Puzzles

The kids and I (except for Noah) all got puzzles from Santa this year. Annie and Ellen's each have 100 pieces. Ellen still hasn't tried hers (I think she just keeps forgetting about it), but Annie put hers together right away and did really well. After she knew to get all the edge pieces put together first, she just took off. She even got a little frustrated with me when I tried to help with a couple of pieces. Stephen started his right away too. His has 300 pieces and they are a bit smaller. After we got the edge done on his he wasn't so interested anymore, but would come do a little bit with me now and then. And he really liked the finished product. Later that day the kids asked me how many pieces my puzzle has, and were amazed that it could have 1000. This is my puzzle! My very own Charles Wysocki. Santa actually let me pick it out.

Last night I finally cleared a space on my sewing/crafting table in the laundry room and started it. The laundry room is not the most exciting place to sit and work on a puzzle, but it means that I can leave it there until I get it all done. Even if it takes me a month. Last night I got the edge all done.
And since the flag was right there, and is always so easy to find, I did that too. It has been so long since I actually worked on a big puzzle like this. I am really enjoying it. The only way it could be better, would be to have some help from some puzzle-doing family members. I couldn't help but think back on many happy times I spent working on puzzles with my Mom, sisters, cousins, aunts, Gran, and anyone else who happened to walk by and place a piece.

Wacky Weather and Good Neighbors

By Saturday morning after Christmas we had close to 3 feet of snow. James took the 4 biggest kids sledding Saturday afternoon. The picture above is them all ready to go and being a little goofy too. While they were out sledding, it started to rain. And not just a little bit. It was a good steady rain. On top of 3 feet of snow. Did that dampen the sledders? Oh no! They stayed out sledding for almost three hours and had a great time. Of course when they came back we had to have some very yummy hot chocolate (Thanks Hannah!) to warm everyone up.

Later in the afternoon our wonderful neighbor, Mr. Cook, came over with his tractor to clear out our driveway. Our little culdesac would have been in very sad shape without the great kindess of Mr. Cook. The picture above was taken at 4:30 in the afternoon. The sun has been setting here around 3:30. I'm so thankful we don't live in Alaska! After more rain on Sunday our snow level had gone down about a foot and there was slush everywhere. But Monday morning we woke up to 4 new inches of snow on top of all that frozen slush. So lovely. Today is the first day in quite a while we haven't had any precipitation. The sun even shone for most of the day!

Alladin and a Bear

Last night we all sat down to watch a new movie Stephen got for Christmas, Alladin. The kids had never seen it, so it definitely had everyone's attention.

Annie and Ellen got to try out James' bear skin. It still needs a little work to be soft and pliable, but it looks pretty neat. The kids all like playing with the claws, however they kind of creep me out.

Which Color?

This is Stephen (right) with his cousins Benjamin (middle) and Andrew (left) a couple of days after Christmas of 2005 at James' parents' house. They were playing on a homemade version of Twister that James made for the kids. It included a computer program that would randomly call out a shape or a color and left or right foot or hand.

Christmas Traditions

Today for wordfull wednesday I've chosen my own topic: Christmas Traditions. There is one in particular that I don't carry on any more, but I enjoyed it quite a bit in my younger days. Every Christmas morning I used to wake up VERY early. 4am kind of early. I didn't set my alarm or anything, I just woke up and would come out to the tree. It was a very exciting feeling. Knowing that I was up, but no one else was. I would go sit in the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree and look over my stocking. I wasn't feeling greedy. I didn't take everything out, just looked at the top little bit. Mostly I just liked being there with the pretty lights and the quiet. As hard as I tried to be quiet, though, my Dad would always hear me and tell me to go back to bed. I'd stay there for a little while, but just couldn't keep myself away. Eventually (around 5:30) I'd get up again and this time I would end up waking my brothers and everyone else and we would finally go through our stockings and open presents.

As I got older and continued to get up terribly early, Dad decided he should do something about this habit of mine. I think it really started when we lived in Denver. (yes, I was in high school and still doing this!) I came up the stairs early Christmas morning to discover that my path to the Christmas tree was covered with newspapers! There was no way I could walk through all that and not be loud. So I very quietly and patiently began moving sheets of newspaper one at a time and I made it to the tree. The next year Dad put a tripwire that was attached to an alarm at the top of the stairs. I got really lucky that year and felt the wire with my foot instead of walking through it, so I just stepped over the wire and happily went to the tree. The year after that, however, I got caught. I cautiously came up the stairs, looking for anything fishy, but didn't see anything. As soon as I set foot in the living room an alarm went off! Dad had set up a motion sensor! Oh man, did I hurry back down those stairs. As I got back into bed I heard the alarm shut off. I waited for what felt like hours, but was probably only 5 minutes, before getting back out of bed. I went up the stairs, crawled through the kitchen, then lay on my belly just inside the kitchen looking into the living room. There was a couch just to the left of the doorway and as I looked behind it I noticed a cord plugged into the socket that wasn't usually there. I reached back and unplugged the cord and hoped that would do the trick. Then I slowly crawled into the living room. So far, so good. No alarms were going off. I stood up and realized that I had made it. I couldn't keep myself from laughing as I sat there that early morning. Ah, the satisfaction!

I have long since given up my early morning escapades. Oh, the things growing up does to you. But, this year Stephen keeps saying he'll be getting up at 5:00 Christmas morning. I can't help but hope he does and does it every year so that I can be the one to set the traps! Lucky for me, I have a husband who is quite resourceful, and a Dad with plenty of creativity and experience. May the fun continue.

Christmas Silliness

James has been learning morse code and so we've all been learning a little bit along with him. It's amazing how much it really gets in your head by just hearing it. So as James was labeling gifts for the kids he did one for each child in morse code. Any guesses on who this one is for? (the label says ... _ . ._ _. .... . _.)

The girls (Naomi, Anne, and Ellen) wanted to paint their fingernails and when they realized we have both red and green polish, that was what they all had to have. Anne did her own.

blink

I read blink by Malcolm Gladwell for bookclub way back in November. The whole point of blink is that our subconcious minds make judgements and decisions very quickly and without any help from our concious mind. In the blink of an eye. Sometimes this can be a good thing, like our mind telling us to step out of the way of an oncoming truck. Sometimes we make better decisions when they are made quickly and with little information.

On the other hand, sometimes our snap judgements can get us into trouble. Remember New Coke? CocaCola came up with New Coke in response to all the taste tests Pepsi was conducting and winning. Before New Coke was released it was beating Pepsi in taste test after taste test. But it flopped. Why? Because it turns out that one or two sips of a sweeter pop tastes better, but when asked to drink a whole can of the sweeter stuff, it's not so good.

This book goes into all kinds of different scenarios of good and bad snap judgements. And there are some other interesting things as well. There is an interesting chapter about reading people's emotions by watching their facial expressions. It does get a little technical (I never considered that a face could be so technical) but it was pretty fascinating.

This book was much more interesting than I had anticipated and I learned some good things. One thing I did not like: there are a few swear words, bad ones! (watch out for chapter 6) They are not all over the place, and they are usually only used when quoting someone, however I think the author could have come up with different people or different experiences to use as examples. Would I reccomend it? I don't know. It's one of those "It's really great, except for ..." kind of things.

snow, snow, snow, snow ... SNOW!

We will definitely be having a White Christmas this year. I think we've got about 8 (maybe 10) inches of snow right now, and it is still snowing. Great big fat flakes which I have come to realize is just the way it always snows in Moscow. We thought school was going to be cancelled yesterday because there was a fair amount of wind along with the snow, but no. (sigh) I think they are going to be a little more conservative with our snow days this year. Last year we ended up having 8 I think, and then had to add a couple extra days in June to make up for it.

Last night we got to attend another Christmas concert. This time it was the Lena Whitmore Elementary School Winter Concert and Anne and Stephen were both in it and besides singing both were chosen to play the xylophone. These pictures are a little dark. (I need to work on my photography a little.) If you click on them you can see them a little better.

This is Annie's class. Anne is standing at the largest xylophone.

This is Stephen's class. Stephen is the boy on the left playing the xylophone.

Watching the kids play was really neat and they did a great job. The concert was a good mixture of Hanukkah songs, funny Christmas and winter songs, and traditional songs like The First Noel and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Stephen's class sang a funny song about wanting a snow day. Quite appropriate considering the concert was almost canceled because of the weather. The 4th grade class sang a clever song called Wenceslas meets a Yankee. It was basically a really funny combination of Good King Wenceslas and Yankee Doodle. It sounds really odd, I know, but it was really quite good. The concert made for another late night for the kids, but I guess that's just what happens this time of year. There's no way we could have missed it.

Band Christmas Concert

Last night we were able to attend Stephen's band concert. Again I was impressed at the skills of 3rd-6th graders. The girls all enjoyed the fun music and danced around here and there. Noah thought the clapping was wonderful. He has just recently discovered clapping. After the first number when the whole audience started clapping, Noah looked around almost in disbelief. He seemed to be thrilled that so many people could clap at one time and make so much noise.

The band was quite crowded on the stage, and did not have nearly enough chairs for everyone. Also we really could not see Stephen most of the time. Every now and then we caught a glimpse. The older kids are the better players and so they are in the front. Unfortunately they are also the taller players so you really can't see anyone behind them. I did record part of Jingle Bells, which was Stephen's favorite to play. I apologize in advance for the shaky and very fuzzy video. I was standing in the back with Noah who had been quite still until I pulled out the camera. Should have known better. If nothing else you can close your eyes and enjoy the music.

Christmas Time

We had a very nice Christmas-filled weekend. On Saturday some friends of ours watched all five kids and James and I got to go do some much needed Christmas shopping. We're still not quite ready, but much closer than we were. Hooray! While we were shopping at the mall (can you believe James actually set foot in the mall? I was a little surprised myself.) we stopped to listen to a string ensemble. We have no idea who they were, but they were very good and were playing "real" Christmas music, as James called it. Songs about the birth of Christ. It was very nice to hear that in the middle of the busy mall.

That night we went to our ward's Christmas Party and had a very good time. They tried to do things a little differently this year. We started with a 20 min. program in the chapel which included some congregational singing. Always very nice. Then we all moved into the gym where the tables were set "family style." No great long line at the food table. The dishes of food were sitting on the tables and we all just passed the food around. It was wonderful!!! Not only did we NOT have to stand in line and try to juggle plates and children, we got to have better conversations with the people sitting at our table. I really hope they do this again! Then of course after dessert everyone heard a strange jingle noise coming from the stage. Santa was there and then we did have to wait in a long line, but the kids really thought it was worth it. Stephen even sat on Santa's lap, even though he has now become wise to such things. He is 8 after all. He had heard things from kids in his class and was starting to ask questions and we decided we better just tell him ourselves. However, we did sweeten the deal by offering to let him be an elf this year. Oh my, is he excited about that. He will have to go to bed and go to sleep before we bring out any of his things though. He's not that old yet!

On the subject of Anne ...

This is Anne just after she turned 3. My mom was visiting and we were out doing a little shopping. Anne had dressed herself that day, which was pretty normal, and her dress is on backwards in this picture. No matter what anybody said she wasn't going to turn it around. But she is just so cute! I never would have said that Annie had cute chubby baby cheeks, but when I look back at pictures I see that she did.

Anne

This is where Anne has been spending just about every possible moment she has had in the last week. She is really loving playing the piano, even though I haven't given her as many piano lessons as she would like to have. On Sunday (before church) she made up a little tune and has played it almost constantly since then. We keep reminding her that she can play other things as well. So she started playing variations on her little theme. She always has the same basic notes, but will play lots of different rhythms and syncopations and whatever she can think of.

Also Anne was chosen to be Star of the Week in her class this week. Yesterday I sent her with 10 pictures of herself for her teacher to put up on the Star of the Week bulletin board. On Friday the kids in her class will give her letters they've written telling her what they like about her. And I get to come to class and read a letter to her from James and I. She has been so excited for Friday to come. I'm excited too. It's been a lot of fun thinking about what to put in a special letter to her. Things like playing the piano so well, being so willing to help and listen quickly, being so compassionate, and setting such a great example to her brothers and sisters and parents. On Sunday she leaned over to James and asked if she could go bear her testimony. James nodded and up she went. She said she knows the Church is true and that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. What else do you need to know? Oh, how thankful we are for Annie!

My Favorite Christmas Carols

For today's Wordful Wednesday from Chocolate on My Cranium, I'm supposed to write about my favorite Christmas carol. But I have two. If you ask me which carol I would like to sing or play on the piano, it would be Angels We Have Heard On High. The words were based on a French carol and was translated into English in 1862 by James Chadwick. The words really help me envision the excitement that was felt when Christ was born. I love the chorus! It is so fun to sing or play! I had never played it until I was a freshman in high school and my seminary teacher asked me to play it. Thankfully he gave me a few days to practice. Ever since then, I've totally loved this carol.

If you ask me what I want to listen to at Christmas time, I will choose White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby. It was written by Irving Berlin in 1940 while he was sitting next to a swimming pool in Arizona. It has been recorded by everyone from Bob Marley to the Crash Test Dummies to Alan Jackson. But Bing Crosby is by far the best. His Christmas album entitled White Christmas was one of the first cd's our family bought after we got our first cd player. We played it every year while we decorated our Christmas tree, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and just as much as we possibly could during the Christmas season. To me it is an essential part of celebrating Christmas.

I got a good laugh out of this one

James reads the comics everyday and occasionally when there's a really good one, he'll tell me about it. Yesterday's Mother Goose and Grimm was one of those. I loved it, and so did Stephen and Anne.

Noah Discovers Chocolate Cake

Our computer is FINALLY all fixed! HOORAY!!! The nasty virus is gone! I really missed being able to use the computer. I couldn't check blogs (or post on my own!) I couldn't check my email, I couldn't look up phone numbers! But I realized that life does go on without a computer. And it's all good! (wow, I just used a bunch of exclamation points!)

So I'm finally posting pictures of Noah's birthday. We had a small celebration the night of his birthday and had a good time. I made a hot chocolate cake and we all enjoyed it. Noah really liked it too.

He started out taking little bites, but quickly decided he could do a little better than that.

And you might have noticed that Noah is sitting on my lap and not in a high chair. He decided that high chairs make better ladders than chairs. As soon as I put him in it, he stands right up and trys to climb out onto whatever is closest: another chair, the table, the counter! So the high chair has been moved out to the garage. Silly boy!