Ken's sister, Christy, died this morning. It came as a surprise - maybe it shouldn't have. She'd been fighting a brave fight against the cancer in her body, but we were still hoping.

At her house today Steven noticed the poem that Marissa had framed for Christy's birthday. It holds the thoughts I am hanging on to tonight:


The Weaver

My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily. 

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride,
Forget that He seeth the upper,
And I the under side. 

Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why. 

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned. 


He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.

Twenty Years!

Park 96

Park 96 is the perfect place to spend Christmas night!

It was a warm night, but we still enjoyed the ambiance of the fire.

Erica helped Chloe, Chloe helped Jenna (her new Canadian Girl Doll).

I've never gone night sledding. Still haven't, actually. I've just photographed it.

Emma and Carmen took their sleds to the very top.

Jaclyn stayed back at Grandma's and found other ways to have fun.

Twice the workers, twice the chocolates

We doubled our fun for kids chocolates day today.

They worked fast and furious, trading off from batch to batch who rolled and who dipped.

Sometimes the roller just couldn't help herself and started dipping to! It produced some interesting results.

Jaclyn just blinked. Marissa is making this face on purpose. (Just to be clear.)

It was entertaining for all. I think we've created a new tradition!

And now you've seen 6 of the 9 photos I've taken this month

(As if it's November or something.)
(November is a notoriously low photo-taking month in our house.)

We've had the usual plethora of Christmas concerts, all well documented - because nothing says 'I love you' like mom simultaneously managing a video and a still-photo camera.

What we haven't managed to do is go sledding or skating because Chloe is sick again. She's on her 7th antibiotics of 2010. My doctor tells me that eight-in-a-year is the magic number for a tonsillectomy, but this one has gone to her lymph nodes in a big way and I'm ready for an ENT referral. Now.

I'm also a little bit ready for January and healthy eating. My family's been doing a food version of *Gone in 60 Seconds*. Or at least 24 hours. I made over a gallon of Egg Nog yesterday and there wasn't any left tonight to wash down the shortbread cookies we baked for dessert today. More than a gallon! Gone!

Anyhow. I'm threatening vegan at this point because it will take a month of the other extreme to balance out the butter and cream consumption in December. Okay, probably not totally vegan, but if I did, I'd make this my new home page: Oh She Glows. And the best part is she's Canadian so I figure I should be able to find the ingredients. Woo-hoo!

The Grinch

The choir director found a way to use Chloe's powers for good:



(You're waiting for about the 1:35 mark.)

Baking through a pinhole

The activity advent calendar dies a small death every year as the kids get older. Not everyone wants to make paper snowflakes any more! Happily everyone still likes baking, or at least eating. Tuesday night was sugar cookies:

Jaclyn was so efficient! She by far baked the most cookies (Guess which Ziploc I feel free to steal from - how could she notice with so many cookies?)

Carmen is also very proficient. She didn't bake as many as Jaclyn, but she got all of her's decorated. (Guess who Ken is stealing from.)

Steven likes the eating the best, and he certainly isn't worried about appearance (he made quite a few Christmas shamrocks and why not when he's just eating them himself).

Chloe likes the dough as well as the cookies. (She also likes making paper snowflakes.)

And what about the pinhole? 

I'm enjoying my new little point & shoot camera. Tuesday night I tried out the 'pinhole' setting for something different, which I may regret when I put these washed out pictures next to 'auto' setting pictures in the photo album - oh well.

(Does it make this post less Christmas-y to know we watched Spiderman while we baked?)

When Carmen volunteers to perform background music at the junior high Service Saturday:
I win.

(When she ropes Jaclyn and Chloe into performing a trio at Service Saturday she wins.)

It's so challenging to stick to music education with kids! Voluntary performing feels like a serious motherhood victory.

(Actually, Steven is playing the piano for seminary opening song most days and I wouldn't call it voluntary, but somehow it still feels like a win.)