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Showing posts from 2009

Christmas Day

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In the morning, the kids woke us up at 7:05. Rob wanted another half hour of sleep, but was outvoted. We woke up Joss too and opened the doors to the living room: Will with the wind up lederhosen from his stocking. Joss exclaiming over the candy and toys in his. We began to open presents, then Rob called us to the dining room table where there was a box at my chair. The box had a skein of yarn in it, and the yarn led to a Scooby Doo sheet down in the basement. This was under the sheet! It's a painting we commissioned from our friend Darren Breen of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin The objects in the foreground are all symbolic of things from our experiences there, right down to the snowball (a border skirmish with tower guards while Rob was on his mission) and the Trabi's license plate (the initials and date that our friend Heidi Grathwohl died). John and Tania were graciously letting us interrupt their Christmas downstairs, so I was showing her the other lithographs we had u

Christmas Eve!

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This is what was happening around our place on Christmas Eve: stockings hanging, lights shining, gumdrops missing from the gingerbread -- what!?! What kind of kids are these that snitch candy off the gingerbread house before New Year's Day, the high holy holiday made for demolishing the creation? Kids that aren't afraid enough of their parents, that's what kind. So I removed one of the licorice shingles myself and figured if I can't beat them, I'd join them. It was awful . For dinner we had stacked enchiladas. Rob began teaching the secrets of making them to Will. We've been trying to fit in our scripture reading in between dinner and dessert lately, so we did it here, with the reading of Luke 2 as a prerequisite to the Mohr im Hemd (I decided it was my Christmas. I wasn't going to torture myself with pies or my kids with steamed vegetable pudding this year). In fact, the whole day was wonderfully low key. We had a great time. This year, with Joss being

If You've Got It, Flaunt It

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For church last Sunday, the kids pulled out all the stops and wore all their trachten regalia, right down to Joss's lederhosen . We even managed to fit a shirt over Sebi's cast. They all created quite a stir. Something about short pants and dirndls makes church ladies coo.

Christmas Recital

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While Sebi was getting his arm set, the other two had their Christmas recital at a nearby assisted living center. Will played Silent Night . Maddie played Joy to the World , O Little Town of Bethlehem , and a duet on a Jewish folk song called Hatikvoh . They both performed beautifully and I wish that Rob had been there to see them.

A Good Excuse to Watch Bad Movies

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I can finally post this! I went completely Mrs. Weasley this year. I guess last fall I'd made half of one of these sweaters before I had to return the book to the library, and this year I found the pieces and finished it for Joss. It was so much fun I wondered who else I could make them for. I decided that my brother and sister-in-law's children would be best because they're not as humungous as mine so the sweaters would go faster. I hadn't realized until doing this project that Jeff and Saydi's kids' initials spell "Che". Very hip, those folks. While I was knitting, I watched every movie I could get my hands on from the library. Some were great ( The Visitor ). Some were just fluff ( The Wedding Date ). One was so bad I had to turn it off ( Along Came Polly with Jennifer Anniston. I should have known better. It is a rule of Rob's that you never watch movies starring any of the actors from Friends . Good rule.) But knitting the sweaters was fun.

The Littlest Treehugger

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Rob and I were very happy to forgo a tree this year (I mean a big tree in the bay window -- we have a small artificial tree in the basement and that was just about our speed). But we knew that no gift can compensate for the failure to have a Christmas tree; that if we skipped it, this would be remembered in perpetuity as The Year With No Tree. This little guy is a big part of the reason to have no tree. He rips down the ornaments and no matter what sort of time out he has, he just says "ball? ball?" We brought in the tree and he hugged it and sat on it and loves it. Now there are no decorations below 36". Oh, well.

Same Time, Next Year

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Sebi had first class treatment at the hospital. Dr. Macarthur put a note on his chart to make certain he got to go home. Then he put a pin in his elbow. Rob said that coming out of anesthesia wasn't pretty (Rob has some pretty strange reactions to anesthesia, and I think that our kids may have them too -- I remember delirious boys smacking me after getting tubes in their ears). Sebi's nurse was from Rob's ward in Orem. She was marvelous too. She told Rob that she would have given them good care anyway, but they got excellent service because once upon a time she'd had a six week old baby with pneumonia and then her washer broke. Her visiting teacher, one Sandy McFarland, had come over and taken her laundry, washed it all, and brought it back. For weeks. Sebastian got discharged in the early afternoon and came home to take a nap. He woke up and watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which he'd remembered borrowing from Tomas last year with his broken arm

Making Gingerbread Houses

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In a fit of ambition, I decided to break away from the one true gingerbread pattern. For future reference in all areas of my life, I need to lie down until the fits of ambition pass. In specific, the one true gingerbread pattern (the one we used every year at my house growing up) is true because it all fits in one pan! I realized this four pans later, and that was in spite of cutting down these row houses to 2/3 size. Rob wants to try Casa Batllo next year. I may have lost the one true gingerbread house pattern forever. Nevertheless, they were a big party to decorate, and with so much surface area, we all got to try something. Maddie and Chloe each had a different take on Hunderwasser, Rob did a roof like the jagdhutte , I got a Casa Batllo facade, and Katie made an entire mural out of Nerds (reminded me of Felix the wall artist). We enjoyed it so much that we even decorated the backside, and who sees that but the garbage and recycling guys? Ah, dinner! A pretty sweet neighborhood

St. Niklaus Abend

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Don't tell Lois, who hates celebrating foreign holidays , but the kids had a great St. Niklaus haul in their shoes on December 7th. Rob and I posted a sign at the top of the stairs that read "If it isn't 6:00am, go back to bed!" It is such a bummer having old, sleepy parents! This holiday was brought to you by Haribo gummis, Milka chocolate, Almdudler soda, Lego, and Holz puzzles.

Advent! Advent! Ein Lichtlein brennt!

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We've been falling behind on the blog, but only blogospherically speaking -- we're still celebrating, and right now, we're celebrating advent . You can learn more about it here . We imitate the German and Austrian cultural traditions and skip the vestal purple and liturgical readings. Here's the advent wreath. Here everyone is getting ready to dive into the bunte teller . We also attended the annual Adventsingen at the Provo Tabernacle where Rob and kids performed. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even get any pictures of the kids in their trachten . They looked fantastic and they did a wonderful rendition of "Kling, Gloekchen Kling" and "O Kinderlein Kommet" with friends Hanna und David. Curtis has a complete report. You can see it here and admire the handsome couple in their dirndl and jacke . Time to light your candles and eat your lebkuchen!

An Old Testament Week

We're starting to feel chastened like the children of Israel around here. It began with our heater, which hasn't worked 100% yet this year. Despite having thrown $1,200 and several hours at it, only 3/4 of the house has heat. The other quarter is, of course, the one we live in all day. On Wednesday I started a load of laundry and dropped Sebi off at school. Then Joss and I went to B##%*$ and No$#&*! to buy a couple more things for my packages. I had 9 (count 'em!) ideas and that loathsome excuse of a bookstore had one -- ONE in stock. So I went to Pier 1 looking for something "cute". I noticed that neither of these stores have carts, and I hadn't brought the stroller, so I was reduced to either chasing Joss around as he pulled books and knicknacks off the shelves, or putting him up on my shoulder. As to the former, has a predilection for the vampirical books (like everyone else) and as to the latter, he was a very loud and abusive hat. I gave up and I'

Holiday Update 2009

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This year the McFarlands went to Vienna again. We know, you've heard it all before, but from this end, that's all we can really manage. We don't enroll the kids in soccer; we don't attend BYU football games. We don't even get our car registration in on time. So that's what we did in 2009. Here is what the kids have been up to: Madeline (11) has continued to grow without pause. She's 5"5' and says her goal is to make it to 6". She may well reach it! She is currently in her Aunt Betsy's class at Wasatch Elementary and loving it. She's involved with choir, still swims on the UVRays, and has continued violin. All of that, however, has taken a back seat to her afterschool Shakespeare classes. She and 13 other sixth graders (mostly girls) will be putting on Henry V next April. In preparation, she's read Hamlet, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry V. Her plot comprehension is astounding, but

A Mother's Book of Secrets

by Linda Eyre and Shawni Eyre Pothier. I just read this book a week or two ago (see it on my Shelfari?) and thought it was great. The format is perfect for a busy mom (short chapters, practical ideas, beautiful photos by Shawni). Now Linda and Shawni have got a deal with their publisher: you get 20% off if you order it online (go here and click on the publisher link) and all the proceeds go to curing blindness (check out the website to understand why). Great gift, great price, and you get to feel philanthropic too!

Why I Don't Blog So Much

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This was our big trip last week: to the play area at the mall. Not a lot of history here. Or cultural significance. Not even a cohesive theme with a Winnie-the-Pooh treehouse and dinosaur bones [?]. I will say that it is a great age to take the kids: Joss loves it, and Sebi is his gentle giant of a bodyguard. He shepherds his little brother around on the slide, through the tunnel and pulls his foot out when it gets stuck between dino teeth. But, oh, when I think of the depths to which we've sunk, I just find it hard to chronicle.

Will: Star of the Week

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Today is Will's birthday. In honor of it, his teacher made him the Star of the Week, where he gets to put up a poster about himself and bring in his favorite book to have read to the class. The text below is what he put up on the poster, and I was gratified to realize that it sounded amazing and was 100% fib free: I was born in Berkeley, California on November 19th. I was Ten pounds, ten ounces! I like to: play Wii . . .jump on the trampoline . . .create programs with Scratch . . . build with Legos . . . I love the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. Weird Al Yankovic is my favorite singer. I also like Owl City, Vampire Weekend, and Mika. I want to go to MIT when I leave for college, and I want to be an inventor when I grow up. I am the author and illustrator of Plunger Boy comics I have taken rockclimbing, soccer, swimming and fencing and I play violin [ugh!]. This summer I went on a 44km bike trip. I also climbed to the top of the Vienna cathedral and trekked through the world’s

Lantern Party

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Rob put together another St. Martin's day lantern-making party to celebrate a reluctant bishop . We had about 50 people show up, and everyone made paper lanterns. Some were very traditional and some were really creative. [and totally off topic here, but Will and Logan, above, are both in 4th grade. In fact, Will is actually 14 months younger than Logan. Lest you think that I exaggerate about how monstrous large my children are. The first thing Sebi's kindergarten teacher said at his parent/teacher conference was "Sebi is huge . I saw him walk in and I thought 'oh, I've got a repeater in here' but no, he's just huge." end of tangent] I really like Kaisa's lantern here. It looks traditional to me. I was also thrilled to see several more hedgehogs patterned after mine (it's a great pattern, though he's looking tired after three years). Then we went out, lit them up, and walked around singing lantern songs. Tasha, above, just got her missio

Cousins

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Here is Joss with his cousin, Cal. Joss was really intrigued with somebody smaller than he -- we don't seem to have many babies around him, though he did pick up the word. We think maybe he learned it from Elmo's World? Poor, poor fourth child whose parents can't even be counted on to teach him new words. Cal was a good baby and smiled and drank and slept and hung out in his baby seat like good babies do. We had a fun time catching up with my cousin and his wife. They're very chill about being new parents. Rob and I were such stress cases that it seems novel to us. We practically got a divorce one morning over putting Maddie's clothes on backwards (yeah, I wish I were joking . . .). Not only are they lucky to have a great baby, they are supremely lucky because they get to move out to the Bay Area next year. So we're pretty green with envy.

On Our Toes!

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During family prayer the other night, we heard Joss saying "Amen! Amen!" and when we finished and ran into the kitchen, here's what we saw. He bites off the apple peel and spits it out. All over. The next morning, I said something to Rob, he said something to me, and we turned around to see this: Augh! He also loves to open my purse and pull out my wallet, dealing all of my cards out to the four winds a few times a day. He picks up any phone and starts dialing numbers (only a matter of time before he finds 911 and cops begin showing up). He climbs on the counter, goes to the cupboard and takes out glasses and bowls to throw on the floor (casualties: two). He pulls toilet paper off the roll and all over the bathroom (I had to tell Rob that we are only doing 1-ply and wimpy-sized rolls right now). Making dinner has been a complete nightmare recently until my sister showed up with some super strong magnets that one of her co-workers is marketing as childproofing. They are