This year, instead of spending a whole day baking/cooking Christmas goodies all by my lonesome, I had help! Jeremiah had a neighbor, Sevinc, (who's here for a year from Turkey) who was interested in learning to bake. So she came over one Saturday and spent the entire day with me making goodies. Brooklyn pitched in, too, and I mostly just supervised and made sure things were being done right. It was so much fun! And I got a new friend out of the deal as well. 

Kyle and I also took the kids to see the Nutcracker one morning. I found out they do a matinee performance for schools, and they let homeschoolers attend. We had fantastic seats and at a fraction of the cost of the night performances. The kids were enthralled. Even my boys. Dorien still twirls around doing his ballet moves. 

Yeah, it was a little bright outside, but we needed to capture the moment for posterity.

The ballet company also gave tiny Nutcracker ornaments to each child attending.  

On December 19, my sisters and I surprised my mom with a birthday brunch. We provided the food (and the madness of our kids) and enjoyed a few hours together.

Friday, December 20, Kyle and I headed up to Fayetteville to see his family.  We stayed at the Chancellor Hotel, recently renovated, off the Square downtown. A few months before, Kyle had been commissioned by Tobi Fairley (interior designer) to do two art pieces for the suites in the hotel. One for the Chancellor Suite....the piece was of the Chancellor's house.....so we got someone to take us up to those rooms and get a picture of Kyle beside his work! It was pretty cool! And those rooms were really nice. 

The other piece was Old Main for, you guessed it, the Old Main Suite. They looked really amazing in the rooms. Vibrant, edgy...and all done by my talented husband. Go Kyle!

The artist and his work.

And it seems Kyle's artistic abilities have been passed down to our children.

August created these designs all on his own. I love his eye for color.

While in Fayetteville, we spent some time with some of our dearest friends. It had been way too long since we'd seen them. Mia was so grown up! Brooklyn latched on to her right away.

All our kids combined: Brooklyn, an unhappy Wyeth, Mia, August, Gavin, Dorien and Kate. 

There's something sweet about sleeping kids. And in all-white sheets in a hotel, it's even cooler.

Brooklyn and Wyeth all sacked out.

And to continue the bedtime, pj theme, here's Kyle reading "The Night Before Christmas" to our kids on...the night before Christmas.

Reagan monkeys around while Dorien adopts his "cheeser" pose.

I got to rest for the first time in weeks and just enjoy holding my baby.

Wyeth smiles at Nan over Daddy's shoulder.

The kids played lots of Twister, and somehow August always ended up in the craziest contortions...

See?

Nan and Beth had all the kids contribute a handprint (and Noah's footprint) to make some very hilarious reindeer for this banner.

The reindeer versions of Dorien and Reagan.

And if you ever wondered what it looks like to put on the whole armor of God, as referenced in Ephesians 6 - this is what that looks like. 

And the annual "in front of the tree on Christmas Eve" pictures - me and Wyeth!

Dorien - age 2 years, 9 months

August - age 5 years, 5 months.

Brooklyn - age 7 years, 10 months

Rene - home from college - age 22?

Our whole family (minus Rene who is behind the camera!)

Christmas Eve 2013

Wyeth awake at the moment!

Rene and a new sweater and tie!

Stinkin' adorable Dorien in a brand new hat knit by me!

I also knit a hat for Rene...

And August modeled a new cardigan and some cozy sweatpants that he'll continue to grow in. 

Have you ever seen a more beautiful boy?

Mommy doles out the stockings to the crew...

August reaches in deep to make absolutely sure he got everything. 

The funny thing about this is that he pulled out a Reese's cup that he missed from last year!

(we threw it away)

Both Brooklyn and August got new kicks! They have been in major growth spurts lately and got lots of clothes they desperately needed. August also got the shirt he's wearing.

And my mom got Brooklyn the world's most enormous Barbie plane. It's more like a Barbie C-130. Interestingly, Brooklyn named it "Airplane Olivia" and refers to it as such.  Airplane Olivia deserves her own blog post in the future. She is a multi-faceted creature who lives in our attic playroom when Brooklyn isn't playing with her. For a few days, Brooklyn was using the Ghost chairs as her hangar, until I vetoed it. Seeing a huge pink Barbie plane poking out from under the chair was a little alarming. Like Airplane Olivia was spying on me.

And to conclude today's picture montage, here is Dorien giving a big thumbs up to one of his very favorite foods - the humble tomato.

We've had most of our Christmas decorations up since before Thanksgiving. I just couldn't wait! 

But we did wait to get our tree until afterwards, mostly because we knew we'd be out of town a few days and it's bad enough asking my neighbor friends to feed my chickens and my dog and my cat and my fish without also asking them to please water my tree. 

Our tree is now up and decorated, or trimmed, and it was a grand old time. Even Wyeth got close to the fun, as you can see. I'm usually the one wearing Wyeth, but Kyle wanted a turn. The wrap he has on is made by one of my best friends, and it's light and stretchy and very comfy to wear. (Best Baby Wraps if you're on facebook, which I'm not...).

And UPS and FedEx are making frequent stops at our house, since I have done 99% of my shopping online. Getting all the kids out of the house is such a huge hassle that I rarely do. In fact, I did yesterday to make a quick run to the Dollar Tree for gift boxes and realized, as I was checking out, that I'd grabbed the diaper bag that didn't have my wallet in it. By some bizarre chance, I had a checkbook on me (that NEVER happens) and they took checks! Panera, next door, did NOT, crushing the hopes of me and my starving kids. I was much cheered to arrive back home and see three boxes waiting for me! It drives Brooklyn crazy that I won't tell her what's in any of them.

This is not our annual family picture, although I'm thinking it would have made a great one! This is us at the DD&F annual Christmas party. Every year, we're given Bob-Bucks and we bid on items without knowing exactly what we're bidding on. There are some awesome prizes, like a KitchenAid mixer or a huge smoker or ginormous flat screen TV.  There are also little packages of adhesive mustaches. That's what we got.

And that's what we wore with great pride.

Even Wyeth rocked his little 'stach. It was truly one of the more hilarious sights I've seen.

It might actually have tied with Dorien in his Selleck 'Stach. 

We love our Golden Retriever. Even though sometimes I want to kill her.

Like when she repeatedly chews through the sprinkler wires or digs up my plants or tracks mud in my kitchen. But mostly I love her.  She's a beautiful cuddle bug of a dog.

And she would prefer nothing more in life than to be just like this in the lap of someone she loves, getting petted. You can just feel her doggie bliss.  Speaking of bliss, Singer was made for this cold weather and ice. She's been bounding around our icy backyard like it's the world's most amazing, fascinating place. Clearly, this is her kind of weather.

Dorien also loves to get right down on Singer's eye level and commune with her.

Rene came home for Thanksgiving, and the kids were all over him. He's like their older brother home from  college. Which, he sort of is.  We consider him part of our family, that's for sure. And since his sister and brother are back in Rwanda, and his parents have passed away, we're honored and blessed to be his American family. 

In the picture above, I was trying to get Rene and the kids working on something, but everytime I looked at a picture I'd just taken, poof, there was Dorien. 

This was my favorite, though. There's something Grinch-like in the way Dorien is sneaking across the picture. He told me he was carrying his hat to Bernae. That's what he calls Rene now. And it's a little contagious. Cause its kind of fun to say. Bernae didn't seem to mind terribly. 

And when Mr. Tool Man walks into the kitchen offering to help do dishes, you'd be a fool to say no. 

He was so diligent and did a great job. And he had his hammer and phone in case the situation became too much to handle with just soap and water.

It's pretty much one of life's greatest gifts - when the leaves turn glorious colors and the air gets crisp and cold. The stores begin to sell apple cider, sweaters get pulled out of sweater bags, jackets get tried on to see if they still fit, and I head to Yarn Mart to stock up on soft stuff for knitting. Where even the trees get to wear handmade goodies.

Seen while on a run...

Nothing like a glowing tree in the darkness.

Also seen while running...so lovely.

Seen in my front yard. 

Three happy kids:

Brooklyn, Dorien and August

Happy Fall to you!!!!