Christmas 2010!

We just had the last of our houseguests for the holiday season leave today... and we are ready to rest, catch up on normal life, and jump into 2011. But - we have had such a great time seeing family and friends this season, and have a lot of fun photos and memories from it all that I want to remember to capture.

This Christmas, Eva was 2 (and 3/4) and was interested in being part of much of it with us. She loved singing (Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Frosty, Silent Night, and Feliz Navidad, were favorites), and asked me about the other songs that she didn't know yet; "Mommy, what this is about?"  She made Christmas cookies and her own mini cupcakes from a new baking set, got hand made aprons and books and Christmas decorations/ornaments all her own this year, and helped us decorate the tree - until she got bored :). She liked the movie "Small One" - about the donkey Mary rode, and "Lady and the Tramp" (the story starts with Lady being a puppy present under the tree, and ends with the whole dog family at Christmas under the tree), and sometimes liked "Frosty II" (but not the Jack Frost character). She was even interested in the Christmas story bedtime books and hearing about how Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus' birthday (and yes, she's already heard her mom tell her that Dec.25 is not really Jesus' birthday, but that we remember it then.) She also loved the various nativity sets we have around the house and that she could hold baby Jesus and arrange the animals that are part of the least fragile set.    

A few other favorite and funny Christmas-season memories:
- Eva being part of Santa Lucia at church with Leah, and stealing the show with their singing, asking for candy, and dueling candle routine.
- Eva helping light the advent candles on Christmas Eve in MI - and wanting to dance up front to the hymns and so ultimately having to leave the service :). "I Want To DANCCEEE!!!"
- Faithfully opening her advent calendar of fair trade chocolate with me every morning, and loving the sweet treat AND learning more of her numbers.
- Looking for inflated Santas and other yard decorations as we drove around our neighborhood; having her tell me which ones are fragile
- Eva rubbing  a present to her face before she opened it and cooing, "I just LOVE this," but then not really enjoying opening presents all that much.
- We made Swedish Meatballs from scratch this yr successfully, using mom's recipe, and they were fabulous!

- Playing with Bex and Lucy
- Hearing her snore while putting Josh to bed in the loft
- Eva sledding for the first time with Alicia, Dave, Josh and me
- Watching Eva ice skate with Tim, Meghan and Peter
- Decorating our new apartment for Christmas
- Building our first family snowman in the first fluffy snow of the winter, and how much she talked about it after that - even when it had melted
- Zoo Lights with Izey and Ando and the excitement of playing with their family on New Yrs Eve
- New Yrs party for the adults with the perfect mix of par-tay and chill!
- Having her look out over our dinner table when extended family were here and saying, "All my friends are here!" And how she whispered to Bo when they arrived, "I am so happy you are here!" 
- Sleepovers with Kaden and Anna on their way out and back from Seattle.
- Talking about the story of Christmas with her - I think her version is about this: "Baby Jesus used to be in Mary's tummy, and Mary rode a donkey, and wise men rode camels, but then he was born, and he didn't have any hair, but he was just a little baby, and he cried, and then he grew up to be big, and now he loves everyone."  Amen!

There is so much to be grateful for during this season, and beyond - and having a little mind and heart help us experience the joy, wonder, and story of Christmas makes it such a precious and fun time. Yeah for family and friends and holidays from work!

FYI, pictures for family in MI with VerHages and in Chicago with Mosbos are now on smugmug. And below is a little video of her preparing Christmas cards for people this year right before it all began. :)   Happy 2011!  

Santa Lucia - Ravenswood Style

Our church is almost 125 years old and has, for many of those years, celebrated the Swedish Christmas tradition of Santa Lucia. Now Peter is half Swedish, I am part Swedish somewhere in the mix, and we are immersed in the Swedish-Covenant culture of not only our church, but the historic ethnic roots that are part of the denomination I work for, am ordained by, etc. North Park U was my first real introduction to serious Swedish people - I had never seen so many Dala horses in my life! (Well, except for at Sheryl Peterson's house :) - but at school they were everywhere!) Anyway...

Eva was one of many girls and boys who dressed up this past Sunday for Santa Lucia Day at church - around the world this is a festival of lights and sweets that Swedes celebrate - yum!  She and her buddy Leah, who is only a few months younger then her, walked in the procession together following the older girls, and right before the star boys came in. They did pretty well too, with only a few tears and wandering steps during the songs and readings.

Then Eva and Leah stood up in front while the older kids did the program and alternately danced, watched the room with curiosity, and fought with their candles. It is very cute to watch how much Eva enjoys playing with her buddy Leah - Leah is one of our best bribes for encouraging Eva to go to church, go to nursery, go to softball, etc. etc. What a great little friend she has - and thankfully for us, Leah's got great parents too. :) Anyway - here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

 This shot of the dueling candles is my favorite, hands down! :)

 Being cute after the ceremony was done.

Buddies! We love you Leah :). 

Singing about Frosty...

Eva's Rendition of the Frosty Song

"Frossie... sow-MAN!
Corn cob... but- nose...
Two eyes... SOW!"

These snippets from the first verse of the 'Frosty the Snowman' song are now a pretty regular sound around our place. Eva will often sing this first thing in the morning (over and over), while standing up in her crib, or anytime she wants to read the Frosty book, or when talking to Grammie and Gramps on skype (the people who gave her said book and sang her the song.) Interestingly, she has also started saying 'call sky' when she wants to call someone online and use skype. I think we have a techno-toddler. :)

More Highlight Photo Collages from 2009

Below are a few more collages summarizing the past year for me. These are mainly from events that were too significant - and we had too many cute photos - for me to cut down and only splice into the seasonal summary collages. Most of these event collages revolve around a new little person in our family (I know, surprising, right?) So - in addition to the previously posted seasonal summaries, the following collages show Eva's first Christmas ('08), first birthday party, one-year-old photo shoot, and her baptism. I love to look over these again and remember each of these big events from our past year... we some amazing memories.  

Three Holidays and a Sermon

We just finished a very full long weekend - celebrating Thanksgiving, early Christmas, an 85th surprise Birthday, and then preaching for the first Sunday of Advent. After we got home tonight, I realized that this is one major event per day, for four days in a row. :) It was a lot of fun to see people in MI and enjoy family time during two holiday festivities! We got to hang with Josh and Kara who were here from Mpls and spend a morning at the Field Museum. Then we all drove to Peter's parent's place and met Alicia and Dave, who had made the long trek into town from D.C. Jill came over for the holiday celebrations too, and so it was a full VerHage family gathering! We even got to see Peter's cousins and much of his extended family who were in town to celebrate Peter's great-aunt Casey turning 85 - a surprise party that was so fun to see for such a sweet and tender-hearted lady.

Eva had great times with the everyone on our visit and took turns walking various people around the house by the finger, usually while saying 'come, come.' She also enjoyed chasing after the small chocolate soccer balls found in her stocking, and trying to pull out the pigtails that I kept re-doing in her hair. This morning, when we were back in town, she enjoyed the Bethlehem scene set up in the front of Sojourner Covenant Church where I spoke this morning. A beautiful miniature little town, complete with lighted star overhead and the scrolls of Isaiah resting on the floor, fills the stage at the front of the church.

We really had a good time at each event - and are feeling surprisingly rested and ready to start a "normal" week now. Yeah for Advent and the start of the holidays! Yeah for getting to appreciate family from near and far. Yeah for being invited to share the beginning of the Advent journey with a neat congregation. I am a fan. :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We're heading to Michigan to see Peter's family for Thanksgiving soon and have a holiday break. We'll also be opening Christmas presents with the VerHage side this weekend, so Eva has been busy making gifts and 'helping' me wrap gifts for the Xmas season. While I know some people try to hold off the impending and ever-earlier consumer start to Christmas, I say bring it on! Not the shopping, the hoarding, spending and worrying - but the beauty, the focusing on Advent, the twinkling lights and the fabulous music. I can't tell you how fun it is to have Bing Crosby crooning "What Child is This" through the speakers while I hum along and wrap up treasures and Eva gets stuck in piles of ribbons and colors her cards for people. I LOVE Christmas, and am excited to start teaching her more about what this season is all about this year as she is old enough to experience it much differently then her first Christmas. The holidays are here! And yes, we start early... I LOVE it.