what's up weekly. (advent edition.)

Well, it is now December, and we've hit the ground running! I wasn't around last week because I was at church, helping to decorate and cook in preparation for a brunch we had last Saturday.  Dr. James White joined us for a Psalm Sing on Friday night, and then joined us again Saturday morning for food and a teaching on the topic of Christmas.  

Right after the brunch, we headed out for home because Atticus was having some friends come over to celebrate his birthday and we needed to get pizza in the oven.  It was his first "friends" party, and it was a blast.  Everyone played Voorst Ball and ate pizza and had a grand old time.  

I can't believe he is fifteen.  I have a fifteen year old son.  What a weird thing to grapple with, mentally.  And what's even weirder is that he is a complete and total delight.  Everyone talks about how hard the teenage years are, but we just must not have gotten to the hard part yet because I love this stage.  He is funny, witty, thoughtful, kind, interesting.  He is a hard worker.  He is respectful, and respected by the people who know him.  He has great friends, keeps up with his school work, plays with his younger siblings.  (Oey tries calling him "Ad" like we do, but it ends up coming out as "Dad," and it's adorable.  She comes up to him and puts her arms up for him to cuddle her, saying, "Dad! Dad!"  She asked him to put a barrette in the other day and it was so cute watching him try to figure out how to do her hair.)  There just isn't a part of his current stage of life that isn't enjoyable.

We have spent the rest of our December so far (how is it half over already?!) doing Adventy things.  We kicked off our celebrations with a screening of Muppets Christmas Carol.  Well, everyone else screened Muppets Christmas Carol.  I fell asleep pretty early on and slept through the whole thing.  This pregnancy has been no joke - I can't keep my eyes open if I sit still too long without something to be doing.  Movies, audiobooks, Story Club read-alouds, the episodes of Frasier Todd and I have been watching before bed - it's all fodder for the nap mill.  I was sad to miss the Muppets (and then Home Alone earlier this week) but it can't be helped.

There I am on the far left, completely unresponsive.  It's bordering on a medical concern.

Continuing in our documentation of Advent happenings, St. Nicholas visited us on December 6 and brought us a haul of goodies.  Dutch chocolate, marzipan, letters, cookies, and chocolate coins.  He also brought oranges, but I don't think those were Dutch-made.

We buckled down and stayed focused, and got our schoolwork done so we could start Christmas break a little early this week.  All we have to finish up (and nap to) today is another installment of Jim Dale's Peter Pan.  It has been a slight challenge because Atticus has been really under the weather the last few days, so he's needed to take things slowly, but it all got done and we are about to be officially on break for three weeks!

We gathered in the bathroom to better see our star maps.

There is a plague going around the church, and Atticus seems to be the only one to have caught it.  It's not too bad, he's just really tired and has a fever that comes and goes.

The big kids decided to do some school outside so that Atticus could get some fresh air.  I love having a deck.

The Elephant in the Room is big and beautiful and also dead as a doornail.  There are needles ALL OVER THE PLACE, and because it's such a huge tree, there are so many needles falling every day.  I will be lucky to limp this guy past the finish line of Christmas morning; I have pretty low hopes of nursing it all the way through Epiphany.  We shall see what happens.

And that brings us to today.  It's Ophelia's birthday today!

She is such a funny thing.  She tags along with the big kids like she belongs right there in their midst.  She loves participating in church, saying "Amen!" along with the congregation and singing along during hymns.  Every book she finds is a hymnal, and she carries it around the house, singing.  Her favorite thing lately is to carry around some toy or doll (anything works), bouncing and patting it and saying, "Shh shh shh shh shh."  She refuses to sleep with a pillow and still sucks on her sheet while she sleeps, and she gets really mad when I change the sheets because her "nap" (smelly, spitty spot) is then gone and she has to make a new one.  She LOVES sleeping and still sleeps a ton - her afternoon nap is typically 4-5 hours!  She goes to bed early, wakes up late, and gets excited and runs straight to her room when I tell her it's time for bed.  She tells me she needs a diaper change by simply saying, "GWOSS. GWOSS."  She is the snuggliest little Christmas elf and we are so happy to celebrate her birthday!  Tomorrow we'll have a party here with my parents.

And that is our busy, full, fun first half of December.  I still have a little Christmas shopping to do, which I hate - I usually try to have everything done in November to leave December open just for partying, but I wasn't feeling well all through November so I have to do it now.  And I'm coming down to the wire and still need to iron out a few ideas! Gah!  I'm going to brave Walmart this morning (yet another thing I try to avoid in December) to see if I can get any last minute inspiration.  Wish me the best of luck, and it was nice knowing you if I don't make it out alive.