Christmas Eve At Grandma and Grandpa J's

It is the Johnson family tradition that on New Year's Eve we have a special meal of Swedish meatballs, mashed potateos and gravy, Cranberry Fluff salad, etc. My brothers would always have a meatball eating contest to see who could eat the most that year and after dinner and the cleanup we would ready the Luke 2 and then we would open our gifts. It was so nice to eat our traditional meal while here and have the kids join in in reading Luke 2 (top picture). The picture were Gabriel is pointing at Carson is because Gabriel wanted to point out how Carson was on his knees with his hands folded for prayer! CUTE!!! May he always be a person that goes to his knees in prayer!

We had a great time opening gifts as you can see in the pictures! The plate my mom is holding I painted for her and it has each of the kids' hand print on it. Annalina was so happy to get the ballerina jewlery box that plays a song from the Nutcracker! The kids all loved there presents from Grandma and Grandpa!

Gingerbread House

Babe and the kids had a great time decorating this gingerbread house! We all thought it was a pretty well put together kit! Carson and I posed for a picture but really I had little to do with it. The kids with Daddy worked on it! It was a fun Christmas season project.

Fun in the Snow!

Grandpa and Daddy took the older kidlets to a place that makes snow. It was very similar to what we took the kids to a few weeks ago in Pacific Grove. The kids had a blast building snow walls and throwing snowballs.

How cute is this igloo builder?!

Fun with Daddy!

Silly Annalina pretending to take a bite out of a fake carrot.

Building a snow wall with Grandpa J

Date Night

While visiting my parents they gave Babe and I an evening to go on a date while they watched to kids for us. We had a wonderful evening going to a Christmas Concert downtown Nashville! We enjoyed our time together and listening to Christmas music. The carols were beautifully sung but aside from them I really enjoyed a song meant for mommy's about needing a night to be able to focus and think about the meaning of Christmas while it is so insanely busy. The song was not super deep but I so much identified with it. A few weeks ago when we had so much going on I thought that thought exactly! I was so busy I felt like I was loosing the right focus. The song was called "I Need a Silent Night".

The concert was about 3 hours long and by the time we got out the nice restaurants downtown were closed so we ended up at a Waffle House. Mmmm, Mmmm nice greasy spoon resaurant! Babe and I loved eating our omelets and hash browns very late at night!

Me in front of the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman was built by a man named Ryman (he was a river boat captain) that wanted to build a place that people could come and hear the preaching of the Gospel! So cool!

Downtown Nashville, TN

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

Well, the picture above is of the family's BIG history buffs! They LOVE history so the 3 of them went to the Hermitage which was the home of Andrew Jackson. The kids and I actually went this summer when we came but it was unbearably hot so it was hard to just soak in the surroundings when we were soaking in sweat! I knew Gabriel would enjoy going back with just Grandpa and Daddy and sure enough they did have a great time.

Grandpa J and Gabriel outside one of the other homes on the property.

Above is Babe by Jackson's grave.

Gabriel outside Andrew Jackson's home.

Fun Times with Grandma and Grandpa in Tennessee

Our kids love to be with Grandma and Grandpa and these pictures just scratch the surface as to why but the simple reason is because my parents which give the kids A LOT of gifts the gift they give the most of is there time and the kids know that. Ross likes to do sticker books with Grandma, Gabriel loves to play chess, checkers, mancala, skip-bo, GAMES AND MORE GAMES with Grandma, Annalina loves sitting on their laps and Carson enjoys the care and attention they give him. As for my dad he is just a perpetual playmate and the kids love running and goofing around with him. To say we are blessed with them is an understatement. I will forever be grateful for the home God put me in and I am grateful that my children get to have the love of my parents too.

Sanctuary Bible Church Christmas Program

It's always fun to watch church Christmas Programs . . . little kids telling the true story of Christmas about a baby Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. Kids sing to the glory of God uninhibited by if they are hitting the right note or not! Annalina and Ross were in our church's program. Annalina was chosen months ago to sing a solo and speak and she worked VERY, VERY hard preparing. Her solo was very difficult since it was not following a note by note tune. My prayer is that she would bring glory to God in her singing and speaking and I believe she did just that. Gabriel leaned over to me during the program and said "Annalina is doing a good job!" I tried to post some of the video of her parts but couldn't get it to work. She got quite a reaction from the people watching which was fun. For her solo Annalina worked with a wonderful lady at a church that is a beautiful singer herself and worked SOOO patiently with Annalina. She told me that she really hit it off with Annalina which made her able to do this with her. She said Annalina really listened and worked. I would love Annalina to get to work with her more before we move in June and learn more about music ministry.

Proverbs People

This is a book I bought in Tennessee this past summer when we come to visit my mom and dad. Mom took me to a really neat Christian bookstore/homeschooling store. I loved it and actually since we are here this Christmas I went back and found some readers used for $1 a piece!

Anyway, I got this devotional which is actually 2 books. It is called Proverbs People and were written by Rick and Marilyn Boyer who are the parents of many children. I believe they wrote the study for their children.

Right before we left for Christmas we finished up book one. I believe the kids learned a lot. The study is done topically. The scorner, the fool, etc. It is not fluffy or super interestingly written. It is what it is, a topical verse by verse study of Proverbs. I am glad we did the study and will definitely go through book 2 but I think we are going to do another study first before we go back to Proverbs.

Christmas Break at Grandma and Grandpa's House

We are having a GREAT time at my parent's home in Tennessee! From Mancala, Skipbo, toys galore, going to a Christmas festival, pruning a tree, etc. etc. We are all having a blast.

On Sunday, at church, the pastor was preaching and said "Did the angels tell the shepherds to go visit baby Jesus?" This was a rhetorical question but Ross answered VERY LOUDLY "NO!" Everyone started laughing and the pastor said that the answer came from Dr. Johnson's area! To funny but typical Ross. You would think he wasn't paying attention but he really is!

I am so thankful for my parents. I wish I could have half the hostess skills of my mother. She is the best. It is so relaxing to be in their home.

Nutcracker Weekend!!!

(Above: Annalina ready for Nutcracker rehearsal)

For many months Annalina has been rehearsing for the Monterey Nutcracker and this past Friday was opening night! This has been a great journey for Annalina to see the work a production like this takes to put it on. She was worked so hard and for many, many, many hours. Just the week working up to the production she had about 2 1/2 hour rehearsals until late at night for 3 nights. Friday morning they did a performance for local school kids, Friday night was opening night (in between those 2 performance Annalina helped set up for the Gala party for opening night with me and another mother and her girl. Saturday she had ballet at 9am she left early to go to a church Christmas program rehearsal, and Saturday night another performance. Sunday morning was our church Christmas program (she had a solo and memorized parts) left there went to her last performance of the Nutcracker and then shortly after that she was headed off to the cast wrap-up party! YIKES! I was really concerned it was going to be to much for her but people were praying for her and she held up like a champ and honestly didn't want it all to end!

Above: Annalina backstage ready for her Baby Ballerina Part. I don't have pictures yet really of her angel part but I CAN'T wait to get the professional photos and there are some in there.

Yep, that is one proud mommy on opening night!

Annalina and Ross on opening night. Annalina wanted Ross with her in the picture which I thought was sweet.

Annalina didn't understand the tradition of opening night. She was THRILLED that tradition is giving gifts. Her Uncle Ben, Cousin Canon, and Brothers gave her 2 red roses, Auntie Flo and Auntie Grace came to opening night and brought her a dozen pink roses, and Daddy and Mommy gave her a pink Nutcracker! She was also happy about people talking to her because she was in the performance! Annalina loves to talk and loves people!

Annalina with her beloved Auntie Flo after the performance.

Annalina LOVES her Nutcracker we got her.

Annalina with Big Brother Gabriel! Gabriel loved the performance and wanted to go see it again! It was really well done! This is the 2nd night of the performance and Annalina got these flowers from an older performer. She was thrilled to get these from a big ballerina! Annalina made some friends with the older girls and when Babe took her to the wrap up party she sat with the 12 and 13 year old girls and had a blast. Ross went too and was insistent that he meet her friends. Too funny. Anyway, I was thrilled to find out that in front of those older girls Annalina took the time to bow her head and pray for her food causing her friend to pause and bow in silence! I was encouraged to find that Annalina (with God's strength) was influencing the world instead of vice versa. I know there are some that would question as to why we allow Annalina into ballet and performances such as this but doesn't God call us to be salt and light? I prayed that people would see the difference in Annalina which is Jesus Christ. When I would drop her off at the theatre I would almost always say "have listening ears and a sweet spirit".

II Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be from God, and not of us."

Pacific Grove Snow Day

Every year, the town of Pacific Grove has a day where snow is brought in for the kids! We were able to go this year and had a BLAST. I loved sledding with Ross. Gabriel loved all the snowball fights he got into. Gabriel didn't want to leave! The picture above is Ross sledding and ending up with an unexpected passenger on the way down!

Gabriel found kids to have snowball fights with. Gabriel and Ross LOVED the snow but because we didn't have warm mittens for Annalina she got to cold but she and Carson still had a great time on the playground near by.

This is probably the best community event I have ever been to. Kids got to meet other kids, etc. It was A LOT of fun. If we were here another year we would definitely go back.