Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Christmas for our family began the day school let out of course.... well rather the day before with Anthony and Jayna's Christmas play at school.  It was quite the ordeal each year and surpasses expectations especially when you realize Jayna and Anthony attend a rather small Christian school for prek-12 with only 8 (I think PreK has an aide, but if not then it's only 7) full time teachers and two part time staff to help with the highschool and secretarial needs.  The good news is none of my kids broke a bone this year (Anthony broke his arm the year before that day at school... and his awesome mom still had him do the play.)  The bad news was on Wed, day before the play Jayna managed to nearly completely loose her voice and she was a very main character with lots of lines  so 1.  there was NO day before practice for her and 2. her wonderful mother over dosed her on hot lemon tea with honey, which she far from enjoyed. 3. was devastated she wasn't allowed to even try and talk, and Jayna is a talker!
 Grandma Joy rubbed her with frankincense at bad time and miraculously she was a squeaky mouse which was certainly an improvement by morning and she had a voice by the time school was over. Aunt Rebekah came all the way from Baltimore Thursday to see Jayna's play!  Plus we had Nana Jan with cousins Kierra and Cale, Grandma Pam, Grandma and Poppy of course, and friends Tanya, Andrea, Adrianna and Alayna in addition to Myself, Angela and Jayla of course.

no broken arm this year= smiling boy

The main characters at the end of the play

 My oldest brother Zach and his wife Rebekah kept Jayna and Anthony from Friday until Tuesday.  Sadly Ang had to back out of going at the last minute, after her Uncle died as the funeral was that weekend.

most of Ang's family

sisters for always regardless of the situation, the love shines brightly <3

Our next Christmas celebration was far beyond belief.  Jayla was chosen to be the sponsored angel child at the local church we do VBS with.  They went way above the bar spoiling her, so much in fact that most was saved for her birthday, because I keep equal gifts at the house for each child and I had already bought each child equal gifts.  But at church she did get to open a few of her gifts and was more than happy with her Frozen goodness!  I am still speechless on how loving, accepting and hands on this church has been with me, my kids, and however many neighborhood kids I bring each year.  It isn't even about earning vbs prizes, it is showing many children a type love they otherwise wouldn't see.  Thank you so much our COG friends!  You have immensely blessed a lucky 5 year old this year and I have loved seeing such a happy little girl be so blessed by such a loving church. (although this yr they did incorporate prizes for the first time at vbs.  I actually prefer prizeless vbs celebrations to avoid hurt feelings).  We got to watch their wonderful, sweet Christmas play about the commercialized meaning of Christmas vs the real meaning of Christmas and then we all shared a delicious meal together.

Jayla sat on my lap during the play

 Every year we sponsor at least one family for angel tree whether at the mall or specifically picking a child or family we know and Jayna and Anthony were bummed we hadn't done it this year, but with 4 children in our house and Marko and I going from a family of 4 to fully supporting a family of 8, I didn't feel we could do more than a donation to the food bank, some red kettle donations.  Luckily Uncle Zach and Aunt Rebekah took Anthony and Jayna with them to pick out their angel tree donations!  perfect!
 When they got back Tuesday, we had our little Christmas that Tuesday; dinner at the Olive Garden and gifts at home.

After telling Uncle Zach and Aunt Rebekah goodbye, we went home to open a very special delivery!  That's right Aunt Missy, Uncle Justin and the boys gifts to us had safely arrived from Pennsylvania.  My sister fully understands the importance of having my four kids being included and of course all four kids along with Marko and I had gifts and we had a family gift too!

Our family gift was PERFECT!  More art supplies so our family time together will continue!

When you have a family, the size of ours Christmas suddenly becomes big.  Then add in That two of the kidlets also have bio family to visit and now it is huge.  Surprisingly my employer gave me Christmas Eve off.  We started our rounds by taking Angela to deliver gifts to her sister, brother, Nannie and Poppa.  We had confirmed with Nannie and Poppa that this was ok and the timing was fine.  It isn't that picture perfect vision you may have in your head, but I tried to include all of her family into her Christmas.  Sadly this was a short but sweet very awkward start, but just the same she learned the joy of giving even if you don't receive.  No pictures for various reasons including I don't post others photos without permission and it was very short and sweet and over so not much of a photo op.  When we went home it was time to bake Baby Jesus' birthday cake and to do our Gingerbread Village Elbert the Elf had given us.

Elbert the Elf 2015

So I talked with Jayla's parents to see if they planned on doing Santa, because if they did and they had any hope of her believing it, we would need to do the same for the older three and clue them in to play along sense they are typically outspoken and quick to set you straight on story tales.
They decided they did want to do the Santa thing.  So I decided then we needed to do Elbert the Elf too! (our version of elf on the shelf ;-) )  Two years ago Elbert joined our family as we did Kindness Elf-- charitable giving mixed with kind deeds on a level the kids could understand.
Kindness Elf Part 1
Kindness Elf Part 2
Kindness Elf Part 3
Aunt Chris and Uncle King had given the kids some Christmas money so I used that at Michael's to but supplies for each kid to have a craft for 26 days and 2 family crafts.  I had to hide so Jayla wouldn't see it so it could be a surprise our magic friend Elbert would bring us each day.

 Elbert even knew when our friends were coming so Alonza, Tabi, Mateo, Payden and Tivon also got to join in on our Elbert the Elf Family Time.
Family time was what I thought to be the most valuable to teach my four kids this year.  We are a newly formed family and I want them to know that they aren't just here to have a roof over their heads but because they are loved and I want to be an active participant in their life, not just a financial provider.  Jayla joined us after spending 3 months with only a little time with her bio parents so this gave her time to bond more with her new siblings of sort and an activity to do with her parents when they weren't working or dealing with adult issues.
So on Nov 30th Elbert the elf appeared along with our Christmas coutdown.

Elbert the Elf appeared on day 1 with ornaments to make, one penguin ornament already done and a box for each kid to put their ornaments in after Christmas.

You can see our Christmas coundown.  we added a cotton ball each day to either the angel, tree, stocking or Santa's beard-- each kid had their own

We managed to do a craft every single day except one day we didn't have the time so we did it the following day.  When any of the kids were at a sleepover or activity away from home we saved their craft for them in their ornament box.

I decided we would turn each small craft into a Christmas ornament.  These precious babes of mine, especially our 2 newest won't be here forever, but this will give them a jump start on their own tree one day.  So after each craft was done (and dried) i would super glue/tacky wood glue a christmas hook onto them so they had over 30 ornaments by the end of our days with Elbert.

Their initial ornaments

Elbert brought extra crafts to do with our buddy Alonza

 Elbert was a star visitor for our mini party for Tabi's birthday too.

a special birthday dinner playdate with Alayna, Andrea and Adrianna for Tabi's bday at our house

 The following day Tabi's mom treated her to a special birthday dinner while her brothers joined us for some Elbert the Elf fun!

Dec 25 4:45am, Dec 26 4:45am

On Dec 26th after work, I  took the tree down, separated the kids ornaments, put them in their boxes and then into a Rubbermaid tote for safe dry storage.  After all with a tree overflowing with ornaments and now two curious cats with free access combined with the fact our family grew hugely, that space was needed for more important things---- 

sorting

boxed all up

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

One of the activities we planned about a month ahead of time was a trip to the Richmond, VA area to attend a live nativity.  Mom has a facebook friend who told her about their church's nativity so it was not only a fun family event, and the only cost was gas to get there, it also allowed mom to finally meet this friend face to face.
The only downside is that we are a blended family so although the timing worked well for my work schedule, it was a Saturday and Angela was having a visit with her mom and sister so she couldn't come too.  That was a bummer, but she had a good visit too.
After a morning of fun at the Lynchburg Community Market doing the Christmas activities we met up at mom and dad's around 1:30.

Downtown Lynchburg's Mistle Toe Market, complete with Jayla loosing her first tooth from the apple I bought her there from a Vendor!

Then we all headed to Richmond.  We got to the Nativity about 3:30.  There was already quite the line even though it hadn't even begun yet.  Nearing 5 it was our groups turn for this amazing walk thru Nativity.
Our journey with our tour guide, Matthew who warned us of the Romans and what to expect.  It began with us traveling to Bethlehem for the census and having to pay our shekel tax.  Mom (and others with walking difficulties) got to ride in the Chariot (aka golf cart) The Romans weren't very nice,  Roman centaurians were there to ensure there were no issues, like police officers of that time era.   The tax collector was a thief over charging us all by double the amount owed, but there was nothing we could do about it.

Jayla and Jayna playing around while we waited our turn, Our shekels, Our tour guide, The Romans and finally the tax collector

We entered Bethlehem.  There were all sorts of shops and people selling goods, but we couldn't afford any of it, although the tried their best to sell to us.  Some of the shop keepers told us how drastically their jobs had changed recently.  Like the blacksmiths who now make nothing but nails for crucifixions and the furniture makers who make mostly just crosses for the same.

Selling fish, blacksmith, the weaver trying a scarf on Jayna,basket making and spice sellers, the butcher.... Anthony visited family in jail,and he wanted an apple, the town pub where we all danced outside.

The lady at the well, a lady gave us a "prophecy" paper (bible verse) to take with us, the furniture makers building crosses, Grandma Joy in her chariot surrounded by grandkids

Then some of the townspeople told of the prophecies of the coming Messiah.  The video is mom's friend.   The background noise (singing) is the dance the group behind us was doing (we had just done it before visiting the lady at the well).  You can hear our tour guide and Dad saying yes too.


As we were leaving town square a very pregnant couple were hoping for a room in the Inn, but the inn keeper said there was no room so he told them they could stay in the stable.  As we were leaving town a few of the people in our group were taken for labor since we din't have any more money.  They were later released ;-)

Next we went through the fields and met some Shepards who told us they heard baby Jesus had been born.

We heard/saw the Angels singing which led us to the Manger where a newborn baby Jesus had just been born.

The angels, the scene at the Stable with Mary singing to baby Jesus-- silent Night and our 3 kids watching intently

Next we found the wisemen.  We told them we had seen Baby Jesus. They taught us about the gifts they were bringing Baby Jesus, even letting us smell the frankincense and myrrh.  They pointed out the HUGE shining star they were going to follow to see the Baby Messiah.

The wise men and the star

Eight days later we were at the temple where Mary and Jospeh had brought Baby Jesus to be dedicated and to meet Simeon and Anna at the Temple who had been waiting years to see Him.  Anna sang Mary did you know.

At the Temple

Then we went through some of Jesus' years as the greatest teacher, and met his disciples and watched him heal the sick.

We found ourselves at the cross next, where Jesus was crucified.  

Three days later we were with Mary Magdalene at an empty grave.  Jesus had risen from the dead.

Finally we met Nicodemus who told the purpose behind all of this.  The hope we have and the Power of the cross and it saving us from eternal suffering.

At the end of the Bethlehem we all got to enjoy some homemade cookies, hot chocolate or coffee.  There were prayer counselors and cards to fill out w/ prayer requests.  We were there for quite a while.   We waited in line a bit longer than an hour.  The walk itself was just under an hour.  and we were in the building at the end of the walk for quite a while too.  This far surpassed what I was expecting.  It was super interactive and fun for all ages in an over-commercialized Santa filled December we also got to experience the real reason for Christmas.

an almost complete family shot

On the way home we stopped for a family dinner at Wendy's.  Of course Dad was at the kids table ;-)

Via the Bethlehem Walk's facebook page:

Here are the final numbers for Bethlehem Walk 2015. We welcome 158 new believers who gave their life to the Lord. We also had 239 people rededicate their lives to the Lord and living for Him. These are the numbers we celebrate and make all the long hours worth it. Pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ as they start their walk or renew their walk with the Lord.

We also collected 1,447 pounds of can goods as well for the local food banks. Thank you all for your donations.