Christmas Adam Tea

Note - a friend shared her children call Dec 23rd, "Christmas Adam" because it came before "Christmas Eve." I decided to run that by this family and it seems to be sticking. We love the quirkiness of Christmas Adam, and it gives us one more special day to celebrate instead of trying to fit everything into Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year's Eve.....of course the 12 Days of Christmas accomplishes the same. Did I mention we love quirky?

My mom collects tea cups, plates, tea pots, nativities and elephants. There may be a few other things???? These are the ones that stick out to me. Grams also collected tea cups.

 

Mom hosted a Christmas Adam Tea for all the female relatives who were in town. This would be me, her daughter; Sherri, her daughter in law; my daughters - Bre, Krista, Arielle and Stacia;  Sherri's grand-daughter Harmony; and Heather's (daughter in law overseas) daughter Elizabeth.

Cousins - yes, these are the girl cousins (minus Amy) 

Elizabeth, Bre - the elder, Krista holding Arielle, Stacia and Harmony

De'Etta, Arielle, Krista - Arielle missed her chewing cue! 

 Stacia had spent the night at Will and Sherri's with Harmony. This is a HUGE treat - we don't typically do sleepovers.  This morning they made cookies and cut out sweet little tea sandwiches for the tea. Harmony is technically Stacia's 2nd cousin (is that right? She's her cousin Amy's daughter). I love that there is a "cousin" young enough for Stacia to enjoy. Being the caboose, most of Stacia's cousins are close to 20 years older than her.

Mom shared the tea was our Christmas present this year. As we got started, we each drew a number, and then chose a tea cup from her collection. I suggested we allow 3 steals - Mom vetoed.

As we chose a cup, Mom told us where she'd gotten it and a bit of its story. Many of them were cups from Grams. Grams and her friends used to host weekly tea parties. They'd each bring a cup and exchange them so they took a new cup home weekly. They'd bring demi (demitasse) cups and their girls would trade them with each other.  I believe the only two who chose cups which were not Gram's were Harmony and Krista.

One for Bre, one for Baby Girl - both cups Grams had given Mom 

Stacia chose a purple one Grams had given Mom 

Love Elizabeth's choice of blue roses

Harmony chose this one Gpa gave Gma 

Gma and Arielle

Harmony and Grandma Sherri 

Krista chose a unique square one Mom had purchased

Being together highlighted those who were not with us - Heather is overseas. We're all looking forward to seeing her and Nate this summer. I was happy Elizabeth was with us.  Amy, Will and Sherri's daughter, is finishing up her time at Teen Challenge. We will be house-sitting for Will and Sherri as they travel, with Harmony and Andrew and Matt to visit Amy for a week.

The tea cups will always be special.  The afternoon with each other and Mom will be a favorite Christmas memory. It was a chance to slow down and visit in a smaller group....you know... without our rowdy men-folks around. ::wink:: ::snort:: ::gasp::

  

Mom does love hosting a tea table

Seven of the nine of us

Pure Joy

 I suspect a Christmas Adam Tea has become a new tradition for this branch of the family - together if we are near Mom and alone if not. It was a wonderful breather in the midst of the busy-ness of family and holidays.

Thanks, Mom. 

Tis the Season

What fun we are having just "being" in the same location as so  much family. We've played games, visited, watched movies, had dinners together....you know...family life.

Last night we headed over to my brother Will's and his wife Sherri's. Our purpose - to enjoy some fun visiting and to give their granddaughter presents. Arielle got off in time to join us. We were happy to see Izaak after he's come out of the master's homework/work cave.....and Bre stopped over after the children's Christmas Eve rehearsal.

Once again, I neglected to bring one of the "real cameras"  - but here are a few shots from my phone.

Dad gives Bre a gift from the church

Fuzzy Crowd

BreZaak and our Grandblessing - 24 weeks

Michael is a great photo bomber

Good food, good fun, good times. Thankful to Will and Sherri for opening their home. We'll be house-sitting for them starting on Christmas day. They've opened their home in more ways than one. 

Church Community

I've not written about church in a bit of time. Yes, we miss living faith in community. We DID continue our search for a church in Yuba City. We found one that "fits" us....they incorporate youth into their worship team, they are very welcoming, the worship is authentic, the preaching is solidly based in the Word - The Rivers Foursquare Church. We've been two or three weeks and all have decided we'll not look further. This will be our church until we move in March - and when we come back for UC Davis visits every 3 months. It has  made us very happy to find a place to worship.

And now......in Eugene, we have an abundance of "body life" opportunities.  Each of the girls attends a different church.  Sunday, we went to our "home church." I was dedicated in this church, came back here on "furloughs" while growing up, attended it in college, Michael did an internship at this church, BreAnne serves as Children's Pastor here, Mom and Dad have attended for eons and Dad is an elder....Calvary Open Bible.  I love, love, love worshiping with A.J. He combines talent with humility and he REACHES the throne of grace each and every time - it's amazing. The message was great too......Pastor Kirk has been talking about the Messiness of Christmas. He shared how sometimes we find ourselves in messes BECAUSE we are obedient to God's call. It was good to consider God's glory, affirmation and provision follows us into the mess. Blog readers are aware life is a bit messy for us right now. ::grin::

We went out to breakfast with Mom and Dad after service.  A group of friends from the church go out for breakfast each Sunday. That's community. Mom and Dad were willing to take a second table, rather than eat with their friends this week. ::grin::

Sunday night, we attended the Church-wide Christmas Party at Lively Stone Fellowship. Krista is an associate here and works  mostly with children and middle school kids. This is  a very welcoming body. There is something REAL and AUTHENTIC about the faith in this church. We always love the Sunday school and services here.  Pastor John and Francie are also Krista and Arielle's landlords. This allowed them to live in a very nice home at a price they can afford.

Here is proof that they were able to get Michael up on the platform....He and Krista (along with Melanie) act out Christmas song titles. 

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," perplexed Michael and stumped many of us. 

The gift exchange was a lot of fun.......I scored a gift for my adopted CA grands.....

 

 We rounded out our day in Church with readings from Ishtar's Odyssey. We are RIGHT ON TRACK to finish Christmas Eve.

I think Yuuki likes Ishtar too. 

In the next weeks we'll visit Arielle's church - Eugene Japanese Baptist Church. 

One Hundred and one Caches

Our goal is to find 100 caches by the end of the year.  We had 98 finds and decided to head out and see if we could find two more geocaches. We picked ones near Arielle's work so she could join the fun and still make it to work.

Do we look inconspicuous? 

I take random photos so passerbys think we're just crazy tourists and not geocachers. 

"Dressed to the Nines" - our 99th find.

 

 We had the coordinates of two more - surely we'd find our 100th.

It was odd to us that all of these were in residential areas - in people's YARDS. This is new to us. We're usually out at parks, woods etc.  Our next cache was titled, "For the Birds." It was a puzzle cache. We found it!  The owner came out to talk to us as we signed the log. This was also a first.  She gave us several ideas of other caches to check out in the area.

Our One Hundredth Find

Our last one was across the main road - but fairly close. We knew it was in someone's yard and our clue was "H2O."  Our gps sent us to a yard which had a pump handle for the mail box.....the gentleman working in the driveway didn't seem friendly and we were leery to start looking around his mailbox. It turns out the cache was across the street in a water meter......

 Our One Hundred and First Find! 

Success! We texted to see if Dad and Mom wanted to meet up. We didn't hear back, so we stopped by. Mom's house is Christmas central. We had a nice visit. Dad gave us little, tiny, teeny lights for our trailer tree.

Arielle headed to work. We headed home for dinner and Ishtar.....and spent some happy time watching the Carbanaro Effect You Tube Channel.

#WYFF Eugene, OR

 

Krista and Arielle worked today.  Krista enjoyed her last day of work  before her two week Christmas break.  Arielle works retail - there are no Christmas Breaks. ::grin::   Us five spent the day relaxing, playing Wii and window shopping for Fifth Wheels and Motor Homes.

We planned to make home-made pizza and then drive through a living nativity this evening.   What ended up happening was a bit different - but good.  Mom and Dad weren't able to come over. Bre had a dance recital for some of the girls in Kid's Rock - she invited Stacia to go with her. Arielle worked. Izaak is finishing up homework for a master's class. Both he and Bre are enrolled in a Master's program. 

Krista and I went ahead and made homemade pizza. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner, didn't feel like battling crowds so we delivered a gift for Krista and took advantage of the chance to view Christmas lights on the way. We came home to watch a movie and read a bit.  Perfect. 

This also happened.....Bre doesn't allow people to touch and rub her stomach. She said I could touch our little grand blessing. I touched Baby Girl and talked to her and she MOVED...she rolled over and put her bum up against my hands.  I moved my hands and she moved to find them again. The start of a fun relationship between Baby Girl and Granna.

Horribly fuzzy but too fun not to share!

 

It was such a BIG movement we could watch Bre's stomach roll and move.  It's fantastically great to be here to enjoy this fun first.  We would have run upstairs for the SD card and the real camera if we knew Baby Girl was going to entertain us. 

Yuuki approves of snuggly, rainy days in Oregon. 

Arielle got home from work and we enjoyed a mid-night chat before she and the boys watched movies and had popcorn. Evidently, working night shifts and college has turned our gal into a night owl - would never have seen THAT coming. 

Our feet are happy and content in Eugene, Oregon this Friday.

#WYFF (Where's Your Feet Friday) is sponsored by Fulltime Families. View more of our Friday exploits by clicking the #WYFF tab above. 

Magical Family Day

I have not taken near the photos I should be taking. I've  missed:

• Katie, Krista and Arielle - need a roomie shot. 
• The Progressive Dinner crowd. 
• Krista dressed in her outfit Michael brought from Afghanistan on her way to work. It's spirit week. She was Mallah.
• Arielle and Stacia snuggled on the couch - with me - watching "girl movies." 
• The Boys Christmas Shopping. 
• Dad in the back of a truck working on lights from the roof. 
• Mom and Dad over here for dinner and visiting. 

After everyone slowly got ready, we went separate ways.  We invited Mom and Dad to come over for Chili and Cornbread (one of Arielle's favorites) for dinner.  The boys went to get a van seat from Mom and Dad's garage and on to Christmas shopping. 

Arielle, Stacia and I headed to Winco to buy groceries for a few dinners. Arielle made my day when she asked if we could put left over chili in the freezer for her to eat later. She said she'd told her friends, "Mom is coming and we'll have real vegan meals."  I couldn't say no....and suggested a few other meals we could make and freeze for her and Krista to quickly grab (Veggie Pot Pie, Lentil Spinach hot pockets....).  We made enough Chili to feed us all and put these in the freezer...and Instant Pot and a crock pot full.  Yes, I DID bring my instant pot with me. 

We got home from Winco before the men made it home. We snuggled under blankets on the futon, watched The White Christmas, and ate popcorn. Arielle promptly fell asleep on my lap - it was magical. 

Krista got home from work, as Arielle was leaving for work. The kids played Catan - Krista dominated. We ate dinner. We visited. Mom and Dad went home. 

Note the "guard fish" on the corner of the piano

They're all playing Snow Board Kids now....I'm blogging...we're waiting for Arielle to get home from work.  

We need to make a plan for tomorow. Maybe a light show at Hope Chapel, or a drive through Nativity in Elmira, or just pizza and games here at the house. 

Whole-Wheat Drop Biscuits (Vegan!)

These were good! Not quite the fluffy goodness of the white, butter-filled biscuits I have loved in the past....but good. You won't taste the applesauce. These are very low fat - the only fat coming in the non-dairy milk. I added some Italian spices and GARLIC. This is another Happy Herbivore recipe.  These were easy to make in my tiny trailer kitchen - they should be easy to make in your kitchen.

For more yummy eats (some vegan, some NOT) click the "Yummy Eats" tab under the cover photo.