The Christmas We Gave Away

By Marilyn Ellsworth Swinyard

The Christmas I remember best began with tragedy. It happened at 6 a.m. on one of those crisp Idaho Falls mornings the day before Christmas. Our neighbors, the Jesse Smith family, slept peacefully in their two-story home. The baby, barely six months old, was in a crib next to her parents' room, and the three older children were upstairs.

Suddenly something jarred Jesse from his sleep. He thought he smelled smoke. Could a spark from the torch he'd defrosted the frozen water pipes with the day before have started a fire in the basement? Still half asleep, he stumbled to the bedroom door and flung it open. Clouds of black smoke poured into the room. "Lorraine!" he yelled. "Get the baby!" He ran toward the stairs and his sleeping children. The smoke was thicker as he gasped for breath. "Rick! Tom! Wake up!" The boys scrambled out of their beds. "Run, boys!" Tom grabbed his younger brother's hand, and they raced down the smoke-filled stairway to safety. His daughter's room was next. As Jesse groped through the heavy shroud of gray, he called, "Cindy! Cindy! Where are you?"

"Here, Daddy, here!" He followed the frightened cries, scooped up his daughter in his arms, and with his hand over her face, felt his way out the room and down through a narrow path of searing flames. They coughed, choked, gasped for breath, until they at last stumbled out the door where a relieved wife and three children stood shivering in the snow.

Now the family looked to the smoke and flames pouring out the roof of their home, the home that the night before had held all their earthly treasures. It had also held a promise of Christmas, mulled cider, homemade candy, and stockings waiting to be filled. They stood huddled in their nightclothes, barefoot in the biting cold, and watched their Christmas burn up along with their house.

The spell was broken by the sound of sirens piercing the icy air. Firemen leaped from the huge red trucks and turned their powerful hoses on the blaze. Seconds later, the bishop of the Smiths' ward drove up, bundled the family into his car, and took them to a home the ward elders quorum had just completed as a fund-raising project. They were not to witness the firemen's hopeless battle with the flames. For when the trucks finally pulled away, this time in silence, nothing stood of their house but its charred skeleton outlined against the sky.

And tomorrow was Christmas. At our house we were putting the last secret wrappings on the presents, making the last batch of popcorn for popcorn balls to go in our Christmas stockings. We three children were attempting dubious harmony with our favorite carols and breaking into giggles at the results.

Then Dad came in with the news. We sat with serious faces listening to him tell of the fire, the narrow escape, the house where the Smiths were spending Christmas Eve.

Why? Mother said. Why did this happen, just at Christmas? It isn't fair. They had children, just the same ages as ours, she said. Jesse and Dad were the closest friends; they even joked that they were so close they wore the same size shirt. The same size shirt! "Bill," Mother began hesitantly, "would you mind terribly if we gave Jesse one of the shirts I bought you for Christmas? You wear the same size ..." A hush fell on us all. We all seemed to be thinking the exact same thing. "I've got it!" my ten-year-old brother shouted. "We'll give the Smiths a Christmas! A Christmas for Christmas!" "Where could we get one?" my inquisitive little sister asked. "We'll give them ours," the others chorused in.

"Of course! We'll give them ours!" The house rang with excited voices, until Dad's stern command silenced us. "Hold it! Let's make sure we all want to do this. Let's take a vote. All in favor say aye."

"AYE!" chorused back at him. "All opposed?" was met with silence.

The hours that followed are ones we will never forget. First we sat around the tree and handed out presents. Instead of opening them, the giver would divulge their contents so the label could be changed to the appropriate Smith family member. My heart fell when Dad handed Kevin a box wrapped in gold foil and green ribbon. "It's a baseball glove, son," Dad told him, and a flash of disappointment crossed Kevin's face. I knew how he'd longed for that glove, and Dad wanted to say, "You keep it, son," but Kevin smiled as if he'd read our thoughts. "Thanks, Dad. It's just what Stan wanted, too," he re-plied.

"Look, here's the recipe holder I made for you, that is, for Sister Smith." We signed all the tags "From Santa," and the activity that followed would have put his workshop elves to shame.

They had presents, but what about a Christmas dinner? The turkey was cooked, pies baked, the carrots and celery prepared, and then all packed in a box. The Christmas stockings must be stuffed. Dad got a length of clothesline and some clothespins to hang the stockings with, but what about a tree? We looked at ours. Could we really part with it? "I know," Dad volunteered. "Let's decorate it with things they'll need." And so more things were added to the tree: a tube of toothpaste tied with red ribbon, a razor, comb, bars of soap nestled in the branches. Finally it was all ready.

It was a strange procession that silently paraded through the dark streets of Idaho Falls that night. Father led the way carrying a fully deco-rated tree. Mother followed with a complete Christmas dinner, down to the last dish of cranberry sauce. The three of us children pulled wagons and a sled piled with boxes of gifts. We waited until the last light was out in the Smiths' borrowed home, and then Mom and Dad stealthily carried each item in the door. When the last stocking had been hung, we turned again toward home.

All the way home I worried about what waited for my family at our home. What if the others were disappointed? All that was left were a few pine needles and paper scraps. I couldn't have been more wrong. The minute we were back inside we were more excited than ever. Every pine needle and paper scrap was a reminder of the magic of the evening, and we hadn't taken that to the Smiths. It was in our home as real as if you could see it. A happier family never went to bed on a Christmas Eve, and the next morning the magic was still there. For our celebration we wrote a promise to each person on a card and presented it around a spruce branch tied in a red ribbon.

"One shoe shine. To Father. Love Kevin." "This is good for two turns doing the evening dishes. Love, your husband Bill." And so it went.

Our Christmas dinner consisted of scrambled eggs and bacon, toast and sliced oranges. Somehow, I don't remember a better one. And I know we sang our carols that night with the same unconventional harmony, but it sounded sweeter than angels to me.

"Oh, Mommy," said my small sister as she snuggled up for her bedtime Christmas story, "I like to give Christmases away." Tears blurred the book in my mother's hands, because she knew that none of us would ever forget this Christmas, the one when we gave our best gift. And as she read the story of the Baby born in a manger, it seemed our gift was but a small tribute to him who gave his best gift, his Son to us.

Here They Go Again!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Little Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wally's Christmas Pageant

For years now whenever Christmas pageants are talked about in a certain little town in the Midwest, someone is sure to mention the name of Wallace Purling better known as little Wally. It was Wally’s performance in one annual production of the Nativity play that has slipped into the realm of legend. But the old-timers who were in the audience that night never tire of recalling exactly what happened.

Wally was nine that year and in the second grade, though he should have been in the fourth. Most people in town knew that he had difficulty in keeping up. He was big and clumsy, slow in movement and mind.Wally fancied the idea of being a shepherd in the Christmas pageant that year, but the play’s director, Miss Lumbard, knew that there were too many lines for Wally to memorize. So she assigned him the role of the Innkeeper who only had a couple of lines. For weeks he practiced his part and his lines.

Miss Lumbard's biggest concern for the play that year was that Wally didn’t mess his part up and therefore embarrass himself.It just so happened that the whole town had turned out the night of the big production. No one on stage or off was more caught up in the magic of the night than little Wallace Purling.

Then the time came when Joseph appeared, slowly, tenderly guiding Mary to the door of the inn. Joseph knocked hard on the wooden door set into the painted backdrop.

Wally the Innkeeper was there, waiting.“What do you want?” Wally said, swinging the door open with a gruff gesture.

“We seek lodging.”

“Seek it elsewhere.” Wally looked straight ahead but spoke vigorously. “The inn is filled.”

“Sir, we have asked everywhere in vain. We have traveled far and are very weary.”“There is no room in the inn for you.” Wally looked properly stern.

“Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired.”

Now, for the first time, the Innkeeper relaxed his stiff stance and looked down at Mary. With that, there was a long pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment.
“No! Begone!” the prompter whispered from behind the curtain.“No!" Wally repeated automatically. “Begone!”

Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary and Mary laid her head upon her husband’s shoulder and the two of them started to move away. The Innkeeper did not return inside his inn, however. Wally stood there in the doorway, watching the desperate couple. His mouth was open, his brow creased with concern, his eyes filling unmistakably with tears.And suddenly this Christmas pageant became different from all the others.“Don’t go, Joseph,” Wally cried out. “Bring Mary back.” And Wallace Purling’s face grew into a bright smile. “You can have my room.”

A few old grouches in tiny town thought that the pageant had been ruined. Yet most attending that night considered it the best Christmas pageant they had ever seen.

A Brother Like That

I love Christmas stories. I want to share one of my favorites every day until Christmas. This is one of my very favorites. It reminds me of two things: 1.) It is so important to think of others more than yourself and 2.) The Savior did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

A Brother Like That

Paul received an automobile from his brother as a Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it.

"Is this your car, Mister?" he asked.

Paul nodded. "My brother gave it to me for Christmas."

The boy was astounded. "You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn't cost you nothing? Boy, I wish..." He hesitated. Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the lad said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels.
"I wish," the boy went on, "that I could be a brother like that."

Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added, "Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?"

"Oh yes, I'd love that."

After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said, "Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?" Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big automobile. But Paul was wrong again.

"Will you stop where those two steps are?" the boy asked. He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car. "There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn't cost him a cent. And some day I'm gonna give you one just like it...then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Christmas windows that I've been trying to tell you about."

Paul got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable holiday ride.

That Christmas Eve, Paul learned what Jesus meant when he had said: "It is more blessed to give..."

Snow Day

School was cancelled today. See why?

Actually, I'm being sarcastic. We had freezing rain and sleet for several hours last night, so the roads are pretty slick (Or so I hear. I'm still sitting here in my jammies!). And we're suppose to get more of the same later today and tonight with some snow. The kids did a Snow Dance last night to channel a little luck from the Snow Gods. Apparently it worked!

Also, Drew's eye started getting puffy and red last night, so I knew pink eye was coming. When he came down the stairs, OH. MY. BARF-O-RAMA. You cannot even imagine the nastiness. I took a picture to email Edward at work, but I will definitely spare you the certain retching that would accompany your viewing of the photo. Ross, Elizabeth, and I all gagged upon viewing his eye. Mallory had this horrified look and kept repeating, "eye, eye, eye." When Drew looked at himself in the mirror, he immediately turned away because it scared him so badly.

Good intentions

I'm up to my eyeballs in projects. I have all of these great ideas in my head, but I keep procrastinating their completion. I have or see an idea, buy the proper supplies, and then they just sit in my laundry room/junk room FOREVER.

Here is what I envision in my dream world that I will complete before Christmas:

*Paint Edward's childhood toy box to corral all of the new toys that will soon be bombarding us
*Recover a wing back chair - two if I'm feeling adventurous.
*Sew a different stocking for Ross
*Sew the girls' Christmas dresses
*Sew two play dresses for Mallory with cute Christmas fabric
*Sew cloth napkins
*Bake goodies to share with friends and kids' teachers
*Rearrange some furniture
*Make some more hair bows

Yeah, I don't know how much of this will happen. I did attempt to make Elizabeth's Christmas dress last night. I was given one of my old velvet dresses, and while it is definitely an 80's style, I knew I could repurpose it to make a suitable one for her. I had the idea of adding a little bubble skirt to it. I hoped to get it done so she could wear it to church today. I worked on it for about three hours last night, putting the final stitches in at midnight. I was satisfied with it until I sewed on the sash around the middle. I really don't like it and knew she would hate it. I've mentioned before about our battles regarding what she thinks is stylish and what I think is cute and good for our budget. I told her this morning that I finished it, but I didn't like how it turned out so I would be doing some other things to it before it would be done. She took one look at it and immediately gave me a disgusted look. She said flatly, "It looks like you made it for a fat child." I cracked up because it was true.

I feel some late nights coming on.

Gator Boy

Ross has had an obsession with the University of Florida for sometime now. It has really come to a head this fall because of their successful football season. He takes after his dad in his love for college football. Edward has always been a Nebraska Cornhuskers fan, and Ross has chosen the Gators as his team. He talks about them constantly. He even ribs his Mizzou and Kansas State friends (and teachers) at school. While he likes Mizzou (He HAS to! Mom and Dad graduated from there.), the Gators are his obsession.

This is an exciting week for the Gators, ranked #1 in one poll and #2 in another. Alabama is also ranked #1 in one poll and #2 in another. Florida and Alabama play each other Saturday. Ross has declared this Florida Gator Week. And in honor of this celebratory week, Ross has decided to only wear his Florida Gators shirts this week. Well, he owns three. He wore them Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Last night as he was laying out his clothes for school today, he laid out the shirt he had worn the day before. After a little protesting from me, I relented. What's the big deal in wearing the same shirts to school in the same week? I washed all three last night, so my concern was only in what others would think. We tell the kids all the time not to be concerned with what their peers think, so I kind of shot myself in the foot with that argument!

And Ross is my non-craft boy. Elizabeth and Drew craft and draw all the time, but Ross has never been one of those kids. But for his beloved Florida Gators, anything is possible! He snuck off before dinner on Tuesday to create this beautiful poster. He came out into the living room asking where he should put it, meaning where in the living room should he put it. I told him he should hang it in his room. He was a little disappointed that I wouldn't allow it to hang with the rest of the main living room decor.

UPDATE: I didn't check the facts before posting this. Oops. Ross let me know the Florida/Alabama game was last Saturday, and his beloved Gators were victorious. Now we wait for the bowl games to start. This is a long season!

Big Ed and Little Ed

I forgot about some pictures we took last week when we were with family. We were able to have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner (thanks so much Sarah, Jessica, and Colton!) at my BIL and SIL's home in between shift changes at the hospital with Edward's mom. By the way, she came home from the hospital last night, which we are all so thankful for! Anyway, our brother-in-law, Jud tried to get his oldest son, Judson to challenge Edward to a pie eating contest. Judson didn't think he was up to the challenge, but his 7 year-old brother, also named Edward, showed him up. He is such a sweet, quiet, mild little guy, but he was SO serious about the task at hand. He kept his eyes on my Edward the entire time he was shoveling the chocolate pie into his mouth.

Thank goodness for brothers! Judson had little Edward's back as he snuck up behind Uncle Edward to give him a big Wet Willy as a form of distraction. And it definitely worked.

And here are three princesses that were in attendance: Katrina a.k.a. Little Belly Button Girl, Audrey a.k.a. Dorothy, and Kayley a.k.a. Snow White.

Funny little Ellie sat reading her book while wearing Mr. Potato Head glasses for a long time.

Burnin' Down The House!

In all the chaos of last week, I forgot to post about how we nearly burned down the neighborhood!!! Earlier last week I posted about the gazillion leaves we had to get rid of. Edward came home from work early and started burning them at 4:00. It gets dark here by 5:00, and the city doesn't allow you to burn after dark. We thought the leaves would go up in flames very quickly, but that wasn't the case. It had rained several days before, so all that really happened was we just created a giant ball of stinking smoke. P. U. I was really embarrassed by the smell. At about 5:30 I convinced Edward that he really needed to put the fire/smoke out before we got a fine for burning after dark. I went in the house to fix dinner. Edward came in about 15 minutes later, so I figured everything was put out. Fast forward to about 8:30. I went to run an errand. When I pulled into our neighborhood (four streets away from ours) about 15 minutes later, smoke was everywhere!!!! At first I thought, "Wow. It's a really foggy night." As I pulled into our drive way, I saw the leaf pile glowing at the end or our property! I was in a panic. You can't even imagine the amount of smoke that consumed as far as I could see. I ran down to the pile and started dousing it with the water hose. I called Edward on my cell phone and told him to get out there. He told me he would finish putting the kids to bed. Apparently he wasn't as concerned as I was! At about that I heard fire engines in the distance. I started saying out loud, "Oh, PLEASE don't let that be for us?!" Thankfully it wasn't. Edward finally came out, and said, "Whoa." He didn't think it was such a big deal. He said everything was soaked by now so it would be fine. I on the other hand was so paranoid for the rest of the night. I kept going out to check on it every twenty minutes or so, and I certainly didn't sleep well that night.

Now, I'm thinking the neighbors are probably not so annoyed at Mr.-Blow-My-Leaves-In-Everyone-Else's-Yard anymore. I'm sure WE'RE the tacky neighbors now.

P.S. The pile that we started to burn isn't even 1/3 of the leaves that we have. Edward said he would burn the others while I am Christmas shopping on Saturday. I think I'm going to try to bag them while he's at work this week so I can save myself the embarrassment!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Whew! We're home. Edward's mom is doing MUCH better!!! She was moved out of ICU yesterday and is now in a more comfortable private room. She'll remain there until she is able to gain back more of her strength. Her body is very weak from all that she's been through and just from laying in a bed for the last week and a half, but her mind is very sharp. She has no memory of the last week, and believe me, that's a good thing. She had a very rough time.

We were so glad to get back to our kids. Between all the kids filling us in on every minute of our absence, we didn't get a word in for about the first hour we were home. We learned all about the fun stuff they did, the restaurants they got to eat at, the games they played, and the fact that Drew conned my parents and ended up wearing his sweat suit to church. Yep, they were living it up with Grammy and Grandad.

And absence really does make the heart grow fonder. I just wanted to hold each one on my lap yesterday. It was nice that Edward and I had some time together, but boy did we miss those little monkeys.

A Thankful Heart

Just like all of you, I have so much to be thankful for (too much to list here). After spending a nontraditional Thanksgiving separated from our children (they are living it up with my parents), we are so grateful for family and what they mean to us. Without going into too much detail because I don't really feel like this is the place, Edward's mom has been in the Nuero ICU since Monday due to some very serious complications from brain surgery last week. She seems to be doing a bit better this morning, but this is going to be a long road.

I'm thankful for families that lift each other up, sustain each other, help each other, laugh together, cry together, act goofy together. Where would we be without families? Hug yours today.

Overwhelming

We love our humongous yard. However, we'd gladly trade it in about this time each year because of the million bazillion gajillion leaves. After two Saturdays of making leaf piles, we were all geared up to burn these. We called our fire department to let them know what we were doing, but they said they couldn't give us permission because it was suppose to be windy. We were quite bummed because there was no breeze whatsoever. We're going to try again this afternoon, and the kids are looking forward to it.

We could do what our tacky neighbor did Sunday. We watched in utter disbelief as he blew his yard full of leaves away from his house, out into the street, and INTO HIS TWO NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS' YARDS! He did it last year too, but at that time both houses were vacant. That takes a lot of nerve!

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet.... It's Daddy!

One of the kids unearthed this forgotten Superman action hero recently. Every time Mallory sees it, she picks it up and shrieks, "DADDY!!!! DADDY!!!" I studied it closely and realized it did in fact look a lot like Daddy....

A LOT like Daddy!
These crazy pictures were taken last Christmas at our Felker gathering. Edward's sister Katie found this costume for a couple of dollars at an after Halloween sale and brought it to the reunion to see if anyone wanted it. We talked Edward into trying it on for us, and then his brother Andrew thought Edward shouldn't be the only one to have so much fun.

Then little sister Mary went to retrieve her Supergirl costume and lots of silliness ensued.

Those wild and crazy Felkers! You never know what to expect at one of our get togethers!

Misery Loves Company

These two are buddies.

Amigos, com padres, friends, companions.

One day this week, Drew did something naughty enough (kind of rare for him) to warrant him a time-out. I use the naughty mat (thanks for the idea, Super Nanny!) in the kitchen. I was preparing supper at the time. He was sitting quietly while serving his four minute sentence. I happened to peek over at him, and I found Mallory sitting just as quietly right there next to him. She was not moving, just like him. She normally is saying something and moving every waking minute. It cracked me up!

Open Season

You know it's deer huntin' season when you drive down the highway and see this:

Scott, was this you? ;) We were very near the exit to your little town.

Prizes and Teeth

I got a phone call from our dentist's office this morning telling me Drew's name had been drawn, and he'd won a stuffed animal. Every time we go the dentist's office, Elizabeth stuffs the box with our family's names. I figured we had a pretty good shot at winning a stuffed animal at one time or another. This was his lucky day. I know Elizabeth is going to be very disappointed it wasn't her, but Drew was sweet and said he would share it with all the kids. He had his choice between an elephant and a lion, and he chose this very cute, very soft, very GINORMOUS lion. Drew has named him "Tigey."

Mallory has been trying to carry it around since we brought it home. She's even been trying to make it slide but keeps getting very frustrated at its bulkiness.
This brings me to the fact that, while I'm very excited for Drew, I appreciate the dental office's generosity, and it is awfully cute, I'm wondering where in the world we're going to keep this. I just took three garbage bags full of junky, broken, or unplayed with toys out to the trash to make room for the plethora of Christmas toys that are about to invade our home. This big boy easily replaces the volume I just decreased.

And now on to a funny story about a tooth. Ross told me yesterday while I was making supper that he'd just gotten his tooth really loose. It was one of his back teeth that I had no idea was loose. He worked on it all evening, and by bedtime, one side was completely separated from his gums. I told him I could give it one hard yank, to which he replied, "NO! I can still feel it attached to the vein!" He went into the bathroom where he was looking in the mirror and messing with it more. About that time, I heard a sheepish, "Mom? I think I just swallowed my tooth." Sure enough there was a big space where his tooth had been. He said, "I was moving it around, and I looked down. I felt something in my mouth, and I must have swallowed. When I looked back, I looked at the wrong tooth. I guess I accidentally swallowed it." He seemed a bit worried, and Elizabeth and I began laughing hysterically. Why? It wasn't a tiny front baby tooth he swallowed. He swallowed a big honkin' molar! Funny! I had trouble swallowing a tiny pill the other day without gagging, and he didn't realize he'd swallowed his molar! He hoped the tooth fairy would come anyway, and I assured him that she probably has these things happen from time to time.

After he was put back to bed, Elizabeth said, "I want to lose another tooth!" Oh, that girl is very motivated by money.

Good Times. Good Times.

Want to know what's really fun?! Bra shopping with a toddler.

Want to know what's even more fun?! Watching the previously mentioned toddler crawl under the dressing room door while Mom is completely topless. I caught her by her toe and pulled her giggling, squirming little body through the 6 inch space under the door. I then realized she had taken my purse out with her, and it lay on the other side of the door just beyond my reach.

A fun time was had by all.

For Cryin' Out Loud! Just Smile And Say Cheese!

With the great color on our property, I decided to drag everyone (literally kicking and screaming) outside yesterday for family photos to use as our Christmas cards. For whatever reason, Edward dreads family picture time. I don't know if he doesn't like the fact that I pick coordinating clothes for everyone or the way some of the kids react to the whole process that makes him less than enthused about picture time. He tells me he doesn't know either. He just knows he detests having family portraits taken.

Here is what went down: I had in my mind since Monday that I wanted to take family pictures outside for two reasons. 1.) The beautiful trees in our yard and 2.) my favorite photo website, Winkflash, is having a sale on photo cards for the next few days, so I needed to get moving on torturing the family, er, taking the photos. I waited until Friday to break the news to Edward that we would be trekking outside on Saturday. I sent him an email telling him the great news. It was laced with sarcasm.

On Saturday we kept telling the kids we would be taking pictures after Elizabeth's basketball game. I laid everyone's clothing out for them to change into. Ross is hands down my best kid about clothes. He never, ever complains about what I pick out for him to wear, and I appreciate that SO much about him! When I thank him for his great attitude, he replies, "They're just clothes, Mom." Mallory doesn't have an opinion yet about the clothes she wears, so no worries there.

That leaves the other two (imagine the theme music to Jaws playing in the background). I knew a fierce battle was about to ensue when I picked the clothes out. Elizabeth fights me tooth and nail about her clothing on a very regular basis. I've learned to let a lot of it go. She usually gets to wear what she picks out herself to school, with my approval. She and I both cooperate (kind of) when it comes to her church clothes. But for pictures, I get to pick her outfit. This particular outfit I picked (khaki pants, a plain white t-shirt, and a brown sweater jacket) was WAY out of style and itchy according to her. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and she eventually was threatened with many things if she didn't cooperate for a few minutes to take a picture.

The same scenario pretty much unfolded with Drew. He has had some serious clothing/texture issues since he was about one-and-a-half, but it is getting much better now. I won't go into all the specifics, but at one point about six months ago, I was convinced he had some kind of sensory disorder. I even called a friend who is an occupational therapist for our school system. After a long chat with her, she has helped me realize it is more about power, choice, and comfort on his part rather than a medical condition. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, he was crying and throwing a fit about the pants being too big. He was threatened he would not be able to go to a much anticipated birthday party later in the day if he didn't cooperate.

Neither one of the offenders would listen to reason when I told them if they would just cooperate, we would only be wearing these clothes for a few minutes! In the middle of our huge melt downs, I kept saying to Edward, "I'm sure we're going to get some REALLY nice shots!"

To my great surprise, once the tears and snot were dried up, everyone was smiling and participating! We got some decent shots! I was happy with how they turned out. I think the kids enjoyed seeing me run to take my place after I'd set the timer.

Here are a couple of the pictures I liked but ruled out as "THE" Christmas card picture. I'm still deciding between a few:

I love Drew's face in this one!

Thank goodness for Photoscape. LOVE IT!

I like this set up, but Edward's leg is a bit wonky, and Mallory isn't looking at the camera.

P.S. Guess what Elizabeth picked out all by herself tonight that she wants to wear to school tomorrow? The brown jacket from this picture. Good grief!

And sorry! I'm having paragraph spacing problems again!

I Love Fall

It is my favorite season. Here is some of the beautiful scenery that is on our property: