Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

I happened to find an old kilt of mine, purchased in London by my mom. She had been saving it for Elisabeth to wear and I found it just in time. Elisabeth loved wearing it and looked so cute.

Henry seems to be working on perfecting temper tantrums. This morning I had to take him upstairs to change his diaper (stinky) and he did not want to leave his toy cars. I let him bring one, but that didn't seem to help. He was in a rage, 26? pounds pushing away from Mommy as I tried to carry him upstairs. That didn't help my mood as I was trying to clean his dirty bottom. I gave him a quick spank to the bare bottom in an attempt to get him to hold still (do you really want to picture what we're dealing with here?). This usually makes him mad and then he realizes he must hold still, but this morning, as Henry is perfecting his tantrums, he kept the writhing going. So close to completely losing my cool, I began mentally rehearsing why I'm cut out for this job. That didn't get me far. So I began to sing "Jesus loves me." It went sort of like this: Jesus loves HENRY this I know, For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, They are weak!! ...

DSC_0010 , originally uploaded by j_lstevens . Christmas Eve. After attending the service at Christ the King we headed to my parents' house. The kids had dinner and then we put them to bed (with mixed success). Then the rest of us enjoyed a feast prepared by Mom. We tried not to make it too late a night, as some of Santa's helpers had work to do. Not at our house though. Elisabeth's favorite gift was a china doll that I had received as a gift years ago (nearly 30 years ago?) so that wasn't too tough. Henry was thrilled with his truck and soccer ball, as well as a garage from Uncle Andy that John had put together ahead of time. No wrap rage from this family. We should savour this year, as the kids were quite content and didn't rush from one gift to another. Henry actually seemed bothered by us calling him back to open gifts. He had enough to play with already.

Can you pose like a monkey? (Timothy and Elisabeth at the zoo). Henry loves his kiddy car. He has holes in the toes of his shoes because of how he rides. Zoo friends. Charlotte, Henry, Sarah, Mom and I were there too, but no pictures of us. Oh, and some animals. But mostly it was really cold (for us) and cloudy, and Henry was miserable. I remember standing in front of the flamingos while Timothy and Elisabeth argued over who would stand in a certain spot (must've been really special) and Charlotte wandered around and Henry cried. It was Mom's (Grandmere's) first time in a while and she was underwelmed by the experience. I, however, was quite glad she was there to help out, as I really only held Henry the whole time. It was quite a workout. There was one high point though. Henry loves the fish and takes after his sister in his delight in them. He runs in to the aquarium, screaming and saying, "Ish, ish." Maybe we should've stayed in there the who...

I sat down to the computer on Christmas Eve to write some reflections, but after catching up on reading a few blogs it was suddenly time to get ready for church . . . and then Christmas was upon us. We had spent so much time and thought leading up to this day and suddenly it was here. We went to my parents and Josh and Sarah's church for Christmas Eve service. We filled a whole row and left one seat empty--Josh, Timothy, Sarah, Elisabeth, me (Laurel), John, Mom, Dad, and Nathaniel. Henry and Charlotte were in the nursery. Two years ago we also filled up a whole row, with no empty seats: Timothy in the nursery, Charlotte on Sarah's lap, and Tim and Kristen. The service was ripe with reminders of the sorrow that has occurred since we were there last, and the joy and peace that sustain us. "No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found . . ." and "Hail the heaven born prince of peace . ...

After exploring the farm Aunt Sarah and Charlotte settle down to some checkers. Henry and I take another Ox-cart ride around the house. Grandmere gets to some knitting. And Laurel and Grandmere spend some time studying, "The Frugal Housewife." Certainly in these uncertain economic times we can use all the tips that we can get.

Grandpere shows Henry how to use a close line. His attention was long enough for a brief lesson. The farm had a washing station set-out and a bunch of rags that required cleaning. The kids went right to work. Elisabeth exhibited her abilities as she stayed at the task long after everyone left, even coming back to it later in the day. Additionally, she was the only child not to get soaked from her efforts. Perhaps we need to go old school at home to get a little more help from Elisabeth. IT wasn't all work at the farm. There were plenty of toys to explore. I never knew what this one was called but Elisabeth had a great time inventing games to play with a stick and a ring. Everyone took part in the jump rope. As Laurel shows it can be great fun when everyone is laughing together.