Santa Claus is coming in about 1 more day and 16 hours!

Three Wise Men

Although we were all a little depressed that our dear friend Connor could not volunteer to be the long-distance one-third of the trio of kings in the church Christmas program this year, Alex and Jacob still enjoyed portraying two of the Three Wise Men who brought gifts of gold, frankinsence and myrrh to the Christ Child.

Instead another boy completed the bejeweled and fancy-hatted group. You might notice that we embellished the church's costumes just a bit by digging up and adding some of those special touches we put on those short little 4-year-old kings just five years ago. Too bad we couldn't scare up some camels (or some kooky moms willing to stand in for the camels!) for them to ride on this year. (This mom is getting a just little too old to play that role anymore, particularly because the kings have gained some significant poundage over the past five years!)

In this year's program, the Wise Men were part of the tableau, so they had no lines, which was key for one of them to agree to do this (can you guess which one?). Also, they all did a great job displaying their gifts (fabulous merchandise?) for all to see. Come to think of it, maybe this is how the commercialism of Christmas all began... with the Wise Men's gifts! No, I'm sure that can't be it. I admit to being a little fixated on that concept this year, because we've had many deep discussions of what commercialism is exactly and how it plays into the season. (Thank you, Charles Schulz and the Charlie Brown Christmas special.)

So while I'm pondering the wonders of Christmases past and present, I think I shall now pause to recall the way a special Christmas carol was sung by three merry men of Libertyville, a group who were known as "Wee Three Kings" back in the CrossWays Preschool Days of 2004... sing along if you like!


Wee Three Kings of Orientar.
Berry gifts, we travel afar.
Field and fountain,
More and mountain!
Following under star.

Oh-hhhhhhh
Star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright.
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perrrfect light.

Ahh, Christmas is a good thing to celebrate and ponder each year. A very good and blessed thing! (And it is only as commercialized as you let it be!)

Jingle Bells

I give you "Jingle Bells" as performed by Alex on cornet!


We hope this puts you in a holiday mood! Merry Christmas!

One million meals, and then some

On Dec. 3-6, we volunteered some time and energy to our church's efforts on behalf of a great organization called Feed My Starving Children. (Mike volunteered A LOT of time and energy!) www.onemillionmeals.info

The "mobile packing event" took place at the Lake County Fairgrounds. More than 5,500 volunteers worked during the three days of the event. Together we packed 1,005,064 meals, which will be enough to feed 2,753 children one hot meal per day for one full year. And we think after all the donations get counted, we will have met our financial goal of $170,000. A nice feeling of accomplishment and an amazing feeling of spreading God's love to people throughout the world.

A big thanks to Mike's mom/Gramma Sandy and Aunt Moose/Gael for making the long trip up north to spend the afternoon volunteering with us once again this year. We are so glad that this is a new tradition we share together! We have a lot of fun putting on our hairnets, getting our assembly line system down, and working together. (Oh yeah, and buying t-shirts!)

Next year.... Pastor Bob says we're doing 4 million meals!!! (or maybe "just" 2 million or 3 million). The new slogan is "Raising the bar of lunacy"!! Bring it on -- we'll get it done.

It's a Craft Day Miracle!

Today is the day after Thanksgiving. In my family, this is known as Craft Day (not Black Friday). On this special day, we have created many amazing and lovely and wacky crafty things over the past several years, but this year, my "visionary" niece Kate came up with a proposal that we simply could not refuse.

So, I give you.... (drum roll, by Emily, please....)

THE DORNBUSH CONVERGENCE HOT AIR BALLOON!

Kate found the iNsTrUcTiOnS (from an ancient tome of the 1970s) and brought the tissue paper and glue, her ambitious cousin Emily got on board this crazy train from the beginning as Katie's supportive craft partner, my son Jacob jumped in once he could see there was paper and gluing involved (although he claims it was because this project was better than watching other people play video games). Uncle Monkey and Aunt Carol were slightly skeptical, but still got on board in the early stages, particularly since the InStRuCtIoNs called for the air to be poured in due to a "reversal of a vacuum cleaner" technique, and that is what is known as A Perfect Craft Day Crazy Factor. (Side note: We ended up using two hair dryers to provide the heat on the chilly day. Blew the fuses on two of three liftoffs we achieved!) Special acknowledgment goes to my sister Sue who birthed Kate, the visionary dreamchild.

The rest of the crew filled the all-important roles of last-minute helpers and cheerleaders and photographers and pole holders and laughers. And a tip of our hat to Dad/Grampa Irv because he was with us in spirit the whole time!

We laughed, we cried, it became a part of us! All I can say is... I love my crazy family!

A Hogwarts Halloween: Introducing...

Jacob as Professor Albus Dumbledore, the quirky, marvelous, and powerful headmaster of Hogwarts...



















and Alex as Ron Weasley, the bravest and most loyal best friend an ill-fated wizard like Harry Potter could ever have...





















Happy Halloween!

Fall is here

Before Halloween preparations devour me again, here's a glimpse of this past SUNday! It was so good to feel the sunshine on our faces. First, here's Alex raking and smiling...



...and throwing some leaves in the air.



And now Jacob doing the same...





I took a little "fall" in the leaves...


And Mike got us all a new treat: A Leaf Vacuum! Very cool.


We all loved testing it out. We highly recommend it.


But nothing really beats throwing leaves in the air on a beautiful October day. Happy Fall to One and All!

Here comes the brass!

Jacob brought his trombone home for the first time on Tuesday. He was so excited to play it that he didn't even take off his coat before he was unbuckling the case to take out the instrument! First, he practiced with the mouthpiece and did the exercises according to his music teacher's instructions. Next, he assembled the trombone and asked me where he should empty his spit valve in the house. So I found a scrap of old material that will forever after be used for that lovely part of musicianship. Finally, he started playing! His first two songs were "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (see if you can tell which one he's playing in the video clip below). For first attempts, I think he played fantastically well! But I might be a little biased. I love the way his eyes light up at the mere thought of making a sound, and I love the proud smirk he makes when he finishes playing a song. Classic Jacob.








Stay tuned tomorrow for a spotlight on Alex and his cornet, which he got to take home for the first time on Wednesday. He had to settle for practicing in the school hallways yesterday while I helped out with the book fair after school. Then at this morning's rehearsal, my camera battery was drained, so I took some photos with my cell phone instead, but I can't figure out how to download those to the computer... Ah, technology!

Girl Time

Over the weekend I got to have some quality time with my family, specifically my nieces Rachel and Emily, my sisters Mary and Sue, and my Mom. (I did enjoy seeing Brian, Bob, and Mike, but they just weren't the focus this weekend [although Brian's nervous wailing at the thought of his little girl's first date night was a little distracting...]. And I did miss my Mikey, Alex, and Jacob...but they were having plenty of fun without me.). Anyway, back to the girls. We cheered on the Vikings' pom squad (fyi -- they call them "dance teams" now -- whatever!), shopped at the craft store, dusted off Mom's ceiling fans, ate mac and cheese, watched Rachel get a mini-makeover at the day spa, ate cookies, gave advice about dance dates and tipping, laughed, watched Project Runway and The Cosby Show, felted an awesome knitted bag, and started a new knitting project. The video shows Rachel's JV dance team doing a routine on a cold Homecoming Game night. They were terrific! The rest of the snapshots are from the night of the Homecoming Dance. Rachel was beaming and beautiful, and Emily kept us all laughing during the anticipation of Rachel's "fashionably late" date's arrival! One of her famous one-liners: "Well, Rachel's gonna have the time of her life tonight, so we should at least go to Nippon's." I have to remember to ask Rachel if the two senior boys ended up treating the girls for dinner, or if Rachel had to mentally calculate the tip -- nerve-wracking at any age!!! It was a great day for me to just soak up all the girlieness of their lives and be a part of what goes on in my family but outside the walls of my own house for awhile. Love abounds -- it was a very sweet Sweetest Day!