A Snowy and Smiley Walk at Yale, 2/26/10

For the boys' 10th birthday, they wanted nothing (well, almost nothing) other than a trip to Connecticut to celebrate with friends. It was a tall order, but we made it happen and we are so happy that we did. (We all owe a shout-out to American Revolutionary War cavalry officer/hero Casimir Pulaski, whose birthday [March 6, 1745] is observed on the first Monday in March in our school district, allowing us to have a four-day weekend to work with!)

After arriving late Thursday night, we awoke to a picture-perfect snowfall swirling all over New England. We drove to New Haven for a late lunch and then took a walk around the Yale University campus. As you can see from all the smiles, we were all so happy to be hanging around together once again!

A new year!

So, three months later, I'm finally coming back to the blog! I only have time for a quick post now to kick it off, but in the next few days I'll try to bring it all back up to date.

2010 has already been full of wonderful times with family and friends! On the morning of January 1, 2010, the kids and some great friends visiting from St. Louis blew off some poppers to get the year started with a bang. Looking at these photos, I can still sort of smell the "gunpowder" smoke the poppers leave behind!

Oh, we also learned that Snuggies make good streamer magnets!

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!