is

looking to Jesus?



Below are a couple more of the ornaments that are my favorite: one handmade by one of the children (and needing buttons glued back on--just like our clothes, always needing mending. And maybe like our hearts, too. Sometimes in need of mending.

Hanging in there.

Buttonless. (Or did you just push my button, and now it's gone!!)



Hangin' in there,

And asking God's angels to minister where there are hearts seeking for joy,

where there is brokenness or missing parts...

(This moose head came from Jonathan's sister Barbara when she was still in Alaska. The angel is one I bought just after we were married.)



Just today we had a church friend from back east, Tonya Sickler, out for lunch since she is to be moving to Kansas in a few days. We will really miss her. She has been such a blessing to us, teaching Sunday School alternately with me, and every once in a while coming out and spending time with our family or the children. Always bringing smiles and laughter and cheer and showing an interest in everything we do, and sharing good ideas to help out our worn-out brains....

and not minding a photo with the Lucas ladies!

T

We made fruit pizzas for the occasion.

I wrote it down in my "One Thousand Gifts Journal"--

# 121- "Fresh farm eggs in Christmas-colors hat."

Danny brought the eggs in like this yesterday.

Can you resist taking a picture?

Could it get more Christmasy?

One of those moments just ripe for a photo!

Sammy unwrapping a new western shirt we got him for his birthday.

Why wear a Sunday shirt when a western one will do?

Danny watches big brother do his arithmetic--by the poinsettia.

And when we can't go to interesting things, interesting things come to us!

The children came shouting that there were three gliders out there right over the fields near us!

And before I forget--

within days, after prayer and trusting the Lord,

work came gliding in for Jonathan !

Thank you, Lord!

Stop at Fish Hatchery on Way Home from Illinois

To break up the trip home from Illinois, having left about 5:10 in the morning, we stopped partway through Kansas a few miles off the interstate at Milford Lake Fish Hatchery.

 

We watched thousands of young fish gather at the feeder.

Indoors was a nature center, with aquariums with turtles, fish, and even a rattlesnake. It was well worth the stop for a unique 45 minute break in the middle of Kansas!

Christmas Music at Thanksgiving

Craig and Joella's family practiced their Christmas bell songs for us while we were there.

 

They do string quartets.

The families listening...(including new friends we just met)

 

Carrie and Susanna holding the two babies there that night.

 

After the Thanksgiving Meal

What a blessing to have warm weather on Thanksgiving Day! The children played dodge ball and Mother-May-I. I just love pictures like this right in the middle of the action, like where Charity is practically in midair and Sammy is dodging that ball.

 

Crystal and all the girls loved holding baby Laura, two months old. 

Of course, Hannah had to have her turn holding the baby.

Carrie gave Joella a baby gift for Laura: tiny yellow and white hat, booties and mittens 

Trying those mittens on

"Now would you all PLEASE pick up the mess?"

Not really, Craig visits with Jonathan and Chris while the children play around on the floor.