Christmas

I know that it has been too long since I last updated the blog, and honestly, the task has grown so large and daunting, that I’m not even sure I want to at this moment. Yesterday I retold and recorded most of the events that have happened as of late and accidentally closed out of the internet and lost all. It was terribly frustrating!
Before I go on to the past, I would like to say that Anni, Ryan, and Steven went out shopping today and Mom has been just a bit nervous about it. She was nervous for a good reason, Anni just called to say she got a flat tire! Dad is going out to rescue her.
Now, on to the past: I have to start with Wednesday, for that is when the Christmas celebrations began for us. As we were all finally on break we cleaned the house spotless and did extra decorating. This year we were especially please with how our tree turned out. New ornaments were bought and hung evenly throughout the whole tree and not just the bottom as it has been in years past. We also decorated our large dining table with little extra ornaments, candles, and vases. It was so beautiful that we just had to make the most of it and have a family sit down dinner.

The plans were, originally, to have the dinner on Tuesday night, but it turned out we were invited to eat at Grandma’s. We enjoyed some juicy lamb chops, cinnamon rolls, and salad, and a grand time with eachother. Since we were in the neighborhood, Anni and I invaded the Sauder’s house to use their hot tub.
On Wednesday, my sister and I slaved over the stove for hours preparing the meal for the night. The menu was a fresh salad to start with, then chicken stew and dumplings with biscuits, and to finish: bread pudding with coffee. (I know at this point I should move on with this lengthy narrative, but I must say that I was particularly proud of the bread pudding. It turned out so splendidly that I will surely keep the recipe.) As we prepared the meal, we also made many trips from the dining room table to the kitchen to set the places in a proper way, fitting for a formal dinner such as this.
When the family finally gathered we turned off the bright lights in our living room to allow the candles and Christmas lights on the tree illuminate our meal. The smell of food wafted throughout the whole house. Everyone was hungry. As we bowed our heads to pray together, I confess that I opened my eyes to see my beautiful family. I am so blessed!

On Thursday morning, it seemed we weren’t the only ones celebrating the joys of the season. God blessed us with a magnificent sight, to wake up to in the morning. I was sipping my coffee when I looked toward the window and saw a sliver of red peaking from a break in the curtains. At first I had to blink in confusion at what this color could be from. Drawing the curtain back my eyes were filled with a view of the most marvelous sunrise you ever did see. It was glorious beyond comprehension and caused my mind to lift upward to my God. How kind He is for blessing us so richly with His artistry! Hallelujah and Glory to God in the Highest!

Well, that was the morning, but the day had to move on. We left after some light housework to shop for the party that night. One stop was UFS to buy some “cheap unexpected gifts” as mom would put it. She shopped for the adults and Anni and I shopped for the kids, buying two dollars worth of toys for each child. I must say, it was really very fun and made us look forward to the party all the more.
The party turned out to be, in my opinion, one of the best Meister Christmas party yet. There was food galore, the cutest kids on earth to entertain us, and really good volleyball! I have a video made, but the internet is too slow to upload it right now.
Christmas Eve is the day that we always open our gifts. I guess we are too impatient to wait for Christmas day. Some presents were successful, some, mom unfortunately struck out with. I think my brothers need to learn a lesson on gratefulness. I feel a little spoiled and undeserving of my gift: a new laptop. The laptop is partly the reason that I haven’t updated this blog in a while as the job of getting used to a new computer has taken up all my patience for time in front of a screen.
Another gift was a Kinect. I love the kinect, it makes you get up and work to play the games. I had to laugh when I told people that I was sore from playing video games!
One gift in particular was very well received:

Throughout the day it snowed constantly. White sparkling fluff coated every branch, tree, and surface, and made the entire out doors look magical. Anni and I were invited to ride horses with Karin, Mike, and Diane and took them up on the offer without hesitation. To spend some time in this dreamy winter land a top some of the finest horses in the state was very appealing. I rode Sangria, the spunky Andalusia, and boy did she give me a great ride. It was in every sense lovely.
Christmas day we went to church and heard a great sermon by Mike Rieker. It helped so much to here about what its all about: our Savior giving up His glorious home in Heaven to show us the way and to die for us.
After that the day was spent being lazy.
That was Saturday.
It was so strange to get up on Sunday and go to church again. Strange, but very pleasing. I love church and eagerly got ready physically and spiritually. That evening we were invited to Mike and Diane’s for dinner. A large group of famliy was there to enjoy the meal together. After eating everyone played a competitive game of Scrabble, but Anni, Sarah, Karin, and I went to the Sauder’s to get in their hot tub. We spend a lot of time in that hot tub, if you haven’t noticed.
Monday, Karin and I had it planned to go to Chicago to teach a group a bit about Vaulting. It was a therapeutic riding facility interested in learning a bit more about the sport. They found out about our team through Judy’s blog and asked if we could show them the ropes. Judy talked to Karin who invited me along to demonstrate. The trip up was four hours long and very easy driving with very little traffic. We conducted the three hours of lessons as smoothly as possible, doing all kinds of activities to help them learn and understand this fastly growing sport. The drive home was a little longer as we hit a little traffic near chicago, but nothing to heavy. It was an all day event, but worth it in my opinion.
Tuesday was Steven’s Birthday, and feeling inspired by our acquisition of chopsticks and a bag of fortune cookies, we decided to invite people over for a Chinese meal. The food was ordered from a China Kitchen so we didn’t have to cook at all and all dishes were disposable making cleanup very easy. Thus leaving room for a delightfully fun evening of good food, visiting, and round the world ping pong. Afterwards Sarah, Anni, Jessica and I really felt like seeing the 6 hour long version of Pride and Prejudice. We rented it from the Library and went to watch it at Sarah’s house. When they say six hours long, they mean it! The movie wasn’t finished until 2:00 in the morning. Of course we forced ourselves to stay awake through the whole thing in order to gain a small form of accomplishment. I was exhausted at the end and couldn’t bear to hold my eyelids open for another moment. Jessica and Anni, however, still felt inspired by the Jane Austen movie and felt compelled to watch the newer rendition of the story also. They did not fall asleep until six in the morning! The crazy girls!
The rest of the week has been rather uneventful.
Which leaves us at today.
The kids made it home safely and the flat tire was fixed.

Gulf Shores Movie

 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Anni’s Artwork and Pet Pictures

Computer edited version                   Original Version

Anni drew this rose heart flower picture and I thought it was really good. It’s funny because the first goat we ever had, little Anni wanted to name her Rose Heart. Now I understand what a “rose heart” is. Good times.

Steve’s Christmas Picture:

What can I say, he is like a child to me! Haha. Really I just wanted to waste some time with Photoshop. But in all seriousness, I am really very attached to my Steve. He leads nearly perfectly with his little camo collar and when not on the lead he always follows me, or at least keeps one eye on me. He and Larry do not get along, the other day I watched in horror as Steve went up to sniff Larry’s nose, and Larry, not wanting to have anything to do with him, took a snap at Steve’s face. Steve wasn’t hurt, but I think he will be leaving Larry alone in the future. Cindy, on the other hand adores Steve. With maternal affection she licks and nuzzles his thick fur kindly. The two make quite a pair. I try to make an effort to go out and see Steve everyday, but with the cold of winter, it has been harder and harder to get myself outside. Ah well, perhaps today I will let him spend some extra time in the house. He is terrible in the house. He is just tall enough to be able to stick his nose right on top of the tables. He loves to snack on anything and is determined to try and snatch everything within reach. If he isn’t looking for food, he is still putting things in his mouth. Anything and everything that will fit has to be chewed on when it comes to Steve. He reminds me of a two year old. But no matter how annoying that is, he is still my Steve. I’m glad we decided to keep him till spring, for I am sure it would be impossible for me to give him up now.

We added some new birds to our collection. The aviary my dad built is certainly large enough and in my opinion it needed a little more excitement. So I went to the pet store and headed straight to the birds. In one little cage they had probably thirty or so finches. All the same greyish color except one. This one was a beautiful little white snowball of a bird and I had to have her. I chose her out, and one male and brought them home to meet our original two finches. The two older ladies at first welcomed the new ones happily, but over the next couple days became territorial and now they will have nothing to do with them, not even the male. Since we now have four I decided to name them. Zuri and Zeera are the older ones. They can be told apart by the stripes on the right side of their tales, otherwise they are identical:

The one on the right is definitely Zuri. See the three broad stripes on her tail? Zeera’s are smaller.

Here they are with Zeus, the male, in the middle. This was the first day Zeus and Zipporah were introduced.

Below are Zipporah                                   And Zeus

Zipporah is a spitfire and very difficult to photograph. Zeus on the other hand is quite sleepy.

Together the have settle into one nest and Zeera and Zuri in the other. Other than fighting each other away, the two rival groups hardly associate. I must say, Zipporah and Zeus have a much better chance of success with their nest. I’m excited to see what their babies will look like.

Yup, the finches are fun. They are so quirky and hilarious to watch, everything they do is fast. Watching them is a lot like watching that television show: Mere cat Manor.

Bring your daughter to work day

Another semester come and gone. And it seems like it was just yesterday I was buying books for the fall. Now I must once again scour the internet for a new set of books at a decent price. But, I guess I do feel quite a sense of accomplishment. I made it through this second semester of the program alive and look forward to knowing I only have three left. As great as school is and all, I am so happy to be on break. May it be long, restful, if not slightly lazy, and great.

I did well enough on all my finals.

Actually I spent my first day of break at work with mom. It is really nice to take all that book work and information from class and apply it to a more practical setting. If you don’t already know, Mom is a Physical Therapist’s Assistant in the District 150 schools. She goes to Charter Oak, Harrison, Valesca Hinton, Rolling Acres, Thomas Jefferson to see kids that vary tremendously. Her job is to help them be as normal physically as possible, so if that means teaching them to dribble a ball, skip, gallop, or play baseball, then that is what she will do. If the kid has trouble with stairs and his or her class is on the third floor, she works on stairs. But its not just activities that she does. She helps them stretch and do exercises. Since she is dealing with children, one challenge she must face is keeping their attentions. She can’t just say, now do ten sit ups. She has to come up with a creative way to have the child complete the activity. To make them do sit ups she might have them lie on the floor and sit at their feet and hold up her hands. The kid would be given a sticker to stick on one of her hands. She is constantly coming up with new ways to make exercising a game, and for the most part it works. I truly believe mom is a sunny spot in these kid’s days. They always smile when they see her and come running to hold her hand. That is why I want to go into this profession. I know not every one I encounter will like Therapy. Actually, I’ve seen and heard of instances when people just downright hate it, but it gives me a chance to make people happy and do something for them.

Anyway, it was a rewarding day.

Oh, it wasn’t really bring your daughter to work day for mom.

The Snowboarding Trip: December 11-12

The day was long and tedious. I was busy throughout it all, yet saw that I accomplished nothing. Friday was spent studying for finals….all day. Studying is the most unsatisfying thing to do. You work and work and in the end you see nothing accomplished. Hopefully my mind is full of what I need to know for today. Prayers would be appreciated.

I put down the books finally at about 4:00 when the family came home to pack for this weekend. The annual Meister snowboarding trip would soon unfold early Saturday morning at 4:00 am and I needed to pack. It took a bit of strife leading up to this point as a week earlier we realized our Davidovics Christmas party was scheduled the same time. We wrestled with ideas on how to do both, grudgingly decided not to go snowboarding, then finally, chose to just go snowboarding instead. I know many would frown upon this decision, but this is an annual event that is very looked forward to. All summer long we dream of this weekend. In the end, us missing the Davidovics Christmas worked out as Mom needed a break from us to spend some time with just adults.

I set my alarm for Four AM Saturday as we were to leave at five. Woke up all the kids and drank some hot coffee for a few moments of peace before the chaos would unfold. Normally we take our motorhome, but we decided the twelve of us coming should try to save gas and pile up in Spark’s 12 passenger van. So the Sauders, Karin, Sarah, and the four of us loaded up our snowboards and bags (we had booked a hotel in Debuque Iowa for the night) and shoved off. If you were to look into the van to see us all piled in there, you would be reminded of puppies. A mess of them lieing in every bit of available space, over, under, and squished beside eachother. However, puppies usually put themselves in that position willingly and happily. We had no choice but to be crammed into the continually shrinking van. Oh well, it would be worth it. We all looked forward to the day ahead of us.

The slops turned out to be terrible! I have never seen them in such awful conditions. The night before had rained and frozen over causing the once powdery snow to become a hard sheet of crunchy ice. It wasn’t impossible to travel down the hills, but it was also not as enjoyable. Lunch time came and we were all getting cold and looking forward to the hot tub tonight. Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to give the impression that we did not have any fun. Despite the conditions we were all smiling and making the best of it.

Well, after lunch the most bizarre thing happened: it rained. It began to come only in short increments of sprinkles, but soon began to pour on us. Soaked through to our skin (well, I should say, THEY were soaked to their skin. I had a new coat which kept me quite warm and dry…Score!), there was just no use in continuing.

In the van we talked of the day. David, Sarah, and Caleb kept together most of the day doing jumps and such. Rachel stayed with Luke who went down Old Main for the first time on his snowboard with only falling a couple of times! He was beaming. Logan, Steven, and Ryan were at the same level, so they stay together also. I spent my day with Jessica, Karin and Anni up until lunch when Anni joined Ryan to give him some pointers. Ryan was the one that we all feared would have an awful day. Snowboarding hasn’t been catching on with him as with the other two boys and he tends to get frustrated and afraid easily. Well, at the end of the day Karin and I decided to watch him down Old Main and expected very little of him. We were surprised to see him carving, going from front edge to back with ease. Good job Ryan!

Getting to the hotel was an adventure in itself. We came to the road and discovered something terrible indeed. The steep curvy road was neither plowed nor salted. The rain became snow and every thing froze from the water. The roads were treacherous. Several times we almost lost it. With a this-is-it feeling  we stared at the cliffs feeling a sense of impending doom. By some miraculous force we seemed to be shoved away from them at the last instant. We prayed as hard as we could for Karin and the van. The stressful trip was finally over and we finally took a deep breath of relief as we entered the hotel.

First stop was the hottub. Our cold achy bones were just ready to be immersed in the hot soothing water. It was wonderful! After that we did what seems to be the Meister way with hotels, we took over the lobby for card games and pizza and hot chocolate. Around eight o clock it was time for the old folks to retire and the teenagers to watch movies. We cleverly planned for one room to be the stay-up-late room where all of us could hang out. I don’t know why, but I was completely hyped up. There was no way I was going to sleep at any decent hour. It wasn’t until about one in the morning when I finally chose to attempt at sleep. But, before that we saw some funny stuff in the parking lot from the third floor window. First, a house across the road from the hotel was busy with activity. We saw its inhabitants take out the dog, work in their garage, and shine their lazer light in ours and other room’s windows. Also, at about one, a suspicious man wondered around the cars and focused on one truck, looking in windows and poking around it. We wondered if he was a burglar or if it was his own truck. In the end I think it was his as he finally gave up and came back to the hotel.

The plan for Sunday morning was to have church at 9:00 and leave right after. Well, as the morning went on we got report after report of how bad the blizzard was in Peoria. Although, we had blue skies, we decided to wait it out. This meant church at 10 and hot tub after that. It was actually quite nice and relaxing to have such a slow morning. By about 11 or so we began to debate whether we should try to make the trip home at all. Yesterday’s ordeal was so scary it was difficult to force ourselves to get in the van and try it. We were getting close booking the hotel for another night when we got news that the storm had quieted.

The trip home was much longer than the trip up, and much more crowded it seemed. I was so glad to stretch my legs when we finally returned home.

All in all, I would say the whole weekend was worth it. Were we disappointed at the weather conditions? yes. But the hotel was a lovely little respite from normal life.

My video camera got wet at the beginning of the day so I was unable to record any of it. Karin should have pictures up later though on facebook or something.

Catching up with the ol’ blog

I know I haven’t blogged in a while. I’ve just been too lazy too.

So, we got back from Gulf Shores, right, and got back into our normal schedule immediately. No time to even unpack, it was come home and get right back into school. I was, by Monday, panicking because of this nasty practical that I had to take on Wednesday. We had to know so much information for this one it was scary. I had studied quite a bit over break, but still felt unprepared. Tuesday afternoon I hardly put the books down at all, determined to cram it all in my brain. Well, Wednesday morning, the dreaded day came, and before leaving for school decided to do a quick review and to my despair found I could not recite all the information of the muscles that I had so desperately worked to memorize. Stressed and feeling very stupid that I could not even learn these 70 some muscles, I left home in a miserable state. As I drove I decided that there was only one thing left to do: pray. I felt that if I could just pray with enough faith, God would at least give me a clear mind. So I did that. Driving down the straight empty road: Lancaster I prayed with all my might. I mustered up all the faith I could and pleaded for God to help me pass this test.

You want to know what all that focused praying got me? While I was putting so much effort into that prayer, I didn’t notice my speed. (first, let me just say that this is Lancaster we are talking about. Flat, empty, boring Lancaster. The same Lancaster that I drive on AT LEAST twice a day). I was driving 66 on this 55 mph road right when a cop saw me. Probably with the goal of earning more money for this indebted state, he felt the need to pull me over and stop the crime that I was committing. (I mean come on! 11 over! on Lancaster! I was praying for goodness sake!) Well, he came up to my window and, as it was quite cold out, I tried to roll it down and it felt frozen shut. “great” I thought, I can’t open the door or he’ll think I’m going to attack him. So with all my strength I began shoving pulling and pushing on that dumb window handle. For a couple of long moments I did this and finally realized I was trying very hard to turn it the wrong way. What on earth!

I gave him my information and he walked back to his car to do whatever they do back there. This was my breaking point. Here I have this awful test today that I was PRAYING for when I got pulled over and for what! I wasn’t putting anyone in danger and I just got a ticket this summer! I do not want another one. I couldn’t stop myself from feel terribly sorry for my pitiful situation and, like the pathetic girl that I am, began to cry, no bawl. I was in the process of wiping the stream of tear from my eyes when he came back to my window. Before he said anything I started babbling about my test and how terribly sorry I am for speeding and what not. He stopped me and sympathetically handed me a pink paper and told me he will give me a warning. Well, that’s right you better give me a warning buster. (I didn’t say that but I thought it later.)

I’ve been driving slower lately,

And I got an “A” on the final.

Other than that things are rather uneventful. Anni and I went to the Sauders to bake cookies for their little get together. It was a lot of fun spending some time in the kitchen with Christmas music playing, even though I almost ruined the fudge by putting a whole stick of butter in when I was only supposed to put in 2 tablespoons. While the cookies baked we set up the manger scene and got in the hot tub for a little while before the guests arrived. When they did we ate and all sat around to sing to our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth as a sweet tiny baby.

Anni and I ended up sleeping at the Sauders.

Saturday morning we came home and got right to work cleaning and getting out Christmas decorations. We’re a little later than every one else, but at least we were getting to it. That night we stood back and were satisfied with what we had done. The strung up lights and random decorations all over may not look like a magazine, or even normal, but it’s what we’ve been doing since before I can remember and to me, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.

That night, to get out of the house, the boys, mom and I went to see the new Disney movie, Tangled. It's about Rapunzel, and I defiantly recommend it. It was really cute.

Sunday after church Grandma and I met up with Nancy and her “roommates” at the fellowship hall to see the Bible Class Christmas play. It was a really nice time.

Then we had Ryan’s Birthday party. I can’t believe he is already 15!

Christmas Memory

 

                 

While driving home the day after Gulf Shores I turned on the radio and was surprised to hear Christmas music. I had forgotten that it’s “that time of the year again”. The familiar songs and the sound of the pattering of the rain and consistent sound of my windshield wipers all blended together, and as I drove the empty straight country road, my mind began to wonder. Of course old memories began to come up right away: Christmas tends to have that effect. One memory in particular put a smile on my face. We were quite young and mom and dad left to run errands. I, being the oldest, was put in charge, as usual. And, as usual, I decided it would be fun to “surprise mom and dad when they come home” by cleaning the house, which was in quite a state of disarray as we had just put up decorations and the tree the night before. So, the four of us cleaned to the best of our abilities and with the best intentions. But that wasn’t enough! We finished with time to spare and, feeling the onset of Christmas sentimentality, we brought out some old sheets, a sheep fur, sticks, a baby doll, and some various other props. We assumed our obvious rolls with Ryan as Joseph, Anni as an angel, Steven as the “donkey” in sheep’s wool, and I, as Mary. The living room lights were turned off and the red, green, and white Christmas lights were plugged into the wall giving off a candlelight-like atmosphere. Some 91.5 Christmas music was turned on and we all hoped that it would be playing something soft and sweet for when the parents arrived. With the tree that was heavily decorated up to about five feet up in the background, we set ourselves up and patiently waited. We had planned ahead of time that when they came in, “Joseph” would walk “Mary” on the “donkey” a couple of steps and the “Angel” would say her Sunday School Christmas program piece.

                    I believe the radio was playing “O Holy Night”, when they came in, which was perfect. And, of course, mom and dad were very surprised and quite touched. It’s funny how now, as I am much older, I can see the scene a little better through their eyes and I can hardly imagine how beautiful it must have been. As I played through this memory in my head I realized how blessed I am to have been raised in such a family. I was probably only 10 at the time, making Steven 5, and we all understood the beauty and importance of Jesus in the manger. We didn’t set up a Santa Claus scene, with reindeer and elves, we wanted to act out something pure and beautiful and perfect for our parents. And, while some people hate those “same old songs every year” or the gushy sentiments and annoying family get-togethers; while some people focus on the infiltration of secular music and traditions into an old Christian holiday, I am going to be very glad and excited for Christmas this year. I can’t wait to be surrounded by lovely memories like these, and I defiantly hope to make a lot more.