Christmas morning at home

As Christmas Eve wound down to a close, we eventually got two hyper varmints off to bed thru much wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

We had to get them to bed as Lesley had an idea that she wanted to implement.  You take a large piece of plastic and affix it to their doorway so that you can stuff balloons in behind it.  The idea being that when the open the door from the inside, the balloons fall into their room and onto them.

So after nearly passing out from blowing up balloons, we got the only plastic we owned out, which was a very heavy mil of plastic, and attempted the attaching it to the doorway.  I had to get the duct tape out to reinforce it, but it worked.

 

This is the doorway in question prior to them getting up.

So upon opening the door, Robby could be heard saying, "Well, that was unexpected". Caleb was giggling and shrieking like only he can.  So then, Robby explained to Caleb that they were trapped in their room and continued to instruct the Chinese lad to crawl under the plastic to get out.  He did.  Once he made it safe and did not perish, then Robby crawled out! 

And then it was off to playing with the balloons, even with Robby in his underwear (hence the pretty pink flowers over his nether-regions in the photo).  The balloons are still a big hit even 3 days after Christmas!

For breakfast, momma made a candy cane out of bananas and strawberries.  Robby thought it was cool looking but wanted something else like summer sausage.  Caleb ate the candy cane and asked for more tomorrow (or "tomorelo", as he says).

Then it was on to the Bible reading about the birth of Jesus that we do every year prior to opening presents.  It was extra cool this year as Robby is old enough to read and not stumble on many of the words.  He did awesome!

And as a nice Christmas morning surprise, we had a package from the fine state of Maryland, where it just so happens that our friends from China, the Gonsalves, live.  Liena and Ethan sent Robby and Caleb a Christmas present and surprised all of us.  That's the package that they're opening currently.

It's a Monopoly-based game called Washington-opoly.  We all sat down and played a game last night and had a blast doing it.  It lasted nearly an hour and I think both boys really enjoyed themselves.  Every time that someone would land on one of Caleb's property and had to pay him rent, you'd get this little "thank you!" in his high-pitched voice.  Hilarious and quite cute.

Caleb opening a random gift.

The lads trying to figure out how to get into some of their loot.

Caleb got some little trucks with trailers on them to tow boats or motorcycles.  He likes pulling things behind other vehicles.  In fact, he has a John Deere tractor with a Fisher Price boat tied on to the hitch that he pulls around in the basement quite often while Daddy and Rob play Wii football.

Robby and Daddy with our feet in the new family sled.  That's football cards in the boys hand and he wanted dear ol' Dad to go thru them with him.

And since Daddy wasn't ready to go sledding in the back yard yet, the boys decided to take matters into their own hands and do the next best thing.

We did manage to go sledding later that afternoon and will likely go again today at some point.  It's a lot harder work today than it was when I was just a lad myself.  It's almost like exercise now!!

And so was our Christmas day.  Hope everyone had a good one and took time to remember why we celebrate that day in the first place.

Take care!

Christmas post #2 - Schmitz's

Christmas Eve came and went. 

This year we hosted the Schmitz's Christmas gathering at our house in Pleasant Hill.  As is usual when we are going to have a large group of people over, we have snow in the days prior that requires that I have to clean the driveway to at least give folks hope that their vehicles will get up the hill and negotiate the turns.

Not an easy task, but this is where we chose to live...  for some reason...

So the parking was mostly without incident and I think/hope all had a good time and some good food.  We'll be eating leftovers for several days but that's okay with me.

Robby made sure that we won't be eating Grandma Schmitz's dinner rolls as he ate 7 of them last night!!  I figured that it would be a teachable moment on why we don't do that. Turns out the teachable moment happened about 25-30 minutes after roll #7.  :-)

As the day progressed, I had realized that I had forgotten to take pictures so I did a quick run thru of the house and tried to get most of the people in attendance.  I seemed to have missed the 4 Musketeers - Robby, Samuel, Jonah and Caleb.

Go figure.

On to those that I did not miss.

The inimitable Zoe messing around by the dogs crate.  The girls got cute happening all around her!

Again, Zoe makes an appearance sitting with Grandma Elaine.  Uncles Steve and Frank are discussing the finer points of... something.

Steve and Frank are repeat offenders in this photo along with the newly represented uncle Derek, aunt Kristie, and my neice Billie Jo.

Repeat offenders again, Billie Jo (sitting with her hubby, Jason) and aunt Kristie.

Uncles Derek and Vince, aunts Doris and Kathy, along with cousins Tim, Mattie and Michael all around the table with Momma.  Caleb was "helping" me select photos for this post and was VERY concerned that uncle Vince wasn't in any of them.  I reassured him that he was indeed present but he was clearly agitated until I could prove it to him.

Here we have Reagan (sp??) entertaining the masses... the masses being her Mom & Dad (Billie Jo & Jason), aunt Kathy and her uncle Tim sporting a... um...  sporty Hawkeye's shirt!

And the photo that captured the feeling of nearly all of the adults in the house once we were done eating.  Nap time!  Zoe was the only lucky one and uncle Steve was the lucky one that was chosen for the honor of her resting space.

And so we wrap up another year of extended family Christmas gatherings.

Up next, Christmas morning at the Schmitz house.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit!

And not to be left out, the ghastly beast, Rosey gets in on the action.

Christmas Post #1 - Bushmans

Ahhh... Christmas post #1.  There's a LOT of Christmas to go around in America from family to family.

We had a bit of an exciting drive up to Grandma and Grandpa's house because of a snowstorm that had moved through Iowa a couple of days earlier.  Even so, we made it safely to Crystal Lake for our Christmas celebration there.  The drive took us nearly 45 minutes longer than usual to get there due to cars in the ditch, semi's on their sides and so on.


But, we made it.


We had lots (and lots!) of good food, good company and played an awesome game of Christmas bingo where you could "steal" someone else's gift if they had already gotten a BINGO.  There was one gift that kept getting pilfered by all but when Caleb got to steal it from Grandpa right after Grandpa had stolen it back for himself, it was just about the cutest/funniest thing you would ever see.  There is no way to describe the giggling and the look on Caleb's face, but it was priceless!
  
On to some photos:

Here's the varmints by the tree prior to opening presents.

Caleb smiling like a crazy man as he accepted his "Angry Bird" pajamas. He got a set of the red jammies and the black jammies.  Both of which, he is stunningly cute in!!

This is Robby modeling his new robe for when he is waiting between heats in swimming meets.  He doesn't realize how good of a gift this is yet at this point.

This is a shot of Robby and Caleb opening joint presents.... what are they?

Robby, who can read, just discovered that they are are season  tickets to Adventureland!  Caleb is celebrating simply because his brother is jubilant and carrying on like a madman.

Here's Caleb opening his gift from his brother, Robby.  It's the Wii game, Epic Mickey.

Here's Caleb opening his Mickey Mouse camera! He's very excited to have his own camera and to be able to take his own pictures.

Here we start a succession on photos that I'm not going to comment on until the last one. This is Robby opening his gift from Caleb. It's a Robert Griffin the 3rd jersey.  Enjoy the ecstatic reaction to come.

I lied... I said that I wasn't going to comment until the end, but here he is making sure that the jersey has the III on it for RGIII.

And the final pose when he was satisfied that is was in fact, the jersey as he thought it should be.

Here's China boy opening the last of his gifts.  I'm not sure he gets the whole concept of what's going on yet, but he's getting there.

So hopefully, the next few days will see more postings as we experience more Christmas happenings!

So you're a Christian? Which one?

Greetings!

As we approach Christmas and the world throws all kinds of crap at us about how to "make it a special one" and "how to please your significant other" and yadda yadda yadda, it's a fine time to reflect and remember why we are Christians in the first place.

We are human. We are created in the image of God, yet we are far from perfect. As a former pastor to our church used to say, "If we were all forced to wear a sign on our backs with the sins we've committed, the outsiders would feel a LOT more comfortable coming into our church for the first time.".

Thank God (I think...) that we don't have to do that!

Billy Graham said, "Christianity is not a religion, it's a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.".  

I like that and the more I've thought about it, the more I believe that it's true.  The more I thank Jesus for the opportunity for that relationship, and the more I thank him for having me back after each and every fall.  Which brings me to the focal point of this post.

A dear friend of mine turned me on to this article about Christians and Ted Haggard and we had a good discussion about it.  As a result, I've thought about it several times every day since then and, while I've watched others who claim to be Christians, I've paid extra special attention to my own behaviors.

In these past several weeks of this current observation, I've found myself asking...  uh... myself, "So Ted, you're a Christian, are you?  Which one of these are you?".

Again, in case you missed the link to the article above, here it is again and it is this article that sent me down that path of thinking (along with much recent New Testament reading):
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2012/december-online-only/going-to-hell-with-ted-haggard.html

And if you're not sure who Ted Haggard is and what offenses he has committed, just use Bing.com or Google.com and the search text "Ted Haggard scandal" to get a brief overview of the transgressions that brought a promising preacher down.

Read. Think. Pray. Observe. Give thanks and ask for forgiveness.

Above all, thank Jesus for what he's done for us and providing a path for a personal walk with him.

Merry birthday of Christ indeed.

Thank you, Jesus.

Jesus Is Important, by Robert Schmitz

This post is a recreation of a school paper authored by our "eldest", Robert James Schmitz.  He is currently in second grade and the paper is basically one paragraph, but I enjoyed it so much that I thought I would share it and type it up exactly how it was written.  

Here we go:


Jesus is inportin
      My favorite holiday is cristmest.  Becaus it is Jesuses brithday.  He never sined.  He was awesome.  The world wold not be the same with out him in our hearts. And we get stuff.  But that is not inportin. It is Jesus that is inportin.  Him and God are a good great team.  If it wasn't for God the world that we live on wold not be here.  God is Jesuses dad.

Video of Winter Vocal Concert

So, I figured out how to upload the video.  Technology can be so incredibly frustrating.  The 1st song they sang is "Holiday House".

Next they sang "Candle Glow".  Robby's line is right at the beginning of this song - "they may be of bayberry or of any scent you choose".

Next was "We're Really Cookin'"

Followed by "All You Need to Sing".

They finished with "Let's Go Caroling" and a reprise of "Holiday House".

Robby's Christmas Concert

Robby had a Christmas concert at school on whatever night it was. I can't recall...

Regardless, I tried, and did, shoot some video but I could not get it to load on the stinkin' blog and I have a bad attitude about it!

Here are a few pics but hopefully, I'll have some video if I (read that as: Momma) can figure out why it won't load.

Can you spot the hippy boy in the pic?  Hint: he's a little Northwest of center and in a red sweater.

I like some of the facial expressions in this one!

Robby had a speaking part again this year and it was cute!  As it turns out for now, you'll have to use your imagination.

Family Night... or day.

Greetings and salutations!

Going back a little more than 7.5 years now, we decided early on when Robby was a baby, that we would have an open invite to family members, once a month where we would cook up some good (hopefully!) kibble and just enjoy each other's company.  That way, Robby grows up with a good support cast around him and knowing the family from the immediate surrounding area.

As time has gone on, we've missed a few months, but for the most part, we've been pretty consistent.  We've also added a few "traditions", if you will.  

That brings us to the subject of this post.

It's December 2012, and we're decorating gingerbread houses.

This time, the boys picked who they wanted to be partnered up with.  Robby and Aunt Doris were a team, as were Samuel and Aunt Molly, Caleb and Aunt Deaner, and last but not least, Jonah with his Aunt Lesley.

A shot of the troops at work, getting dirty and having fun.

and so on...

Team Lesley/Jonah modeling their creation.  Note Jonah's puffy cheeks and the inability to smile with his mouth open as he had stuffed it full of candy only moments earlier.

Team Molly/Samuel.  Sam, unlike his brother, could show teeth in his photo.

Team Deaner/Calebber (and an Angry Bird ring) with their house o' candy.  Caleb appears as if he has possibly swallowed too much candy already.

And team Doris/Robby with their crafty craft (note the rainbow doorway!).  Funny story...  when I got home from work tonight, Caleb pointed to the peanut M &M's above the doorway, and to a spot where one was obviously missing from.  He said, "Momma did!  Daddy, Momma did!".  Then he rubbed his tummy and said, "mmmmmmmmmm yummy!!".  Basically ratted mom out for her dirty deed.  :-)

After the standard photo, Robby, a Clay Matthews fan, insisted that he and Aunt Doris pose with their house in Clay Matthews fashion.  If you're wondering who this Clay fella is, he is a Green Bay Packer and has a distinctive celebration when he accomplishes something on the football field that he deems fantastic.

After the gingerbread houses were done, we ate some homemade lasagna and spaghetti and then decorated cookies.  Jonah, seems to be enjoying the sprinkles in more ways than one.

A photo of a photo being taken...

3 of the lads at work.

The Four Horsemen pose with their creations.

...and again, just to relieve a little sugar pressure.

And thus wraps up another family night!