I hear its a blizzard watch back in our hometown today.  Sub-zero temps and flurries in the forecast.

We are suffering the effects of a cold snap here too….we’ve had to cut off the air conditioning and open a window as the temps have dipped into the 70’s 🙂  

Its that bad y’all!  

In all seriousness, stay warm friends.  Hope you enjoy your school cancellations and cozy fires.  Here are some pictures to warm you just a tad.  

Picture yourself here…. 

Our T-man got a pretty cool Christmas gift.

A Scuba Diving trip with dad and uncle Raymond.

Meet Thailands newest, youngest Open Water Certified Scuba Diver!!

Im SO proud of this kid.  And Ill be honest, I was terrified to let him go.  

Like, I couldn’t sleep!

I felt like one of those African tribal mothers who let her son go out with the men on a hunt to make his first barehanded kill.  I hugged him goodbye like I wasn’t sure he’d come back.  I had visions of shark infested waters, equipment failure and him getting lost in underwater caves.

I was texting one of my best friends telling her of my insanity and asking her to assure me that my fears were unfounded.

“No“, she said, “they aren’t irrational fears, but he’ll be fine“.

Great. 

Thanks for the comforting words Faith!

In my defense…I was right.  

My husband texted me a picture of a gaping leg wound on their first day in the water.  Turns out, coral can sever an artery and land you in a clinic with a dozen stitches in your leg.  

Ouch!

An awesome way to close out 2013.  Guys made it back just before the ball dropped at midnight.  Got my New Years kiss from my hubby and a huge squeeze from my little man-in-the-making!

So proud!

Bidding farewell to 2013 counting my abundant blessings.  Couldn’t have had a better day.

Spent my sweetest New Years Eve Day to date with these 5 angelic beings.

Well….4 angelic beings.  

And one pouty little cherub.

C and Tristan are on a guys trip, so its just been the girls and I enjoying a Christmas “stay-cation”.

Indulgent days where we stay in pajamas until lunchtime.

Lots of Fancy Nancy reading and Monopoly gaming.

All of us have freshly painted toe nails.

And bedtimes have been loosely observed.

Today we set off for the park.  Picnic in arms and camera in hand.

Sometimes I can’t believe they are all mine.  

It truly feels like Im living a Jane Austin or Louisa May Alcott novel.  

How I love my prim and proper “Little Women”….

….and……all their unpolished moments too….

Thanking God today for the joy of being called “Mommy”.

For sticky lollipop kisses…

For my maturing, capable, lovely big-sister, young-ladies…..

And for how they adore their littlest sis….she is one lucky girl!

Giving thanks for all she embodies….

Her sweetness…

….and sass….

…and that big personality condensed in her tiny-cute-self….

….thankful for the hudred times she makes us laugh each day!

Im thankful for the beautiful girlhood/sisterhood they share.

Thankful that whatever life throws at them, they’ll have each other.

Im thankful that through this past year of transition and change and uprooting and a major move, they still have their best friends right beside them.

As Im counting my blessings, I realize Ive come to know these two as friends in addition to daughters this year. Loving having big girls who share the same interests and hobbies as their mom.  

Man having pre-teen girls is a joy!!

And their little sisters have great role models to look up to!

What a gift to have our home and days filled with the giggles and silliness and flamboyant fun of 5 little ladies!

Im thankful for beauty.  

For all the smallnesses….little hands to hold, little clothes to dress, little cheeks to kiss and little hearts to nurture.

Thankful for their long blonde tresses….

and curly mop tops….

Im thankful for the immeasurable joy that comes from seeing them grow and thrive.  And reminded again of answers to prayer that their little lives are.

I love the way they each reflect their daddy’s blue eyes

Today I give thanks for a million memories I hold dear in 2013.  

Thankful for so many beautifully unexceptional days like today.  Just normal days I get to be mommy and love and live with my little darlings.  Giving thanks for these gifts, undeserved, lavished on me.  

My blessings 

 ….and my sweet boy.

Cant WAIT to share what he’s been up to in the next post!

Before your Christmas day ever began, we were winding down, assessing the damage, recovering wrapping paper remnants from every corner of our apartment, washing dishes in the aftermath of friends who spent the day with us and settling sugar-infused kids into beds.

7:00am Eastern Standard Time = 7:00pm SouthEast Asian Bedtime 

That 12 hour time-warp.

Its weird!

We celebrated Christmas Eve with my family’s traditional stroganoff before heading out to a candlelight  service at church.  This has become a favorite tradition in our family.  A quiet reflective time to focus on the real reason we celebrate and the gift of Jesus….God in flesh….incarnate deity….helpless as a babe….Emmanuel – God with us…..before the hustle and bustle of Christmas morning chaos.

However, as another friend noted, Silent Night always seems like the wrong song when Im trying to keep 6 kids from lighting their hair on fire!

10:00pm – after laying out cookies, all the kids made a tent and slept together under the twinkle lights in the girls room.

12:00am – Still not sure how Santa found his way in without a chimney.  

Thai Santa must know some tricks….but he was most certainly here.

6:12am – Kids awake.  But, being the killjoy parents that we are, we turned on a Christmas movie on the lap top and told them not to come out of their room till it was over.

We……went back to bed.

(I know….we should have our parental license revoked)

7:53am – more stall techniques while we juiced C up on coffee and I put breakfast in the oven.

8:36 – rug rats released from their room

8:45am – I bribe, beg and threaten coal in the stockings if they don’t sit cute for 2 minutes for a Christmas morning picture.

8:53am – Stockings!

Gigi needed one thing and one thing only to make her happy.  A tube filled with M&M’s. 

That child had a death grip on them and made certain that not a single….morsel….went to waste….

9:17am – Face Time with Grandparents and California cousins

Special to have family with us for Christmas – Uncle Raymond visiting from Seattle for a couple weeks spoiled us big time with tons of treats from home.  

I mean, have you ever seen a super-sized jar of Nutella like this?  We should be set for the whole of 2014!  (nah…who am I kidding?  We’ll make quick work of it!)

9:30am – Breakfast complete with Aunt Marvels sticky rolls, Daddy’s breakfast casserole and Mother’s tea ring = a birthday cake for Jesus.

10:15am – Scavenger hunt for Evie during breakfast clean up.  The clues took her cute-pajama-clad self all over the apartment complex until she found this….

Evie tells us all the time that she wants to be a singer when she grows up and is very proud to be rocking out on her little guitar now.

11:00am – Family time reading the Christmas story.  Reflection on the birth and the death & resurrection of Jesus.  Christmas would be nothing without Easter.  That baby in a manger came not so that we can have a day for presents – but rather to redeem a lost world and give us the gift of Life.  Life to the full.  Life eternal!

12:15pm – Skype with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles in Georgia

12:30pm – Kids got dressed and Gigi (aka T-R-O-U-B-L-E) got an early nap time.  Maybe it had something to do with a pound of chocolate and cinnamon rolls being the only substance in her belly, but she was showing her “grinch-y” streak, so got a little siesta.  

Lucky for her she’s so cute.  Otherwise she certainly would have had a stocking full of sticks and stones this year!

1:00pm – brown paper packages tied up with strings…..

Blessed my heart so to see the kids gifts for one another.  Allowance money spent on others.  Favorite things wrapped up and gifted.  And the delight in their eyes to see their gifts being received – priceless!

1:45pm – one final effort at a family photo on Christmas proved a total flop.  The biggest challenge of all to get to smile and keep their eyes open…..the guy on the left!

2:00pm – Several friends dropped in for the afternoon.  Hors devours.  Desserts.  Cider.  Coffee.  No fancy-schmancy-stressful big meal….but home and hearts full of friends and family….and bellies full of yummy-ness!

7:30pm – Tristan and Izzy got some very big news just before bed.  

A special Christmas gift awaits them…(any guesses?)

Thats another blog post all of its own.

Girls took half a dozen new Disney Princesses to bed with them.

And just as your day back stateside was beginning to unfold….we were collapsing.  

Happy and tired. 

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Sleep in heavenly peace!