4 Busy Whites

I love my new purse! Mark and Sandy gave it to me for Christmas. It's not only beautiful but it is so special because it was made by one of my dear friends, Tricia. She has started a business called "Close Knit Friends". She knits hats, scarves and purses in various sizes. It has an amazing texture for the body of the purse. She knits it with wool yarn and then washes it for a solid "felted" texture. Tricia lost her mom to breast cancer and began knitting as a theapeutic way of dealing with that painful loss. Her husband encouraged her to start this business and even came up with the cute name. Her purses are all named after her friends. I just love this idea. You can check out her website at: www.closeknitfriends.biz for more info!

Thought I'd throw these pics up of Doug putting his new Dallas Cowboy stuff on his truck. For Christmas, I had a cool decal made for the back window and also a license plate frame.

Grammy and G.G. Lois came out for a Christmas visit today. It was great to see them and gave me an excuse to cook up a great turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted sweet potato & banana puree......YUMMY! With so much going on lately it was wonderful to have a nice, sit down dinner with them. Love you Grammy!

Thank you Papa & Mimi for the VISA card! Madison bought a new game for her Nintendo DS....Master Chef. She follows recipes and gets points for presentation, cooking abilities, etc. She's having so much fun with it!

Thursday night we picked up Lolo and headed over to the Living Desert for their light display. It was so beautiful! Colorful lights everywhere. It was freezing.....ok, not freezing you northwesterners but about 40 degrees! We bundled up in jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, etc. and headed out. Thank you Lolo and Papa for the passes.

Like Sandy wrote: "29 and lookin' fine"! That's the truth. You have grown into such an amazingly beautiful, godly woman, wife and mother. It has been a blessing to watch you grow up over all of these years. Looks like you guys had a fun "snow day". So glad you were surrounded by family. We love you cuz!

We wanted to share our Christmas morning with you all.....here goes, bedhead and all!

We had 2 little (well not so little...) girls bound into our bed about 6:40 a.m. to wish us a "Merry Christmas". After pleading my case that it was awfully early, Doug revealed that he had been up since 6 waiting for the rest of us. The first thing we always do on Christmas morning is pray. Madison prayed an amazing prayer thanking God for loving us so much and coming here to earth to save us. Then we wished Jesus a "Happy Birthday". Then we all run out to see what's by the tree.

This was Madison's first year knowing about the whole Santa scam.....just kidding! She finally asked for the first time if he really comes down the chimney and leaves us presents. In my collection of Christmas books, I have a great book called "A Special Place for Santa". The book explains who St. Nicholas was, his love for the Lord and his gift giving tradition. We read this book together and we explained that we are simply carrying on his tradition. A part of me grieves over this milestone in her life. She took it really well when we explained that we give her the Santa gift (they always get 1 gift from Santa and it's left, unwrapped in front of the tree) and that Daddy eats the cookies! She said she loves that Daddy is her Santa!

We opened presents and had our traditional Christmas breakfast....cinnamon rolls. About 11 a.m. we headed off for Downey. Check out Sandy's blog for a great slideshow of the day! Between her and Grandma Bev, I don't even need to bring my camera. Thanks guys!

Our presents included some amazing blessings by wonderful friends and even some secret Santa gifts left on our porch. We don't know who you are but we thanked the Lord that He put our family on your heart. Thank you!

Thank you Papa & Mimi!

Thank you Gramalene!

Thank you Aunt Dawn & Uncle Terry!

What else would we be doing on the Saturday before Christmas? After picking up 17 pounds of masa and cooking and shredding 3 pork roasts, we got started on making tamales. We made about 7 dozen pork, about 3 dozen cheese and jalepeno and then there's the "special" ones Chelcie likes: cheese and black olives! Lots of work, but trust me, it's a labor of love as this year's Christmas gifts! For all who get to: ENJOY! For those who can't, get down here for a visit, still have some in the freezer!

Ok, just trying to keep up with the rest of the family and share our desert experience of the white stuff! It was a breath taking morning with clear skies and beautiful snow on our surrounding mountains and hills. Mt. San Jacinto got 9 inches at the top of the tram and is seen in the photo of the large mountain. This is the beautiful view from our front lawn. The lower, snow covered hills are the range behind us, south of Hwy 111. Even the hills just north of I-10 were covered yesterday. We did not see much snow at all last year so this is a welcome addition to the Christmas season!

This evening we had a wonderful celebration of Louise's upcoming 80th birthday. We had dinner over at Mark and Sandy's. Dawn made the trip down (it was so wonderful to see you!) and Jody came out with the kids too (fun spending time with you too!).

We love you GG!

Today we enjoyed a candy cane while Doug read "The Candy Maker's Witness". Chelcie was babysitting Maria and Anita so they joined in too! Here is the story:

A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy; white to symbolize the virgin bith and the sinless nature of Jesus and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the Foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God.

The candy maker made the candy in the for of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also represent the staff of the Good Shepherd with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who like all sheep have gone astray. Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used 3 small stripes for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Unfortunately, the candy became known as the candy cane -- a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But meaning is there still there for all those who "have eyes to see and ears to hear." We pray the symbol will again be used to witness to the wonder of Jesus and His great love that came down at Christmas.

Today's advent activity was to put handprints on our Christmas tree skirt. We started doing this in 2001 after I saw the idea in a magazine. I wanted to remember how small the girls hands were at one precious time! The girls do their handprints and print their name with glitter paint and I make an ornament or something to note the year. This year we made a Christmas tree and put the year on that. It turned out cute. I just love seeing all the past handprints peeking out from underneath the Christmas tree.

Today's scripture reading is Genesis 3:8-15. I so love this passage as it tells of God's immediate grace, mercy and love for us when Adam and Eve first sinned and we can be assured of that same grace, mercy and love when we have messed up! I love that His plan of redemption for us through Jesus is revealed waaaayyyyy back in Genesis! I love how this "thread" is strung throughout the entire Bible from beginning to end. God is so faithful in His promises to us and we get to hehold this faithfulness at Christmas as we celebrate the birth of this promised redeemer.

We have a great collection of Christmas books/stories. I have a small Christmas "trunk" set up in our living room with all of the books for the girls. Today's activity was to read a Christmas story book together. Madison got to get the paper with the activity listed so Chelcie got to pick the story. She selected one of my very favorites: "The Littlest Angel".

Today's scripture reading is: Isaiah 40:9-11

Today's activity is for the girls to color a pocket on the advent. I have a plastic, over-the-door shoe hanger, the kind with plastic pockets, enough for 12 pairs of shoes = 24 pockets. In each of the pockets, I place a sealed envelope with the day's activity printed on a paper inside (the back of the paper has that day's scripture reading). The girls take turns opening the envelope and reading what the activity is. We started this "pocket" variation in 2003 and each year, the girls get to decorate 1 pocket each with colorful sharpie markers. This year Chelcie colored Santa on a roof top wishing Jesus a Happy Birthday and Madison colored a beautiful Christmas tree.

This might all seem a bit detailed and time consuming but let me share that after about 8 or so years of doing this, it is worth every detailed minute! During a time of year that can be so hectic, it allows us as a family to really choose to spend our time on things that are important to us. The girls each have their favorite activities and so do we and I try to schedule everything in advance so we're not scrambling. It also allows us to say "no" to things/invitations in order for us to preserve our family time. Every important thing will have a place on our calendar from tamale making to caroling to simple things like enjoying the message of Christ in a candy cane.....stay tuned!

Today's scripture reading is: Isaiah 52:7-10

Today's advent activity was to decorate for Christmas! I absolutely love having the house decorated. I would leave it up all year if I could. I just love the feel of our home during this season. We so enjoy blaring the Christmas music and decorating just about everything. One of my favorite things to do is to decorate the tree. We have so many wonderful memories symbolized in ornaments. Whenever we take a trip somewhere we try to get a Christmas ornament and then I write where we were and the year. This has been neat to think back in time with the girls. I also LOVE the handpainted ornaments that my Grandma Jan makes for each of us every year. They are so special to me and I look forward to what she has made each Christmas. Just thought I'd share some pics of our decorations....including our "Grandma Tinker tree" in our family room!

We started our advent scripture reading today. Each day of this week we have a passage that relates to God's promise of a Savior or Messiah in the Old Testament. Today was Isaiah 40:1-5.

Today's advent activity was to set up our nativity. We usually try to start our Christmas season with this activity first. This really sets the tone in our home for remembering what this time is about!

"And the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father." John 1:14

Congratulations are in order to the Trojan fans out there! Nods to Dad, Grandpa Fred and Grandma Louise....

There were sad faces here in the White house today as we waited for UCLA to show up at today's game. A friend of ours dropped off these USC & UCLA tortilla chips in honor of today's game.....as you can see we only ate the UCLA chips. Dad, I hope Chelcie doesn't crush up the USC chips and mail them to you for Christmas....that would be WRONG! Hee Hee ;)

Ode to Papa Steve: Chelcie and Papa Steve spend the whole year talking smack to one another about this game(actually, Chelcie does most of the smack talk!). They even have an annual bet: whoever wins has to treat the other the biggest burger around! Last year the Bruins won and Chelcie was only too happy to be taken out by Papa to lunch for her burger. When we were visiting Utah for Christmas they headed off to "Iggy's" for the best burger in town. This year, Chelcie needed to start counting her money by the 4th quarter! Sure enough, at the end of the game Papa called wanting his burger! Not sure how we'll manage this year as they have moved to Idaho but I am sure that the next time we do see them he will be wanting that burger!

Took these pics after the game, had to remind Chelcie to be a good sport thus two separate pics of her!