Holiday Cheer

 Baking

Making Bon Bons

Many hands making light work

Doing the splits. Ouch!!!

Smiling

Snuggling

 Playing Dutch Blitz

 Posing

 Goofing around

 Making fun of her sister for accidentally 

taking the Christmas tree apart

Eating

   Wrestling

Opening Gifts

Modeling

"I wish we could put some of the Christmas 

spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month."

--Harlan Miller-- 

Monday Mugs - Favorite Photos of 2010

I divided my favorite 2010 pictures

into four categories.

1. Cool Pictures  

Erica's famous wipeout

Kiah and Anna

2. Fun Memories 

Kiah and Rachel gave us all fleece

jackets and flannel jammies for Christmas  

Erica with our youth group leader (a.k.a. Waldo) when the youth went to the Duluth Synphony. He borrowed our big red van and pretended to be the chauffeur.  

Christina and I sailing on Lake Superior

3. Goofy Pictures

Lani and Amy

 Digital Scavenger hunt for Erica's 18th BD 

 On our June road trip to Oregon 

 First Sand Merman we've ever made

4. Special Times

 Erica's baptism 

 Andrew hugging me good-bye after he

walked me up the aisle at his wedding

  

Every man should have his dog at his wedding.

I did 24 Monday Mugs posts in 2010.
Maybe you could join us in 2011.

To see more Monday Mugs year end

 recaps check out Oswald Cuties. 

Next week's theme is Smiles 

Where's Waldo?

It's probably one of those things where you had to be there to think this is funny.

We invited a good friend over for dinner. While waiting for dinner to get ready, he took Christina, Amy, and Lani outside to play in the snow. Great fun, except the girls had snow clothes on and he didn't, so his clothes got a little wet. 

I offered some of Keith's clothes while we put his clothes in the dryer. I gave him a choice of Keith's red sweats or jeans. He chose the red sweats. I gave him the choice of a dark blue long sleeved T-shirt or a striped Rugby shirt. He chose the Rugby shirt.

I just want to make sure it's clear we did not force him to wear these clothes.

Christina took one look and said, "Where's Waldo?"

The comments flew fast and furious:
      "You're a candy cane."
      "An escaped convict from the North Pole."
      "A tall elf."
      "Big Mike from The Blind Side."

When Kiah got home from work we waited to see her reaction.

She stopped in her tracks and said, "Oh my goodness."

I said, "We got him a new outfit for his birthday."

Kiah looked at me incredulously, "You've got to be kidding." Which considering her shirt was a little like the pot calling the kettle black.

When Erica and Anna came home we elected to wait and see what they would say.

Erica smirked and said, "Where's Waldo?"

I lied explained that we had given him the outfit for his birthday. To which she could think of nothing more intelligent than, "Wow."

It's hard to keep a straight face when someone looks like a barber pole. 

Things disintegrated from there.

They pretended to be kids listening to Amy read a Christmas story. 

Lani tried taking a self-portrait, forgot that red eye flashes twice, and temporarily blinded herself. 

Erica and Anna modeled their new socks

The girls get a kick out of how big "Waldo's" feet are.  He maintains guys have to check their ego at our door when they come over because my girls will rip it to shreds. 

Erica tried on Waldo's boots and was amazed at how big and heavy they are. 

After a rousing game of Dutch Blitz he changed back into his regular clothes and went home. Erica, not realizing we had been teasing her, asked why he didn't take the clothes we had given him for his birthday home with him. 

The moral of the story is to always keep a spare change of clothes in your car or pick your friends more carefully.  I mean, what kind of people dress their friends up like a candy cane and then blog about it?

Von Trapp Singers we are Not

Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in Thee 

Question posed at dinner three weeks ago, "What do you guys think about singing as a family for the church Christmas program?"

Five answered, "Yes", one said, "No", and knowing some family members sing on pitch better than others, the last one warily asked, "What do you have in mind?

"The song we sang at our old church's Christmas program three years ago. When we sang Come Thou Long Expected Jesus to the tune of Come, Thou Fount."

Random comments over the next two weeks. 

"I'm not doing it. Singing in front of 30 people is one thing. Singing in front of 120 is another."

"You have to sing. We want to do it all together. Like the Sound of Music."

"Nope, my mind's made up."

"But you'll call more attention to yourself if you're the only sister that's not up there singing."

"I don't sing good."

"That doesn't matter. Just move your lips. You don't actually have to sing."

"Shouldn't we practice?"

"We'll practice later."
 
Israel's strength and consolation
Hope of all the earth Thou art
Dear desire of every nation
Joy of every longing heart.

Despite good intentions, three weeks passed without practicing.

15 minutes before the party began I searched out my harried husband, "We NEED to practice."  

Keith, who at that moment chose to be an optimist, said, "We don't need to practice, we'll just wing it." Unsure of our abiity to "wing it" I herded our six girls into their Dad's office for the quickest practice in singing family history.

After one verse, Keith said, "Okay, we got it - that's good enough."

Oh boy! I distinctly remember reading that the VonTrapp family practiced. Alot. 

Born Thy people to deliver
Born a child and yet a king
Born to reign in us forever
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring
 
So here we have the Von Trapp Family Wannabes Vik Family Singers making a joyful noise, some singing on pitch, some not, some just moving their lips, and some winging it,

Standing next to the loudest singing voice in the church was hard on my eardrums. Keith drowns out anybody close to him. We should have put the lip mover next to him.

I have no idea how we sounded. Who would be rude enough to tell their pastor that his family shouldn't quit their day jobs. By the lack of contract offers, we won't be doing the church concert circuit or American Idol any time soon. 

But all in all, it was fun. For the most part.

By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Monday Mugs - Winter

I'm enjoying today's Monday Mugs' topic as Winter is my new favorite season. 

See I grew up in Northern California where winter was just winter. Lots of rain and what I thought at the time was cold. Snow was a rare treat happening once every eight years and treated like an important holiday. 

I was properly introduced to snow in Colorado when I went to college. Living on campus, being young, with no snow shoveling responsibilities, and friends to play in the snow with, winter was FUN.

Then I grew up, had babies, and then a few more babies, and moved to Iowa where winter meant business. Blizzards, drifting snow, freezing rain, icy roads, and nasty wind chills.

 Winter is cold

and long

 and people suck it up and endure it

 Then we moved to Northern Wisconsin 

where people embrace winter. So we

bought snow clothes and ski passes

and learned to ski and snowboard

 And to go sledding

 and wipe out

 and have fun with friends

 and ice skate and play hockey

 and walk on frozen Lake Superior

 and get rosy cheeks

 and take pictures in April 
by thawing Lake Superior

So far this year only our youngest two have done much playing in the snow. But Christmas break starts Thursday and the ski hill is open and calling our name. 

To view other winter pictures go to Oswald Cuties. Our winter is the yin to Heather's yang.