December

Our December started quite deliciously, with lots of cooking and baking in response to the short daylight hours and cold temperatures.  In the photos below from top left in clockwise order: ginger syrup in one pot and cranberry pear sauce in the other, homemade blueberry pie and apple pie, Lucy making homemade biscuits, and a standard Saturday morning on the stove top - oatmeal for me, sausage and pancakes for Will and the kids.  I love making the cranberry pear sauce in bulk, and then putting a little bit in my oatmeal each morning - divine!  Sadly, cranberries are already out of season as I write this, so unless I can find a frozen source, I will have to wait until next November to make my favorite cranberry pear sauce again.

Here are all four girls below, on a typical homeschooling morning.  Opal keeps things interesting with her demands and short attention span, but with three older sisters, there is always someone able to take a shift with Opal while I work one on one with someone else.  The best innovation I have stumbled upon this school year is recording the girls' spelling dictation on the voice app on my phone, so I do not have to read them the same thing every single day for the week.  I can't believe I didn't come up with this sooner.  To have three different grades going at one time definitely requires efficiency and planning, especially when you add in a toddler on top of it.  We are still able to finish our school by lunchtime most days though, and I love how the girls seem to be motivated to be efficient as well.

 

There has been lots of indoor play this past month, and I just love it when all the sisters find ways to play peacefully together.  The next best scenario is when all four girls are content and playing on their own.  I wish I could say that these scenarios are typical, but as I feel the need to take a picture when it occurs, it is more rare than I would like.  The photos below in clockwise order from top left: all four girls settling in with their new library books, Will painting Opal's nails for the first time with all three big sisters encouraging her, paint by number "Van Gogh" artwork that the older three created, all four girls watching something on TV, a mermaid Violet drew, the older three girls building a craft project that Uncle Joe and Aunt Beth sent them for Christmas, a pile of "snowflakes" on my desk that probably added up to an entire ream of paper, and finally, Will and I depicted in Lego figures made by the girls. 

Violet continued with her mouth therapy this past month, and is doing a great job with all of the homework.  She can now hold a water bottle filled with marbles (that equals over a pound) with her lips!  The photos below in clockwise order from top left: Violet at mouth therapy, sitting proudly by a giant LOL toy she won as a prize, Violet and Opal doing yoga at home (with Charlie looking on from the door) when our yoga class was canceled due to sickness, and finally, Violet in a fort she made at the chiropractor's office.

We celebrated St. Nicholas on December 6th.  The girls were excited to find that their lists to Santa that they had left in their shoes the night before were replaced by chocolate coins, oranges and a new Lego Advent Calendar.

The girls had their annual dance benefit concert this past month, and it was the first time that Violet got to dance on a real stage.  She did great, and it was so nice to have three of my girls backstage with me while I volunteered.  It was an added bonus that our next door neighbor is now in dance with Violet, and that her mom can do some amazing makeup, a skill that I struggle with.  My kids were more than happy to let Ms. Fauzeen apply their makeup instead of me!

 After the recital, it was so nice to have hugs and kisses from their cheer squad - aunts, an uncle, grandparents, and of course their dad and little sister!

Will's dad's birthday was this past month, and the girls and I made three different kinds of cookies for his birthday present.  Grandpa T. has a sweet tooth, and the kids and I do too, so it was a really fun birthday present to make.  We split it up over several days, but made peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies, snickerdoodles, and oatmeal M&M cookies.

We also had lunch with our friend who has ectodermal dysplasia like Violet and her mom this past month.  I had never met her mom before, and so it was a fun and happy meeting.  The simple fact of sharing a genetic mutation with someone instantly makes them feel like family, and it is such a wonderful feeling to know that you are not alone in something.  It doesn't hurt that they are sweet, funny, and fellow foodies.

My cousin, my friend who is like a cousin (honestly they are both more like sisters to me) and I had a holiday craft day this past month with our kids and some of our husbands in tow.  It was such a fun afternoon.  Each of us brought a craft and/or food to share and we enjoyed eating and drinking holiday treats, good conversation and laughter, and some gorgeous crafts to bring home to decorate our houses.  I hope that we make this our new holiday tradition.

Things took a turn before Christmas.  We all got a cold, and our holiday prep was seriously crippled.  I did pull off a Christmas card this year, which was an improvement over last year, however the rest of the holiday prep went down to bare bones.

High fevers, coughs, body aches, chills and low energy were the trademarks of this cold, and Will was the only one who didn't catch it.  But, we had to cancel babysitters who were scheduled so that Will and I could finish up our Christmas shopping, and we had to cancel or postpone family gatherings.  Christmas Eve was probably the worst day of the entire sickness, not helped by the fact that the previous night Will and I were on one hour shifts to get Opal through the night as her cold turned into croup.  To make matters worse, a pipe burst in our basement, and I was still not completely recovered from my own cold.  The older three girls really pitched in to help, and we did what we could.  I was bummed to miss one of my favorite church service of the year - Christmas Eve mass, but we were in no shape to go anywhere.

Fortunately, Opal's fever broke on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas morning, we were all at least healthy enough to open presents and enjoy a quiet day together.

We ended up having one of the best Christmas's I can remember, with no place to go and no timeline.  

The kids seemed to really love their gifts from Santa, Will and I, and their sisters.  It is so lovely to see the sisters buy each other such personal and perfectly suited gifts with their own money for each other.

Highlights of the gifts include Lego sets and favorite books for all of the girls, a 3D pen and "real" nail polish (I found a brand that is the least toxic) and real pearl earrings for Lucy; a pogo stick, a "real" Craftsman toolset for Emma, and a Frozen drawing set, a scooter and a Calico Critter house for Violet, and everything Elmo for Opal.  Will made me frames out of old barn wood for some art prints I had bought earlier this summer, and Will got a new wallet from me.

The below photos perfectly sum up the Christmas day that we had.  In clockwise order from top left below: Violet testing out her new scooter in the house, a marble run set that the entire family received as a gift from Will and I that uses our existing Duplo Legos, complete with baking soda sprinkled on a fresh puke stain on the carpet, a gorgeous sunset walk we took, and the kids all playing with their new presents at the table.

Next year I hope to keep the sunsets and laid back feel of Christmas day, but ditch the puke, the burst pipe, and the up-all-night croup.  The rest of our Christmas break was equally laid back, as we slowly got better.  We had movie nights complete with picnics in the living room, almost every morning the girls and Will played a game before breakfast, I got to make two zippered pouches for Opal that I initially was going to make for Christmas presents for her, but she was equally as happy to receive on a random Tuesday of our break.  One pouch is for her little Sesame Street characters, and another is for a chicken and egg balancing game that was missing it's box.

It snowed over Christmas break, which was awesome, as it gave the girls lots of fun outside.  You can see in the below picture of Opal that she was still not feeling well.  Poor baby!

This was the first Christmas in our 12 years of missing Luke that we didn't get his grave blanket decorated and on his grave before Christmas.  When we were finally feeling up to it, we did simple ornaments made out of buttons (it is always a challenge to come up with a new waterproof ornament for his grave blanket each year, but this year my nieces and nephews inspired us with their homemade button ornaments), and then decorated and brought his grave blanket to the cemetery.  I love that we have this tradition to include Luke in our holidays.

Luke is never forgotten, and there is not a day that goes by when we do not think of him.  The holidays always magnify the missing, but it is a comfort and a joy to have so many opportunities to include his name - from ornaments on our tree, to signing his name on our Christmas cards, to hanging a stocking for him along with the rest of ours.  

A few days after Christmas we were able to celebrate with our families.  Christmas is not a day, it is a feeling, and we definitely had that feeling when we were with our families.

 Although some siblings of mine were out of town, state and even country, we enjoyed seeing our parents, two of my siblings, and Will's brother and partner.  We also were fortunate that our extended Timmerman side postponed their holiday get together for us and we got together with some aunts and uncles for a fun game night.

Will's uncle snapped this photo of us at their house for the game night, and would you believe that it was the only family photo we got the entire holiday season?  We usually get a family photo at church, but since we didn't go this year, we had only selfies from the holidays.  What a bonus that Will's uncle got this great photo of us!

Here's to a healthy and happy New Year for all of our friends and family, and for the ability to create laid back days without sickness forcing it upon us!