Merry Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas.

Santa came!

Peter is ready for duck hunting with Daddy!

American Girl dolls were at the top of the girls' lists. Caroline got the newest historical girl "Caroline" and Helen got a Bitty Baby, which she named "Helen".

Santa remembered to leave a treat for Tigger.

This was one of the only things Helen asked for - a "blow flute" just like her music teacher's at school.

Peter got lots of wheeled things. And balls. Hooray for boy things!

Princess karaoke

Our gift to each other was a new piece of artwork for our family room.

It was unintentionally a merry "Grizz-mas", due to all the gifted Grizzlies items. It just kind of happened. Peter got a mini Grizz from his sisters. Helen wanted to get Daddy a flag (no idea where that came from), so I ran with it and got him a flag pole set up and the official NBA Grizzlies flag. Not pictured is Kevin's new Grizzlies polo shirt Caroline picked out for him. Helen's favorite player is Mike Conley. Kevin found this jersey on sale several weeks before Christmas. She is really proud of it and has hopes of meeting Mike to show it to him. And I love scarves, so of course I love my Grizzlies arena scarf! I'd say we're all fixed up for game days!

Evidence of Christmas good times

It was just the 5 of us here at our house for Christmas eve and Christmas day. Kevin worked through Christmas day, so we celebrated with our families both before and after the actual holiday. Honestly, I kind of like stretching the holiday out for as long as possible. I think the kids do, too. Who doesn't love 4 different celebrations with loved ones?

~~~~~

As for all of the musical happenings, they all went well. I closed out Christmas Eve services with a midnight postlude that, although quiet, was so fitting. This tune appeared again and again in my musical involvements throughout the month. I took that as God giving me a not-so-subtle reminder. I don't know that I did the best job, but I tried throughout the month to reflect on the words of this hymn and remember that my ultimate goal here on earth not only at Christmas but every day is to rejoice in Him!

In dulci jubilo:

Good Christian men, rejoice
With heart and soul and voice;
Give ye heed to what we say:
Jesus Christ is born today!
Earth and heaven before him bow
And he is in the manger now.
Christ is born today! Christ is born today!

And because I'm a good music nerd, I looked up the English translation of the original Latin. I love the line about our hearts' joy lying in the manger.

In sweet rejoicing,
now sing and be glad!
Our hearts' joy
lies in the manger;
And it shines like the sun
in the mother's lap.
You are the alpha and omega!

May He be our hearts' joy not just at Christmastime, but every day! (And I'm counting that as my happy 2013 to all of you!)

Pregame downtown fun

We like the Grizzlies a little bit around here. We've had to plan our attendance as a family this year around Caroline's school schedule, which eliminated most week night games. We had tickets for a Saturday night game a couple of weekends ago and decided to head downtown early.

We took the kids on a carriage ride. The girls picked out the prettiest princess carriage they could find. They were absolutely thrilled with the entire ride. It was so fun watching their delight.

The girls even got to meet and thank Barney after our ride.

I'm not sure if this happens at every home game, but there were some fun slides and bouncy things set up on the plaza outside the Forum. We spent a couple of minutes letting the girls get some wiggles out.

A friend once told us that his kids got really excited about sporting events when they had a specific team player to cheer for. I think I've mentioned before that Caroline's favorite player is Marc Gasol. She's a super fan! Who wouldn't want this cutie in their cheering section?

The Grizz are headed to the playoffs and we couldn't be happier for our favorite team!

Dance cam

Caroline has been trying so hard to make the dance cam at the Grizzlies games. She hasn't made it yet, but we're hopeful.

Grizzlies

We have so much fun cheering for the Grizzlies! We love them - win or lose.

Everyone has Grizz gear.

This girl has turned into quite the fan over the last year. Her favorite player this season is Marc Gasol. Good choice. She chose him in a very calculated fashion. He is number 33; three plus three equals six, which is almost how old she is. Logical. We love watching her get into the game. She has most of the starting players and their numbers memorized. She cheers (so very loudly) at appropriate times and just generally enjoys herself.

I'm grateful for these family times. We have so much fun together. I'm incredibly blessed.