On Christmas Night All Christians Sing

This was our year for a Rochester Christmas.
Dad got his box of old family ornaments from the basement, full of ancient treasures.

Very much wish my brother could be here in person!

After our overnight drive, we spent the 23rd recovering. Christmas Eve, we felt good enough to go over to Leah and Matthew's house. We'd heard a rumor they had some gingerbread houses that needed decorating.

Tai-Tai, 3, was the most willing to let Leah help. 

Uncle Matthew kept us laughing.

Miles' design was unique.

Adele let me contribute to her cathedral. 

After the focused activity, we gave in to our usual tradition of letting the kids run completely wild.

First, the dress-up pageant. There was swordplay and a lively chase!

There's always some kind of mishap during this independent cousin romps. A few years ago, it was the dress-up picnic party which ended with Miles running downstairs naked and grinning, and Abby in a princess gown. This year, everyone but Adele was playing nicely downstairs at one point and we decided to look into Adele's activities.
Then came some hurried cleaning. She found the tempera paint and was doing some artwork, using Abby's bed as her art table. She was painting on paper, though the paper she'd been using as easel was leakier than she'd reckoned, and her palms and the soles of her feet were red. And so were many other patches upstairs.
I think we got everything cleaned up sufficiently that it was worth it, the time spent ignoring the children and catching up with family.

Soon it was time to put on our Christmas Eve best.

They walked to church hand in hand. South Wedge Mission Christmas was gorgeous! The kids all got bells and wooden rainbow angels on sticks, and were instructed to wave the angels and ring the bells whenever they heard anything that sounded like good news.
It was a livelier than usual service at SWM!

We tucked in after leaving our customary letter to Santa. This year, the kids wanted to call him Father Christmas, and were more than usually affectionate to him in their letter. This is almost certainly due to the nightly readings from Letters From Father Christmas, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Father Nicholas Christmas cuts a delightful character in those letters; I recommend the book heartily, whether you have children at home or not.

Christmas Day was wholesome and simple and tender. Though we all felt the beginnings (and Dad the peak) of the illnesses that were soon to afflict us (flu/head colds have only spared Jon so far), we enjoyed our day very much. We opened our wonderful gifts quite early, went to a sweet, simple service at Dad's church, and had a delicious dinner more gifts at Agnes' home. All the ingredients that I love best in a Christmas day: stockings and gifts, church, good food and a dinner in company. 

We're now trying to do the things we'd looked forward to doing in Rochester without killing ourselves, since we're all down with various illnesses in various degrees. I think I've had at least 3 distinct bugs just since we arrived on Wednesday. Still, it's so good to be here, and to be at rest and at play. Pray that we recover soon, though? There's so much we'd wanted to do.

And it's less than 2 weeks before I leave for Guatemala! Welcome, 2015!

Guadete!

The 3rd Advent candle is the Joy! or Guadete candle. This did fairly well sum up our last lap of Advent. It was full of varied joys.

Kindergarten is much more serious than it was when I went. Look at them learning syllables and fractions!

We were invited by friends to celebrate the 4th night of Hanukkah with them! We heard the Hebrew prayer, lit candles, played dreidel and enjoyed piles of potato latkes. Such joy!

We then left Miles at their home for the night, because one of his best friends of all lives there, and she had invited him for his first slumber party!

They didn't do a lot of slumbering, but they had a whole lot of fun.

The fun included a face-painting session, so this is how Miles looked at dance when we met him the next morning!

Adele was finally allowed to wear her tutu for her lesson.

That evening, we held our dress rehearsal for A Charlie Brown Christmas!

People have been astounding me with their creativity and generosity at making props and costumes. 

Rehearsal went swimmingly. I was so proud! We only had to repeat one part the kids weren't quite nailing, and then no sooner did we get our costumes off than some church members arrived with a delicious home cooked meal for the kids! I was maintained in a surreal level of joy and victory that weekend of the 4th Sunday of Advent.

After rehearsal, we swung out to have a look at the Living Nativity down the road:

A real sheep! Adele was thrilled

The kids remember: Angels always say "Fear not!"

Even this one.

Here are some pictures of A Charlie Brown Christmas, as performed completely perfectly and movingly by the Christ Church children and teens. We did a shortened version of the script, but we got a lot of the laugh lines and sweet moments in, including Linus' recitation, the decoration of the Christmas tree, and lots of dancing to Vince Guaraldi! Jon was the soundtrack man.

You can probably identify Lucy, Sally, Violet, Linus and Charlie Brown.

The Nativity Ensemble were the kids Charlie was supposed to be directing. They spent most of the "rehearsal" just dancing, but did a lovely mime of the Nativity story when Linus began to recite.

Observe Snoopy and his doghouse!

And our poor little tree, that only needed a little love. 

Singing, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing":

Dancing their Peanuts dances

We got laughter, tears, and lots and lots of smiles from the audience. It was, as I so hoped it would be, a gift to the congregation we love so much. I cannot begin to enumerate all that this experience preached to me. I had reinforced to me that when we go out on a limb and do something new that we feel called to do, the strength and resources to follow through will be provided, and the blessings will be endless. We had some folks who aren't ordinarily too involved in church connected closely with this project, and I had the chance to see some of the extraordinary gifts of the people in the community. I learned, too, that I really don't have to do superhuman things all on my own; the product was the result of everyone's voluntary generosity and support. They were good lessons, pleasant to receive, and I will make use of them again very soon, as I go out on a limb in the direction of Guatemala in just over 2 weeks!

(I could still use prayers for the trip, though...)

Sweets of Advent

Advent has been settling in like a new cat in the house. We are getting comfortable with each other. There is a wreath now, and, as of yesterday, a tree. The cards are going out tomorrow. Christmas preparations are starting to seem manageable. And there is a gentle glow around everything just now, dark as it is outside, which is very soothing.

This morning, we got to crunch our way through a brisk, lovely frost! Which almost kept me from being bothered by having to clear off the car. Almost. 

Last week we got a babysitter and went to a Real Adult Party! Hosted by one of my local twitter friends. We had a great time playing cards, drinking wine, and just letting our hair down a bit. Thank you, Kim!

Saturday brought us another opportunity to spy on the kids in dance class (parent weekend).

They dance with props. Oddly, this is the one Miles was least distracted by. 

She was just worn out from breaking in the new babysitter the night before.

Some dance videos: :-)

I love Advent hymns. I used to resent that, going to a liturgical church, I didn't get to sing Christmas carols in church until Christmas eve. But you know, I'm coming to deeply appreciate this restraint. To spend an entire month in feasting and give Advent short shrift, to me, is to fail to acknowledge the painful aching waiting that all of creation is doing, for justice, for hope, for freedom and wholeness. It is a good discipline to wait in hope with creation.

FINALLY we have the tree up. I forget how cheerful a sight a lit tree really is. It's a prophetic sign. Soon.

P.S. If we hit you up for a donation for this kindergartner's Walk-a-Thon on Halloween, Thank You! Because he tied another child for largest donations from that event! Proceeds went to the PTO, the Interfaith Food Pantry & the Blacksburg Children's Museum.

Because he was a winner, he got to invite one guest to sit with him on the stage for lunch today. 

Reader... he chose ME!

I am honored to be this child's celebrity guest. 

Holiday Lights

The last of the leaves are long gone in beautiful Blacksburg, but there is no lack of color in the scenery around town:

2014 makes our fifth observance of the Blacksburg Holiday Lights Festival. I look forward to it for weeks, now. It begins with Santa's calling hours at the Lyric, followed by the lighting of the town Tree, followed by Tuba Christmas and carolers at the craft market, followed by the Holiday Parade, which I think might be bigger than the 4th of July parade around here. I enjoy a different event most each year.

Waiting in line to see Santa at the Lyric, we caught sight of Blacksburg's travelling folk prophet, Dr. Moon. 

Inside the theater, the kids were charmed, once again, by the sweet grandmotherly kindness of Mrs. Claus:

But for the first time ever, neither kid was lost to tears of fear over Santa!

You notice that Adele would not sit on Santa, but was happy to sit next to him, with Miles as a buffer. She's been talking herself up to this for weeks ("I'm going to be brave. I will tell Santa I want an Elsa doll. He will say Ho Ho Ho.") 

She did get the words out, and Miles got more than a few words out. Check him and me out in this news video from our local station! We start showing up in the video about minute 1:00.

WSLS 10 NBC in Roanoke/Lynchburg Va WSLS 10 NBC in Roanoke/Lynchburg Va

Then it was scamper up Henderson Hill to see the dramatic countdown and the lighting of the Tree.

It's no Rockafeller Center, but it makes us happy. The Mayor shakes hands with Santa Claus for the press, like it was a political deal they made together. It's adorable. 

Parade Time!

This year, much of our energy and time was given to the parade, because for once, the kids were going to appear in it. Because of his participation this year, Miles was invited to sit on the Blacksburg Chinese School's float, and they gave his jealous younger sibling permission to ride with him. 

We basically put them on the float and, after about a block, Jon and I booked it. We hauled ourselves at a tidy pace so we could make it the 1.5 miles to South Main Street, and then to the public library's parking lot to disembark from the floats. Jon and I are still sore. It was a delightful walk on a lit up, festive winter's night, though.

Doesn't the float look awesome?!

They had a terrific time on their fame ride. The girls are princesses and the boys, monkey kings (this is in some folk story; don't ask me!), and they all hold lanterns in the shape of horses, for the Chinese zodiac year we're in now.

Adele, er, stands out a bit. 

Thank heaven there was one other non-heritage kid there, so we felt less intrusive. BCS has shown us such hospitality!

Saturday was the first full rehearsal for the Christmas Pageant. I am so grateful for this experience, even as I'm worn out by it. I've received so much grace from church members, though. Parents, teens, and unconnected other adults have offered help, from props to snacks to help with the technology and set. My prop wish list, which had sixteen items on it just three weeks ago, now has just four items which we do not have. I stayed after rehearsal talking to one family about how nice it would be to have some cardboard cutout Christmas trees to contrast with our little green tree, and the teen in the family went right home, made them herself, and brought them to the props closet. Another woman, whose husband and daughter attend but who always has to work Sundays, herself, and so can never make church, finally has a door into church involvement: Saturday rehearsals. She's helping build the set! Graces abound. This is a year of seeing the payoff for stepping out on a limb, for me. How alive it makes one feel.

Sunset at Virginia Tech

We are counting down! This is our Advent calendar thus far, though I have the makings for another to make this evening with the kids.
One last relic of Thanksgiving: somehow I missed this in Adele's cubby until recently.

Obviously, her teacher wrote the words, but she came up with them. I should probably conjure a list of such simple, good things in my life every day. It would do me good.