Tag: holiday

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!

Fa, la, la, la, la!

The other day we went to the elementary school winter concert. I was amazed by how many parents (both moms and dads) were in attendance at 2pm on a workday. I guess when you put such a high value on education that you’re willing to pay big bucks for it, you take advantage of every opportunity to see if your investment is paying off.

The hour long concert featured songs performed by each grade, plus a few group numbers at the beginning and the end.


2nd grade


4th grade


combined choirs

Their singing was better than our camera work, but I’ll blame it on the squirmy baby who was not nearly as fascinated by the concert as we were.

And for those of you who either can’t or don’t want to sit through the videos (I don’t blame you — there’s something about sharing DNA that magically makes these events tolerable) the following photos are for you:

He totally knew I was taking a picture of him even though I was all the way across the gym. Love that smile.

Wearing cousin Mia’s dress — can’t believe she was ever this small!
Singing his little heart out. I loved watching him sing with so much energy that his entire body moved. 

Carter was pretty far away from me so all of the photos I took of him had large balding heads in the foreground. This is the best of them.

And if you made it this far, your reward is another nausea-inducing video. No really, you might want to slap one of those seasick patches on before you watch this since the swaying of the kids plus the swaying of the camera is quite a combination. Maybe next time we’ll spring for a tripod. No, we won’t. I’m not going to be that parent. (I’m also not going to be the parent holding an iPad in the air to film it — there were several of those too.)

winter concert

The other night we all went to see Calvin perform at the middle school band and choir concert.

Calvin is in beginning band — they won’t be ready to perform until spring. Judging by the sounds I hear coming from his saxophone as he practices, that’s a wonderful Christmas gift to us all. The advanced band played Lady Gaga’s Poker Face and Taio Cruz’s Dynamite, along with a few other typical band pieces. They sounded way better than anything I ever heard from our middle school band.

Stretching her legs during intermission . . .
There’s my singer!

Hmm . . . don’t the shorter kids usually stand in the front row? In this case there were several tall boys in the front row completely blocking the kids behind them. I got a lot of awesome pictures of Tall Boy standing right in front of Calvin. Too bad I don’t know Tall Boy’s parents. I could have been their official photographer for the event.

7th & 8th grade combined choir

They sang a few songs that had nothing to do with holidays or winter, but they sounded nice. I spent most of my time zoomed in with my camera trying to time the swaying bodies to get a shot of . . .

this smiling guy. 

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.

“traditional” stockings

The sewing project that I’ve been working on for the last few days is almost completed. All that’s needed is a little ironing, a little hand sewing and some loops to hang the stockings.

Yep, I made “Omani” Christmas stockings. I was at a fabric and notions store where they sell all the beading and trimming for the abayas that the women wear here when inspiration struck. I decided to make abaya styled stockings for Camille and me and dishdasha stockings for the boys.


I taped a few pieces of printer paper together and cut a stocking shape out to use as my pattern. Then I cut out and sewed up the black fabric, applied the trims and embellishments by hand and then created a second plain stocking to use as a lining (the abaya fabric is lightweight so it would droop without a lining to help hold its shape). 

For the boys I used little boy sized dishdashas. I turned them inside out, pinned the pattern to the front, sewed around the edge of the pattern, and cut away the excess. The toe of the pattern hung over the edge of the dishdasha so I used the side seam as the edge (that’s why they have a blunt edge at the toe). I was going to add fabric to create a toe, but I like how it looks. 

Camille’s finished stocking. I’ll snap a photo of them once I get them all hanging, but couldn’t wait to share them.