Christmas cousins

Love some of the pictures I got of cousins and Christmas at my mom's house.  Somehow our Christmas at home and at Grandma Lynda's went undocumented, for shame!

Snow Play

Just after Taos, and right before Christmas at our house with the kids we got this great snow storm.

Taos, NM with the Lloyds

We loved getting to go down south again.  I don't know what it is about desert places, but there is something about the big open skies and tough landscapes that get me.  This year in Taos, we stayed in a great place, courtesy Grandpa and Grandma.  We had Christmas together, and enjoyed seeing some sights together.  Unfortunately, the time was not without a few of us not feeling well, but we survived and still had lots of fun.  The kids (and we) love being with their grandparents, long distance makes the times together sweet.

In Taos there is an earthship community.  These are off the grid homes that waste as little as possible.  The homes are private, but we did visit their visitor center, being the visitors that we were.

Inside the earthship, each one has great greenhouse growing space... seriously amazing plants.

It was cold, wintery, and wintery outside, but inside amazingly warm,  only heated by the sun.

Glass bottle decoration, embedded with in straw bale, adobe covered walls.

swiss chard, yum.

the earthship museum, (Ryan, Ephraim and John were brave enough to venture around outside.)

We also visited the Taos Pueblo, which is the oldest still inhabited Native American community.  After arriving we found out photos were prohibited, unless you paid for a ticket for your camera, which we did not so all I have is this contraband iphone photo.  The homes were all adobe and still fairly primitive, and largely not lived in during the winter, but still it was pretty interesting to visit and listen to the tour guide, who was a resident there.

The frozen ground, not good for walking on, but still like this picture.

We had a great time just hanging out at the hotel, playing games, opening presents, and of course eating pasties.

nice double chin, eh?

LEGOS!!!

LEGOS!!!!

a rare picture proving I was there too!!

sledding just outside of Taos

gotta love the taste of snow

back home, enjoying christmas presents (major dino excavation going on here)

lego house complete!

'twas the season

Christmas officially started with the tradition of cutting down the tree.  We met the Dyar family on the mountain and got down to choosing from a very sparse selection of trees, apparently the forest wasn't interested in producing perfectly shaped trees.  So after almost settling on a cute Charlie Brownesque tree, we actually ended up getting a really pretty one.  By the time we remembered to take a picture, the kids already had their wet boots off, so hence the barefoot picture.  It is so great to cut down your own lovely smelling tree, and we were thankful to tromp around in the snow with the our friends.  

christmas card family pic in woodland park

and the garden of the gods (less successful)

Salome as a snowflake in her class musical, Ephraim was in it at the same time, which was a treat but somehow only have video of him being in it!

Our snowflake

Different for us this year was to make a Jesse tree, and each night read an advent calendar book, in which each night a symbol was focused and a correlating ornament made.  Each symbol represented a different aspect of Christmas and the birth of Christ.  This really helped bring a little more focus on the reasons we celebrate Christmas.  Life always seems to spin much faster during the holidays and it seems the older I become I long for the basics, Jesus, family time, and friends.  We pair the gifts down to five each for the kids and that helps.  We use five categories of something they need, something they want, something they can read, something they can wear, and something to create with.  It helps me focus on what I really want them to have and not buy extra junk they won't play with.  Anyways, this year was good, and I do have memories of sitting on the couch together as much as possible during December (no we did not actually do every night, or even close to it, but still!) talking about Jesus and what it really meant for Him to come here and be with us.  I have never really thought so much about His incarnation on this level before.  He came so that he could be subject to our very imperfect world, taking on an imperfect human form, and show us how we can survive here, as well as to make a way for us to find a way that is greater, higher, and filled with the deepest love than we could ever imagine.   Beyond all of the crazy ways our now modern Christmas traditions came about, there is still the simple core of his love, that brings life in the most unimaginable ways.

Another thing we did with our community group was to have a traditional advent reading, with our families around the Jesse tree.  This was special too.  Being together, being quiet and singing together was good.  Special thanks to Anthony for bringing us live music.

Halloween 2011

Halloween came and went really fast this year.  The best part was carving pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids had a great day.  And got to spend the night in the RV which made it even more fun.

Miss Lady bug and Mr. Stormtrooper

Grandpa and Grandma visit

It snowed before Halloween this year, love this picture.

Grandpa and Grandma Lloyd came to visit us this November and we had a lovely visit.  We had lots of hanging out, and made a visit to the pumpkin patch and a visit to the Air Force.  

air force chapel