Mr. Adams and What Was Under Him

I never officially introduced our Christmas tree this year. Here he is on his first night with us, almost-but-not-quite fully decorated. His name is Mr. Adams, after our second president. Not John, and not John Adams--just Mr. Adams.

Extremely handsome tree--maybe the finest we've had. So tall that we couldn't put the star on top this year, but that's ok. Mr. Adams has enough merit to go without the star. (And yes, I know that President John Adams was neither extremely handsome nor tall.)

Yesterday we finally opened our presents. (Explanation of why we do this early here, here and here.) It was quite a bit later than we originally planned, but at last we found a date that worked. Unexpectedly, Dave was able to take the whole day off (a big deal for us on the week of Christmas Eve services!), and we had a wonderful time enjoying God's kindness to our family.

I laid off the camera this year so that I could just enjoy my kids enjoying their gifts. (Imagine that!) Hence all these pictures are from after most everything was already opened. Long distance family, know that all of your gifts were received with joy and delight, even if those reactions were not captured! And thank you for your generosity!

Dad and Jan sent new stockings for the kids this year--with their names embroidered thereon, no less!

They also provided all of the stocking stuffers, which was a blessed time saver for Mommy this year. Here is Esme, in her fancy new dress-up slippers, which she calls "buh-fy (butterfly) shoes" and has worn for most her her waking hours since yesterday. (The Hello Kitty t-shirt was Mommy's lone contribution to her stocking.)

Meg and Matthew were thrilled to receive their VERY OWN umbrellas from Mom and Tom. This was a long-held wish finally fulfilled. Simple things, you know?

Grandma Dawn's and Grandpa Tom's "big gift" this year was a wagon. Woah. Happiness. And the kids all fit at once! (For now.)

Daddy with Miss Esme, playing with Matthew's new Nerf gun. Load it...

Aim it...

Shoot it! "Ohhhhhhh, you got me!"

And here are all three with their cool new pen necklaces from Aunty Shanny.

The kids also got to give some presents yesterday. They all wanted to give candy and gum to Daddy, so over the weekend we had picked out some of his favorites, wrapped them up and put them under the tree. Esme was struggling during our shopping expedition, still not fully understanding the concept of picking out gifts for someone else.

But by the time Meg gave Daddy her candy gift yesterday morning, Esme seemed completely on board. She crawled under the tree, pulled out the correct package, and pranced over to hand it to Daddy. David and I were melting all over the living room with how cute and sweet she was, so excited to deliver her gift. He was crooning and kissing Esme, I was choking up... seriously. Dave unwrapped the candy and thanked Esme. Then Matthew came over to investigate. "NO!" said Esme, smacking her brother's hand away and suddenly revealing her true motives. "MINE!"

Well, then Daddy and Mommy dried up in a hurry and had a good laugh at ourselves and our little girl. All of that sweetness was just because she wanted the first taste of Daddy's bounty. Our little angel is just a sinner like us after all.

All the more reason to celebrate the coming of our Jesus at Christmastime...

What Would Happen...?

I continue to marvel at the way Matthew's little mind works. He's very into "What would happen if…" questions these days. To wit, tonight as we drove home from a special Christmasy outing, Esme wanted me to sing, so I had been singing to the kids for 10 minutes or so. Then suddenly…

Matthew: What would happen if we didn't have any lightbulbs?

(Dave and I laugh)

Dave: Random thoughts from Matthew! (Teasing) "What would happen of we didn't have any ears?"

Matthew: (so excited he can't get the words out) If… if… if we didn't have… if we didn't have any ears, you could see in our heads!

Not at all the obvious answer that came to my mind, but true--quite true!

Meg is Six!

I've fallen very much behind on the blogging front these last couple of weeks. I have lots of excuses, though--one of them being that our little girl had a birthday earlier this month! It seems impossible that she could be embarking upon her seventh year. But it's true.

Since Meg was born on her Nana's birthday, and since we really hadn't celebrated my Dad's November birthday yet either, we had a combined family party with the five (almost six) Wilcoxes and the three Nalles. Meggers ordered up some Kraft mac 'n' cheese for her celebratory dinner, and the adults enjoyed a yummy baked potato bar in my mom's honor. (Thanks to my mom's spud-lovin' example, a good baked potato is about as true a comfort food as I know.)

After dinner, we had the kek. I mean the cake. (Martin Short, Father of the Bride, anyone?) Meg had requested a flower cake, so this is what I came up with.

Horrible, picture, I know, but if you ignore the crumbs (I've never in my life had such problems with a frosting job!), the cake itself turned out pretty cute. Here's a little video of the presentation of the cake, starring Meg but also prominently featuring my belly, as well as lovely harmonies by Don and Nancy Nalle. Note: we had just finished celebrating Advent and singing our traditional verse of "Hark the Herald Angels," so that's why Mom teasingly starts off singing that instead of "Happy Birthday."

Time to serve it up!

This pained and painful expression is what passes for a smile in Matthew's book (but only when there's a camera pointed at him).

The grown-ups had this Oatmeal Cake, which was warm and gooey and divine. Well, actually, my mom and dad and I had the oatmeal cake. David had the kids' cake, since he prefers buttercream to toasted coconut. And Lena had vanilla ice cream, because she doesn't eat wheat. Just in case you wanted to know.

A few pictures of our gift opening time...

I'm not sure why Meg is doing the smart-aleck look here. This was her card from Matthew, which he did a great job of picking out himself, and she was very pleased and sweet about it, as far as I recall.

Studying Matthew's gift together:

We had the kids pick out their own gifts for Nana and Grandpop this year (with some help from Mommy), but in order to avoid conflict, Meg picked for Nana and Matthew picked for Grandpop. Here is Nana, about to open her Birds of America calendar and her DVD of 1776 (the musical).

And here is Grandpop, whistling at the book Matthew chose for him about the British WWII aircraft Spitfire.

Meg with her new sweatsuit from Nana (Esme got one for her birthday in September, so now they can be matchy-matchy!)

All in all, it was a wonderful, low-key night together. Time with my parents and Lena is surprisingly rare and very precious, so we're blessed to have the excuse of birthdays to force us to clear the calendar.

And, ohhh... my sweet, amazing oldest daughter. I don't have time to go on at length now, but I wish I could say all that this wonderful girl means to us. She brings us more joy with each passing year and is truly a gift from the Lord. I can't wait to know what He has in store for her life.

Today's Quip: Matthew

During Meg's language arts lesson this morning, Matthew was busy coloring... and listening avidly. After I dictated the word "hand" to Meg, I read her the context/example sentence from the book, and Matthew piped right in.

Me: "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

Matthew: Mommy, what happens if you rock the cradle with your foot?