Yes, I Know Christmas was 3 weeks ago :~) OR What! No sugar?!

Sorry guys! I have been just slightly busy. We are currently sitting in Anchorage airport waiting to fly out to Chicago (we hear some flights have been delayed so pray!) and eventually on to Dublin for a 2 1/2 week European mission tour. We will be in Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool and hopefully Glasgow. Ok, back to Christmas! We had a great Christmas!! Tiffany even came and spent the night. The kids opened their new jammies & stocking Christmas Eve. Santa came early to our house. You guys didn't know we get early delivery did you? We only live 6 hours from the North Pole. You can't expect that guy to deliver everything in one night the way the world has multiplied! We actually enjoyed our visit with Santa at the North Pole over Thanksgiving. He was really nice! He even goes to church and teaches Sunday School for the men!! WOW!! The kids had all put in their one request to him. Joseph asked for a Buzz Lightyear. When he saw Buzz under the tree Christmas morning. He skirted around him and looked at him for a while before he finally decided it was safe enough to pick him up. Now Buzz goes everywhere and sleeps on his bed. Joe Bob is very dissappointed that Buzz needs assitance to stand. Didn't think that one through. Naomi asked for a Belle doll from Beauty and the Beast. She loves Belle! Belle has a special spot on her bed as well. She won't take her anywhere because she doesn't want to lose her! Emily asked for a sled dog and then made me call Santa back and change that order to Momma Panda with a Baby Panda. That was a tall order but mission accomplished. Natalie even sat on Santa's lap and asked for a guitar. Santa delivered really early on that one. She got it for her birthday. But you guys already know that! She settled for a pink iPod instead. Zac asked Santa for a corvette but the poor guy couldn't get it through the chimney so he had to be happy with his new Xbox360. Tiffany wanted her life plan on a flash drive but Santa told her she would have to ask the King of Kings for that! (Just kidding!! She didn't even make the trip. Neither did Zac but they aren't here to defend themselves so they make great blog material. Their lovely picture is my blog id. If you haven't seen it, check it out!) Tif is praying for answers on what comes next and when. She is going down to Texas to work with Uncle Bill and do some other things sometime in March. She is just a little anxious to get there so pray for her! We pray that all our kids make the right choices in what God has planned for them. Naomi said she thought it was really cool that we get presents on Jesus' birthday. She said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could have a real birthday party with Jesus and bring him presents." I told her that one day we would have one big birthday party when we all get to Heaven and all Jesus wants for presents is us!

On with Christmas day.....we had a great dinner with our friends, the Medlocks. We served turkey breast and ham. I have been trying to serve up some healthier choices much to my families dismay. Needless to say, the golden beets, acorn squash and things were passed over by my younger children. We have been making Ratatoullie. After seeing the movie, the kids wanted to try it. They decided it was for big people. Zac likes it. Natalie wrinkles her nose and the others just laugh. They did like the steamed yams with just a slight sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar. Tiffany asked if she could add marshmellows to them for reheated leftovers. I tried something different with the bread and made scones and herbed beer bread. The kids let me know they prefer plain old rolls or bread. We tried to finish it off with some fabulous homemade pumkin pie, which I stayed up until 2 am to finish. I took one bite and realized there is something wrong with this! I took another bite and it suddenly hit me.....I FORGOT THE SUGAR!!! The kids ate a few bites with a load of whip cream but they just couldn't finish it...too bad we don't have a pig or two. They would have loved it! I did redeem myself at New Year's and made SURE that I put sugar in the pumpkin pie. We actually ate it warm and it was really tasty!

Well, I finally posted pictures so you could see the "Christmas room". Okay, it's actually the living room all cleaned out. It just makes me sound snooty. We also painted since then but I will have to post those pictures later. We painted the living areas and hallways taupe or something like that and the kitchen is called "red, red wine." Yes, I painted my kitchen red! I love it!! Actually Rick painted my kitchen red. You know, like the cards in Alice in Wonderland. It was something akin to that. He ran around singing. "I'm painting the kitchen red or else I'll lose my head." Actually, he really likes it or he is just telling me that so he won't lose his head. I went and picked out all the paint one day when he was at work and just brought it home. I think I scared the paint lady with my huge order and lots of comments like, "I think that will work." I am pretty easy at making things work even if they are horrible. I figured if they were really bad, we would just glaze or sand or something decorative like that. Makes me sound like I know what I am doing anyway. Tiffany just shakes her head and says, "You should have let me go with you." My friends like it so I'm good. The upstairs is vastly hodge podge. The hallways will be the same taupe as downstairs. The Master Suite, as the house plans call it, will be a deep sage and the bathroom a lighter version. Natalie's room is electric blue, lime green and bright orange with hot pink in wall decor and some of her bedding. Yes, I know. We are saving electricity. IT'S AWESOME!! We will post pictures because you just have to see it! Zac's room will be blue, period. Emily and Naomi will have pink and purple. They had other ideas, we said no! Joseph's love for heavy equipment will come out in his walls. He will have dirt on the bottom half, sky blue with clouds for the top half and wallpaper trim with various loaders and such. He got a play table for Christmas to park his equipment on. He calls it his construction site. He even has a chair to sit at. He pushes blocks and lincoln logs around daily. Always a project at hand! The bathrooms in the hallways will be blue. We have the ocean upstairs and the Alaskan wilderness downstairs. One day we will have our house finished.......

I do want to do a New Year's letter. We gave up on Christmas letters a long time ago. We decided to go with the IRS deadline for businesses, Feb 28. We will have pictures from our trip then! Hope you all had a blessed Christmas! As much as we love to have fun with Santa, we do remember the reason it all started in the first place. We praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for being willing to come as one of us to pull us out of the pit and teach us to walk in freedom! Happy 2009 to all of you!