Christmas Eve Day

7:54pm-
The boys are in bed! Since our last post this is what we have done. We had our traditional fondue dinner, yummy! After cleaning up, we made some sugar cookies and the boys decorated gingerbread cookies for Santa. We lit our last Advent candle and read the Christmas story in Luke. Next was sprinkling our reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) out on the lawn. Finally to our favorite tradition, the Christmas Eve book exchange. We concluded the evening by tracking Santa on Norad- he was in Novia Scotia. Now to straighten up the house, finish wrapping and get the gifts out. Good night!

Christmas Eve 2007- click on picture above for more pictures from the evening

3:42pm- home from church, getting the boys settled with a Christmas movie. Here is a family picture.

1:23pm (CST)- Spent the morning on the playground. That helped burn off some energy. Now we are off to church. Let the celebration begin!

9am

We will attempt to put up photos and brief descriptions of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day activities to keep you all posted. Kim will be doing most of the typing so don't look for too much clever stuff! Look for continued updates to this post. We will label a new one Christmas day for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas- We miss you all.

Jingle Bells 2007

Some video of the boys getting into the holiday spirit.

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Enter the Matrix

Here is a little video I put together while goofing around with Adobe Premiere Elements and Photoshop.

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Schlitterbahn waterpark

Galveston now has a Schlitterbahn waterpark, which we have been meaning to try out for some time. We finally got around to it a few weeks ago, and it was worth the trip. Benjamin and Samuel went on all of the rides/slides with us. Benjamin even went down a pretty fast slide all by himself. Woohoo! It rained in the middle of the day for a short time, but stayed in the covered section of the park and waited it out. Next year -- season passes!

Garner State Park

Last month we made the trek across Texas and camped at Garner State Park. It's so popular that you have to make reservations a year in advance, and we found out why. There was so much to do. We hiked, biked, and played in the Frio River, which runs through the park. The river has a nice current, so you can float down it on tubes. We did this twice, and everyone had a great time. We also hiked the trails in the surrounding hills and "discovered" two small caves. Benjamin has been telling us every day since we got back that he wants to go camping again. We're already planning our reservations for next year.
I've posted some pictures of the trip here:

Garner State Park

And a few photos of us playing on the river here:

Frio River

Race Day video

Here is a video montage from this summer's visit to Cortland. There is a soundtrack, so make sure your speakers are on.

Swim Team highlights

This is my first new post in awhile.
Samuel has been participating in the local swim team. I have created a video with some highlights of the season. I'm having some trouble putting the video directly into the blog, but here is the link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4905891523770214824

Note that there is sound as well, so make sure your speakers are on.

Spiderman discovers the climbing wall

During the holiday break, Kim and Samuel discovered a local climbing center. Samuel was hesitant when we introduced the idea to him. When he got there, though, his eyes lit up. "I didn't know it was going to be like this!" Climbers can go up to the painted line without a rope, but must hook in to go any higher. Kim was on belay as Samuel went up the walls again and again. He even zipped around the overhang and all the way up to the ceiling. On the way home he was already planning his next trip.

Jingle Bells

Benjamin loves to sing. During this holiday season, he developed his own version of Jingle Bells. This was recorded a few weeks ago. He has augmented the song with additional lines since that time, but the essence remains the same.

Christmas Day, part one

Well, we made it. Christmas Day. I got through the work week, Kim got all the packages mailed off, we got everything assembled and wrapped and packaged and baked. We managed to get it all done, and still had time to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica on Christmas Eve. It was all busier than we wanted it to be, but less hectic than it might have been. We're slowly getting the "life spedometer" down where we'd like it to be. The trick is keeping it there for any length of time.

Samuel woke us at 0630 today -- not too bad. He didn't manage to spot Santa last night like he'd planned, even when Santa came into his room to put some treats in the small stocking we hang there. He took in in stride, though. Said he, "Even if I had remembered (to stay awake), it was too cold to poke my head out of the blankets to see him anyway." Spoken like a kid who reaches for a jacket when the mercury drops below 75 degrees.

Samuel also had some Christmas morning preparations to do. He had prepared some handmade gifts for the others in the family. Always alert to the overarching themes of the season, he observed, "I've got three gifts to give. Hey, I'm a wise man!" Indeed.

Benjamin got up around 0700 an retrieved from his stocking some candy and a small truck. The latter item proved to be the first of a fleet of trucks that came from under the tree. There are some counties with fewer trucks than my youngest son has. He certainly knows what he likes.

We had (and are still having) a wonderful Christmas. The best part was hanging around as a family for the past few days. Will post more later tonight, with some additional pictures.