Christmastime Adventures

The last few weeks have been filled with family, friends and lots of wet wintertime adventures... I know some of you faithfully check my blog daily or weekly; I am sorry I have not written an update recently! Here are some holiday highlights from the Wachob house.

On Christmas Eve, we put the littles in their jammies and drove through a snowstorm to the candlelight service. As always, the carols, soft-lighting, and hushed reverence brought a quiet expectancy to our hearts. Erik and I stayed up late... I had to toss my first Poteca bread and start over at 9:30 PM, which meant I pulled it from the oven just before midnight. :) Christmas morning came and the snow continued as we opened stockings and shared breakfast of Poteca bread and grapefruit (combining our family traditions). It was fun to watch the girls open gifts. We loved receiving so many thoughtful handmade items - a skirt sewn by my mom, aprons from Aunt Fay, a tablecloth from Amy... many of my family were participating in Advent Conspiracy with their churches, and it was neat to see the fruits of that.

Snow, snow and more snow! Our plow truck came at noon, and we shared cookies with him (poor guy). Snow at an inch an hour made a mess of the mountain traverses, meaning Erik's family could not arrive as scheduled. His parents would up flying into Bozeman, MT, and driving to meet Adam and Kristen in Idaho Falls where the four of them were then stranded until midday on the 26th. We ended up having a quiet Christmas Day at home, then being spontaneously invited to share dinner with friends the Willcoxes.

When our eagerly anticipated guests arrived, we shared a delicious meal - my first solo efforts at a holiday dinner. I used a recipe Mom learned in a long-ago cooking class, one that included lighting brandy on fire! :) The pork-loin turned out really well, and it was such a blessing to relax and celebrate Christmas with our family. We instituted a new tradition for us - a family time of worship and singing after dinner. That was probably one of my favorite memories of the week.

On Saturday, Kristen and Becky came with me to pick up Michelle from the airport in IF. Then, because all of us enjoy Thai food, we picked up take-out from the three local Thai restaurants and conducted a very serious taste test. The winner: ?? I can't remember. I think the chilled Henry Weinhardts was actually the top-rated food item. :)

Sunday we enjoyed a sleigh ride on the Elk Refuge. The horse drawn sleighs take you right into the middle of the grazing elk herds. Doug is a wildlife biologist, and it was particularly fun to hear his insights. Sadie slept snuggled on my chest as the wind howled around us.



Erik - pulling babies on skis! Both girls are fast asleep in this picture.

We are laying the snow. Sadie loves the Baby Beco carrier we bought to replace our worn-out Snuggli. She sleeps like a champ and stays so warm and cozy!

Michelle, flopping in the snow!

Adam and Erik - skate skiing with Elisa

Grandpa Doug taking his turn carrying the munchkin

On board the sleigh at the Elk Refuge

Peek-a-boo! I'm cute and I know it!

Our tree on Christmas morning

Snow angels


Sledding adventures with Daddy

Monday took us by snowmobile and ski to Granite Hot Springs. Michelle wrote a terrific post about this trip on her blog, so I won't duplicate it. But such a fun and memorable day. The kids were amazing troopers - sleeping in baby carriers, coping with layers and layers of clothes....

We spent the next couple days quietly recuperating and giving Doug and Becky a chance to visit with friends. We all collaborated on a New Year's Eve coconut shrimp feast and rang in the New Year by actually staying up until midnight!

Doug and Becky returned to Alaska on Thursday. :( Michelle and I took the girls snow-shoeing on Friday, and on Saturday we all went cross-country skiing in the park.... testing out our wonderful new Chariot transport system.

What a wonderful week of memories. We just wish we could have somehow transported Mom, Amy, Forrest, Ephraim, and Ryan here, as well. You were missed, guys! As Elisa said, "I'm so sad. No one is here now!"

O Christmas Tree

It has been a long while since I updated our blog; I am sorry! Christmas projects, stories, and clean-up are my excuses. :) Here a few pictures of the girls and of our Christmas tree hunt. Merry Christmas!

Tea Party

Those of you who do not know Robin Jones Gunn's stories will not enjoy this entry as much as those who do.... but my sister Michelle and I attended an online tea party tonight that was launching her newest novel. She had three giveaways during the evening and we won two of them! Michelle won the trivia contest, and I won the photo contest for this picture of a tea party. So silly, and yet, we are both thrilled. We have loved her stories for years, and both of us can recount snippets of her writing that have been integral in our spiritual walks.... fiction that has spoken to our hearts deeply. Anyway, it was fun to win a contest - even more fun to do it together!

Birthdays, Homecomings and a few quick updates

Quickly, because it is late... here a couple of photos. We just celebrated Sadie's birthday last week... a small party, some carrot and pumpkin cupcakes, and lots of sweet, happy smiles. She is a charmer. She is 31 inches by my measurement, and weighs about 21.5 pounds. She has about ten words or so... most of them only recognizable by mama. She cruises all over and loves outside! ("Aussh!")


Sadie in a pile of leaves

Elisa on the mound of grass and leaf clippings

Family photo

Check out Craig and Valerie's blog some time and read about the homecoming of their miracle baby boy, Ethan. We are overjoyed with them that he is in their home. What a Thanksgiving miracle for this beautiful family.

Thanksgiving Musings

This afternoon, the girls and I retrieved a large package from the post office. When we returned to the house, we eagerly opened the box to discover mounds of new clothes, socks, and a beautiful handmade quilt. Erik and I are immensely blessed by all of our parents. They are God-loving, wise, and gracious. And they love to lavish good gifts on their grandchildren. I was flabbergasted and thankful for the new winter clothes for Elisa and Sadie (Elisa is rapidly moving beyond 2T size.) And the intricate, pink quilt represents many loving hours of patient stitching and (if I know my perfectionist mother-in-law) seam ripping. A labor of tender love for her one year-old grandbaby. We receive these beautiful gifts with deeply thankful hearts and an awareness of how blessed we are - materially and relationally - by our amazing parents.

Tonight, Elisa struggled with the gratefulness part. Erik and I want with all of our hearts to instill in our sweet daughters a sense of abiding contentment, and a constant gratitude for each gift handed to them from the Father of lights. We want them to live in humble thankfulness - not to feel that they are in any way entitled to any of it, but that all this abundant goodness is a gift from the One who made them. We want them to give generously to others, to understand that wants are not needs, that others live in situations far different than their own middle-class American luxury.

Elisa hurriedly tried on a pair of oh-so-soft brown jammies. For a few minutes she enjoyed them, and we talked about how she would sleep so well in her new, well-fitting, warm pajamas. Then we sat down to eat our dinner, and she snapped. She began to throw one of the worst fits I have seen to date (and we have seen some whoppers from our headstrong toddler!). She screamed that she did not like the brown ones, they were yucky. She wanted to change into some of her other new clothes. She wailed and ranted, and I held her tightly on my lap for nearly 30 minutes as she kicked and fought me. She never ate dinner, and we headed up stairs - still in the brown jammies - for bed.

My little girl's temper tantrum broke my heart tonight. I know she is two, and she is learning. She gets excited, and self-control is a battle she often loses during those moments. If she had graciously said, "Mom, when dinner is over, could I try on some of my other new clothes?" I would have said, "Sure, honey. Finish your rice, and we'll see how the blue ones fit." But, sadly, that wasn't how it went tonight.

How do you teach your children gratefulness when they live in a land of abundance? How do you teach them others-focus when the world is self-absorbed? (And so are we, if we are honest, a great deal of the time!)

My mail today also included a plea from Compassion for donations to their Unsponsored Childrens' Fund. The stories and faces of those precious little ones make me weep. We support a girl named Eri in Peru, and I cannot wait until Elisa is old enough to correspond with our "sponsored child" and learn about Eri's way of life, learn to love her and pray for her. Tomorrow for our preschool time, I am planning to show Elisa those pictures and read about each of those little children. I know she won't understand it all. But maybe, before she puts on one of her fuzzy new sweatsuits, she will thank Jesus for His good gifts.

Signing Sadie

I have to jot down quickly that my Sadie girl is getting smart! All of a sudden she is communicating so much! She has learned hand signs for "night-night," "milk," "bye-bye," "light,"
"hot," and "more." I love watching her learn and begin to "talk" to all of us. She also knows where her nose is and proudly points to it using her big finger. :) And she plays patty-cake on command. She is still just army crawling and I am sure it will be many months before she walks - but I am loving her advancements in this area! Sweet punkin. Both girls got "I voted" stickers today and loved them!

Nursery Rhymes

Here is photo of the Wachob family decked out for our Harvest Carnival on Friday. Elisa and Sadie are Little Bo Peep and her sheep, and Erik and I went (spur of the moment) as the clock and the mouse. (Hickory Dickory Dock). Pretty cute, huh?