Yukon Christmas Lights

A sampling of the beautiful Christmas lights we saw in the park. We enjoyed our walk on the pathways around the lake.

Cosmosphere Outing

On Wednesday, we all journeyed to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. We enjoyed the Imax theatre, the planetarium, and the space museum. It was a day packed with entertainment and we enjoyed sharing it with one another. The children did great and enjoyed the time. Our family drove home after goodbyes in the parking lot.

A Family Christmas

We had a marvelous belated Christmas with our family in Hillsboro! Thanks Mom and Dad for the special moments spent together. Here are some highlights from those times together.

I love hearing the story of Jesus' birth read on Christmas.

What fun it was to watch the two littlest boys become Star Wars bobble heads with these helmets on!

Super Aunt here. Sophie is hamming it up in the background.

Miss you all!

Church Christmas Program

On Sunday morning, our church had our Christmas Eve children's programs. Below will be some pictures from the primary departments (pre-k through 2nd grade) program. Since the program had been rescheduled, all the teachers that were going to lead the children were gone by that time, and several backup teachers filled in instead. First all the children colored while we were getting set and making the game plan and figuring out costumes. We were very thankful for Mrs. S and her willingness to be our leader! She was terrific and the rest of us filled in where instructed. Everything went wonderful, and the children did fantastic.

Practicing during the Sunday School hour.

During the program. (Carina, it looks like we do have a picture with costumes after all.)

Dellen was Joseph.

Sam was a shepherd and had lines to recite.

Awesome snow pile in front of the church.

Christmas 2009

The morning of Christmas Eve, we woke up to freezing rain on our windows. A blizzard followed. For most of the day yesterday we remained optimistic that we would be attending the Christmas Eve program and then driving to Kansas to spend Christmas with Gramps and Grams. As the day continued, plans seemed to change hourly. So many phone calls and decisions were needing to be made. Unfortunately, just when we had plan B made, we had to adjust and make plan C, D, etc. Ultimately, our church decided to postpone the Christmas Eve service until Sunday. Without many leaders now, Russ and I will be helping more with the program. That is fine with us, and we are happy to be around. We decided to drive to KS early on Christmas day. But poor Rob and Lori and children were now stranded in GA and wouldn't arrive to KS until late Christmas night. Due to very few hours we would actually spend with them on Saturday and the continuing weather woes of OK, we finally decided to stop trying to leave and to go next week instead. When we thought we would be leaving for KS on Christmas morning, we decided to go ahead and open Christmas gifts as a family last night. The boys were more than ecstatic because originally they were going to have to wait until Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed our evening, and later on invited Papa and Mema over for snacks. We all participated in the normal getting toys out of the boxes and put together.

We gave Dellen a big boy bike that he has been sitting on in Walmart for months now. He couldn't believe that he actually had it. What fun for Russ and I to see him enjoy his gift. He parked the bike by his bed last night. One of the perks of living in OK, is that normally he would have been able to ride his bike in December. But due to the blowing snow, he is sitting on it inside the house instead.

Sam received a guitar. He continues to progress in his piano lessons and has expressed an interest to also do guitar lessons. That is a long time goal for Russ as well, and the two hope to learn together.

We woke up to a sunny Christmas morning. Santa had visited in the night and enjoyed his chocolate milk and cookies. I managed to pull together a very impromptu Christmas dinner.

In the afternoon, we went outside to shovel some snow and play in the drifts. Corn had about 5.5 inches. I wish we had the 14 inches like in OKC, but I wouldn't wish that for all our friends with cattle to take care of. With the sustained winds in the 50s and 60s though, snow blew in very strange ways. Areas have either no snow or 3-4 foot drifts of it. All in all, it has been a blessing to have a white Christmas. Seems appropriate really; peaceful and calm. A reminder to sit back and focus on the reason for Christmas and that being the birth of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for many things. And we will now look forward to our Christmas with family next week.

Sam and Dellen's snow fort.

The teeter totter was completely covered.

Daddy took some time to help the boys build a snowman. Sam named the snowman Tom and Dellen named him Frosty. Which reminds me, Dellen told us this last week that his imaginary friend is named Imaginary. Seems ironic and not very imaginary. But alas, who wouldn't want to have a snowman named after the original Frosty. We've been reading his story, and how very exciting it would be to have and place that particular hat on his head!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Artwork

Our house is decorated with lots of Christmas (and Thanksgiving) artwork from Sam and Dellen. Sam especially has brought home many pieces from school. This nativity set was our Christmas present that Sam made in school. We love it!

Chimenia

Russ really enjoys fire places. He is a master fire builder when we camp, and was able to play some with the fires back East when we were there. Recently we attended a Christmas open house right after our time with cozy fireplaces, and they had one of these Chimenias. We were continuing to enjoy the ambiance of a blazing fire.

So, it was not a difficult decision for me when I was in OKC last week for Dellen's dental appointment and doing some Christmas shopping, to purchase our very own Chimenia for Russ after seeing them on their sale display. We had fun during the first firing of it the other night; and Russ enjoyed taking several pictures.

An Afternoon at Red Rock Canyon State Park

To celebrate the first official full day of Christmas Break (and one of the last nice days before the cold front moves in), we chose to have a picnic at the nearby state park. This was a spur of the moment decision, and turned into a full day event that was absolutely fantastic!

Upon arrival, we had just been commenting that the last time we drove through the canyon with Grandma Goodhart we saw live armadillos, and then we spotted one. We stopped the car to let the boys chase the poor creature awhile.

The armadillo ran into a culvert while the boys ran back and forth to both ends for the next several minutes.

Following that excitement, we finally chose on the perfect picnic location next to a canyon wall that we could climb later.

Sam and Dellen have been very affectionate lately.

Hard to get those two to sit down to eat during any picnics we have - there is just so much to do. I didn't want to prepare a picnic since this was a very spontaneous adventure. We found a delicious meal deal at the local grocery store deli - Chicken dinner for four at $9.99! That was definitely cheaper than doing the KFC version of it, and so I didn't feel too guilty for the indulgence.

Time for exploring the climbing wall.

Sam was a little hesitant, which was fine with me. I think when we return, we'll bring their helmets. One of my biggest fears as a parent, is a head or neck injury. I'm quite paranoid of this actually.

After climbing around, Dellen led us to the playground. The boys played there for quite a while. I rested on our blanket and enjoyed the sun. Sam met a new friend and played with him and Daddy and Dellen played soccer. It was wonderful, and I wished I had brought a book or magazine along.

After about an hour, we decided it was time to take a hike. We've been to this canyon several times, and for some reason had never been aware of this hiking trail that we took today.

The trail was very diverse, and a lot of it went over marsh areas with these horsetail reeds. Sam and Dellen enjoyed all the bridges we went over.

Should have hiked first in the day, as Dellen was pretty tired by this time in the afternoon. It didn't help that he had a major finger cut right at the beginning of the trail. He did recover to the point that by the end he didn't want to leave the trail, and finally did so with many tears.

While looking at the subject in the above picture, we heard a lot of rustling in the leaves. We decided to scout out the noise like Indians. We make very loud and clumsy trackers, but did discover another armadillo!

I really enjoyed the second half of the trail; doing more climbing and being in the wooded area again. We'll revisit this trail often in the future. And Mom G., I'm thinking we are bringing you here if you come down over New Year's. Weather permitting of course. The invite goes out to any of our lovely family and friends as well.

We were home just in time for Daddy to head to the church for the dress rehearsal of the older children's Christmas Eve program. I was absolutely insane after this full day, and the boys and I baked cookies - sugar cookies at that even! It was actually part of our bargaining with Dellen to get him to leave the trail.

I guiltily confess that the moment was not fully what the pictures represent. We did have fun, but these two precious little boys of mine are not the best at following instructions. They both had their own ideas and forged ahead of me on several occasions. I needed at least two more mommies to have made the moment all that it was suppose to be. No really, I think we did survive it well and made some delicious cookies. We ate a few, the boys took a bath and went to bed. I then collapsed after a very fulfilling day!

We decided that we'd save a few cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, at which time Russ informed me that Santa prefers chocolate chip cookies actually. ...sorry Santa, not sure that this momma will be making any more cookies this week.