Once again a quiet house with a lot of dirty laundry and a LOT of wonderful memories are the remains of a family Christmas. This was certainly our biggest since moving here to State College. I guess everyone is realizing this isn't Timbuktu after all!!
On Friday evening Sam, Jenn, and Sammy, along with Destiny, were the first to arrive. On Saturday morning Sammy was the first to come to my kitchen looking for breakfast.
I was planning to do pancakes and sausages for breakfast, but they were in the mood for eggs. So Destiny got her dippy eggs, Sam his egg sandwich, and when Anthony and Austin came, Anthony ordered over easy eggs with sausage. I felt like a line cook! Austin's order was easy - a Weight Watchers popsicle!
It was snowing lightly and blowing ferociously outside, but Destiny
wanted to go outside. I had bought her some enormous snow pants two
years ago that she had never gotten to use, and now they fit her
perfectly! I discovered she came without a winter coat, so she put mine
on, and she was good to go. (Frank gave her a new one for Christmas the next day.)
Sam could hardly wait to dress Sammy up in his snowpants!
The wind was too strong, and he soon brought Sammy back inside. But Sam and Destiny played outside for quite a while. I just love how Sam is such a kid at heart.
Later in the afternoon Jeremy, his friend Mike, and his dog Molly arrived from DC. We had his favorite meal of Middle Eastern curried stew with Naan bread. Even Sam liked it, which says a lot, haha!
Destiny was delighted to have Mike and Jeremy to play Clue with her...
....while the other guys looked on....
......and Molly just tried to stay warm!
Here's a picture of us after church on Sunday. Dick's shirt and tie were Jeremy's gift to Dick, and I decided to dress to match him!
Ray and Thyda and their dog Leo arrived just in time for our Sunday lunch of vegetarian lasagna, meatballs, garlic bread, and Caesar salad. We were expecting Frank and Lauren to arrive for lunch too, so some ate in the kitchen. They love how I always snap pictures while they are either talking or stuffing food in their mouths.
Frank, Lauren, and Jada arrived around 2:30, and of course Jada was the main attraction since most of the family had never seen her in person before.
Jada and Leo even got acquainted!
In the evening the young adults went out to eat while Dick and I babysat the children and dogs. It made my heart happy to think of them all having a chance to enjoy being together.
Destiny was a huge help with the babysitting, especially with the dogs. We probably couldn't have done it without her. She endured a few episodes of Thomas the Train for Austin's sake!
Dick treated Sammy to a slide show on the computer, then sat on the recliner with him till he fell asleep.
Jada sat in her little seat and watched Thomas and then the beginning of The Sound of Music. When she got fussy I took her out to the dark kitchen and carried her around as I sang to her. When I sang, "The babies on the bus go 'Waah, waah, waah,' " she giggled!! Eventually she fell asleep.
Then it was Austin's turn. He had a lot of trouble tuning out Molly's occasional barking episodes. So once Sammy and Jada were both asleep, Destiny held Molly, Dick sat by Leo, and I was able to go back to our bedroom with Austin. He had just dropped off to sleep when the "middle generation" got back home! I think we passed the babysitting test!
Frank and Lauren were planning to drive back home to Pottsville since he had to work on Monday, but it was so late we decided to blow up our queen size air mattress, push the dining room table to the side, and have them sleep right there in the dining room. Ray and Thyda had the sofa and love seat; Sam, Jenn, and Sammy had our guest room; Jeremy and Mike went to Anthony and Lori's house; and Destiny always sleeps on a cot at the foot of our bed when we have a houseful. I think I counted eleven people and a dog here Sunday night. And five people and a dog at Anthony and Lori's! We're getting pretty good at packin' em' in!!
It was so precious to watch Jada wake up in the morning. She's like a little bug in a rug.
And it was very sad that they needed to leave. We were having our annual fondue meal that day, and it's always been one of Frank's favorite traditions, especially if Ray was there and they could compete with how much food they could put away! I took Jada back to our room to say goodbye to Destiny. What a sweet way to wake up! Beautiful sisters.
All bundled up for the trip.
Sammy says, "Don't leave, Jada!"
Ray slept through it all, thanks to these cool eye covers
I gave the children their gifts, but somehow, Sammy is the only one I got pictures of. For him I got these stacking wooden blocks with shapes, numbers, etc.
Destiny wanted the game Mancala, which she and Sam played for a while. I love that she loves to play board games, etc. I will also be making some doll dresses for her this week hopefully. For Jada I got a hard book that plays music with every page turn. And for Austin I got these straws and connectors for him and Anthony to get creative with.
We decided this year to do our fondue at Houserville House of Hope since there were so many of us. We needed to have room for the little boys to run, and it was easier to do it without dogs around. The cafe area of the church was just perfect.
Each year we try some new things. This year we added tilapia. And soft pretzels. I think they were the biggest hit! Deep fried soft pretzels dipped in mustard. Yummmm!! I invited our guitar player Kael to join us. He's in the foreground of the picture on the left.
After the peanut oil fondue was finished we also had cheese fondue to dip chips, pretzels, bread, etc into. And then, of course, chocolate to dip strawberries, raspberries, and peanut butter crackers into. So much deliciousness and so much fun!!! Thanks to Miki for getting this tradition started probably twenty-five years ago. I do hope and pray she and her family can once again join us from Sweden some Christmas.
After we got everything cleaned up, aired out, and deodorized (there would be a Christmas Eve service there in a few hours, and we didn't want people to think they were walking into a restaurant!) we went to Lori and Anthony's house nearby. Sam, Jenn, and Sammy had already left for her folks in the Harrisburg area.
We had a very important appointment to keep - Face Timing with George, Lisa, and Sophie! Anthony, our techie pro, had it set up so that they showed up on his TV screen. It felt like we were all sitting in one living room together! Sophie opened her gift from me as we watched - the doll dresses. She even put them on her American Girl dolls so I could get to see them on a doll! We had so much fun together. I love technology!
That's the end of my pictures, but not the end of our Christmas. That evening at 9 pm we had our Christmas Eve service at Houserville. Because our lay leader Ralph was sick and unable to be there, Pastor Renee recruited Ray and Jeremy to do some of the scripture readings. We had a number of specials - Breath of Heaven sung by Pastor Renee, my alto vocalist Marybeth, and myself in three-part harmony; The Mystery sung by Destiny and two of my teen singers, Ashley and Sarah; Pastor Renee played Ave Maria on her trumpet as I accompanied; Renee and my flute player Amy played a duet version of Angels We Have Heard on High as I accompanied; Marybeth sang a cool version of What Child Is This as her son Steve accompanied her on guitar. As a congregation we did O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Paul Baloche's Christmas Offering, and of course, Silent Night as we did the candle lighting. But my absolute favorite musical selection of all was Jeremy's rendition of Joseph's Song as I accompanied. Oh my word. If anything, his voice is better the older he gets. And he didn't even learn the song till a few hours before the service!! (He specializes in giving me fits over things like that, but I should know by now that he always pulls it off with great success.)
After the service we went back to Anthony and Lori's house for ice cream cake in celebration of Mike's birthday. As we sat downstairs in the family room and had cake, our conversation somehow got onto things of a geographical nature, and Anthony pulled up Google Maps on his TV screen. We had a WONDERFUL time visiting all the places in the world that Jeremy, Ray, and Thyda have been. We even saw the Ashley Furniture store that Jeremy designed in Amman, Jordan! Ray showed us exactly where his ship was when they took down the Somali pirates. It was truly educational and fun!
On Christmas morning I did not wake up until 8:30! I didn't even know I could sleep that late. But there was no Sammy alarm clock in the house. )-: Our special activity of the day was a trip to the movies. We went three ways. Lori took Austin and Destiny to the new 3D version of Monsters, INC. Dick, Mike, Anthony, and Ray went to see the Hobbit in 3D. Jeremy, Thyda, and I went to see Les Miserables. This blog is already too long for me to go into all I want to say about Les Mis. It is POWERFUL!!!! Not only the acting and the music, which were supurb, but the message of redemption. I can hardly stop thinking about it, and certainly not without tears. And it was especially wonderful to watch it between two people who were sniffling and trying to hold in their sobs just as I was.
Everyone eventually left for home after that, except Destiny who will be here till New Years. We spent time with a jigsaw puzzle Ray and Thyda gave her. I also set up my Barnes and Noble account for my Nook which they gave me. My first purchase? Come to the Table by Neta Jackson, the latest in her Souled Out Sisters series. I am so happy to finally have a Nook!! It's so easy to hold, I can make the text so wonderfully large, and the book was cheaper than buying the real thing. Yes, I love technology!
I was nursing a sore throat all last evening too - lots of tea, Zicam rapid melts, and Halls Defense lonzenges. I think I chased those germs away, because my throat does not hurt this morning, thank you, Jesus!
Like everybody else I have a long list of things to accomplish this week, but I will sit here and update this blog before I do another thing. It does seem that unless I have pictures of events with our family, I tend to forget about blogging anymore!
I do have several cute pictures of Austin. He was here a couple of times in the past week.
Building a tower with Grandpa.
Eating crackers and hummus while watching Thomas the Train with Grandma. (Those are stickers on my arm, not bruises!)
In addition to all the regular work at the office and music preparations and practices, I've been doing something else that's not in my normal routine. I decided to make some dresses for Sophie's American Girl dolls out of clothes I no longer wear. After the first one I almost gave up. But then I discovered that I had a simpler pattern to use, and I made two more. Today they started their journey to Florida. I'm hoping that I can make some more for Destiny over the Christmas break. Here's a before and after collage I made! I must say I think it's pretty much fun.
Yesterday afternoon the Fillmore choir presented our cantata, All Is Well. That little church was packed out, standing room only. It went really well.
And of course, this was the week of the unthinkable tragedy in Connecticut. I have shed so many tears, as I'm sure you have too. My heart cries with those teachers and parents who have lost so much, for the surviving children who need to bear lost innocence and such deep sorrow. But my heart also cries for a much better way to help children who suffer from mental illness. You may remember, if you've been a reader of my blog for long enough, that after the Virginia Tech massacre, I shared my story about our family's brush with a mentally ill child named Henry.
Here's the story if you have time to read it. You will probably need some tissues.
HENRY
In the spring of 1984 our three biological children ranged in
age from four to ten, and our foster daughter Miki was a
seventeen-year-old junior in high school. Our foster agency called to
ask if we could do respite care for one weekend for an eleven-year-old
boy named Henry. He had just spent several days with a potential foster
family, but they wanted to have a weekend without him to make their
decision before he moved in. Having a boy in the house that was just a
year older than Lisa was not something we would have wanted long term,
but we certainly could keep him for the weekend.
Henry came and we had a good weekend with him. All weekend he talked
excitedly about the farm he would be moving to. Monday morning arrived
and so did his caseworker - with bad news. The family had decided they
could not take him. I will never forget sitting there watching his
reaction. My heart just ached for him and my immediate reaction was that
surely we could somehow give him a place in our family. However, we
told the caseworker our reservations about having a boy that age in our
home, which the agency understood, and we agreed to keep him while they
looked for another placement for him. Our children were glad he would
be staying longer.
Henry stayed five weeks. Another family was found who would take him,
but their school district would not, and in the end another agency
found a placement for him. Before long we heard that he had been taken
to a juvenile psychiatric facility. We were told that Henry had been
diagnosed with a mental illness. We were not surprised; in fact, we felt
somewhat relieved.
In trying to describe the five weeks of living with Henry I will need
to sound like I am describing two different people. The one Henry was
extremely kind and loving, with a great tenderness for the things of
God. The only music he wanted to listen to was a tape of The Witmer
Trio. He listened to it in his room over and over again, he went to
sleep with it on every night, and he knew every word by heart. We gave
him blank tapes to entertain himself, and he would record himself
praying.
The other Henry would "snap" at the slightest provocation and obsess
over any little thing. When the marker he was using bled through and
messed up another picture he had done, he suddenly went on a rampage
that could not be stopped until he had thrown everything that belonged
to him outside on the lawn in the pouring rain.
At one point he decided that he absolutely had to have a "George"
card (you have to be old enough to know what that was!) from our local
bank. One day he would not stop riding his bike through the drive-up
window of the bank until they would give him a George card. The police
needed to be called.
Another day he found Anthony's toy hunting rifle and began acting as
though he were shooting everybody in all the pictures on our family
photo wall. He said, "Maybe someday I'll come and do that to all of
you." Meanwhile, four-year-old Jeremy looked on in fear. As I tried to
persuade him to give the toy rifle to me he slapped me.
If the sweet Henry had been present more often than the
unpredictable, unreasonable Henry, we probably would have decided that
he should stay with us rather than experience one more rejection and
one more move. But sweet Henry made increasingly rare appearances.
Because his placement was in limbo, Henry was not in school those five
weeks, but rather at home with Jeremy and me every day all day long. I
was slowly but surely burning out from the emotional toll he took on
me. Our children were becoming afraid of him and started to feel that
we cared more about his special needs than we did theirs. Our family
could not continue like that long term.
The call came on a Friday afternoon that another agency had found a
placement for him and that they would come yet that afternoon to pick
him up. I could not believe it. Yes, we could not continue life with him
in our home, but no, we could not just have him snatched away that
quickly with no chance for our children to say goodbye to him. We had
plans that weekend that he was really looking forward to. I convinced
them to let him stay until Monday.
That weekend sweet Henry returned for the entire weekend. He did not
want to leave. He even said, "They're probably not even a Christian
family, and who knows what kind of music they listen to and they
probably watch bad things on TV all the time." My heart was in torture
all weekend long. How could we be turning him out like this? But how
could our family survive with him in it? The goodbyes on Monday morning
were very tearful ones. After he left I laid across my bed and wept
with deep sorrow for him and for us.
A few weeks later was his twelfth birthday. Through the agency we
were given an invitation to his birthday party. He was being permitted
to go home to his biological mother's house for his birthday, and the
party would be there. We went to the party that Sunday afternoon. We
and a neighbor lady were the only ones at the party. Henry was as sweet
as he had ever been, telling us over and over how he missed us and how
he disliked his new family. Even his mother said that he was so much
happier with us and wondered why he couldn't have stayed. I was wracked
with guilt by the time we left. Even our children were starting to feel
like we should let him come back. Anthony said, "Henry WAS really nice
sometimes."
A few months later we heard that he had been admitted to a juvenile
psychiatric hospital and that even before he had been in our home, his
diagnosis was such that there were questions as to whether it was safe
to place him with a family. Looking back now I cannot help but wonder
why he was not on any medication, but I'm sure there was much less
understanding of the brain in 1984 than there is now. It took a long
time for me to be able to come to terms with our apparent failure to be
what Henry needed. In my annual letter that Christmas I wrote, "If even
Christian families cannot meet their needs, what is to become of all
the Henrys in this world?"
Life went on and we lost track of Henry. Four years later I read in
the paper that Henry (age 16) was was accused of murdering a
nine-year-old boy. Henry had gone to the library and told the boy that
he was a friend of the boy's mother and was supposed to take him home.
Later, in an alley near the library, the nine-year-old's dead body was
found. For some reason I felt like I had to go see Henry and sing to
him the songs from that tape he had loved so much. I called a woman who
worked with a prison ministry in that town to find out if there was
any way I could get to visit him, but he wasn't in the local prison at
that time. She said he probably would be there in a few months when
they held the trial.
But a few months later I read in the newspaper that Henry had
admitted he murdered the boy and that there would be no trial. He would
be committed to a State prison for life without the possibility of
parole. And that is the last thing I ever heard about Henry. When I
googled his name this week there was nothing - like he never existed.
In a prison somewhere there is probably a man named Henry who will
soon turn forty. I don't feel guilty anymore. I know we were not at
all equipped to meet his needs. But my heart still aches for him and for all the Henrys who so desperately need the right kind of understanding and help.
This was pretty much a regular week, filled with plenty of work at the church office, working on music for Christmas at Houserville, piano lessons, Fillmore's cantata practice, etc. Oh, and getting our tree decorated, as well as a few things around the house. Here are some pics I took.
I got rid of a lot of Christmas stuff in the process of downsizing, so our tree and other things are pretty simple. But it's enough to make me happy.
Last week Destiny called to tell me her glasses got broken. She really needs glasses to see the board at school, and her mom's schedule is extreme this year as she is going to Empire Beauty School in addition to working full time. So I made an appointment at the place I've always taken her near the Park City mall in Lancaster. I tried for an appointment for this morning (Saturday), but none were available, so I took the Friday at 5:30 that they had available.
So I left here around noon yesterday, getting to her house in Reading right when she should have been getting home from school. I didn't realize she was staying for the after-school homework program until 4:00, so we left Reading later than I had hoped. Just as I suspected, the traffic for MILES before we got to the mall was backed up, due to rush hour and Christmas shopping. I was thinking how I do not miss all that traffic since we've moved away from there. We did get to the appointment on time, she picked out her glasses, they were able to get them made in a little over an hour, which gave us time to go to the food court of the mall for our favorite thing - Chinese food. We went back to get her glasses, which she LOVED, and headed back to Reading. Her mom wanted her back home overnight. We had a lot of fun together, even though it was so short. And I didn't take one picture of her!! Rats!!
Really, I was praising the Lord for the way everything turned out. I was afraid we would end up having heavy rain and fog, I was afraid they would not be able to have her glasses made on the same day, I wasn't even sure where I was going to sleep. But neither the rain nor the fog were bad at all, and Sam and Jenn were very happy to offer me their comfortable sofa for the night. I got to their place around 8:45 and Sammy was already sleeping, so I told them to go out on a date and I would babysit. So everything ended up just great.
Here are some cute pictures I took this morning before I headed back home to State College.
He has this "sword" that needs several batteries, but the cover is missing, so they easily fall out. He sat there and worked and worked and worked at trying to get those batteries back in again. I thought it was amazing determination and manual dexterity for a fourteen-month-old!
I got back home around 2:00 this afternoon. I got much-needed groceries and did some other shopping.
Dick tried his luck at deer hunting again this afternoon, but once again they all avoided him. So I guess no venison for us this year, since this was the last day of the season.
Lots of great pictures ahead again!
On Saturday, as soon as Dick got home from work at noon, we headed to Pottsville to finally spend some time with Frank, Lauren, and Jada. Pottsville is in the HILLS, coal country hills. And there's just no easy way to get there from here without lots of hilly, curvy roads. We arrived around 3:15, stayed for about three hours, including dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, and got back home at 9:30 pm.
Jada is every bit as beautiful and precious as the pictures we've seen, and she's just amazingly content. Here are some pictures from our visit.
Today after church we headed right to the Christmas tree farm with Anthony and Lori. We knew there was rain in the forecast, and we wanted to beat it. We were successful. Here are some pics from our excursion.
That's Anthony back there, acting like the tree's falling on top of him!
Austin endured a lot of this very patiently as we tried to get just the right shot!
Hello December! Can you believe we're nearly through the year 2012?
On Monday I took Destiny home to Reading. It was a beautiful day for driving. When I got home around 7 pm I was home alone. All the people and clutter and craziness and fun of Thanksgiving weekend were over, Dick was at the hunting cabin, and this place was QUIET! I had catching up to do in so many ways - church music for December, our personal bookkeeping and bill paying, laundry - lots of laundry, I was a whole day behind at work because of taking Monday off..... And I just didn't feel like doing any of it. It's just more fun to have fun!
On Tuesday morning we had our first snow of the season - the beautiful kind of snow that sticks to the trees and the grass but not the roads.
It was actually gone by early afternoon. However, in Juniata County, where Dick was deer hunting, there was more snow, and Dick took this beautiful, silent video from his hunting post.
I worked a long day at the church office that day to catch up there. Dick returned home that afternoon - without a deer, unfortunately.
On Wednesday I had a physical therapy appointment as well as an appointment with my surgeon. I have slacked dreadfully this past month in doing my exercises and have seen very little improvement. I still have a lot of pain with certain movements. I was feeling overwhelmed by the exercises I'm to do, because for all of them I am supposed to do three sets of 8 to 10 reps with a minute of waiting in between. I have felt like, ok, what am I to do with all those wasted minutes late at night when I really want to go to bed? She showed me which exercises work different muscle groups and could be done interchangeably so I will get through the routine without all those wasted minutes. I think I'll be more motivated to do them now. The surgeon made it clear that I will NOT see any further improvement if I don't do the exercises. I left feeling pretty much scolded, and rightfully so.
Last evening as I was making BLT's for our dinner and thinking of calling Lori to see if they'd like to come over, my phone rang. It was Lori saying that she and Austin were heading to Cracker Barrel and would I like to join them? Dick was happy to just stay home and eat BLT's, so I went. I needed some Lori and Austin catching-up time. It's crazy how we live near each other and still don't have time to be together very often.
All through the meal Austin was begging to play checkers by the fire. So finally, when we were finished eating, he and I "played checkers." Actually, we were building towers and bridges and stone walls with our checkers pieces, but we had such a good time.
Here's a picture from last Sunday when Lori and Anthony stopped in right before Sam and Jenn left. While here Austin had to go to the bathroom and didn't aim quite right. So his nice pants and socks got wet. We changed him into pajama bottoms and I gave him a pair of my socks. He was very pleased with his new look, hahahaha!
