Merry Everything and Happy Always!

I will be off the computer and celebrating the holidays with lots of my favorite people for the next few days.  I hope you will be as well.  So, in the words of a favorite card we received, MERRY EVERYTHING AND HAPPY ALWAYS!

Love, The Handley Five

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

That's A Wrap!

Last year I posted about our gift wrap bin.  I thought it was time to resurrect it this year, and the kids have been having a blast with it.  I put in wrapping supplies, gift bags, pipe cleaners, boxes and tins, trinkets, tissue paper...just things I had on hand.  The kids have been wrapping gifts for me, for each other, for Santa and baby Jesus.  It gives us a nice chance to practice gift giving etiquette (THANK you so much for that thoughtful gift!  I never would have guessed that it was a jingle bell!) and talk about how to say thank you, how to receive a gift that isn't your favorite, or be gracious when you get something you already have. Plus, wrapping up gifts is just fun!

A little pageantry

The kids were in our church's Christmas Pageant this past weekend.  There is just so much that I love about this event...it is just what a little church Christmas program is supposed to be...just what I want my kids to remember being a part of. 

An excited shepherd.

The only picture I managed to get of the sheep with his head on straight!

Cows and donkeys and wisemen, oh my!

Thank you to whoever decided NOT to give my children a staff.

Seriously, does it get cuter?

One part sweet, one part chaos, and a dash of Charlie Brown. If I wasn't in the Christmas spirit before, I sure am now!

First Piano Recital

Here is Matias' first piano recital.  He was a bit nervous, but he got up there and did a great job.  We are SO proud of him!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Singapore!

For Matias' birthday, my awesome sister and brother in law sent Matias a "unit" on Singapore- their new home.  You can read their blog here. It was really awesome...a gift and a homeschool lesson rolled into one.  Here are some of the cool things they sent.

Trying out some chopsticks...on yummy Koala bear snacks from Singapore.

A pretty lantern

This is called "sticky"...the kids love it!  Hard to get a good picture, but it is so beautiful and every piece looks like the flavor that it is.  

Of particular interest to my little GPS was the map of Singapore they sent- with the train stops marked.  

Matias  got to connect the stops to draw the different train lines, and then answered some questions they sent about which trains they took.  Very cool.  I am jealous of Singapore's awesome mass transit- they have no need for a car!

Milo- a favorite hot chocolate drink of Hannah's both in Singapore and during her time in South Africa.  Though why they need HOT chocolate in Singapore I'm not sure!

One the our favorite activities was the money they sent , along with questions like "what is the oldest coin", "can you find a coin from the year you were born" and "do they have the same coin denominations we do?"  We made coin rubbings in their journals and taped in the money and questions to save.  

We love a good theme dinner, so we cooked up some Chicken Satay with a recipe they included.

The kids really liked the peanut sauce!

We broke out our Asian dishes and chopsticks, hung up the big Singapore flag and the lantern and had a nice Singapore dinner.

Thanks for such an awesome gift Hannah and Jacob.  We loved it!  And I don't know about the kids, but I sure learned stuff!

I'll Throw in some Rope and Tie it to the Car for you.

This year we were not quite sure when we'd have time to cut down a tree, so we randomly decided to stop on the way home from Violet's Christmas Program at school.  It felt a bit like that scene in "A Christmas Story" (ain't no needles comin' off this here tree...), but we had fun.  Pretty much anything done as a surprise that delays bedtime goes over well with our kids!

Our little angel singing in her program.

We found the tree for us...and it turns out it is a REALLY beautiful, soft tree!

Watching the man make a fresh cut and reminiscing about our first Christmas together where we sawed our tree with a steak knife to get it to fit in our tiny apartment! Good times...

Tying it to the top of the van for us.

Too excited to hold still for a picture.

This sleepy girl loves the tree- and all the ornaments she can reach!

It turned out to be a really nice tree, and we had it up and decorated in time for the little Christmas party we hosted this weekend.  Win!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Stinker

Ever had one of these days??