Christmas 2011

We're sticklers for tradition, so here we're posting pictures of grinning children opening gifts. Well, to be technical about it, it's the grandparents who are the sticklers for this annual ritual. We're happy to oblige, though.

Gathered 'round the Christmas tree. This was the year that Christmas dawned on Phillip, and it was a beautiful thing.


Stuart, whose gifts now double as Fun For Daddy.


Daphne, thrilled to get a diary from Aunt Lindsay, completely oblivious to the fact that she can't write anything except her name.

Addi got a mug-decorating kit from our neighbors, the Shaws, and forgot about her other presents as she lost herself in Art. This picture also shows Addi's great change as of a week ago: she got all her long hair cut off.

Oh, Pip was all about opening presents. He got a stack of new books and (in this picture) two new cars for his Thomas Train collection.

Fun times with Playdough! Please note that while I was doing this, and Darren was helping Addi assemble one of her presents, our own gifts lay unopened under the tree. I never realized just how deeply the sacrifices of parenthood could cut.


The three older kids have formed a "snuggi club" now that they all have blankets with arms. Here they are in the pose entitled "Stockings, Before."

And Stockings, After.

Pip's godmother will be pleased to see him mastering the art of Pez.

Computers need Christmas joy, too. Right?

My favorite gift from Darren was this set of hand-made bowls. Even better, the hands that made them belong to my good friend Deidre (Pip's aforementioned godmother).


I am continually amazed at the beautiful work Deidre turns out. As you can imagine, these dishes make food taste worlds better.


This red-bearded man needed a new necklace -- the other one, like so many before it, fell under the onslaught of a toddler -- so I got him this one from an Etsy shop. It's silver with a wood inlay, and I think it's pretty snazzy.

Gifts, laughter, and joy: makes for a good celebration of the Incarnation of God. Merry Christmas, y'all.

-- SJ

Collection of Pictures

In no particular order, as usual:


For those who missed every single Facebook post from every single person on the East Coast this weekend, we got an early snow. Our neighborhood was lucky: we didn't lose power. But my neighbor lost her Bradford pear. We're calling it "the banana tree" because of the way it peeled itself off its trunk. Ha ha! We can laugh because it's not in our front yard.



Here's a shot of our cozy, snow-covered house. Except that we weren't ready for cozy, snow-covered weather so it wasn't as charming as it looks.



On the other hand, unseasonable snow goes away quickly, as soon as seasonable weather returns. This was all that was left in our yard the next afternoon: the kids' "Snow Crow" -- a scarecrow made of snow.

And more importantly, the snow went away in time for Halloween. The next few pictures were taken last week, when Mom and I finished the kids' costumes in record time.

Here's Stuart, dressed -- obviously! -- as a Golden Snitch from Harry Potter. The Snitch is a small golden ball in the game of Quidditch. If the Seeker catches it during the game, his team automatically gets 150 points. It's very characteristic of Stuart to want to be the actual ball instead of the player who tries to catch it.

All three in their Halloween finery: Daphne is a Kitty, Stuart is a Golden Snitch, and Addie is an Auror, also from Harry Potter. Aurors are like the Wizarding Secret Police, who go after the really bad guys.


Back view, just to show off these amazing costumes. They are amazing, because Mom and I put them together in a weekend. Note Mom's handiwork with the reflective duct tape on Addie's Auror cloak. (Pip didn't have a costume. He ended up getting quite enough candy on Halloween anyway.)



Oh, and then there's the whole reason we had to scramble to get costumes ready at the last minute: the fact that I spent most of the month on a mattress in the dining room with 102-degree fever. This is why my mother bought a one-way ticket and came 1000 miles to my home.

-- SJ

In-House Valentine's Celebration

We usually get a babysitter for Valentine's Day, but this year health and money (or, more specifically, a lack of both) decided for us that we'd have an in-house celebration this year.

After Phillip went to bed at 7, we put on videos for the three older kids. Darren told them not to disturb Mama and Daddy "unless there's blood... and even then think carefully about it." It was like in those action flicks where the general barks, "Okay, men, once I send in my troops, you've got an hour and fifteen minutes to get in, get the goods, and get out. Go!" As soon as the kids were under the electronic anesthesia, Darren and I escaped to our bedroom with a tray of champagne, home-made ice cream, and a little box of specialty truffles.

While I ate all of the truffles, Darren pulled out some Mad Libs he'd created for the occasion. He told me to give him "sensual" words, so I obliged with some Harlequin romance gems like "insistently" and "velvety" and "indulged."

Darren then proceeded to read to me, "How to Prepare Barbecued Chicken." It would have been hilarious even without the influence of champagne.

Happy Valentine's Day!

-- SJ

Holiday Pop Quiz

How was Christmas at the Jones House this year? Choose the best answer for each question:

1. Christmas at the Joneses' was:
A. Warm, happy, and low-key
B. Light on visiting family, but full of good friends, which was a suitable substitute.
C. Written with the apostrophe in the right place

2. Favorite gifts include:
A. Slippers from L.L. Bean, to replace the aqua/dark blue knitted slippers he'd had since high school.

B. Three new lotions from Bath & Body Works, which smell appealing and sensual on Wife but not so much on Toddler, who nevertheless brings the bottles to resident adults and then holds up his palms.

C. Dolls, blankets, money, electronic dinosaur fact game, and playdough, all played with regardless of actual ownership. (Well, not the money, although that was much admired.)

D. Two new Nancy Drew games and the next expansion set for Catan, Knights and Cities.


3. The best thing about Christmas is:
A. Celebrating the Incarnation of an eternal God
B. Presents and feasting and friends.
C. Everybody pitches in to get the house clean by Christmas Eve so Mama will be happy.


If you answered A, B, and C to every one, then obviously you know your Joneses.

(No apostrophe)

(Pictures to follow, possibly, if it happens.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-- SJ

Pictures (because I'm a good daughter-in-law)

A good Halloween was had by all (Addie put it very concisely). Of course you're all pretty anxious that the evening will pass without finding out what the kids' costumes were this year, so I'm writing this post so you'll be able to sleep well tonight. After all, you need a good sleep because most of you don't have the Homeschool Privilege that lets you declare All Saints' Day an official school holiday.

Actually, I think it's mostly my mother-in-law who is actively anxious for pictures. I'm happy to oblige her and let the rest of you get the benefit.

Addie and Daphne were ladybugs, thanks to these very cute costumes from CVS. Stuart was a blue myconid.

Myconid. You know, the mushroom creature.

From IceWind Dale, the computer game. Come ON, what's wrong with you? Are you seriously telling me that you've gone this far in life not knowing what a myconid is? Yeah, well, so did I until I had to make a costume of one. Stuart knew what wanted, though: he'd already had me help him with a stuffed version.



Phillip wasn't really into the trick-or-treating thing. It was windy and chilly and he had a bedtime to think about. But we took him out for a little while, dressed in this coat. It has a special place in the Jones History: all four of our children have worn it.



We went around the neighborhood in company with eight kids, one toddler, and two babies. Partly because we have friends who love us and like to share special occasions with us; and mostly because we live in a small, friendly neighborhood with lots of candy-dispensing houses. The Morgans and the Whelans and the Joneses moved in a large, amorphous group, with adults taking charge of whichever children were handy. It made it very easy to see how Mary and Joseph lost track of Jesus on the way home from Jerusalem, assuming that someone else had him.

(We didn't lose anyone, at least not for long. I mean, Stuart spotted Daphne before she got very far away, in the middle of another large amorphous group.)

We've now got enough candy to last us weeks. Or a few days, depending on how well Mama hides it from the kids and herself.

-- SJ

P.S. As we were watching excited, costumed kids run from house to house, chorusing "Trick or Treat!" and even occasionally remembering to say thank-you, I mentioned to Jeremiah (of the Morgan department), "Just look at all this Halloween evil going on!" Both of us coming from the backgrounds that boycotted the occasion.

"You could call it Reformation Day," he suggested.

"I used to observe Reformation Day instead of Halloween."

"Back before you got less Reformed. I guess now you're Deformed."

The Monday After Christmas, II

Today doesn't threaten to be as bad at this one, at least. But I did stagger out of bed wondering how I was going to get everything done before our trip to Mississippi later this week. As I was brushing my teeth, I formulated the following plan:

1. Do the Morning Prayer service using one of Darren's innumerable prayer books. Morning Prayer is something I do maybe once a week if I'm really resolved. It's hard to fit it in and it still is an unusual way of devotions for me, but at least it's all written out in front of me so I don't have to find time AND space AND come up with my own words all at the same time.

2. Make a list of what has to be done this week. I've had to come to terms with the fact that a listless existence is a luxury that a mother of four can't enjoy.

3. Oh, wait, this should be Number One: check email, Google Reader, and Facebook. Also, lingering at the computer until I come up with a blog post is good, too.

4. Hide under the covers anytime a child tries to talk to me. Did I write that out loud?

Happy Monday After Christmas!

-- SJ

Christmas Pictures

Today was Christmas, or maybe you knew that? This year we attempted to capture the joy and celebration of the morning. The pictures ended up looking just like every other Pictures Of Kids Opening Presents ever taken. They even look like the cave drawings of Stone Age Christmases, which show short stick figures holding up toys made of bone, their eyes wide from intake of sugar (from a natural source like stevia plant, of course.)

But some particular grandparents like pictures of this particular set of children, so we're posting them anyway.

For the first time in eight Christmases, Addie asked for a doll.

This was before the sugar intake, even.

Daphne was all about Christmas this year.

Phillip, playing with a ball from his Northern cousins, was just all about cute.

Here is My Son, immediately playing his new Nintendo DS game.
Here is Darren's Daughter, reading the rule book first.

The Stockings: Before

The Stockings: After

My favorite gift from Darren was a handmade journal composed of salvaged paper (notebook, graph, legal, blank) and pages from an old book.

I can't imagine what I'll write in it that won't spoil the whole wonderful idea.

But maybe I'll come up with something so universally amazing that it'll become an international bestseller and Darren can download it onto his new Kindle. I've got a little extra time because we're saving up for it so he won't actually get it for several months. Yes, his favorite gift from me was one that I haven't, technically, given him.

Our favorite gift to ourselves was Settlers of Catan and Seafarers of Catan. If you need to get in touch with us and can't reach us, it's because Darren, Stuart, and I are at the dining room table, building settlements and establishing trade routes. (Rocks not included in original set. We use them to weight the board down. Pink Silly Putty sold separately, too.)

Today I told Stuart that, yes, my favorite part of Christmas used to be presents. Now it's the joy and celebration of the Incarnation of a God of love and mercy. But still, the presents aren't so bad.

Merry Christmas!

-- SJ

Pip and the Pickle

Phillip places the last ornament on the tree.

Or, rather, "Phillip" "places" the last ornament on the "tree."

(We do call him Pip much of the time, by the way.)



From the archives, here's a clip of Daphne doing the same thing three years ago:




-- SJ

A Christmas Meme

I don't often do memes because they spread like viruses and it seems that the more you do them, the more susceptible you are to others that come along, until you're answering questions like, "If you were a shoe, what would it be?" and "What color is your favorite belt?" Also, I'm absolutely unable to answer these questions briefly, so my readers really should be grateful that they don't have to read an entire paragraph on myself as a shoe.

Still and all and anyway, the occasional Christmas meme is fun. So here we go.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Eggnog. I like the idea of hot chocolate, but am always disappointed by the reality. A lot like champagne, actually.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? There is no Santa Claus here. It wasn't a game I felt like playing and Darren went along with me. We do talk about St. Nicholas and how he gave generously to the poor. This year Addie has gone through phases of pretending she believes in Santa. Okey-dokey. Just as long as I don't have to pretend that HE did all the shopping, spending, and wrapping.

Colored lights on a tree or white? I used to love white lights. They were so elegant. Now I'm tired of them and we have colored lights. Ha, funny, that's what everybody else is doing, too!

Do you hang mistletoe? Well, for one thing, we don't HAVE mistletoe in our suburban neighborhood. And I find it hard to think of it as romantic, ever since my brothers explained how it kills the tree it grows on. Not that this sort of thing is the primary way my brothers spoke into my life over the years.

When do you put your decorations up? Usually about the second week of December.

What is your favorite holiday dish? My grandmother's cornbread stuffing, which I haven't had in eight years.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, one. Or maybe we do stockings? I'm not sure, since Darren and I are still ironing out the tradition there. My family always opened our gifts on Christmas Day, and didn't do stockings. I was absolutely astonished to find out that his family opened all theirs on Christmas Eve, and stockings on Christmas Day. As a new wife, I was very eager to meld traditions and even adopt his for the good of our marriage; but waking up to no presents on Christmas morning was too bleak even for a bride. Darren graciously adopted the Christmas-Day-Gift tradition.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Well, first we pull out our artificial tree, the one that's six feet tall if you make the very top sprig stand straight up. If you know anything about my family's Christmas-tree history, you know that's pretty much a joke. (I grew up with twenty-foot fir trees in the house. I am not kidding.) Then we decorate it with the dozen or so ornaments we were given as wedding gifts (great wedding gift idea there, by the way). We've collected a few more over the years, most notably the personalized ones for each of my children from my friend Debra. And, of course, the pickle -- our favorite ornament. We save it for last, and ask someone special to put it on every year. This year Phillip "put" it on.

Snow: love it or hate it? Snow is still a jazzy novelty for me. For everybody in this area, actually; the slightest snowfall is an automatic snow day, whee! And around here it has a nice way of dropping in for a visit, lying around for a day or so, and melting. Today is different, however: we got fully three feet in some places and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere for a while. By Tuesday, I'll hate snow.

Can you ice skate? Southerners don't ice skate. I can still roller skate, though, with those two-by-two wheeled skates, the real kind from the 80s, you know.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Martha Washingtons

What is your favorite holiday tradition? "Christmas riding," which is what Rosemary and I called driving around looking at lights. This year, though, we've also done a Jesse Tree. Each night one child hangs an ornament having to do with a story in the Bible that typifies or prophesies Jesus. I like the fact that we turn off all the lights and light the Advent candles. The semi-darkness calms everyone down and is a restful pause at the end of the day. Also it makes the house look pretty.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? I always loved getting them, and never ever liked the taste. I ate them anyway, though. Couldn't resist the hook at the end of it.

Favorite Christmas show? Muppet Christmas Carol.

The other thing about these memes is that they don't have any closure. Just one last question and bang! you're done. I find it disturbing, but that's what you'd expect from a comfortable dressy-casual flat with a velcro strap.

-- SJ

Tis the Season

'Tis the season to be a nail-biting mass of anxiety.

I'm not a big shopper -- my idea of a spree is three hours on a Saturday morning, going to maybe three stores but definitely getting home in time to take a nap. I'm also not a confident gift giver. Even having to get a gift for Darren, my favorite person in the whole world, makes my stomach twist up. And what two activities converge at the Christmas season? Yes, exactly, nail-biting and fretting.

(Actually, I use "nail-biting" figuratively. In reality, I bite my nails routinely.)

This year I tried to sneak past the anxiety by keeping Christmas gifts in mind all year long. It didn't work very well, because the problem isn't the lack of Things to Get. It's the fact that I don't really know what to get. For anybody. And when I do get something, I fret about it. And once I give the gift, I try to forget about it so I won't wonder if the recipient liked it.

Possibly I don't need to mention that the beginning of the Christmas Season has arrived once again with its arms full of brightly-wrapped angst?

But there are nieces and nephews to buy for. Kids are a little easier because even if they don't like the gift, they at least like unwrapping something with their names on it. Besides, I actually had real ideas of what to buy. A quick trip online would take care of a very big slice of anxiety -- before December even begins!

For the Northern branch: a Cranium game called Bumparena, which both children and adults can have fun with. My sister-in-law, Jessica (whose superpower is Gift Giving), gave it to Stuart about four years ago. So we used to have it, before I relaxed my vigilance and let Addie and Stuart play with it unsupervised. (I'm still throwing away vestigial gameparts.)

Turns out that it's no longer generally available. Well, not unless you want to pay $50 on Amazon. I was crushed.

For the Southern branch: a Little People playset, like the pirate ship and castle in our playroom. My kids and all visiting kids have loved those toys. We bought them both about three years ago and they've stood up to some pretty hard wear and tear. Perfect, perfect idea!

Turns out that they're no longer generally available. Not unless you want to pay $80 - $100 for it. I was devastated.

My gift ideas rare and valuable; I can't afford to have them shot down in one fell swoop. Now I'm back to the fretting and nail-biting stage, without ideas -- except, perhaps, becoming suddenly convinced that a natural, recycled approach is better for kids anyway and giving them all an ornament made from pipe cleaners and paper-towel tubes as featured in the latest issue of Family Fun magazine.

Don't worry, family branches. When the time comes, there will be a present for you. Badly wrapped, because I'm not good at that either, but your names will all be spelled right and there will be something inside that will be somewhat applicable to your age range and interests. You might want to brush off those little white semi-circle things before you open it, although it's nothing important. Just a few bitten nails.

-- SJ

Thankfulness

Darren:
("How many things am I limited to? I came up with ten this morning.")
* A wife who understands me
* Children who are a lot of fun to live with
* A job that is reasonably close and that I enjoy doing, with nice co-workers
* A church that's close, that I enjoy going to
* Vehicles that have been working well (knock on wood)
* Books
("Those were some of the things I came up with.")

Sara:
* Neighbors who celebrate holidays with us!
* On a related note, eating pie with Nina in her kitchen.
* Also related, neighbors who have amazingly comfortable chairs and random magazines around their house. (If it weren't for Dana's gaming magazines, I wouldn't have any idea about what is going on in the world of Halo 3 and Star Trek Online.)
* My husband who is optimistic, easily pleased, and a joy to live with.
* My three funny kids, whose arrivals made life so much more interesting.
* My dana, the portable word processor
* Clergy who reach out to help when they see needs.
* Blogs

Addie:
* The ability to make flags("Because I'm making one right now.").
* My best friend, Mollie
* My new glasses
* My bed
* My grandparents' coming over for Christmas

P.S. Here's Addie's new glasses:


Stuart:
* My nesting dolls (a "Woodlands Creatures" set including a moose, a deer, a raccoon, a porcupine, and a little red squirrel.)
* My family
* My toys
* The computer
* My kitty cat ("He's referring to Puddles," says Addie)

Daphne:
* The beloved stuffed kitty
* Bottles of juice
* Mama, Daddy, Addie, and (most of the time) Stuart
* Puddles

Happy Thanksgiving!

-- the Joneses

P.S. This is Daphne's kitty:

In Honor of the Fourth

Darren found this sample citizenship test and printed it out to ask the kids during supper. A&S could answer many of the questions... or, answer-ish, I should say:

Question: "Why did the Pilgrims come to America?"
Stuart: "To have Thanksgiving."

Question: "What is the 4th of July?"
Addie: "When I go over to Mollie's tonight for a game night and tomorrow we go over there for supper."

Question: "Who was the president during the Civil War?"
Stuart: "George."
Question: "Who said, 'Give me liberty or give me death'?"
Stuart: "George."
Question: "Okay, Stuart, who was the first president?"

Question: "Who becomes president if the current president dies?"
Addie: "His son."

Question: "Who is our president now?"
Addie, aiming vaguely in the right direction: "John Ray Burning Bush."

We didn't do all 100 questions, just the basic ones we thought they'd know. No branches of government and Bill of Rights, for instance. Because, um, even their mother sort of gets those answers mixed up sometimes a little bit. (Okay, so we elect senators for SIX years, not two. But we elect TWO, so the number was correct, merely applied wrongly.)

As citizens of the U.S., not to mention homeschoolers who can't take a step without tripping over someone proclaiming America As God's Promised Land, it's easy to be oblivious to how great this country really is. Darren and I discussed the Bill of Rights, however, and I realized anew that this country, with its laws and liberty, is pretty darn cool.

And my final July Fourth remark is to remember a post of Amy K.'s. (They were still in California and I'm not sure Meredith was born yet, so it's been a while ago. Am I going to find the post and link to it? Not likely.) They were talking about Cinco de Mayo, and Amy exclaimed, "What kind of a holiday name is that? Just the name of the day? That's dumb." Kevin replied, "You mean like July 4th?" So, Amy, laughing with you on July 4th!

Happy Fourth!

-- SJ