Happy New Year!

The kids and I had a quiet evening at home. Well, it wasn't really quiet. You see we took all of the Christmas decorations off the tree and transformed it into a New Year's Eve tree. We put shiny hats and horns and sparkly tinsel and garland all over it.

We had a basket of noise makers and instruments we found around the house. And the kids used them . . . all night long. It was really very festive, just not really quiet.

Little Lady helped me decorate our clock cake. We just used what we had on hand.

We made it 11:59 so we could do a count down.

Happy new year from our zoo to yours!

O Christmas Tree

Our family is a real tree kind of family. We love to walk into the living room and smell the pine scent. We love that our tree is different every year. We love making a yearly ornament out of a slice of the trunk. Oh, and of course the challenge of keeping the water full and the floor clean. The convenience of an artificial tree is tempting, but we have not given in yet.

We were planning on getting our tree the first week of December, but one thing led to another and come Christmas eve, we still did not have a Christmas tree. We have friends that always get their tree on the 24th. It is their family tradition to go get their tree and decorate it after dinner on Christmas eve. I myself an more of a planner. Decorating a tree is a messy undertaking. But as the month passed by and our living room was still void of a tree, I realized that most of the tree lots were also void of trees. And then I realized that we would be putting our gifts under a house plant if we didn't take action.

It so happened that the Zookeeper was working a 24 hour shift on Christmas eve. I had called around to several stores and guess what, they were all out of trees too. There is a landscaper that grows trees not to far from us, so I gave him a call. He said, "You need a tree today? Well I stopped selling trees a few days ago, but you are welcome to anything out in the pile". Usually this pile is clippings and dead trees from his jobs that he burns every few months. So I thought to myself, maybe we can get some branches and try to shape them into a tree, anything would be better than my sickly pothos plant.

So the kids and I loaded into the truck for the 1/4 mile trip. It was of course, snowing by this time. We pulled up to "the pile" and under the snow there were several Christmas trees still wrapped in twine! I tugged on the first one I could uncover and dragged it away from the pile. Digging Badger helped me get it into the back of the truck. We drove the short trip home and backed into the driveway.

The fairy tale tree story takes a short break here. . .

We somehow managed to get the water-logged tree onto the porch. I was covered in snow and very heavy. I got the tree stand out and tried putting it on, but the trunk was just as big as the opening of the stand. The boys helped me hold it and turn it enough that we got it crammed into the stand, but then it started to lean, so I tightened it some more, and then it leaned some more and the boys thought they were going to be killed on Christmas eve by a huge Christmas tree that refused to stand up.

We'll just do it the old fashioned way. I don't need to water it anyway. So out to the shop I went to find some scrap wood and a few screws. I grabbed the power drill too, because after turning the rusty screws in the tree stand back and forth, my hands were aching. Half way back to the house I dropped one of the screws, a black screw, onto the white, snow-covered driveway. I looked for the screw for ever, but it could not be found. I'm sure one of our tires will find it. Back to the shop to get another screw. I'll just grab a few extra this time. So, I get back to the house, which has it's door wide open, because there is a monster of a tree hanging out of it, while it is literally freezing outside and the heater is blasting, but I don't care because I am sweating after trying to get this tree up. I screwed the first piece of wood into the bottom of the trunk. That was easy! I get the other cross piece started and guess what? The battery goes dead. So back out to the shop I go to switch out batteries. By the way, it is still snowing. So now the cross piece is on and the boys help me stand the tree up. . . until it hits the ceiling. All I can think of is Chevy Chase and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I got the loppers and cut the top 16 inches off that tree. That was easy! We got it to stand up without tipping over and it is now 1/2 an inch from the ceiling. Still room for a star!

I cut the twine expecting there to be a big poof of branches opening up, glad to be unbound. There was no poof. There was no being unbound. There was just a stiff, frozen, skinny tree.

I started to pull the branches down like you would an artificial tree coming out of storage. I thought this is great, I get the smell of a real tree and the fun of fluffing a fake tree.

Notice the frosty color on the branches. That is not camera effects people, that is the real deal.

As I am fluffing up our tree, I begin to wonder how safe it is to put lights onto a tree that is dripping melting snow into a puddle on the floor. I put a few towels around it and decided to take a lunch break.

Back to our previous fairy tale. . .

We plugged in the lights that were all untangled and all worked. We trimmed our tree with Christmas music playing in the background. The kids each put on their ornaments from years past. And they all went to bed with visions of sugar plums in their heads.

And on Christmas morning when the Zookeeper walked in the door, he saw only the love that went into putting our tree up.

Reformation Day

My knights in shining armor guarding their fair lady.

Little Lady was a fair maiden, but after she took the tulle off her crown,

she told everyone she was a queen.

Digging Badger and Crazy Fox prepared to defend the castle.

The boys and the Zookeeper in the final stages of sword construction. Everyone was a little tired here. They were really having fun, it just wasn't captured on film.

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful morning celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ and the days that proceeded. Yesterday, as we sang a hymn that was new to me, I was overcome with the sacrifice that was made for me. As I sang the words, tears filled my eyes. Then I stood quietly and listened the our congregation sing of how Christ defeated death and how the debt for my sins has been paid. This is not news to me. I have known for 25 years that my debt of sins have been paid for. Yet, something about the way the tempo sped up and the assurity of those singing it grew in their voices, just took me in and I again felt the true gift that has been given to me.

I Peter 2:24

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to

righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Barney did not want anyone sneaking up behind him pinching him on the rear end.

So this is the solution he came up.

Hope you all enjoyed searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We happened to have a beautiful view of the full arch of this rainbow the other day, but we didn't find any pots or any gold.

We have had a busy and exciting week with Grandma here visiting. I'll try to get some pictures up in the next few days.

Valentine's Day

This was intended for yesterday, but I ran out of day before I got a chance to post it.

Here is a fun fact for the day. This information was passed on to me by a friend.
Valentine was a third century pastor who was imprisoned for his faith. He wrote small pastoral notes to members of his congregation on leaves he was able to pluck from a maple tree just outside his cell. These little "Valentine's cards" expressed his love for his flock, and his desire that they demonstrate like love toward one another. Gradually this tradition grew up for Christians to exchange notes of love and encouragement to one another on this, his birthday. (The Christian Almanac)

I thought that was very interesting. I checked around briefly and there are differing opinions concerning February 14th. Was it his birthday or the day he died? I also read that he was in love with his jailer's daughter and left her a note signed "from your Valentine". But either way, did I really go through 13 years of Christian school and never once hear this? Or was I just not paying attention?

We joined a home school co-op and it started yesterday. The boys chose German and games. Little Lady's only choice was pre-school, so she was in there for both hours. I stayed with her the first hour and she did great. When I went to pick her up, she cried because she didn't want to leave. She loves to be around other kids. The boys learned a few words and phrases in German and then learned a few new games. They are looking forward to being able to talk in "code" to each other. (I'll have to keep up with them or I could be in trouble.)