More Holiday fun

Our Christmas holiday continued throughout the week as we were able to catch up with some of Philip's family! His mom and dad come up to Roxboro to spend a long weekend with us. We had a wonderful time with them. This is the first time in a LONG time that they have come and Philip hasn't put Bob to work at some project over at the church. Although, he wasn't working at the church, we didn't let any grass grow under his feet. Bob came to Roxboro prepared to help Peter build a tool bench.

Peter's new tool bench is a perfect place for him to store his new tools.

Ryan and PaPa built this great wooden box.  We are still discussing what will become of this box -  perhaps a bird feeder, perhaps a flower box or of course a place to put dog food!

The boys got to have lots of hands on experience with hammering, screwing, and measuring.

Nathan did a lot of watching but his plastic tool weren't too far from the work site.

Philip worked hard as well putting together this awesome tool organizer and fixing his kayak!
When we weren't building things or working on projects, there were multiple card games, Settler's of Catan games, yummy dinners to be eaten, cookies to be made and much more to be had! We grabbed a babysitter and went to see "Lincoln".  Philip was even able to take his dad and the kids to see Duke play basketball! It was Bob's first time at Cameron Indoor Stadium! We had a LOT of fun. 

Christmas morning

This has been our third year that we have exchanged names amongst the 6 of us. It has continued to be a blessing in so many ways. This year, I have enjoyed seeing how each of the kids have been very thoughtful as they considered, pondered, shopped and purchased gifts for their person.

Emma and Peter decided on their own to use their allowance to buy extra gifts.  They each bought gifts for everyone in our family.

Peter was a happy camper to receive a skim board, a head lamp and a compass carabiner.

Peter choose a dolphin charm to give to her sister because he knew that she really loved dolphins.

Ryan picked out this horse trailer for Nathan.  He knew that Nathan would enjoy it because he liked it and Nathan likes what he likes!

My mom remembered that I regretted not purchasing this purse on Black Friday.

 Emma painted this picture for Philip!

My dad scored himself a new NC State shirt!

After opening gifts and eating monkey bread, we headed to Roxboro nursing center tospread some Christmas love with those there. We were joined with friends back at home for a wonderful lunch and time together. It was a fun day to spend together with family and friends remembering that God was born in the flesh for our salvation.

Christmas Eve

There was a break in the rain on Christmas Eve and I sent the kids outdoors for some much needed fresh air and activity!

My heart was warmed when I joined my babies and they were happily playing together
and helping each other.

Germany

I found myself in Germany last week for an amazing and surreal 48 hours. I hitched a ride with a new friend who is a seasoned flight attendant with Delta. She flies weekly to a variety of European countries. With Philip's blessing (and a bit of a push), I hit the airways with her to Stutgart, Germany. It was such a privilege to experience another country and another way of life.

Stutgart is well known for its Christmas market. It's an open air market filled with craftsmen of all trades. Our hotel was walking distance from the center of town. There were so many beautiful things to admire- Christmas ornaments- hand blown and painted, wood working, silversmith, smokers, candies, breads...

The following day we took a train to Esslingen. This city had its own Christmas market but it was held in the midst of a medieval aged village. 

This was a walled village surrounded by vineyards and beautiful homes.  We ate lots of yummy food and drank several cappuccinos in effort to keep warm.  It was a wonderful time!

Spoken word

Peter had the chance to participate in the worship service with his good friend Aivry last week. Our Associate Minister wrote the poem that Peter recited to go along with our Advent theme! They both did a great job.

DC in a Day part 2

We made arrangements to have a tour of the Capital Building. Our tour guide was great and the tour was fascinating.

We spent some time on the lawn enjoying the view, watching the construction for the inauguration, and discussing if it is worth it to cut down a 73 year old tree for our enjoyment for 4 short weeks.

We drove to the opposite side of the lawn and spent some time at the Lincoln Monument. The Lord sent us an angel discussed who gave us some unsolicited advice on where to park to escape the 4pm deadline that we kept finding!

Aw we were making our way to the White House we realized that we had come to DC on the eve of the annual National Christmas tree lighting. It was a free event for the public but you had a ticket, so we continued on our way to view the White House. After a much needed dinner at the first place we found, we were just a short block from the White House! What a great site to see even at nightfall. Upon our walk back to the car, we walked passed the lighting of the Christmas tree just as we hear President Barrack Obama counting down...."5, 4, 3, 2, 1...". Again, amazing timing- We saw the lighting of the tree from the side walk and heard the President speak live and in person. What an awesome way to end a beautiful day in DC.

DC in a day

The hardest part of touring DC in a day is deciding on what you don't want to see. After doing some research and realizing that it would cost us $100 to all ride into town on the Metro and talking with a friend that's familiar with driving into DC, we decided to take the plunge and drive right in. With great luck, we landed parking places in the best spots for all our stops. We started our day at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.

We were all pretty excited about the awesome parking spot we got and maybe just a little excited to be in DC!

Even though we narrowed down the Smithosonian options to the Natural History museum, we still had to choose which exhibits we wanted to visit.  We chose the Ancient Egyptian Mummies and the Gem and Mineral exhibit.  After learning so much about Ancient Egypt it was truly awesome to see the actual artifacts in person!  I must say, I didn't realize how many animals they mummified!

Philip happened to hear on NPR that we would be in DC on the same day as the unveiling of the world's largest Aquamarine gemstone.  It's 14 inches tall and amazing.  We headed over to see the unveiling live and then meandered through the gems and mineral exhibit.  I could have stayed here for hours.  The Hope Diamond wasn't the only beautiful diamond they had in this exhibit.

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Since we drove into DC, we were able to picnic on the grounds of the Smithsonian!  There's nothing like a PBJ sandwich.

Maryland trip

We had the chance to take the family to Annapolis, MD t participate this week. It was with a sad heart that we came to participate in a memorial service of a dear friend. While in the area, we took advantage of the great sites to see in the area. Philip and I had been to Annapolis about 5 years ago so we knew the kids would love the Naval Academy museum.

With only 200 original replicas left from the 1600-1700s, 50 are housed at this museum. It's an amazing collection of ship models and it's free!

Each vessel has an amazing amount of detail both inside the ship and outside. They are the exact replica of the full size ship that were constructed at the same time the ship was built.

Historic Annapolis is a beautiful place anytime of year but it was especially beautiful on this gorgeous day in December. We enjoyed walking through the streets of downtown Annapolis and touring the Capital building where George Washington gave his resignation speech.

Thanksgiving recap

The time spent with my parents and sister at Thanksgiving could hardly have been any better. The weather was perfect; the company superb and the food delicisious. We started our time together at the coast. A friend brought a couple of skim boards to the beach. Peter couldn't resist trying them out even though he was wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt. He was a little wet by the time we left.

The kids spent the majority of their time outdoors exploring the woods and building forts, playing basketball and taking Maggie for lots of walks.

Philip was brave enough to take 6 kids out on the water with 1 canoe and 2 kayacks. I think this might have been the highlight of the trip for everyone. They boated their way from my parents house through the intracoastal waterway and docked. They tried to walk nonchalantly until they reached the main road to the ocean. They made it back to my parents only slightly past nightfall.

We even took time to take a group picture! You'll have to make sure you're on my parents Christmas card list to receive the real deal shot!

We all found a lot to be thankful for this week. I truly understand the blessings that God has graciously given to my family.

Practically our backyard....

After spending our Friday morning raking leaves, we decided to head to the community college's hiking trails. Philip would be away for the weekend with the youth so we only had a little while to explore the trails. It had been over a year since we have been there. It wasn't long before the kids found their way to this creek.

It's times like this when I enjoy sitting on the side lines and just watching the kids. I enjoy watching them enjoy nature and explore their environment.

I enjoy watching how they somehow end up doing the same thing without ever talking it out.  This day they were trying to clear the leaves and sticks so the water could run freely.  Except for Nathan, he was throwing leaves and sticks into the water. 

I enjoy how being in the wide open often decreases the amount of disagreements and arguments.  I enjoy watching them work together and help each other without being prompted to.

I enjoy taking pictures that will hopefully help capture memories so that when they are older they will remember the fun things we did together.  I hope they will remember that we worked together as a family and we played together.

Yates Mill Park

We hit the road Thursday to Raleigh's Historic Yates Mill Park.  The park was planning a program titled "Pilgrims at Play".   A group of us from Roxboro decided to try out the park and the program.  It was fun to take this trip with friends.  The program itself was nothing to write home about.  The leader did an excellent job; it was just nothing that we couldn't have done ourselves.  However, the park was beautiful.  Unfortunately it was rainy and cold  so we were unable to explore the trails and the historic Mill.  The indoor exhibit was well done and the children enjoyed themselves.

Everybody's working on the scavenger hunt.

There were lots of things to touch, turn and explore.

The kids were stamping with rubber fish. 

The leaves were beautiful even with the gray skies.

Just a few of the friends we spent the morning with.

Boy and their silly faces!