Christmas!

Brian and I are loving sharing what Christmas is all about, the story of the world and God's redemption, with our little guy who's getting old enough to get some of it.

Here's a video that's been pretty popular in our house lately.

And here are our some of our favorite Christmas pictures.

 

Hope you have a great Christmas!

Christmas Program

Silas has a beautiful singing voice. From a remarkably young age he has been able to sing on pitch and keep great rhythm. The only problem is that he can be shy about singing in front of people. I know he's only three but I'm afraid of him developing the phobia I have about people hearing me sing. I have a decent voice but the only person I've ever sang in front of for real has been the safest person on earth, my husband, who doesn't have a critical morsel in his body and isn't capable of giving false praise. But I hate that I have such a hard time letting loose and just singing!

So as this year's Christmas program approached, I developed a plan. We practiced his songs and I talked to him about how it's good and courageous to sing loud so people can hear your beautiful voice. Then came the bribe or what I like to think of as "encouragement." I told him if he was brave enough to sing quietly we would LOVE hearing his voice and he would get a piece of candy. And if he was brave enough to sing loud for everyone to hear he would get candy and a new hot wheels car.

I'm on the fence about this parenting tactic but I wanted to give him a push to get him over the fear.

I ended up getting a little more than I bargained for.

Things I Learned in California: Lesson 4

We are Disney fans. 

I never got the Disneyworld/land craze before. Even as a child I never really had the urge. I lived by Six Flags and what was the big deal about this Disney place? 

But then we went to Disneyland with our 3 and 1 year old. I don't know about it being the happiest place on earth but I would say it's pretty darn happy. It turned out to be the highlight of our vacation.

 

In this shop they pretended to have parents that bought them $20 ear hats.

The rides were unique and plentiful for the young ones. Silas is still beaming about being able to pilot a rocket ship.

 The characters were friendly and brought Silas sheer joy.
(we'll overlook the terror they caused Mash)

The music and attention to detail made the stress-ridden theme park experience much more enjoyable. We didn't want to leave. 

If we ever win the lottery we're going on a Disney cruise.

I wonder what one's chances of winning the lottery drop to when you don't play it.

Things I learned in California: Lesson 3

I'm married to Clark Griswold. The unrealistic expectations. The over-the-top plans.

Every night we had a version of this conversation when Brian got to the hotel room after work. Angie: What do you think we should do tonight? It's been a really long day for us. You know, we haven't been further than 3 feet away from each other all day. Plus they didn't nap and it's already their bedtime. What if we go to one of the Disney restaurants close by and then put the kids down early and we watch a movie? Brian: I was really wanting to check out Santa Monica Beach. They have a pier with carnival rides and it's supposed to be cool. Angie: You know that will take about an hour to get there and we'll probably hit traffic going through L.A. And it's getting cold outside. Brian: Ahh, we should do it. The kids will be fine!

We proceed to drive for 1.5 hours (while I hold my ears and go to my happy place because the kids are screaming and hungry) walk out on the chilly pier and look at the rides that are closed for the night.

 

When we were leaving Brian looked over the quarter mile of beach down to the water and said, "I've never walked on a beach at night, lets take the stroller down there." The cold wet wind hit my face and I watched him strain to push the double stroller 5 feet into the sand. I looked at how far he had to go and told him Clark, I mean Brian, turn the stroller around and come back to the car. It will take you all night to get to the water and the kids coughs are getting worse and Madison's eyes are frozen. I patted him on the back and promised him we'd see the beach at night another time.

The examples go on and on. Like another time when I tried to convince him that we should eat at the little diner out on the water instead of the nice Hawaiian restaurant on the beach with the valet service and people walking in wearing business clothes. But my Clarky wanted to try the Hawaiian food. I'm sure he had visions of us being serenaded by ukuleles, the children throwing their heads back in laughter as we fed each other food from our kabobs. Reality looked more like Madison throwing crayons at the table next to us, screaming from exhaustion, and covering herself with macaroni while I quietly played "I spy" with Silas and pretended I wasn't there.

But, when it was all said and done, we had some good laughs. And even though his thirst for adventure squelches all rational thought,
I love the man.