Thank you Santa!!!!

I'm so excited to tell you what I'm doing when I'm not blogging these days!!!! After much research, advice, and shopping around...the DeBoers now own a

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS

It will be weeks before I have everything figured out but that's half the fun!

Non- Traditional

That kind of sums up our Christmas Eve celebrations and this year is no exception. We had such a fun day though!!! (Yesterday was awesome too, Craig got his G1, and had his first job interview!!)

Earlier in the day we were able to go see the Olympic Torch come through our town. It was so neat to see so many people downtown. It is fun to see everyone's Facebook status updates to say they were there. Afterward we came home, had some hot chocolate and got ready to go for a run. Ray, Blixie and I ran, and the boys went skating on the lagoons. Then home again, pop the lasagna in the oven and wait for supper. Write out a few cards..have a glass of wine. Joe made caesar salad. Yum!

We also had a fun movie night together, and watched "Field Of Dreams", one of our favourites. (The boys were skeptical that something on "tape" could actually be worth watching, but they ended up really liking it!)

It's hard to have traditions when there are so many "firsts" and "once in a lifetime" events occurring. Maybe our tradition will be to just continually embrace spontaneous situations as they arise, even during holidays. :)

Jammin'

I'm sure everyone has taken in at least one candle-light service over the past week or so...well maybe not the people who are camping in the back-country in Kenya, but almost everyone...

A few friends and I stayed after the morning service to transform the sanctuary from Advent purple to Christmas Day white. The tree is wrapped in white, we use LOTS of extra lights, and we bring in extra greens, reds, and grasses. We add candles to all the ledges, bring in lanterns and extra lit trees. It is one of my favourite transformations of the liturgical season...so celebratory and festive.

The service was lovely, mostly in the dark, the trees and candles glowing, the words on the powerpoint projector, and the kids were oh-so-cute. The coffee and cookies fellowship time was very gezellig and then people began to go on their homeward way. There are always a few people who stay later and chat which is such fun, unless I'm doing the chatting and Ray wishes we were done and ready to be on our homeward way:)

Just as the last dishes were being put away, the sound of "Shine, Jesus Shine" came out of the sanctuary on the piano....and some drums (I wonder who that could be....) and before long it was a duet. Joe and Jeremy playing alongside each other. It was so cool! And when they finished we all clapped...

Joe has always thought the school should have a praise band. Jeremy's mom thought it was a neat idea too....hmmmm.

On the Turntable Today

You will be pleased to know that there is now ...some...Christmas music being played at the DeBoer house. I really couldn't listen to "Let It Be" by the Beatles one more time. (Sorry Craig!). (See what happens when your kids grow up and get "good taste" and fiddle with your playlist!). I had an afternoon of wonderful quiet letter writing ahead of me...and it was time to change the tunes.

1. Disc One of WOW Christmas - fave track? hmmm...don't have one
2. Kevin Ramessar - Acoustic Christmas - fave track? #7 WhatChild Is This? (It has a really great mandolin part in it...)
3. Need To Breathe - Heat -fave track- #5 We Could Run Away (..Not because I want to run away...well, sometimes....but it has awesome keychanges. Craig & I both like it!!)
4. Disc Two of WOW Christmas -fave track? Definitely #15 Little Drummer Boy, by Audio Adrenaline. ( So NOT a Christmas rendition... the ultimate un-Christmas Christmas music.
5. Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong - fave track...the whole album...great to play when you have company over for a glass of wine!!

Blog Surfing

Have you ever spent a "few minutes" blog surfing....where you just keep clicking on NEXT BLOG? Wow! Somehow Blogger directs you to blogs with similar content. Not always but often. I've found some REALLY cool and some really disturbing ones. It's fun to go to your favourite ones...like a photography one and surf the ones that follow. There are so many talented people out there!!! Writers, creaters, crafters.....and especially do-ers!

I started a traffic feed widget a month or so ago and it's been fun to see where people are from when they stop by here. It's fun to see the international traffic, one friend of mine had a visit from "Yerushalim". How random.....maybe they were just surfing too.

So somedays, I am a random visitor on a random page, one day I visited Singapore...and they had such neat comments about life...partly in English.

It's actually not a great thing to do on a busy day....time flies by so fast....and the things on your to-do list are left undone. It is HIGHLY addictive...so I probably shouldn't be writing about it and sharing how FUN it is.

Sorry.

You HAVE to See My Cookies!!!!

We celebrated Sinterklaas this past weekend. Ray and I got the boys a little something, and each of them something for each other and for us. Joe and I got Craig a big clunky watch, which he LOVES, Craig got Joe a trucker's cap with Olympics 2010 on it, which he LOVES. And Ray and Joe got me new slippers.

Not just any slippers. Warm, fuzzy slippers with rubber bottoms, so they don't wear out so fast.
We call them my "Cookies" because they are fuzzy and blue like Cookie Monster. Joe wants red ones for his birthday. He's going to call them... his "Elmos".

On the Turn Table Today...

I am no where near dedicated enough to blogging to pull of the Lyric of the Day....

What I'm listening to today:

1. Disc One of WOW Worship 2010...
2. Need to Breathe - Heat
3. Mark Schultz - Come Alive (Yes Tineke! I agree with you about song #3!!)
4. Disc Two of WOW...
5. empty....
   

I can't quite bring myself to listen to Christmas music yet...just not there this year. I've tried and tried....decorated outside and inside, shopped, made some cards.... Nothing yet...

A Funny Thing Happened While I Was at the Arena Last Night....

Joe and Craig had the late game last night at 9:30pm, which is their favourite time slot! Our regular goalie wasn't able to make it so a friend, Cody, who played in net during the previous time slot, stepped in. Half way through the third period, Cody's leg came off. (He has had a prosthetic leg since he was a baby.) The players from the opposite team took a knee, which is what you do when there is an "injured" player on the ice. Joe decided that he would just sit on the ice and wait. The repair took a few minutes and Joe laid back, leaning on one elbow, and eventually....there he was.... making a snow angel at centre ice. Typical Joe.

A point to illustrate how full of thoughts my head is lately.....I proceded to tell Craig this morning about the funny thing that happened at the game. He said, "I know Mom, I was there. Thanks for coming to MY game!" He was smiling at the time.

I have a friend who said, "Wherever you are, BE there!" I'm trying really hard to practise that...