The Professor and Mary Ann

We've been busy around here for Advent. Rob had three musical numbers at church. Maddie had a ballroom concert and two choir concerts. We had ward friends over for soup and cookie decorating. We attended the Adventsingen of the German department (held this year in the DeJong concert hall in the absence of the Provo Tabernacle). Maddie and Rob dressed up in their TrachtenMode again for the ward Christmas breakfast and Maddie found to her dismay that her dirndl was not even close to fitting. I did a quick and dirty alteration (my mother is never allowed to see it), but in the end she wore a very pretty one borrowed from the Isaaks. Sebastian had a Christmas program too, and they sang all of those chinese classics like We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Fa-ra-ra-ra-rah I mean Silent Night. In addition, just before Thanksgiving Grandpa was hired up in Salt Lake by one of his favorite clients. This has meant that we're all getting spoiled by him at...

This year for our gingerbread house, I checked three books out of the library and looked for ideas. And for future years and generations, here's a good rule to live by: "if you ain't baking' it, you don't get to vote on it." Without this rule we ended up choosing a church and I said some truly unholy words while the candy rose window wouldn't cooperate three times . This is always the point where I contemplate running out and buying a kit. Then I look down and see that I'm covered in molasses and powdered sugar and surrender. In the end, it has always turned out just fine: We had a good time, but the kids were playing happily downstairs and we didn't want their pestering hands to bother them, so Rob and I did a lot of the decorating. Sebastian put on the roof, Joss placed the shrubs, and Maddie decorated the trees with coconut and candies. This is the only fuzzy shot we got of the Isaaks' magnificent manor house, which was based on an actual ...

Joss was at the height of his energy and powers this Christmas season. He love love LOVED all the outdoor lights and called them "Crimmas". Each evening he'd beg his papa to take him outside for a bike ride to look at Crimmas. He yanked all of the garlands and ornaments off both trees, though I suppose that it goes without saying this third time around. He managed to break off a few branches in the front of our living room tree as well. We thought that we'd hung all of the fragile ornaments up high enough, but one of Joss's siblings taught him to throw small blocks at the tree. We lost two of our eggs from Prague and the tail of a glass bird that way :( The man threw himself into learning all of the new Crimmas tunes. He liked "Fa la la" and "We Wish You a Merry Crimmas" (even the "What the heck is figgy pudding?" verse that the Macs sing -- the Professor is so proud). He loved "Crosty the Snowman" and we had to watch that v...

We agreed with our buddies in the the Isaak family that we would tone things down this year and shop for gag gifts at thrift stores. We gave them a Michael Jackson jukebox ornament that lets you moonwalk around the Christmas tree to "Startin' Sumpthin" and a Soul version of a trivia game. They, in true Isaak fashion, poured their whole hearts and souls into the assignment. After they found bathrobes and other strange fuzzy fabrics at the thrift store (including a "Grand Ole Opry" sweatshirt), the amazing K. fashioned the finds into huge, comfy "Ugly Dolls" for all of the McFarland Kids. The McKids promptly named them John, Paul, George and Ringo (although they all claim that their own pet is named Ringo, and the others are Paul and John and George). Thanks Isaaks, for the fab four new family members! Even as I type, the children are nestled all snug in their beds, with fuzzy bright Ugly Dolls under their heads! Actually, Fluffy must be missing the Ch...

After lounging around the warm house all day, we jumped into the car and headed up to Park City for a sleigh ride. It was fun to get out and see a different crowd -- the hardcore skiing/snowboarding bunch for whom Christmas is all about the snow. Grandpa, MA and Joss. I think Joss looks like some sort of crazed Russian royalty in his hat. It was meant for someone larger than he, but he loves it, so it's become his signature piece. Our horses, Cap & Nick. We didn't discuss Nick's size, since he was the runt here, but Cap is seventeen hands high. These were some monstrous beasts, snorting and steaming up the hill with all of us in tow. The whole crowd on our two horse open sleigh. Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we.... John, our driver, who grew up in the area and used to mine here in Park City. The Professor thought he was the best part of the ride--he used to work in a silver mine here, and knew the real, old, 'ungentirfied' Park City before...

It can be hard to tell, but I think Christmas lived up to its billing here. Sebastian was tickled that he got everything on his list (legos, duck tape, and a nerf gun which he graciously subsituted for the requested air soft gun). A sadder and wiser Will pored through his stocking and was impressed with his hand grenade screwdriver, a watch, and a polar bear that pooped jelly beans. Santa brought Joss a LightningQueen garage and it was gratifying to see him come back to it again and again throughout the morning. Kiecoo passed out presents with the help of Sebastian. My breakfast was stellar (there's no picture, but it was a potato-rosemary strata and a pecan coffee cake and they both turned out marvelously)! And there was nerf. A whole lot of nerf. Actually an appalling amount of nerf. Um, yeah. Because we didn't have enough nerf before. And even some other presents, like the hexbugs above. It was a good day, overall.

By Christmas Eve, we had lots of family in town. And lots of electronic equipment going on, too. The silver was shined, the table set, and the candles lit. Grandma cooked our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of ham, cherry sauce, potatoes, rolls, spinach salad and bubbly. After a marvelous dinner, we had the traditional Parade of Presents, where the kids bring all the presents up to the tune of Anne Murray's Oh Come All Ye Faithful and put them under the tree. This year it had the additional advantage of keeping Joss from ripping them all open before the big day. We read Luke 2 and acted it out. We recited The Night Before Christmas . We sang Christmas Carols from sacred to secular. A few days before I had mentioned to Rob that this Christmas is going to be one of those that make up the residue of "holiday tradtions" in the kids' memories. Not to add any pressure or anything! And we finally got the kids abed once they began pounding on each other from so much ex...

After watching The Gingerbread Man, I found out that we were the proud hosts of Koala Lou, the class's stuffed bear who visits for weekends and makes a report on Monday about her adventures. Sebastian felt keenly the pressure to entertain and educate, and told us that he needed to have at least six or seven things to write down to keep up with his classmates. He obviously felt that we weren't leading a very interesting life. The long and short of it was that we dragged a koala bear to a lot of events that weekend. We started out with the ward Christmas party where she fit in fine, but almost fell into some potatoes. Next we took her to a wedding reception at the Paleontology Museum (a funky, stylish event where Koala Lou was very overdressed in her furs) and we ran into one of Sebi's classmates. "Oh! You have Koala Lou!" said her father. Spoken like someone who had probably strapped a stuffed animal to his fanny pack during a snowshoeing trip. The next day Koala L...

Will is in the top row, fourth one in. We got to see Will perform for the first time with his new choir. We loved the instrumental group and both choirs. Choice of music was delightful, and the kids did a bang-up job even on their "challenge" piece. I think it was a Haydn. This next one is from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu. I've loved hearing Will sing it around the house: There were only two problems with the concert. One was Joss. He was a demon despite my having brought in a coloring book and crayon. Two was our camera. The wee video function is just not up to all of our performers!

Maddie's on the left, about four girls in. We had a week of performances before the kids got out of school. First was Maddie's orchestra concert [though Maddie refers to it always as "dorkestra"]. They played a Jingle Bells and Carol of the Bells and a piece called Santa Goes To The Symphony with excerpts from Christmas carols and well known orchestral pieces. Mercifully, Maddie came first on the program, because Joss made it through only two of her pieces before having to be carried out. We called it a night after her group was done. I'm so glad we got to see her! Her confidence and sight reading have improved a lot, and I love the fact that now she's practicing for a grade!

Now that Christmas is over, here are a couple of presents for other people that it's safe to talk about. Our friends and family have been so SO generous to us that we should take a moment here to remember. We had B & H, J & T, D & J, and M & D who all invited us to come stay at their cabins this year. They were our vacations and they were all highlights . K K and K gave us a vacuum cleaner and a camera when everything in our possession began to fail. L & A kept us entertained for six months with their treasured boxed set of West Wing and got our carpets livable again with their wonderful steam cleaner. There are many more things that I'm forgetting right now, but it does remind me of C & B who gave us a toilet when Joss was born. I kid you not. A porcelain throne; the genuine article. The card said "happy toilet training". So when they adopted their eighth this year, I knit a sweater for their daughter. It looked like this only deep pink with ...

I am behind this year on Christmas, and really noticing a difference. Normally I aim to meet Flylady's holiday deadlines to have my presents bought, menus planned, nonperishables stocked, cards mailed, and everything wrapped. This gives me the whole month to obsess over neighbor gifts (which I loathe). This year I'm playing catch up on all of those things. The one thing I've done right is to wrap and label the presents but not stick bows on them. This way I can hide and stack them, I know who they're for, and I'll have the perfect job to do while I'm helping the kids wrap their gifts. OK, the other thing I've done right is use Amazon. Not only do I love their wish list and the universal wish list button so that I can add things to the kids' lists as I think of them whenever I'm "looking for the end of the internet" as Liesl's sister calls it. I also love their gift organizer which lets me create an idea list for family and friends...