6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1......... Happy New Year!
Can you tell how excited Chris and Sam were to get up and ring in the New Year?
Here we are toasting the night away! Well, some of us anyway were fully awake.....
We created a time capsule (thanks sis & Maddie for the idea) to open up this time next year. We want to see how much alike or different we are in a year's time. Chris and Sam fell asleep watching Eragon and Paige and I were rapidly falling asleep ourselves during The Order of the Phoenix. However, Howard called just in time to give us the second wind we needed to make it till midnight!
Watch us during our half-asleep countdown! Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to bed I go.... (finished post at 12:27a.m. in 2008)!
As I reflect back on 2007, I am in awe of God's faithfulness through all of it. I am most thankful for the way the kids have flourished this year amidst the many changes made through the move. We were praying that God would use the uncertainties of moving to a new community, being part of a new church family, and basically uprooting all they knew and were comfortable with in California as a way to deepen their faith in Christ and build a bond as a family. Looking back and seeing glimpses of their thoughts and feelings from their heart journals, Howard and I think that they did indeed experience a growing trust in God as their anchor over circumstances. We look forward to 2008 as a year to continue to mold, shape and guide our family to an ever-deepening trust in Him, the only one worth living for in this broken world of emtpy promises and unfulfilled dreams.
But, through Christ, we have hope of new beginnings, new seasons and new experiences and so below are hopes we have for the New Year of 2008! Since there are so many of us, the kids are only going to share one thing they are looking forward to the most.
- Taryn can't wait to take driver's ed. in the summer with her friend Kathryn because she really wants to drive!
- Stephen hopes that through this new art book on faces of people and arts classes he is taking, that he could draw a very realistic face that actually looks like the person he is trying to create
- Paige is excited to take a drama class at Grace Academy (hopefully with her cousin, Meg and friend Amanda)
- Christopher hopes that his 10th birthday comes quickly (apparently being double digit in age is cool) and with that a new scooter since the one he has is pretty worn out
- Samuel wishes that he won't have to get his tonsils out but if he does, that it would be over soon so that he can enjoy the ice cream, yogurt and other liquid foods afterward
- Howard aspires to get through his final year of Hebrew (2 more classes) without self-imposed over-consuming perfectionism
- Alleyn just wants to be able to experience and feel more of God's gracious acceptance and hopes of the gospel in new and different ways
- WE all look forward to our Cole reunion in June and our Mount Hermon/California trip in August; visiting with friends and family will definitely be highlights of our year
- Lastly, we all hope that God will continue to enable us to live for Him because He deserves it
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thanks to Amy Frank who brought over some yummy poppyseed chicken casserole, we feasted well tonight!!! But, before that we had a tournament of sorts with some games and puzzles Mom Cole gave the kids for Christmas along with an old favorite called Rubiks Race. We were especially delighted with skeeball where you have to bounce a marble on a mini-trampoline and it falls into holes that gives you a certain amount of points in the span of 30 seconds(you can see Paige playing that below)! Howard was the FINALE winner ranking up there with 72 points. None of us could quite catch up to that. While we waited for dinner to finish baking, we were taught a really fun verbal game called the Bowl Game which ended in a tie! Kind of a hard game to explain but it is really fun! We ended the night with roasting marshmallows over a fondue firepot.......
Amy and Strider work together to race Pete in Rubiks race while Paige skeeballs away!
Howard and the boys team up and race Alleyn and Taryn in a puzzle race! (Notice the puzzle on the left of the photo, you can see who successfully won this race :o)
and all the through the house, EVERYONE was stirring.....
It was NOT a quiet eve before Christmas. We started out our day with Brunch. Howard worked a 3p.m. to 4a.m. shift meaning he didn't get home till 5a.m. in the morning which meant brunch didn't really start around 10ish as you would think a brunch should. We did however get to start at 11 as soon as Auntie Tami arrived with the much-coveted pumpkin bread. The grandparents and crew (Uncle Matt & Gary) arrived at 10:30 with the Krispy Kreme donuts to add to our more nutritious items of scrambled eggs and kielbasa sausage. If you know Howard we didn't get to any present opening until after he started off the now early afternoon with this question to us adults, "What childhood memories of Christmas do you remember growing up?" Well, now, the grandparents had some great stories which the kids enjoyed immensely but of course they got a bit ansy toward the end as the gifts around the tree were beckoining......."open me, open me!" Grandpa Cole got all the Coleclan boys (including Howard) remote-control cars which they then proceeded to put together and play with for the next couple of hours until our 2nd phase of the day arrived.
The Lee cousins and the other set of grandparents, Pa and Lola, came bearing the makings of DINNER as requested by the grandkids, a filipino crab meal and shanghai lumpia. My sis and I helped my mom in the kitchen while the guys played football outside. Before dinner, we did the gift exchanges which the highlight of the afternoon was definitely each girl's expression especially Meagan's after opening identical bird cage pets from the grandparents that will sing and move and tweet for you (which surprisingly looks fairly authentic). Dinner was as usual mouth-watering and satisfying.
In the evening, the grandparents Cole and crew came back for phase number 3; a private concert and dessert! Since Pa and Lola were unable to attend any of the kid's recitals this fall, the kids banded together and each performed two music pieces each; mostly Christmas tunes with Sammy as host (or was it the White Ranger with a cape guy?) of the concert hall. It started to get funnier and funnier as the night unfolded and below is a very short snippet of his MC'ing.
We finished off the night singing Christmas carols with Mom Cole and Lola playing piano as we sang and Howard on the guitar!
Merry Christmas to you all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!
Sam is eight! He had such fun celebrating his birthday week; from rollerskating to strawberry shakes while watching Ratatouille which Auntie Tami gave him and finally ending with that one present he hoped to get, a Fantastic Four ship that separates into 3 individual ships! But, alas, the work is not yet done for mom who still has to work at cooking his lunch; (Sopas translated soup, how original huh?) and then dinner. This is indeed a feat as Sammy is so picky there are few "favorites" when it comes to eating (and candy and sweets don't count).
The kids had a great time doing the 'stealing' game with candy this year with the Hussey kids. (except Jonah and Jamesyn who were allowed to keep the first thing they opened since we were pretty sure they wouldn't quite understand the whole concept of something they just opened taken from them!) It was a great evening yet bittersweet as it will be our last Christmas with the Husseys. We will miss them greatly.
Well, Sam has officially been referred to the ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor. His tonsils have not fully deflated. A bad diagnosis in inflammation would be a 4 and 1 being the lowest. The good news is that he is not at a 4 but only at a 2 but nevertheless, a cause for concern. He is once again on anitbiotics to help this inflammation for another 10 days. He is however doing fine. No symptoms whatsoever. Just enlarged tonsils refusing to deflate even on antibiotics. Pray for him between now and January 3rd when he has his next appointment with Dr. Dennis, a specialist. We covet your prayers on his behalf.
We ventured on our 3 C's today! After two tiring hours at the Carolina Place Mall where Howard and the kids successfully shopped for Mom and we all agonized over what special candy treat we were going to buy, we met up with the in-laws, Matt, & Uncle Gray (visiting from Wisconsin) and headed West to McAdenville known around these parts as CHRISTMASTOWN! Wow! What a charming town full of lights. It was worth the short ride over to see it. We drove through twice because we liked it so much. We hope to walk it next year if the weather isn't super freezing to enjoy it even more. I took a video of it but it is definitely better in person.
Try to ignore us talking in the background :o) and focus on the beautiful trees of lights off the lake!
Sammy has another doctor appointment this Thursday a.m. Checking to see if his tonsils have deflated. From what we can see, they are still as large as ever and so we await the doctor's decision to send him or not to the specialist. We'll let you know the results! Pray for my baby who by the way isn't much of a baby anymore. He is enjoying his birthday week; picking the movies that are watched, opening up a present a day so he can enjoy them one at a time, and mostly looking forward to this Sunday when he can have breakfast in bed and open the grand finale gift.
We were able to complete another tradition last Friday. Since we have so many kids in the house and we want to encourage giving not just receiving, we have the kids draw names and we go shopping at Target (used to be the mall but you can't get much for $5 limit) so they can shop for each other with their own hard-earned money on the sly. The fun part is sneaking around the store hoping not to run into one another as we figure out the best bang for the buck and for whomever they picked. Of course, we have to do this in pairs as the youngest 3 can't really go around the store yet on their own. Needless to say, we did end up running into each other fairly often and having to hide things under shirts or behind our backs! This tradition gets funner every year. What is really cool though is for the other four names that they don't draw, we encourage the kids to either give away something they treasure or make a present for them so their creative juices start flowing and I often find them wrapping things for each other in hidden corners of the house.
Tomorrow, we head off to the mall which for our particular family only happens once a year. Howard cannnot stand shopping except at this time of year where he loves to see the gaudy but sometimes cheery decorations of the "mall." So, off we go to Carolina Place Mall and the goal of this trip is twofold! First, is our traditional trip to the Sweet Shop to pick out one unique candy to enjoy and second, the kids and dad shop for mom so I get at least one thing for Christmas. I do enjoy this because as Howard takes all five kids around, I get to leisurely go into any store I want and shop the clearance racks without any interruptions. What fun!
Have I mentioned yet that I love family traditions (especially at this time of year) and mostly I love how they bring us together as a family and how the kids look forward to these times as ways to cement our relationships? -Alleyn
Oh, and Natalie and Katy, if you are reading this, the girls got your package and are sitting on the edge of their seat anxiously awaiting to see what is inside those cute little packages and enclosed letters sitting on the tree!
We just got back from rollerskating at Kate's Skate with a whole gang of friends! We invited a lot of people and they all came out to have some fun. AND, this is even non-party year.
Amanda, Kathryn, Jordyn, Taryn, Mrs. Frank (Amy), Julienne, Jacob and the birthday boy, Sammy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Action Shots!
From Left to Right: Amanda, Mom, Taryn, Kathryn, Jordyn, Paige, Chris, Stephen, Dad
Sorry the videos are a bit shaky but I was rollerskating myself as I taped each shot.
