Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year's Eve Gherkin Style


Michael and I decided our New Year's celebration needed a bit of jazzing up.  We began by making plans for a time capsule. I was reminded of the following idea from Debbie. We finally pulled it off. 

Nothing fancy as I waited until 31 Dec to make these. With simplicity being my model, I drew a clock on the face of little brown bags. Beginning at 4:00 p.m. a bag was opened each hour on the hour. Our hope was this would give a bit more focus to the wait for the New Year and help some of us (Arielle and I) succeed in waiting up.



Four O' Clock and we learned we'd have our family gift exchange. We allowed two hours for this. We didn't really need two hours, but the Hobbit went longer than expected and we I was happy to have two hours scheduled so we didn't get behind. ::snort::

Six O' Clock's bag had Andes mints and instructions to go make dinner. I'd made the pizza crusts earlier in the day. I'd made 16 crusts and was able to put a few in the freezer for lunches.

This may be the new way we handle Friday Pizza/Movie nights. We ALL had pizza at the same time...quite a treat.

Seven O' Clock's bag encouraged us to bring our time capsule items to the living room.  I was proud of the thought that went into this as the kids only knew about it for a day. We've already bought 2013's capsule and everyone can put things into it throughout the year.

We went around and shared about our items. 

Stacia's tea party and friends

AWANA

Zander got his first Military Dependent ID

AWANA

Baptism

True Love Waits

Baptism

Friends - True Love Waits

Surgery 1

Surgery 2

Please note I put a LOT in but some of them were "family memories".....

Sayonara doll signed by local leadership team and local PWOC gals

Magnet bought while in VA with Susane for Vision Summit

Asia Region PWOC Coin - Asia Region was dissolved - PWOC Japan born

Shipwreck Beach - floats and sea glass

We also talked about Dad G going to heaven, about legacy, and about things I won't share here. We concluded by praying and praising God for His amazing faithfulness in 2012.

Nolan prepares another time capsule item...

Symbolizing my Japanese Driving Adventures ::snort:: 

The kids decorated the capsule.

In future years we'll fill one and open a previous year....

Eight O'Clock and the kids were happy to find a couple of new things to explore. 



Nine O'Clock's brown bag contained Wizard  (a game much like Rook we discovered). 

We opted to continue learning to play Flash Point Fire Rescue rather than another new game. We continued to play this throughout the night and finished the game around 11:30 p.m. This game was more complicated than I expected but is great fun. You work as a team to rescue people and put out the fire. 

Arielle began struggling to stay awake....but I knew the activity behind door number TEN would wake everyone up. 





NERF DARTS.....


And SHE had the big one....

Yuuki went to the door and wanted OUT. 

  
I went and cut my bangs about now....they raged upstairs, downstairs, in closets, behind doors....here they have Michael cornered in the boys room. 

Stacia cracked us up! She became an Arms Dealer...she ran around the house collecting darts and delivering them to whoever needed them. 

A motley crew - but all fully awake at 11:00 p.m. 

Our plan had been a variety of fireworks at 11:00 p.m. but it was COLD and WINDY...Michael set this one off.....

 And demonstrated an experiment with fire, balloons and a bit of water....


The brown bag opened at 11:45 p.m. contained party supplies for the last few minutes of the countdown. I will plan ahead better in the future so we can make our own hats, have poppers etc....

This "bomb" from the 100 yen store was good for confetti


Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!  Happy New Year! 


Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Family Gift Exchange 2012


New Year's Eve - the very last day of 2012. 

Michael and the older ones tried to view the Hobbit again. This time the film worked through all the reels. 


I treated Stacia to any restaurant of her choice. She chose Burger King -  she loved this very rare treat. We then went shopping for a few treats at the commissary and BX.

The kids weren't totally SURE when we'd open presents. They know we have separated a family gift exchange from our celebration of Jesus' birthday, they know we "always" open gifts before the Twelve days of Christmas are over.  Michael and I decided New Year's Eve needed some jazzing up this year (and I'll blog about it before bed tonight - 1 Jan - or die trying - LOL ).

What you need to now for THIS post is, Stacia  was chosen to pick a clue from this bag... We told her she needed to read the message.

  She deciphered  "Gift Time," and said it wasn't much of a clue. ::snort:: She figured it out a bit later than the older ones.....

We opened gifts from Bre (which weren't here when we opened the ones from Krista and my folks). 



She made these necklaces for each of us - to fit our interests. Arielle's had a toothbrush and toothpaste on it! ::snort:: 

It was a blast to watch the excitement of the younger two to GIVE.....so much fun!  They had shopped at the AWANA store and could hardly wait to have us open our gifts.




Opening our "girl's gift". 

Sparkly confetti - which is a family gift - and we're sure to use!


The girl's gift was glitter gel for cheeks - can't really tell. 

Ear muffs! 

Gloves I can wear ALL day and work in. 


PRECIOUS! Zander said, "I figured everyone was getting tired of your old ties!" 


Arielle learned to knit this year...and she's done socks, hats, pillow covers, tie, gloves, scarves.... I can't figure out what happened to the photo of Stacia's scarf...and she didn't make Michael anything yet.


Pillow case cover - which I quipped would make a great hat....

Then discovered she MADE me one! 

We got the kids each a gift....Arielle's main gift is a series of books, but we're waiting to work out the "kindle issue" before we buy them. We did get her a t-shirt from the mall.

Wii game

 Gundam model 

Playing with my toys and not moving on! ::snort:: 

She was surprised - and I'm not sure HOW - as she's begged for this for months. 

Nail stamps - she's happy. We'll all  The girls will have fun with this.

Finally found them! 

Complete Series of Red Green. We started watching these in MT and have not been able to keep up as many spots don't carry them. 

Two definite themes emerge when you consider my gifts.... I'm COLD and I'm learning a new style of cooking....

 I am SURE this will make my stir fry meals much less of mess to cook....and look how shiny! 

YES - a good variety. I asked each giver if they'd try whatever I made from their gift...AND WROTE THEIR NAMES IN THE BOOK  to assure their compliance be sure I remember which book is from whom. 

There were other gifts as each of us bought for each of the others - but you get the idea. It felt just right this year - though we all felt something some ones were missing! 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...