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!)

Wee little tree

Last Christmas we had no idea what our living situation would be this year. We didn't know if we would be in an apartment or a home or if we would have tons of storage or busting at the seams. So we packed up 95% of our Christmas decorations, including our tree. (We do a prelit, artificial tree.)

Caroline said one morning, "Mommy, when are we going to put up our Christmas tree?"

I said, "Well, we put our tree and ornaments in the storage unit in Memphis."

"But...it's almost Christmas," said Caroline sadly. I was crushed.

Kevin heard about our daughter's lament and came home with a tiny tree. A $12 tree. It leans and has a huge bald spot. It's a Charlie Brown tree. I love it. And, in a way, it's perfect for this season in our lives. I would have never been able to keep Helen out of our big tree. This one fits on our window seat.

Caroline had the best time picking out a few ornaments and the colored lights. And there was plenty of room for her hand-made ornaments.


Caroline is thrilled to flip the switch that turns the lights on each night.

Home in Cincinnati

Here we are! The move went well, but we could have done without a bum U-Haul, a shared illness, and plumbing problems. We think our new home is very nice. We are very fortunate to have found such a well-kept rental home. I think we were able to adjust quickly because it's very similar to our Midtown Memphis house.

Our living room

The girls' rooms are upstairs with a bath between them. Caroline wants to show you her room.


She has a huge closet for an overabundance of toys. Closets are a novelty for us. We had one real clothes closet in Midtown. Now we have 3!


Helen's room needs some work. She's still Mommy and Daddy's roommate, so it's a low-priority room. I'll get some better pictures of it later.

This little area at the base of the stairs is our "playroom." The window seat opens up for storage. I'm thinking I need to make some pillows for it...

Downstairs master bath

Our bed really isn't this shiny. The flash must have been working overtime.

Dining area

Here I am, probably on my way to do something wifely.

We have a lot more counterspace in this kitchen, but we miss our big pantry!

The basement isn't much to look at, but it's a fantastic multipurpose room - laundry/ironing areas, a sewing/craft area, an extra refrigerator (Kevin's much-coveted "beer fridge" :-) ), a computer workstation, a TV/play area, tool storage, and plenty of room for Caroline to have wheely bee and tricycle races. It's a really great space.

Yay...all of my sewing things! I've been using this area quite a bit already. I picked up about 6 new projects to work on before we left Memphis. I feel very lucky that we had enough room for me to bring all of my fabrics and ribbons and notions.

Our backyard is lovely. It's shady and has a great deck.

Guard dog - looking for squirrels, I'm sure.



Our neighborhood is nice. There are a few young families, but we haven't made any playmates yet. We can walk to a downtown-type square with shopping and dining. One of our next door neighbors is the sweetest lady - 82 years young and does all her own gardening! It's an amazing yard and she has already been very generous in sharing her flowers with us.

Everything we need is so close by. Caroline's school is about 1 minute away from the house. It will literally take me longer to load the kids in the car than it will to drive there. I'm sure Helen and I will be doing some strolling to drop her off and pick her up.

Our adventures here in Queen City are off to a wonderful beginning! We're looking forward to this year!

Easter 2009

It was a great weekend here at the Garrett house. We had special visitors - my family and Kevin's sister all spent some time with us. Caroline had the best time with her cousins, her aunts, and her Mimi. We all had fun together!

We made it to church. I really missed singing in the choir. But on the other hand, it was really nice to enjoy listening to the beautiful music. Helen slept blissfully through the whole service. Big sister actually sat through the whole service, too. We were impressed.

Helen wore the daygown I made. I say prayers over every dress or appliqued tee-shirt or daygown I make. So it was really special for me to see Helen in her gown. God has been so faithful to the four of us.

I hope each of you had a blessed Easter weekend!

Garden girl

Don't you love her hat and gloves? She was a huge help to Daddy!

Fireside

Caroline got to have her bedtime story by the fire tonight. She loved it!

Big girl bed

Flowers, 'fraidy holes, and flashlights

I did a flower arrangement for our Tuesday morning women's Bible study and it was a huge success. And now I get to enjoy it... I love the pink tulips!


Not too long after we were first married, a storm came through Memphis. I told Kevin we needed to decide on a 'fraidy hole. He had no idea what I was talking about. My parents grew up in Oklahoma and were very familiar with storm shelters. So that's what I grew up calling the place where you take cover during bad weather. I remember one visit to Oklahoma when I was little where we all went down to the 'fraidy hole in the middle of the night. My Boompa stood in the doorway of the garage watching the storm blow. Mom said not to worry - he only came down when it got really bad. He didn't come down that night. He was such a funny man.

So we used our 'fraidy hole last night for the first time since living here. I don't, as a general rule, go down to our basement. It's unfinished and kind of creepy and all I can imagine are the huge spiders lurking behind the water heater. Luck would have it that Kevin did a major clean out of some of the leftover junk in the basement a week ago. I have to say that it was quite nice down there (relatively speaking) and I've never been so thankful for our little 'fraidy hole. The whole basement adventure was great fun for Caroline and Tigger.

While in the 'fraidy hole, Kevin introduced me to the most fantastic of all flashlights (our electricity was out for about 5 hours). It's a Sears Craftsman 19.2 Volt fluorescent flashlight. If you don't have one, you need one. Just on the off-chance you need a really bright flashlight. This thing is awesome. It's as bright as the noon-day sun. I'm not kidding. I was knitting by the light of this thing. And not big, bulky yarn - little, tiny baby yarn. Apparently this super flashlight was part of a tool kit I got for Kevin for Christmas. (Yay, me!)

Come on in

I think my new front door display is rather welcoming. I love playing with flowers, especially when they are lilies!