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.