boys – robinchartier

Hallelujah!

The boys just left for their last day of school before Christmas vacation and I can proudly say that I made it through the entire semester, trimester (whatever it is that they’re doing here) of getting up early and getting them off to school.

Every day I woke them up (OK, Calvin did wake me up once or twice), made sure they were dressed in the appropriate uniform — not an easy task because every other day was a PE uniform day and Carter and Caleb were not on the same schedule — checked to see if take-home folders were back in backpacks and homework was signed, figured out if it was AWANA or library day and finding the appropriate books (or yelling at that particular kid to find said books), organized shoe hunts (every day it seemed like people were missing shoes right as the bus was pulling up), and corralled them all to the kitchen to sit down and eat breakfast.

The part I’m most proud of is I actually sat down and ate breakfast with them each day and read to them from Bible and prayed before they left. I couldn’t have done all this without the help of my “sister wife” Lucy, who got breakfast on the table every day and packed the boys’ lunches, but for this night owl who is a 10am riser at heart, getting up before 7 every day is a BIG FAT DEAL.

So I’m accepting this award for Most Improved Morning Routine with pride and I plan to celebrate by sleeping in for the next two weeks. Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas Joy

At our house there is very little emphasis on gifts at Christmas. And really, that’s more about the fact that I’m a bad gift giver and receiver than for any deep spiritual reason. Some years we have skipped gifts completely and bought “presents” for each other and for extended family via websites like Samaritan’s Purse, giving the boys each a fixed amount to spend in secret. Then on Christmas day we enjoy seeing that Caleb decided to buy milk for a baby for Camille, Carter bought fishing equipment for a family to give to Calvin, and Calvin sent money to teach kids how to read. Independently they each chose to send soccer balls so kids could play soccer (football) just like they love to. I loved it when someone gave me a knitting gift in the form of a sheep that would provide wool for a fellow knitter. Hopefully they’re knitting up warm socks and hats as I write this.

This year we had the opportunity to volunteer as a family for Christmas Joy, an annual Christmas party for 500 women or men in need here in Oman. The sexes alternate years so this year it was a party for women. Throughout the fall different groups at church collected items to be given away at the party. The AWANA kids donated hair accessories, the Women’s fellowship group donated bath towels, etc.

Two nights before the party we all got together to pack the gift bags, assembly line style. The boys helped fill and move the bags and Camille did her part by remaining happy on my back.

The night of the event, 500 women were invited to attend to play games, sing, dance, eat, and receive gifts. I was so proud of each of my boys as I watched them serve according to their own gifts. Calvin helped greet the women and play games with them, Carter was organizing and helping hand out the gift bags, and Caleb helped collect food tickets and pass out meals.

The line of volunteers all wearing red — there were so many people there to help.

Carter getting the bags ready to hand out.

The women lining up to receive their christmas gift at the end — a bag filled with a new purse, bath towel, toiletries, perfume and hair accessories.

This year we will have a gift for each of the kids under the tree (unless I let them open them at the start of vacation — see, totally not a gift person), but when they are older and thinking back on our Christmases, I hope they remember these experiences are more important than LEGO sets.

Phase 3: Paper Chains

First we had the naked tree. Then the musical lights with the store bought, “unusual” ornaments. Then came the homemade construction paper glitter ornaments, followed by another wave of lights — this time flashing LEDs and an “interesting” lighted tube of lights (the blue glowing thing on the tree). We have a power strip tucked up inside the tree to hold all the plugs since none of the strands here plug into each other. Since we have 5 different types of lights on our tree, the non-connecting part didn’t matter anyway.

The final phase of tree decorating this year is the paper chain. I went out and bought a pack of colored construction paper and Carter, Caleb, and I put together a long paper chain tonight to wrap around 2/3s of our tree. The bottom third we’re leaving pretty bare, since Camille already ate several candy canes that turned out to be within her reach. We had to readjust and shuffle everything a few feet up.

Look at this little girl — she holds a pencil correctly. No one ever showed her, she just does it that way naturally. I would wonder if this is one of those “girl things,” but she didn’t get it from me . . . I can barely hold a pencil correctly as an adult.

She is dangerous with the scissors — trying to open and close the blades as fast as she can before mom steps in to ruin her fun.

The finished labor of love.

A friend crocheted this cute little santa for me when she heard we didn’t have any ornaments. Isn’t he awesome?

I’m not big on Christmas decorations (really, holiday decorations in general), but this turned out to be really fun. I didn’t think that putting up a tree would be worth the time and energy and I knew we didn’t need a tree to celebrate Christmas, so I thought this year we would go for the “minimalist” approach. I’m a fan of minimalism because it’s a fancy label to throw out when I don’t feel like trying to impress anyone or when I’m feeling too lazy to drag a 7 foot tree out of the closet under the stairs.

But this minimalist turned out a tree that made all the kids happy and we even got a little crafty in the process. I’m actually considering making stockings this coming week, just for fun. I was going to try and whip some knitted ones out, but I only have sock weight yarn (for those non-knitters that means I have very thin yarn that would take a million stitches to make a stocking-size sock and that would take months, not days) so my alternate plan involves black fabric and something sparkly. Stay tuned for “minimalist Christmas,” part 2.

Breakfast with Santa

This morning we walked over to the MEA (American club) to have breakfast with Santa. The biggest draw for us wasn’t Santa, but bacon. It’s the only place in town I know of where we can have real bacon with our eggs. Everywhere else serves either turkey bacon (eh) or beef bacon (which tastes strangely like beef jerky).

Another storm is on the way. Last year Muscat got almost no rain, but this year we’ve been hit by the edges of a few tropical storms.

Camille was excited to be out and walking on her own instead of up in the Ergo or in the stroller.

We arrived, ate awesome pancakes (blueberry, chocolate chip, and apple in addition to regular ones), eggs, potatoes, and bacon and waited for Santa to arrive. When Calvin and Carter were little we didn’t do the whole Santa thing (made easier by the fact that Calvin was deathly afraid of Santa for several years), but in my old age I have lightened up. They still don’t believe in Santa, but if they want to go sit on Santa’s lap and tell him that they want Harry Potter Legos (Caleb), then rock on.