Christmas 2008 -- Emme's First Christmas, Four Missing Front Teeth, and a Christmas Miracle

In a flash, Christmas has come and gone again. I have already taken down all my Christmas decorations, ready for the new year and new beginnings. Christmas 2008 was at times hectic, at times peaceful, and at times special. In its simple way, Christmas this year helped remind us what Christmas every year should be about -- giving without any expectation of anything large or small in return. That is what Christ did and who He is. Here are some highlights from Christmas Break 2008:

On December 19, Stephen had the opportunity to go to Sophie's school and open doors, read to her class, and eat lunch with her. Bella Blue came along for the reading and lunch time. They had a fantastic day together.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to bring dinner, music, gifts, and sugar cookies over to my mom and grandpa Taylor and spend the evening with them. We ate, decorated cookies, talked, opened a few gifts, and enjoyed the time together. It turned out to be a special evening.

Christmas morning brought a Christmas miracle. The unofficial version goes like this. Among the many gifts and trinkets that the girls and Harrison received from Santa, Sophie and Bella each got a Furberry. Of course, Harrison wanted one but didn't have one in his pile (note to Santa, next year get them all the same exact things!). So, after many minutes of tugging and warring over the Furberries (and thanks to overbuying on Amazon.com) a knock sounded on the front door out of the blue, and when the kids came running from the backyard to see who it was, there on the front step was a third Furberry and a note from Peetie, Santa's Chief Elf and Spy. Peetie explained in his note to the kids that this third Furberry had fallen off of Santa's sleigh, Rudolph found it and told Peetie about the mishap, and Peetie, doing his elfly clean-up duties, was delivering the wayward gift. A Christmas miracle indeed! All were content (for at least 30 minutes anyway).

Later Christmas day, we gathered with Stephen's family at his parent's house for food and games. We actually tried something new this year and got together on December 21 to exchange gifts and have dinner (partly because some extended family members were going to be away on Christmas and partly to avoid the overwhelming nature of a Christmas gathering with 25-30 people). It seemed to work out fine, but it probably just resulted in one extra day of gathering because we basically did the same thing, sans the gifts and a few people, on Christmas.

And the best gift this year, other than the important ones discussed above? Lucky the Wonder Pup. Better than a real dog, at least for a few more years. As you can see, what Sophie really needed was her two (four!) front teeth, but Lucky is what she wanted and what she got. And I'll be darned if the dog doesn't do all the tricks, upon voice command, the commercials promise. Meanwhile, Harrison would rather color ("codor") in the dollar store coloring book that he got than play with the many toys he and his sisters received. It figures.

My Favorite Things!!

We had fun putting up all of our Christmas decor on Monday, December 1. Stephen put the reindeer in the backyard this year (due to the crazy teenagers constantly arranging our three reindeer in compromising positions last year ;)). Harrison thinks they are dogs, and calls them "goggies." After the kids finished hanging ornaments, the bottom of the tree was densely decorated, while the rest of the tree was bare. But they had fun, and that's the most important part!

We also took some holiday pictures of the kids. Let's just say that 7:00 in the evening is not the best time to take pictures of little kids, but we made it through the photo session anyhow and got some good shots. Harrison had to have a sucker and feed his stuffed "goggie" the sucker before he would cooperate. Sophie showed off her missing front teeth, two on the bottom and one on the top. The second one on the top is loose, and maybe this year will see Santa and the Tooth Fairy team up for a Christmas Fairytale Miracle. Bella never takes a bad picture. She smiles and the camera smiles back. And little Emme raised her three-month-old head for a few candid shots before she laid her sweet face on the backdrop and started to dose off. These kids are truly my favorite things.

First Post -- Thanksgiving Week 2008

Well, after fighting the blogging wave for a while, we have decided to ride it instead. Hopefully, we don't become a parody (see here). But like our pioneer ancestors, a compulsion to journal our lives for the benefit of our progeny is strong. So, we hope to document a piece of the past and present, as well as a few peeks into the future, through words, pictures, and video. Here goes.

This was an eventful Thanksgiving week for the Calverts. Aside from the usual Thanksgiving Feast and Festivities (which included devouring a terrific meal at the McMurray's home with most of Stephen's family, all of whom live around the Greater Houston Area, seeing a movie -- Bolt, and watching the Aggies get drummed) , we had dinner and spent time with many old and new friends. And to make things even more fun, Stephen sliced his big toe open on a mulch bed guardrail (sandals and sharp metal do not mix well) while on his daddy-daughter date with Sophie and Bella (the folks at Sweet and Sassy were none too pleased to have his bleeding big toe in their store), and the cut was bad enough to land us in the ER Thanksgiving Eve where he received 7 stitches, 1 tetanus shot, and depressing orders to avoid playing in the Turkey Bowl the next day.


The highlight of the week was probably going to College Station on Saturday to look at some land (we have a crazy notion of buying land close to College Station some day soon, but like all of our crazy notions, its realization is tenuous at best), spend some time on campus, meet the Carruths for dinner at Freebirds, and go to Santa's Wonderland. If you have never gone to Santa's Wonderland, and you live close enough to College Station to make the easy trip, I would recommend it. The drive-through light show is spectacular, and Santa's Village, which is next door, is full of live music, shops, pony rides, food, campfires, outdoor movies, and fake snow. The kids had a blast, even though Harrison was a little terrible twosish and Bella almost got left at the gate on our way out.


Here are some pictures for evidence of the week's events. The first two are of the kids on campus, the next three are set at Santa's Wonderland, the next one features the Crager girls, and the last is Stephen's diced toe.


Now it is time to put up our Christmas Decor, take our Christmas Card photo, and finish (start?!) Christmas shopping. I love this time of year!!