On the 6th day of Christmas Beth sang some carols

Beth plays independently very well. But unlike Jason who plays silently in deep thought, Beth sings while she plays. She sings her own made-up songs, usually some form of praise and worship songs from church. I keep saying I need to record her but she doesn't like the attention so I have to catch her off-guard. And you can't ask her to sing on the spot. The lyrics come to her randomly while she's playing (or showering :) Well driving long stretches on our roadtrip left plenty of quiet time for Beth to break out in song. I realized I could secretly record her singing Christmas carols but she caught me (I had the camera on my shoulder)...


On the way to church on Christmas Eve, Beth started singing. It was her own version of the 12 days of Christmas. Andrew and I smiled at each other over her cuteness as she sang, "On the next day of Christmas Santa gave to me so-o-ome stuff..." But when she sang the next verse I realized I needed to start recording her, "On the fourth day of Christmas he gave to me a big, shiny, clean, new car [long pause] for my family!" So even though the video is black, I am soooooo glad I pulled out the camera and hit record so I could catch the next verse...
If you couldn't hear because Adam was trying to sing along to her made-up lyrics...let me interpret, "...today he gave me a sweet little baby whose name is Jesus. The next day of Christmas he gave me...Jesus gave me a bunch of candy."

On the 5th day of Christmas the parents got...ummm..sick

We arrived in Maryland at the home of the Saladas. Andrew and Duncan had been friends in high school, roommates in college and roommates again after college. In other words, these are good friends and that's a very good thing as you will soon see. Andrew and I both woke up in the middle of the night with what we can only guess was food poisoning. We were both horribly ill but no one else anywhere along our trip got sick, hmmm...Anyway, unable to function come morning, the Saladas took over childcare for our kids. Duncan even took off work so he could help Nancy as our three kids meant their family doubled (they themsleves have three kids under five years old). They played with play-doh, read stories (lots of stories), and even managed a little bit of outside playtime in the freezing temperatures. How do we know all they did? We could hear from our sick bed upstairs. It is pretty amusing listening to your kids play with others while they can't see you. Fortunately, they were very well behaved and had a lot of fun. Andrew and I actually started to worry that they were having too much fun. Were the Saladas raising the bar on parenting? We needed to get better quick and fortunately, we were better by that evening. Our trip was delayed one day but with Christmas still two days away, we would make it to our final stop in Virginia before too long. And now I ask, how do you thank someone who steps in and watches your children all day while you play sick in their bed and even request room service of Jell-o, saltines and water? We're still thinking about that one. For now words will have to suffice: Thank you, Duncan and Nancy! You're amazing, wonderful, fabulous and we're so glad that if we had to get sick, it was at your house :) As for pictures, I was in bed all day but Nancy took some, maybe she'll email me?

On the 4th day of Christmas we played dress-up

We realized on our journey that we would be driving by friends and family. A few phone calls later and we had added some stops to our trip. One to have lunch with a friend of Jocelyn's from law school while driving through Virginia, and another in Pennsylvania to visit Andrew's cousin and her family. They have three girls around the same age as our kids so it was a fun stop! The kids played dress-up, and I realized the one thing our dress-up collection is missing...wigs!

Baby Gracie was getting a little jealous that big sister Michaela was holding Jillian :)

On the 3rd day of Christmas we took a winter road trip

Andrew and his friends from high school have an annual gathering. Being on the west coast from most of the east coasters, we've missed at least half of these gatherings. This year when it was announced that the party would be in Pennsylvania, we decided we needed to make the trip. Andrew had just enough vacation days left so here's what we did: Georgia to NC where we can visit and stay with family (thank you Hotel Burns for your hospitality, hopefully we can visit again soon and this time stay longer!) Next we drove to Pennsylvania. The party was in southeastern PA so it was only 7 hours north of NC (did I just say ONLY? We traveled with a car overflowing with Christmas paraphernalia, winter gear and a newborn! We're insane!) Because it's not a New Year's party or a Christmas party, these annual get togethers are called ____ tree parties or xTPs (I'm not going to try and explain the meaning, just sharing the facts here.) This year was the Wing Tree Party complete with a sampling of you guessed it - wings. There was even some wing trivia, which Andrew and I bombed big time. Nonetheless, it was a successful party, and we were glad we made the trip!

As an added bonus we were blessed with snow! What a perfect way to welcome the first day of winter but with snowfall! Jason could not get outside fast enough. And when I commented how it was unfortunate there wasn't more snow, Jason happily responded, "I really wanted to see snow and this is snow so I'm happy!" Wow, what a lesson for me in being grateful for all good gifts! The kids had a great time in the snow and with each other. They even tasted the snow. Did we stop them from licking the picnic table? No, we took pictures :) The big kids even had some snowball fun!

I was thankful to be safe and warm inside the car during their escapades :)

From the WTP, we headed to Maryland to spend some extra time with fellow WTPers. We realized that the route from PA to MD drove us right through York, home of Andrew's cousins! That's one more stop on our ongoing roadtrip. More on that stop on the 4th day of Christmas...

On the 2nd day of Christmas...Santa Came!

You better not pout. You better not cry. You better watch out. I'm telling you why... Santa Claus is coming to town!
Now, Andrew and I have always been pretty much set on not doing Santa in our house. We didn't want the focus of Christmas to ever be presents or being good for Santa. We want our kids to obey because the Bible tells us so, not because Santa does. And we want to celebrate Christmas as Jesus' Birthday, not the day Santa travels the globe bringing presents. This is all easier said than done...Santa is everywhere and we have to explain that to our questioning children. And while it's tempting to complain about the evils of Santa destroying the true magic of Christmas, we've always felt that we didn't want to force our views of Santa on others. So now we have to tell our children, "there is no Santa and flying reindeer but other people like to pretend it's real so just play along. It's fun!" And we've made a point to tell them there really was a man who gave gifts to needy children so it's good to remember and honor him just as we would St. Valentine or St. Patrick or Martin Luther King, Jr. Well this year we spent Christmas in Virginia with cousins. Their parents have never made a big deal about Santa one way or the other but preschoolers got to their oldest and Mina believes! We agreed to play along and even went so far as to make his favorite cookies, write a note, leave carrots for the reindeer, and check his flying status on the internet (he was somewhere over Europe at that point). Staring at the computer our poor Jason became completely confused as he declares, "Santa IS real?" Ugh, why does this have to be soooo confusing! We said nothing at that moment but were sure to clarify the truth back at home. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a scrooge. It was actually very sweet to think my almost 6 year old is still innocent enough to believe in such fantasy but I remember - "Make sure no one captures you. They will try to capture you by using false reasoning that has no meaning. Their ideas depend on human teachings. They also depend on the basic things the people of this world believe. They don't depend on Christ." Colossians 2:8 I want my family depending on Christ, not Santa.

On the 1st day of Christmas we went back to Bethlehem

About a week before Christmas we attended a somewhat local Church's reenactment of life in Bethlehem the night Jesus was born. It was super cold (34 degrees actual temperature and then there was the wind!) but the event was well worth enduring the cold.

The kids got to pet camels and chicken. There were food samplings of fresh baked bread, fruits, vegetables, nuts and dried fruit. And the kids got to pay taxes to the Roman guards.
Did I mention it was really cold? I was a bit worried about Jill being exposed to that cold so I bundled her up in my coat. I looked a little bizarre and worried about whether she could breathe at times but she was snugly warm the whole time.
The night ended with the Living Nativity. Actually it ended around the corner with a reenactment of the Crucifixion. With declarations of prophesy, they did a nice job of completing the story. Jason asked why Jesus had to die (it was very intense seeing actual people live up on the crosses). And before I could answer he said, was that so he could come back to life for us? Yes, Jesus came to earth a baby in the manger and lived a perfect life. He died on the cross, a sacrificial lamb, for our sins so that we may have eternal life. All of this because the Creator of the Universe loves each and every one of us. I pray you know His Love this Christmas and always!

Merry Christmas, 2008!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Silent Night...We're having a wonderful Christmas and pray the same for you, all our family and friends. Love, the Skellys currently in Virginia!

It's Jillian's first Christmas, our first Christmas in Georgia, and we're traveling to 4 different states to visit many family and friends this holiday season. With so much to talk about and share I'm going to be posting our many days of Christmas over the next 12 Days of Christmas. I'll post daily with a new tale (life adventures hopefully not getting in the way). Hope you enjoy the trip!