Blessed

 

We had a lovely Christmas day with family. We were missing Melanie and Jeff due to an emergency surgery for Melanie (removal of an ovarian cyst), but she is thankfully now home and well. And we got a short visit with them on Christmas Eve. We spent the weekend prior to Christmas with most of the Martin family, but regretfully I don't have any photos.

 

Joining us this year was the girls' "cousin" Amie. We were thrilled we were able to share Christmas with her. These photos are courtesy of Madden's new, very fancy camera that she received as a joint gift from all three sets of grandparents. It was priceless to watch her face as her little sister piled up gift after gift, while she had just a very few. We saved the "big gift" until the end, and it was fantastic to watch her reaction when she opened it. Also a memorable moment:  Santa's present for Grammie.

 

 

 

Trail of Lights

 

Friends = FUN!

"Oldies 2013" Dance Team veterans

Christmas Caroling in the 'hood

Shopping at A Christmas Affair

Cooking a meal at the Ronald McDonald House

Trail of Lights performance

Chillin' with friends

Oh What Fun!

Scenes from Mack's Last Season

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And scenes from Mack's best season:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the memories, Mack! I will always be a fan.

#setbacksunday

Before & After

Strengths

In your professional life, I think it’s far better to be very, very good at one or two things and just marginal at the rest than to be merely good at lots of things.

“Working on your weaknesses makes you a complete player, but you won’t be dangerous anymore. That’s why I work on strengths.” — Roger Federer

You can’t make your mark unless you’re very, very good at something.

-excerpt from www.thesimpledollar.com

These are challenging words to hear for the girl who has been a bit of an 'all-arounder' all of my life. Not quite exceptional at any one thing, but pretty decent at most. Hmmmm, what do you think? Raise our kids to concentrate on that one special gift, or encourage them to try and become proficient at many?

El Shaddai

This post is a little out of order. Callie and her dear friend, Lettie, sang this Amy Grant favorite at church 3 weeks ago on the Children's Sabbath.

Interjections!

 

 

M&Ms and Minions

The "Better Late than Never" Party

We finally celebrated Callie's 12th Birthday with a backyard Fall Fest. This party was good for my soul. I haven't laughed so much in a long, long time. The girls are at that 'tween' stage where you can never be certain how they will react to an idea. So when I tepidly announced it was time to bob for apples, I was thrilled to hear shouts of excitement and observe some jockeying for position in line. Success!!! Genuine hilarity ensued as the girls wholeheartedly embraced their apple-seeking mission. The night also included mini pumpkin painting, burgers and dogs grilled by Po, trampoline games, and concluded with an extremely popular donut-on-a-string competition. Shout out to Brooke for dominating the donut game! It was a group of lifelong friends coupled with some new faces that Callie has met in the much larger fish pond of middle school. I knew we had a hit when big sister Madden told me that she wanted to have a Winter Fest birthday party, because this was so much fun!