Christmas Day

 Our tradition is to do Christmas Eve with the Brindley's, Christmas morning just the four of us, then Christmas day go to my parents. Later in the afternoon my in-laws join us for dinner. It's really quite perfect. So these pictures are at my parent's house opening presents with my family.




Cousins gather at the tree. Ellie, Lilia & Alex. Olivia was too little to sit with the big kids.

Alex got an Avengers shirt and it came with an airplane that you fling with a rubberband. I think, no I know Matt loved it way more than Alex. Matt even took it outside to see how it would fly.

 Ellie is such a fun age (17mo). She comes into the house and all she says is, "Ooohhh, ooowwwhh," with lots of fluctuation in her voice. It's so cute!





Olivia is such a good baby. She was 3 months on the 26th. She loves attention already. AnnMarie put her in her carseat just to chill and she started to fuss after a few minutes. I went over to her and started talking to her and she was smiling and interacting with me so much. My brother said that she just wants the attention. It's amazing that she's so young and her personality is already coming out.

                           





                             My parents with Olivia.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning

 So much work goes into Christmas. The time spent on buying the right presents for everyone on your list and taking the time and care to wrap things. For each of the kids I started last year making their own gift "tags" which mark their stockings and their own presents. I started it last year because they shared a few presents and neither of them could read. I've carried on the fun, but time consuming tradition this year. Lilia's gift tag was the shape of a horse and Alex's was the shape of a monster truck.
In thinking about all the time put into Christmas, I feel like we all did a good job focusing on Jesus' birth throughout the month of December. We spent time talking about it as a family and reading the stores in our Bibles.

 This year Alex is into super heros. We also gave him his first Batman skateboard. Maybe we're nuts? Although when he first stepped on it he said, "You should wear a helmet with one of these." Ah, he's so responsible for a boy!

 Lilia is still super into animals, especially horses. She got lots of horse stuff, art stuff and her absolute favorite present was her real first aid kit. She asked me almost every day leading up to Christmas, "Mommy did you get me a first aid kit?" I would only respond with, "Do you trust me?' Thankfully she said she did.

We got the kids nerf guns so they can play spy with each other and get mom and dad.

Christmas Eve

 My in-laws came over Christmas Eve for brunch and presents. Everyone got great stuff. I think the kids highlights were horse slippers for Lilia and an Avengers rolling backpack for Alex.
Church was really nice. It was so perfect to come out of church as beautiful white flakes fell from the sky.
The service was shorter and there is no childcare so we told the kids to pack stuff to bring. The only criteria was that it couldn't make noise. Alex stuffed his new backpack with all kids of things. Towards the end of church he pulled out a red super hero cape he got for his birthday and asked us to put it on. It was hard not to laugh!

Grammy & Grandpop's

 Last weekend the kids spent the night at Dave's parent's house.
Lilia spent a lot of time with her best dog-friend, Lily. (Aunt Karen's dog.) In fact Lilia got Lily the dog a Christmas present this year, however no person received a present.

 The kids also helped Grammy and Grandpop decorate their adorable little tree.













The kids played outside gathering sticks, pine needles and leaves to make a nest.

Our Annual Chinese Christmas Party

 Saturday night we hosted our Christmas party for Drexel students. This year we also invited our Curtis students (pictured on right, the 2 girls in gray and black). This was the first time many of them were not only hearing the Christmas story, experiencing Christmas activities in an American's home as well as hearing the good news of Jesus.

Lilia the Teacher

During our Christmas party we spent some time singing Christmas carols all together. Lilia asked ahead of time if she could teach the Chinese students one of the songs from her Christmas concert.

As Dave was driving some of our guests home Dave was beginning to explain what Lilia wanted to be when she grows up. Someone chimed in say, "an actor!" We all had a good laugh about that one!

Lilia's Christmas Concert

 This is the elementary school singing. Lilia is on the bottom row on the left between the two heads sitting down.

Lilia's Christmas Concert Video

Last night was Spruce Hill Christian School's Christmas concert. It was so cute! Now, as you watch this video please bear with the hand that occasionally goes up in front of Lilia's face. I love the motions and how into she gets. I had to end the video because I was laughing and it was shaking too much.

Santa!!

I believe it was last year that I very tactfully explained to Lilia that Santa is not real. I also very clearly explained to her why she can't tell other children and she has been really good about it. I wouldn't trust Alex with such news, but I trust her.
I grew up believing in Santa for a long time. I figured it out maybe by 7 or 8 when I matched the handwriting on the gift tags to my mom's handwriting.
I told Lilia the truth about Santa because I want her to understand that Santa doesn't being presents, but we give one another gifts to celebrate and remember that God gave us His greatest gift; His Son Jesus.
This year has been funny. Lilia has been so excited about Santa. She told me, "I know he's not real, but I'm excited for Santa to bring me presents." She even wrote Santa a list.
Alex takes so many of his cues from Lilia and he has also expressed his excitement in Santa. He has even said, "I miss Santa," at one point.
I don't regret telling her the truth, but it is so fascinating to me that she longs to believe in Santa.
I'm looking forward to Christmas this year and watching the kids unwrap lots of presents. I love their excitement and expressions with each time they rip open Christmas paper. Especially at the ages they are now (3 & 5) it's so sweet, fun and beautiful!

Family

Our Family Christmas Tradition

 Dave, myself, and the kids drive to Wata Farm in Quakertown where we meet up with my parents as well as my brother, sister-in-law and their kids to cut down our own Christmas tree.
Bundled up and with our cart and saw we head into the trees to find the best one.

The Brindley's Tree

Dave cutting down our tree 

Alex was SOOO cold.

The Styles' Tree

Olivia, AnnMarie, Matt & Ellie (17 mo)

 What I really love about this tradition is that we are all together.
Everyone is helping one another, whether it is watching over the kids running through the trees or holding the tree while someone is cutting theirs down. It's really so much fun!

Matt cutting down their tree

"Libby"

This is my second and newest niece, Olivia. Matt and AnnMarie call her "Libby" for short. She is 2 months old. She is such a good baby and so stinkin' cute!

Lilia's Quote of the Day

We are doing advent readings over dinner each night, which I believe is what triggered this question from Lilia.
"What is God's phone number?"
I responded, "He doesn't have one. You just pray to talk to God."

She then asked, "What is God's address?"
I made one up..."777 Golden Street Lane, Heaven of the Universe."

She then proceeded to repeat it over and over with the attempt to memorize it.

Christmas in the City

On Saturday, December 15, the Center City District will host this exciting FREE festival from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Talk about fun! There will be a Holiday Treasure Hunt, Karaoke sing-a-long with Frosty the Snowman, plus seasonal arts and crafts. Children will enjoy Story Art, presented by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Free Library of Philadelphia; Snowflake Science, courtesy of the Franklin Institute; Cold Weather Creatures, presented by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University; and Cookie Decorating at Milk & Honey Café. The Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s Young Performers Choir will offer a concert of songs of the season.

To top it all off, Santa will be there! Make sure to bring your camera, and get ready to enjoy exciting, kid-friendly WINTERFEST!

A Chinese Thanksgiving

 Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed over to the Chinese church Dave works with for a special program and dinner. Lilia was thrilled to see some of her Chinese friends from school. She had a great time with them.
The audience was a sea of Chinese faces hear songs, skits and preaching of the gospel. I understood NOTHING, but I loved being there. It felt like 2 things...
1. I was in China for a stretch of time, but the atmosphere was with Christians, so many Chinese Christians. It was beautiful.
2. It was a glimpse of heaven.

After the program, which was all in Chinese (naturally for a Chinese audience) we had a big feast together. They prepared Turkey and all the fixins...egg rolls, peas & shrimp and seaweed. Dessert was red bean soup with tapioca balls. I tried most things. I liked most things, but not enough to go back for seconds.

Rittenhouse Tree Lighting

I believe we have a new family tradition. On Wednesday we trekked over to Rittenhouse Square for their annual tree lighting ceremony. We walked over with another family who has recently joined our team, the Flenners. Lilia and Alex adore their kids. Afterwards we walked back to their house and all had dinner together. It was a really great night that we hope to do year after year.

Peddler's Village

Every year my parents go to Peddler's Village with their friends to experience the tree lighting ceremony. This year the kids and I got to go because Dave was away at a conference.
As you gather around in the dark, the countdown begins, 10, 9, 8, 7...3, 2, 1! Suddenly it's as bright as day as every tree, bush and even building is covered in an assortment of colored lights.

Horses and Tractors

Lilia and Alex were in their glory on Saturday as we spent the afternoon at Tony and Patty's.
Lilia got to feed the horses carrots and help Patty get their dinner together. She also got to ride Crem, a former race horse.
Alex got to ride on the gator around their 23 acres, as well as help Tony drive this small digger-type machine.

Tony & Patty's House

 Tony has been cutting trees for his whole career. As a result he is an incredible ability to make any and everything with wood.
This is their house. Someone came in to custom build the house, but Tony made a lot of the furniture in the house, including the banister and rails on the stairs and second floor.
My mom and I requested some tree cookies (a sliver of a tree trunk). We all headed out to his wood shop, which is bigger than our down stairs, to come cut some goodies.