Thursday, December 18, 2008

Our Snowbunny!

Our first big winter storm hit last weekend and left us with a winter wonderland outside! It really feels like Christmas now! Ellie was excited to go out in the first real snow of the year, and we had fun dressing her in her thick snow attire! Below, Ellie and Papa are getting ready to go out in the snow on another day of the storm...the snow was really showering down that afternoon.

Ellie Ferreira and Ellie Mae coming in from sledding. They weren't too sure about how they felt going down the hill with Joel, but they loved being pulled together in the sled on the flat ground. After a little bit of time, though, the two Ellies decided on their own that they wanted to go inside to play at Ellie Mae's house -- they must have been really cold to suggest leaving the great outdoors!
Allan snapped a few photos of Ellie in front of our tree the other day -- here are two of our favorites...

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Pause Family Christmas Party


There is a program at Hume called the Joshua Wilderness Institute, a nine month long program for college-age students that emphasizes intense study of the Bible, life skills, work ethic, evangelism, etc. The students have two Thursdays each month to "pause" from their hectic school, study and work schedules to spend time with a family (assigned for the year). We have been super blessed to be able to be Pause parents for the second consecutive year, along with our close friends, the Davies (we share one Pause family because our own children are still little enough to require a lot of our attention on any given night -- between the four of us adults, we figure they get the equivalent of at least two regular people!). We have six fantastic students and are having a terrific time getting to know them!

A tradition of Pause is the annual Christmas party and gingerbread house competition between all of the Pause families. Last year, Joel, Ellie and I were on a plane to Disney World during the party, and thus missed the festivities. During our absence, our family's very well-intentioned gingerbread scene (under the direction of the Davies) suffered a series of mishaps and ended up winning the award for "Most Inappropriate." Last night, we had the chance to redeem our group's standing -- any other award was to be considered a victory. Much to our excitement and surprise, we did not just win a different award, we won first place! (Well, technically runner up, but they decided that it wasn't fair for the staff entry to win, so the runner up became the first place -- whatever you call it, we'll take it!) We like to tease the Davies that this is the difference that our influence makes, but in reality, we'll give the credit to our students. :)

The first picture and the one below are of Ellie Mae and Ellie Ferreira singing Christmas carols. They had a great time together all night, and especially enjoyed tickling one of the Joshua students during the quiet story time!
Our Pause family hard at work: (left to right) Will (from South Carolina!), Damon, Julie, and Tom (they also had an ugly Christmas sweater competition, which explains Tom's fun stripes!).
Jake is another of our Pause kids, and loves the little ones! Connor and Olivia Davies are on his lap.
Here are a lot of us with the finished masterpiece: Jake, Tom, Brittany, Jen, Ellie Mae, Ashley, Breanna, Julie and Connor.
And the winner is..."Alone Time with God" - a depiction of the Wildwood fire that happened at the beginning of the year, rumored to have something to do with solo time in the woods, a campfire and a certain Joshua student. The fire was really put out by a helicopter with lots and lots of water, so our scene is fairly realistic! Poor student, but we hear that he is a good sport! :)

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Thanksgiving Week in Stockton

Thanksgiving Day with Two New Cousins!
Ellie has two adorable new cousins, Morgan (left) and Reese (right), born two weeks apart this summer. She has visited with them once before, and had a great time getting reacquainted on Thanksgiving Day. Ellie loves babies, so having two to follow around and "help" made for a terrific day! We were trying to capture Christmas pictures for my mom and Rupert's annual card in this series -- lots of cameras flashing and parents waving their arms in the background, especially when we finally got all three girls on the same chair!





Baby Ben Laponis
One of my closest friends from both high school and college, Mindy (Shore) Laponis, had her first baby in August. Mindy made the trip to Stockton from San Jose early in the week so that we could meet little Ben for the first time. We had a great time catching up and after 16 years of friendship (high school, Cal, Delta Gamma, bridesmaids...), it was so fun to get to see Min in her new role as a mommy! Ben is super cute! :) Ellie loved getting to spend the day with a baby friend!




Ellie Loves Lep Kuchen!
Our friend Elisa grew up with a wonderful Christmas tradition in her family involving Lep Kuchen (German spice cookies). Two Saturdays before Thanksgiving is "Batterday Saturday" and is the time to make multiple batches of the dough for these cookies. Each batch typically makes between 85 & 100 cookies, and needs to be refrigerated for a minimum of one week. The Saturday before Thanksgiving is "Lep Kuchen Day," the day for baking all of these wonderful treats! Elisa typically makes two batches, while her dad makes four -- the idea is to make enough to last for the season. When we all moved to Hume in 2002, we began to join the Watsons for these two traditional days. Over time, Lep Kuchen Day has come to symbolize the coming of Christmas to us, too. Last year, the Watsons moved back to Arizona :( , but Elisa and her family graciously gave us this recipe that has been in the family for generations, and let us keep the Hume branch of Lep Kuchen Day going! We baked our two batches while in Stockton, and were excited to find out that Ellie Mae loves Lep Kuchen as much as we do! Our hope is that this tradition will feel like her own as she grows up, so that when she is an adult, she can look back like Elisa and remember Lep Kuchen Day as a wonderful part of every Christmas. In these pictures, she has a cookie in one hand, a cup of milk in the other, and a big, happy smile (yes, it is the morning, but at least Lep Kuchen have nuts and dates!)!