Oh Christmas Tree

Marty is knee deep in a new position at work, and Oliver is fully committed to a quest of destructive exploration.  The combination of these two forces at work in our home convinced me to  leave the Holiday decorating to Mima and Papa (we will spend Christmas Eve cozied-up in their Encinitas home, and awake Christmas morning to the tree all-aglow and presents below).  I just couldn't add to Marty's list of to-do's "climb into the rafters and retrieve Christmas decorations", and the thought of Oliver tackling the Christmas tree in pursuit of the glowing star topper helped me settle into the vision of a sparkle-less home this year.

However,  Grandma and Grandpa arrived at our home this past Wednesday full of Holiday cheer.  And it occurred to me that Grandpa could climb the ladder, and drive to the tree lot, and hoist a pine-needled beauty onto my SUV, and love every minute of it!

 Zachary was the designated tree-picker-outer,  Jayden was the designated decorating specialist, and Grandma was the lighting designer.  Together the 4 of them made quite the team and in no time our home was filled with the visual brilliant beauty, the nostalgic foresty smell, and the soothing musical sounds of Christmas.

Looking up

I am majorly fascinated by and in awe of clouds.  My children will attest to this fact.   Just ask them what their mom's favorite element of creation is and they won't skip a beat to answer, "the clouds!".

So it is no surprise that nearly every car ride to Target, preschool, anywhere, will be accompanied by my 'oohs', ahhs', and 'whoa's' as God's atmospheric artwork frames the windshield canvas.  3 little voices will join in the exclamatory praise, and soon Jayden and Zachary are declaring what their imaginative eyes see in the shapes of the clouds.

On one recent motor-trek Zach exclaimed that he saw a rattlesnake.  His sister and I tried to assure him that no reptiles were in the car, but he persisted.  Finally we understood his adorable preschool jargon and realized he was seeing something in the sky.  We joined his gaze and, sure enough, a rattlesnake was slithering in the azure heights! 

He makes me laugh

Ten Ten Ten

Jayden Malia 

gleefully celebrated her 5th birthday on October 10th. 

Marty and I were trekking through India on that day, but she certainly did not suffer due to our absence.  We had recorded a Birthday message for her and given her a very large box to unwrap -- a furnished doll house.

(Thank you Costco!!)

 

She received countless gifts.  Some packages arrived via the UPS man, and others by dear friends.  One came all the way from Clara in Annapolis!

  

 Mima and Papa took her to visit Uncle at the Warehome where she and her brothers were marveled by his aquarium fish.

  The Dewey girls delivered homemade cupcakes and stayed long enough for some hula fun. 

 Aimee dropped by with a balloon, and Unjalee brought trinkets for both Jayden and Zachary.

  Mima and Papa had delightful treasures for her as well, including 3 pairs of princess shoes so she can dress-up with her friends.

Family Campout

}"Here's a preface:

We are dedicated and determined to go against the grain of cultural pressures in our child-rearing and day to day life.
To some we are extreme conservatives, to others we appear quite liberal.
It's all a matter of perspective and we are attempting to set our own against the life of Christ.

Here are a couple of verses that came to mind as Halloween approached and we sought to celebrate Fall in a way that would honor Jesus, inspire joy in our children, and not affront our neighbors in a critical fashion.

Philippians 2:15-15
^"Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,"

Philippians 4:8
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. "

Now on to the blogging...

We thought we had stumbled upon a tradition to replace Trick-or-Treating and avoid all things spooky and evil. But alas, Halloween fell on a Sunday this year and EV Free didn't host the Harvest Festival because they have an evening church service. What to do?
Pray.
I asked God to give us a creative replacement that would be super special and so much fun that bags of candy would not be missed.

On Friday after the jog-a-thon, I was explaining the dilemma to the kids and told them to be praying with me for inspiration. In a voice of elation, Jayden exclaimed that we could have a camp-out in the backyard.
Perfect!
Such a brilliant idea, and one that can be repeated every year with great expectation.

The boys were in charge of Tent set-up. And after a trip to Target for Hot Dogs, S'mores and a lantern we were ready for evening to fall upon us.

Jayden, Zachary and I slept most of the night outside, but around 1:30 the chilly night forced us to our real beds indoors.

Run Around

Bethany Christian held their annual Jog-a-thon last Friday, and both of my kids gave stellar performances running around the track.

Down time in Dubai

The desert air welcomed us mercifully with a cooling trend around 35 C. Dubai is a concrete, commercialized masterpiece and after 2 days of tourism we were satisfied to leave.

Our cab driver from the airport, Sam, became a fast friend and he gave us a personalized night tour of the city. Our first stop was to witness the marvelous water show at the Dubai Fountain. Then we snapped photos in front of the Jumeirah hotel, the Dubai Marina and a few other famous landmarks.There are 2 very large malls in Dubai. One is home to the entrance of the worlds tallest building, as well as a gigantic aquarium that you can scuba-dive in. The other mall is famous for the Ski Dubai resort. We were able to spend 4 amazing hours on the slopes; the first time we've ever skied together! Marty has been many times over the course of our marriage but I've been pregnant or nursing on each of our winter treks to Big Bear so I've missed out on the fun.

In our travels we enjoyed delicious coffee both in India and the UAE. However, it appears these countries have not been affected by the 'super-size' and 'venti' movements, so we collected many strange looks each morning as we ordered pot after pot of coffee.