Merry Christmas!

It was a white Christmas, a wonderful Christmas, a spoil-and-love each other Christmas.  A two-dog Christmas, a family Christmas, a dragon-and-pink for the children Christmas.

It was pretty much perfect.

We reveled in presents and ate a grand breakfast and went back for more packages after that... and in traditional Henderson fashion, this whole grand production that is Christmas Day-- was pretty much done by 11:30.

So in traditional Morehouse fashion we took off for NY at 1:00.  A smooth drive brought us to Claire's in time for Christmas dinner, a small gift exchange, and time with a gaggle of cousins...

Four snowy, grand, relaxing days in Aurora:  sledding, some more sledding, Science Center, coffee in Ithaca, dinner with cousins.  Repeat. 

Again, pretty much perfect.  The kids even slept well.  And we got wake up each day to scenery like this:

I'll leave you with some more photos of our outdoor adventures in NY.  The snow has continued since our arrival back home and we are trying to make the most of it, skating on the Rink at Wade Oval this afternoon, and snuggling in with our new toys at home.

 

Winter Break!

It's been a wonderful winter vacation so far!

Allow me to recap for you:

Day 1 of vacation (Saturday) began with a lazy hour of snuggling and playing iPhone apps with the kids, followed by pancakes and waffles for breakfast, before donning our winter gear and hitting the sledding hill at 9:30am.  Back home for videos and cocoa-- and we all stayed in jammies til noon!  Then, Nat and I took the kids to Lakewood for an overnight with Gram.  We used our time off to clean (decadent, eh?) and wrap presents before we went over to Melinda and Will's where we had real adult conversation and drinks with them, after their littles went to bed.

It was lovely. 

Sunday we slept in and went out for coffee before picking the kids up at church. And did I mention that in between were 8 wonderful hours of uninterrupted sleep??? 

Yes, a good start to vacation indeed.

Yesterday afternoon found us making a gingerbread house and helping Jack and Ivy to wrap their presents for the family. 

It was a bit strange to have everything at the ready before Christmas Eve.

Today was full of excited children. A surprisingly normal day of keeping them entertained and contained and fed.... capped off with a lovely dinner at my mom's and a delightfully chaotic church service full of dogs and cats and hamsters, music and noisy children and a perfect, friendly demeanor.  I love visiting Trinity.  It always feels like coming home. 

Pictures from the week:


1. Rewind a bit to a week ago, with a visit to Santa's workshop at Lake FarmPark, and a nighttime wagon ride to see the lights...

Sledding!  First snow of the season, on the first day of the season...

Gingerbread house...

Christmas eve... Stockings are hung, sugarplum visions are dancing, all is calm and bright.

 Merry Christmas, all.

Merry and Bright

Hello Friends,

Weeks come and go so fast.  I have had intentions of writing all week. About my funny children, about events in our lives, in response to events on the national stage...

There is more in my mind and heart than there is time to express.

Mostly there is a deep gratitude for the busy, chaotic life I have; for my energetic, messy children; for the net of friends and family we have to surround us; for our safety and health and the blessing of each crazy, overfull day.

Hugs and love to each of you, dear readers. 

And, pictures.

We went back to Wintershow last Sunday, to take in the sights by day and to pose children, and families, for photos.

We sure do love these people.

To cap off last weekend: Second Sunday Soup, the Christmas edition.

It may have been our best Soup yet.  Certainly it was the loudest, due in no small part to the presence of these three young men.  Three five year old boys, all in cahoots?  It add a while new dynamic to the party...

Greg, Max, Jack.  Here comes trouble.

 We gathered people we love and ate a wonderful tortellini soup and held conversations amid the noise and interruption of children running laps around the house and it was, really, quite sublime.

This is about half of the assembled company.  I love seeing our table so full.

End of the evening. ... and no better way to end it than with a few episodes of Shaun the Sheep.  One of our current favorites, for sure...

 This week?  Unseasonable warmth, busy days with squirrely students, putting off Christmas preparations with wild abandon.

I chaperoned a school choir concert one night (good times trying to keep 80 7th grade boys quiet for an hour!) and went caroling in Lakewood on another.

Life went on in a wonderfully routine way.

 
Around us in the world this week, tragedies unfolded in different ways.  A longtime principal in our district passed away.  A dear friend lost his brother.  And on Friday, a stark reminder of the sudden and shocking ways lives can change, the insecurity of the world we send our children out into.


Yet in our own world, life has been merry, and bright. 

 And I think that is alright.

I think in times of sadness and fear, it is alright to instead be glad.  To be glad is to be grateful and to be glad is to fight the darkness in a very immediate way.

And so we did this weekend.

Saturday we tried our hands at a North Pole party.  Inspired by the idyllic posts of a blogger Melinda and I follow, this little party was a celebration of how cute small children look in their Christmas jammies.  And how nice and cozy and magical a house can look when festooned with Christmas lights.

The consensus:  Pretty darn cute.  And pretty darn magical. 

It was  a lovely night.  While we did not fit in the scavenger hunt by flashlight (looking for items dropped by Santa of course!) or the making of reindeer food (ideas from the inspiration party), I think our evening was quite successful. The children had a ball together, Christmas music was played, and many cookies were eaten.

 It was merry and bright.

Decorating gingerbread men.

We had to rope them into listening to stories.  As you can see, the sitting still part was a challenge.

photo credit to Jack!