Christmas Service

We felt extra blessed to have Rudy, Becky, and Becky's parents, Reba and DeWayne join us for church on Sunday. The program had so many lovely musical numbers and the speakers testified of Jesus Christ and his mission. Both our children didn't make it through the service. They slept like angels. They both looked so dapper in their Christmas clothes.

Later that night we got another chance to visit with Opa and Oma and Nonnie and Papaw and catch up a little. They are always good company. Sophie gave her Oma and Nonnie the last of her snowman ornaments and we got to open a few early Christmas gifts ourselves. Thank you!

New Holiday Experience

We'll we grabbed our coats and headed to a nearby shopping area that was offering free horse drawn carriage rides--a "first" for all of us. We waited in the cold for some time but we were given yummy samples of sipping chocolate and had good conversation with those around us. It was fun and the decorations were nice, though we were happy to get home, get our youngsters in bed, and enjoy some hot cocoa.

Enjoying Ourselves

We've been having some fun at our house.
Don we now our gay apparel...Those sparkly red shoes, Sophie refers to as her "fancy shoes" and she will wear them with clothes that clash if left unattended.The grandparents gave the kiddies advent calendars with candy so at least once a day, Rhys is a chocolaty mess and chocolate drool is on our tile.

Sophie and Rhys made Christmas ornaments for their friends. This was easy, cute, and the kids liked getting the paint on their hands. Got the idea from here.

Sophie had her preschool Christmas party and got to wear her pajamas (all day actually). That is Sienna and that little boy is Ben and she thinks he is the coolest! Behind Ben is Evie, his sister.
We've spent some time baking up sweets too. And by "we," I mean mostly Neal, of course. Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip walnut cookies, fudge, and peanut brittle thus far.

Journey to the Manger

We wanted our family to experience a live Bethlehem scene at this special time of year. There were a few different churches doing this event on the same night. We went to one in McKinney but the line of traffic was incredibly long and slow. We didn't think our kids would hold up since we were already nearing their usual bedtime. So we switched gears and headed to Plano.

The St. Paul Lutheran Church was hosting their free community-wide event of Journey to the Manger. They did a great job!

We entered the city to pay our taxes and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of the marketplace. There were fruit merchants, flour millers, carpenters, spice merchants, musicians, potters, basket weavers, bakers, among other vendors. It was very hands-on for the kids. We got to taste samples, grind flour, smell spices, touch pottery clay, play tambourines and beat drums, and so forth.After exiting the marketplace, we then experienced the re-enactment of the coming of Jesus Christ through 6 narrated outdoor scenes. We were so glad we had our heavy coats on! It was well done, accurate, and the kids were totally drawn in. At the end, when our group headed towards the fellowship hall for refreshments, Sophie stayed back and asked if she could see the baby Jesus (a swaddled doll) and they happily obliged.We were warmed by hot cocoa and tasty cookies and friendly conversation before we headed out to our cars to call it a night. It was a wonderful time and, again, a delightful way to focus on our Savior this time of year.

Christmas Breakfast

We attended our church's Christmas breakfast Saturday morning--good food, good company, and well-suited entertainment. After the activity ended, Santa surprised us all with an appearance. He walked up to Sophie and gave her a high-five! Later we got a picture of the kids with him and Sophie informed Santa that she would like a hammer and "scwooter" (screwdriver) so she can fix things with daddy. Rhys was composed, neither made happy nor distressed by the woolly man in red.

Medical Update

Keri went in for a quick surgery Friday afternoon to have her mediport removed. All went well and she is happy to rid herself of another cancer reminder.

Nativity Exhibit

This morning we ran a bunch of errands and paused to take in the Creche exhibit at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As always, they had a great variety and hundreds of nativities. They even had a nativity all done in origami. Should of gotten a picture--Keri's mom loves origami and has done it as a hobby for years. We were lucky enough to stop by the exhibit when Jake and Briana Anderson sang with their children's group.

Christmas Tree Lighting at City Hall

Friday night we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting at our city hall. We wandered through the crowds, enjoyed complimentary goodies and cider, live musical performances, and taking photo ops until they lit the tree and set of fireworks. It was a nice night and much more mild than last year.

Sophie has watched Frosty the Snowman for five days straight and sometimes twice in a day. She wants to wear her Frosty shirt everyday and will act like an angel to earn the right to wear it the next day. If there is a snowman as part of an out door decoration or in a wintry picture she will gleefully announce that it is Frosty. It is seriously bordering on idolatry. Look how excited she is! And the freaky eye thing happening on Mr. Frosty is from our flash. In person, he doesn't look that creepy. Honest.There were two of these lanky toy soldiers towering over the crowd. Sophie thought they were cool and when Rhys turned around and realized there was a giant next to him, he cried. Yes, that is a shiner on my little guys face. That is apparently what happens when you walk into playground equipment with your brow bone. I didn't see it happen and neither did Opa who was at the park with us earlier that day. Needless to say, that ended that outing. His Grandma sent him this cute Kris Kringle ensemble from California. He'd yank that hat off so fast that we decided to not fight it so we could all enjoy the evening. If you are wondering what Sophie is making, it is a snowman or as she would call it, "Frosty." They had little crafts and activities for the kids. At this one they'd dump some snow cone balls on your plate and give you the makings of a snow man. Here she is impaling Frosty with pipe cleaners...sort of a voodoo Frosty. Apparently it's a love/hate thing with her wintry friend. Should we be making a psych appointment for her? Hmmm.

Our Growing Son

We are playing catch up these days and finally got Rhys in for his 15 and 18 month well check. Rhys, at 18 months weighs 30 pounds, placing him in the 89th percentile. He is 35 inches in height, placing him in the 97th percentile. Rhys passed his hearing screens again. He got two shots and we will have to follow up with another two come January.

We talked about his development and we are going to pursue specialized help to address his speech and language needs. Although Keri is a speech-language pathologist, extra help is always welcomed.

In other news, he is saying "dada" and making very close attempts of "opa" (grandpa in Dutch). He started walking as his preferred mode of transportation about one and a half months ago and is now running like a Muppet. Rhys is dissatisfied with vegetables placed in front of him. He is a cuddle bug.

At church, Rhys likes the hymns and will often join in with a monotonous "ahhhh...ahhhh...ahhhh." He has officially started in the nursery program (ages 18 months - 3 years) at church so now Neal can attend his classes rather than walk the halls trying to keep Rhys happy.

Christmastime Begins

The decorations are up and but about 1/4 of the trimmings stayed tucked away in their boxes for another year. Sophie loves to pull the ornaments off the tree and play with them. When told she could take a quiet toy to her room for nap time, she plucked Rudolf off that tree and zoomed down the hall to her room. Rhys is contented with the jingle bell door knob hanger.

Keri also attended the Anderson's Annual Christmas Ornament Exchange. It is great to get together with the ladies and chaff with one another. This year Keri smilingly returned home with a glass ornament of a Santa piloted helicopter.

Low-Key Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was exactly what we wanted this year--subdued. As the weather dropped by 40 degrees from the previous day, Keri baked a chocolate pecan pie (easy) and Neal made apple sage dressing and baked bread. We watched some of the parade, perused the Black Friday ads, called family, and typed up our Christmas newsletter.
About five o'clock we headed over to our friends, the Garvins, for dinner. We were joined by our friends, the Dickensons. Dinner was simple but traditional and oh so tasty. Later we were joined by the Goode's, ate pie and played board games while the kids played and watched movies.
Neal did wake a bit early (but not crazy early) and took advantage of a few bargains before heading to work today.

We hope you had a nice Thanksgiving too. We are truly thankful for the numerous blessings God has given us, especially this year. We are grateful for medical insurance and returning health. We received so much support from our church, friends, and family--prayers, babysitting, meals, house cleaning, yard work, preschool opportunities for Sophie, cards, and well wishes. It really helped us to function through a difficult time. We truly appreciate the eternal perspective that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers. God has revealed his love for us repeatedly and most often through those around us. Thank you.

Super Trouper

(NOTICE: For those of you who wanted to see Sophie ride the sheep, the Mutton Bustin' video is at the bottom of this post. She gets out of the gate about 27 seconds into the video.)

Someone unanimously sent us ABBA Mania tickets to celebrate Keri's completion of chemotherapy. Keri loves...no...LOVES ABBA. There is love of God, then family, then ABBA--and the last two get jumbled sometimes.

So thanks to a couple of friends jumping in to babysit, Neal and Keri were off to "feel the beat of the tambourine, oh yeah." Such a great time! Even Neal got into it and he is not a die hard ABBA fan (how sad is that?!).

So whoever sent us the tickets, we'd like to say, "thank you for the music."
Couldn't take pictures inside the performance hall but let's just imagine shiny boots, and ungodly amount of sequins and spandex. Too much fun!

Turkey Calls

This week we've been talking a lot about Thanksgiving to prep for next week.

1. We've been reading children's Thanksgiving books which are not historically accurate by any account. The devastation of the white man's smallpox on the Native American population is not really a warm and fuzzy story.

2. We have listened to and practiced Thanksgiving hymns (see video).

3. We have listened to various turkey calls on the Internet. The wild turkey communicates far beyond "gobble, gobble." We heard what are identified as clucks, putts, yelps, cuttings, and even purrs. Who knew?

4. In preschool, Sophie has made a Native American headdress (which resembles patriotic bunny ears - one red and one blue paper feather on a white headband) and the token traced hand turkey.

5. And we have been playing a goofy game of Name That Tune where the only word you can sing is "Gobble, gobble."

Our kids will be so confused when we serve ham next week instead of the traditional bird.

What is she singing? "For health and strength and daily food, we praise thy name, oh Lord."

Western Heritage Festival

Yeeeeeeehaw! We attended the Texas Stampede Western Heritage Festival twice today! This morning we saw a blacksmith and a farrier at work, visited the petting zoo, and cheered on Sophie in the Stick Horse Rodeo!

Both kids loved the petting zoo. Rhys was not afraid of the animals and seemed to be a fan of the baby pigs. Sophie and Rhys fed the animals. Sophie noted that feeding them "tickles."

This is Sophie and her friend from preschool, Ben. They are waiting for the Stick Horse Rodeo. Sophie was chosen to participate in the color guard and lead the parade around the arena (see video).

It was like a real little rodeo from start to finish. Sophie did the barrel race. She threw the required figure 8s out the window and free styled it. That's our cowgirl! She got a shiny blue ribbon for doing such a good job.After naps for the kids and mommy, we returned to the festival for the Mutton Bustin' event. For those of you who don't know what that is, let us explain. First you sign your own precious child's life away for liability reasons, then you put that child on a sheep and say "hang on" and let them go.

When Sophie woke up from her nap, Keri asked, "Do you want to go ride a sheep?" and our sweet, unknowing girl thought that was a great idea.Yep, that's our little cowgirl on the back of that sheep. He jetted straight out and then took an immediate turn until Sophie and the sheep met up with the railings of the arena. They didn't hit hard but thank goodness for that helmet. I loved it when the announcer told the staff to "scrape her off." It was over is seconds. The adults were always quick to help the kids up.
She loved it! No tears, just excitement. And you can bet your boots she got another shiny blue ribbon! We are so pleased that she is willing to try things and be a bit of a dare devil sometimes.

Chemotherapy Completed!

To celebrate Keri's completion of chemotherapy, we wanted to try something new so we attended an opera. We could either sit at home or sit at the opera so we chose the latter. We saw Anna Bolena at the new Dallas Opera in downtown. Although we know things do not turn out well for Henry the VIII's 2nd wife it was still nice to have the English subtitles for this Italian sung performance.

Keri is elated to be done with approximately 10 months of chemotherapy. She actually cried for joy and relief after finishing. Should be a few weeks or so before she feels more like her old self again. She will continue to get blood work done while the chemo is still in her system. She will have her mediport surgically removed sometime in November or early December. Keri will continue to have regularly scheduled body and brain scans for the next few years.

Thanks for all the support we have received from our family and friends. We love you and appreciate they love and help we had during this year.

Previous Quote of the Blog

If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse. - Jim Rohn

An Award!

Every month we get together with a fairly large group of friends and have a potluck dinner and catch up with each other. Well, at this dinner, our friends recognized Keri's last week of chemo (only 3 more doses to go) with an award. It was to acknowledge that she had been strong, determined, and "kicked cancer's butt." What Keri is most excited about is that she now has documentation that she is awesome.