Santa Fe Christmas

We were fortunate to spend a week in gorgeous Santa Fe at David and Judy's home there. It was a great escape-plenty of rest, renewal, celebrating and lots of family time. Ben sums it up with, "Best Christmas ever! I love Santa Fe!"

Snow kids

It isn't really Christmas time until we make sugar cookies

Clara and Ben showing off their meditation skills

One of our favorite Clara photos

Sassy, the wonder dog checking out the sunset

So nice to have time together

Sweet Ben relaxing by the fire in our room on Christmas Eve

We are thankful for our dreamy white Christmas, here's to the beginning of a new year filled with fresh adventures, growing kiddos and hopefully, more sugar cookies.

Christmas in Santa Barbara

It was a Christmas season unlike any other— some moments were filled with the shadows of longing and sadness, but the moments of joy, love and generosity (both given and received) shined much brighter. Some of our highlights:

Ben marched with his karate class (Mark too) in the downtown Christmas parade. The girls cheered from the sidelines (with hot cocoa and cake pops) and took in all the bands, floats, dancers and general crowded, chaotic, merry cheer. Ben's group won the "Most Spirited" award and his enthusiastic punches and kicks had to help them win that title. Clara taking it all in, whispered in Leah's ear, "I think I really love lights on palm trees."

With 98% of our Christmas decorations in storage (save our stockings and Maurice, our elf on the shelf) our decorating for the season was limited. On our trip to Home Depot to get a little tree, we surprised the kids by letting them get this blow-up penguin (which under "normal" circumstances, would never pass the Leah Christmas decoration test). "Lucky" seemed to enjoy his new owners and will end being a wonderful reminder of this Christmas (although, in future Christmas seasons his home will be outside).

An afternoon family movie date to see the Muppet movie was fun for everyone, a great trip down memory lane for the old people and new enchantment for the young people. Both kids got their own snack pack, which was just as exciting, if not more so, than the movie.

One of the best moments of our advent season was making ornaments and then decorating a tree at the cemetery for Erik and Jordyn Kester. The kids approached the task with childlike pride and exuberance matched with tenderness and love. Before we left the cemetery Ben said a prayer, "Dear God, thank you for everything. Thank you for the whole world and please be with the people in heaven that we love. Amen."

On our annual family date night (where we trade-off one-on-one shopping excursions with the kids) Mark and Leah both treasured spending another Christmas season in Santa Barbara, especially enjoying the lights and bustle of State Street with the little people we love.

Family pizza picnic night in front of the fire concluded with the kids giving their handmade gifts from preschool. Best presents, ever.

Maurice, our elf on the shelf, seemed to enjoy his new digs.

We attended Mass at the Santa Barbara Mission, the service was gorgeous and moving (did it really take us all these years to finally attend a service there?). Afterward, we enjoyed the nativity with live animals and of course, running around the rose garden.

The only ornaments on our tree were ones Ben and Clara crafted at preschool. It may just be the most beautiful tree we ever had.

Before heading to Santa Fe for Christmas, we surprised the kids with a "Family Christmas" celebration. We had been stashing away gifts sent from friends and family throughout the month. The kids came home from the park to find a tree laden with presents, music playing, lights twinkling and excited parents. It was so much fun.

Ben and Clara both received custom, superhero capes made by Aunt Kaitlin. 

While we look forward to next year with hopes of being more settled and secure,   we are thankful for all the blessings that surround us right now, right here. With hearts full of love and holiday cheer we say, Merry Christmas! 

Hands of Grace

Last Advent season we started a new family tradition, our Hands of Grace day. It is a day during the Christmas season where as a family we do an act of service in memory and in honor of sweet Grace. It turned out to be a wonderful way to remember that beautiful baby girl and to do something to make her part of this season of celebration and family.

A month or so back, we did a clean water experiment with a science kit Ben had gotten for his birthday. You concoct dirty water then build a filter system to make the water clean. We jumped on this teaching moment to talk to the kids about how there are so many children that don’t have clean water and because of that, they can get sick, and many die. We talked about how such a simple, everyday thing we take for granted is a life-changing gift for so many people. To us, it seemed like the kids were tuning out our teaching lesson as they watched the muddy water go through the filter system.

But then a week later as Leah was in the car with Ben she mentioned this year’s Hands of Grace project and asked what he thought we should do…go sing for the folks at the nursing home? Deliver groceries to a family in need? Ben said, “What if we raise money for clean water? What if we could help so babies wouldn’t die?” Clara was excited too and started talking about how lucky she is to have clean water, “so I can stay hydrated.” Ben was so excited and started brainstorming all the ways we can raise money, from a lemonade stand to a garage sale— but here’s the glitch— we live on the Riviera, a part of Santa Barbara that sits on a hill, with crazy curvy roads, no sidewalks and little foot traffic.

We decided to reach out across cyberspace and ask for help. In doing our research we discovered that it takes $1 to give clean water for a year to one person. We would love if you would consider sending $1 for every person in your family. Ben and Clara are committed to sending personal thank you’s to everyone who helps. If you wish to make a donation online please go to http://www.water.cc/give (let us know so we can get you a thank you) and if you are in the Santa Barbara area and would welcome two cuties with their metal buckets knocking on your door, give us the word and we are there. They would love to talk to you about why this project is so important (Clara is a very persuasive asker/demander).

Ben and Clara are each giving 10% of what they have in their personal savings accounts. Ben said, “Is it okay if I don’t give all the money in my savings account?” We explained that is what is so amazing about people working together, if everyone just gives a little, together it adds up to a lot.  With our Hands of Grace project this Advent season we are doing our best to give something of meaning and life in honor of Grace Guiry Watson. She was with us for such a little time, but it'll always add up to a lot in our hearts. 

Simple Christmas

We are finding our way through a very different advent season. This year, there are no boxes of decorations to bring down from the attic to trim our little home with memories dating back to our childhood Christmases. Leah is in the middle of a big project at work, which means more long and demanding days at the office and less gingerbread houses, glitter snowflakes and afternoon hot cocoa picnics. With our future still uncertain and a house still to be sold in NC, the pile of presents under the tree will be smaller and our shopping lists for giving shorter. It can feel like all the celebrating going on around us just shines a glaring light on this temporary, unsettling season of life.

With determination we begin this Christmas season with a commitment to embrace the differentness of it all. There is no sense trying to recreate something that is impossible given our current circumstances. We look for new ways to embrace what is here, right now— lights strung on palm trees, a parade down State Street, holiday books from the library, a hot cocoa date at Starbucks, freedom from addressing 100 Christmas cards, watching the boat parade of lights from the deck…and find the ways to weave a few treasured traditions in too— a pizza picnic in front of the fire, welcoming Maurice, our Elf on the Shelf, to California, family advent celebrations and cuddle dates on the sofa with Charlie Brown and Frosty.

Our hope this Christmas season is what Barbara Brown Taylor says, “While none of these displacements was pleasant at first, I would not give a single one of them back. I have found things while I was lost that I might never have discovered if I had stayed on the path.” We set off on this different path with hope that this simple Christmas may lead to discoveries within our hearts that center us on the true spirit of this season— a love that came down and gave abundantly. Challenging our eyes to not focus on what isn’t there, but instead to be amazed and awed by the riches of love, family, faithfulness, forgiveness and hot cocoa with lots of marshmallows that hold us close, hold us together. Maybe that’s all we need to have ourselves a merry little Christmas.

Forceful

We continued our OC cousinfest with a trip to the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana, which is currently featuring—you guessed it—a Star Wars exhibit. 

It was truly spectacular, featuring authentic costumes, props, models, behind the scenes video commentary, a hovercraft ride, Millennium Falcon simulator and more. We highly recommend it to any SW geek/cool guy in your life. Mark wants to go back and see it again sans kids to really be able to experience it completely and no, Leah won’t be going with him in a Princess Leia costume.

Ben was overwhelmed, overexcited and wanting to be sure Leah was taking lots of pictures (“I want to print them out for my Jedi notebook!”).  Clara soon grew grumpy, collapsing in Leah’s lap with, “I like Star Wars. I just don’t like this much Star Wars.”  She was happy exploring the other parts of the science center, especially the grocery store (the scanner was a huge hit) and the cookie decorating station. They also had a gingerbread contest going (complete with a Star Wars section) and as we were leaving, Santa appeared!

It was a super kick-off to a force-filled little Christmas season.