'Tis a Gift to Be Simple

The stars aligned this year for us to experience a different kind of Thanksgiving that will likely be one we'll remember for a long time.

*We didn't get together with family (because we're spending extra-good time together in a few days celebrating my mom's 60th birthday...woo-hoo can't wait!).

*We didn't get together with friends (a few options came and went).

*We have three vegetarian children that politely prefer not to witness a turkey roasting.

*We had almost-California weather (high of 54 degrees--about as close as we may ever get to November paradise in the Midwest).

So...all in a flash on Wednesday afternoon, we brainstormed, took a vote, and decided to simplify in a very literal way. The result was a random attempt at a more Pilgrim-like Thanksgiving (minus the turkey).

We pitched a tent in the back yard and started a camp fire.

Brent read Bible stories using only the light of our flames. (My camera flash makes it looks bright. But it wasn't. He had to squint.) The girls felt like Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls and therefore Brent and I felt like Pa and Ma.

Then Pa snuggled up with all but the littlest pilgrim (and I) in the supposed-to-be-8-man-but-there's-no-way-we'd-all-squeeze-in-there-and-sleep-comfortably-tent. The morning stories revealed that it was a wild and restless night.

When the sun finally rose high in the sky again, flag football with some friends was on the agenda. The Pilgrims and Natives must have enjoyed a friendly game of that back in the day. I wonder who won.

After a few touchdowns and tackles, the morning was a success. Cienna, MaryAnn, and I even got to watch this year because we weren't home peeling potatoes.

Allison enjoyed "rushing" the ball back to the quarterback on several occasions. We cheered for her.

Our Thanksgiving feast consisted of simple foods around the campfire: Omlets in a Bag for breakfast (stick eggs and whatever else in a zip lock bag, boil in a pot of water, and voila!..an easy campfire meal with no clean-up. We know the Pilgrims probably didn't have handy zip lock bags, but we still felt a sense of adventure.)

And for Thanksgiving Dinner (drum roll......) 

Tin Foil Dinners.

(aka choice of potatoes, carrots, peppers, stuffing, chicken, and/or cheese in double-wrapped tin foil and warmed on an open fire)

To add some sugar and spice to the meal, Kirsti made apple cider and Diggy whipped up a delicious peach cobbler in the dutch oven. 

Our vegetarian turkey looked like this (copied from one of Aunt Dana's inspiring creations ...even the meat-eating kids loved it!): 

Kenny, like a true Pilgrim, made an apple pie from scratch. Something I have never done. It was very yummy. 

The girls were excited to test out the "rock" table on the back patio...

but it started pouring just as dinner finished sizzling.

So we used our real table instead....with no china, no table cloth, no centerpiece (and very few dishes to do afterwards). And we were still in our smoke-aroma sweats. I wish touch screens were scratch 'n sniff...campfire smells carry such memories through the air.   

The above pic is the dutch oven cobbler feast, including a can of whipping cream, which we are certain the pilgrims didn't have...but it was the perfect modern touch. (That's why I'm so excited.)  

At the end of the day, we missed family and friends and we will likely never celebrate like this again, but it was an honor to pay tribute to our forefathers whose tummies and hearts must have been so full of simple pleasure on that first Thanksgiving. 

The week before Thanksgiving, our church choir sang a medley that included "'Tis a Gift to be Simple" originally written by a Shaker named Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848. The words are beautiful and have deep meaning for me (because they're so applicable to parenting, brain science, etc). The tune is contagious and we found ourselves passing it randomly amongst ourselves amidst the fire and food prep on Thanksgiving Day. It was very fitting for the occasion.

I took a minute to Google the words and paste them here for your enjoyment and pondering:

Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

Refrain: 

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.

'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,

'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,

And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,

Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,

(refrain)

'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,

'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",

And when we hear what others really think and really feel,

Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.

(refrain)

Tis the gift to be loving, tis the best gift of all

Like a quiet rain it blesses where it falls

And with it we will truly believe

Tis better to give than it is to receive

2012 Halloween Notes

Inspired by the kids' first theatrical experience last March...

**Kudos to Grandma for making us look so authentic. She hand-sewed these incredible costumes. Simply amazing. The kids truly think Grandma can make anything. I think they are right.

**My face sure looks way greener than when I was standing in front of the mirror watching Kirsti smear goop on me...or maybe my arms just look whiter. After seeing the above picture, I now understand some of the comments from the neighbors.








**MaryAnn's at a risky age for costume-wearing...would she, or wouldn't she?? By choosing the jump-on-the sibling-bandwagon-only-have-to-slip-your-feet-in approach, I think our Munchkin scored some big Halloween memory points. Her mirror neurons (she was so pleased to be mimicking siblings) and her amygdala (she wasn't too thrown off by the increased diameter around her waist) seemed pretty content. Wheww.

**Speaking of risky age...upper elementary school/middle school/high school/adulthood are also risky costume-wearing ages (but for reasons other than the fear of something poofy being forced over your head). I'm slightly stunned that all my kiddos truly love transforming into something magical of their own free will. Excitement in the bathroom during prep time was genuine (and quite contagious) by young and old alike.  

**And there's nothing more risky in middle school than not having what all the other middle school kids have (or at least say they have)...PartyCity was sold out of Morph Suits in the 6-8 grade sizes. Feeling quite relieved that Kenny had to settle for just the mask as his daytime costume to wear to classes. The full-body suit would most definitely have gone down in history just like the puffy bangs of my middle school days did, which I now have to live with forever.

**Assisting at Allison's kindergarten party was worth every minute of my precious time.  I kept hearing her say, "I'm so glad my mom's here!" Fun to watch her among her peers.

**Smells and textures of pumpkin-carving time provide lifetime memories. The 3 oldest carved alone. Bravo! Brent and I helped the 3 three youngest feel as if they had carved alone. They felt equally proud of the final results. MaryAnn included herself by pounding on the pumpkins. Warms my heart. And Cienna's gourmet soup made plenty of servings for everyone...

**With children that dress up year-round and can frequently be seen parading around in front of the house in a variety of ensembles, it's nice to have a designated day where they can roam a little further.

**5 kids trick-or-treating for 3 hours = more candy in my house at once than I have EVER seen! I'm speechless.


**Come family counsel on Sunday, I won't be...I predict that Family Business item: "Let's review where empty candy wrappers belong" will now remain on the weekly agenda until next Halloween with no breaks this year.

Exhibit C

 

In reference to the post about Brent yesterday…here’s more proof:

When we woke up before the kids this morning, Brent suggested we make a special breakfast for them. I started mixing up the pancakes, and Brent insisted on coloring the batter pink and making them heart-shaped. He personally watched over those pancakes until the last one came off the griddle. What a lovely start to our Valentine’s Day.

Cienna was the first to wake up and quickly became co-chef.

Fathers can add so much to a child’s world.

And every time I observe the father of my children adding thoughtful details to the daily grind, I fall in love with him…deeper than the day before.

Signs of the Times

Here are 12 signs of Christmas at the Smith House:

1. Black Friday ~ I’m almost embarrassed to admit that 97% of the time Thanksgiving was discussed this year, the words “And Black Friday is the next day, right?!” came bubbling out as well. I could write 12 posts just from all the adventures of that day.

Even MaryAnn enjoyed it!

2. Visiting Santa ~ I don’t think any family had as much fun rolling around in the fake snow at the North Pole than we did. (I know because as we walked around the mall afterwards, people stared and the Lego store workers were truly confused as to why we had white stuff sprinkled all over us.)

And because Santa pictures are $$ and we obeyed the rule about not sneaking any snapshots of our own, and Cienna wasn’t about to get close to a strange white-bearded man anyways (she even kept her distance from the innocent first-grader playing Santa at the local school play), the only picture with Santa is an attempted one from the glass elevator afterwards…but Kenny’s the only one in it and you can’t really see Santa, so I’ll keep it tucked away in our photo archives.

3. Castles and Forts made of Presents ~

 

4. Concerts and Parties Galore ~ Choir, band, orchestra, dance, school play, zoo lights…we hit them all for lots of festive joy. And if you want, you can imagine our family (minus MaryAnn) standing up on a stage wearing elf hats and playing “Deck the Halls” on our chimes at our church Christmas party. Good times. 

5. 12 Days ~ To remember the 12 Christmases we’ve had as a family, we sent 12 little gifts to our cousins around the country so they could celebrate with us, too. The kids helped gather and prepare things and Allison discovered her love of present-wrapping.

 

6. Secrets and Surprises ~ The house was full of whispers and hiding spots, planning and plotting. On one day, I heard some quiet hustling in the basement. After an hour or so, the kids “surprised” me with this:

An attempt to re-organize the entire basement.

(Thankfully, the basement looks like a tornado zone regularly, so I wasn’t that surprised. And instead, we spent some lovely bonding hours together surprising Dad…which is a shock if the basement is clean and it’s not Deep Cleaning Day.)  

7. Gingerbread Houses with Friends ~

 

8. Good Food and Great Company on Christmas Eve ~ We hosted…time to dig out the table leafs and the China. Thanks for coming, Family! We always love sharing food, laughs, and love with you. And MaryAnn enjoyed her first taste of sweet potatoes. Mmm.  

 

9. Falling Asleep by the Christmas Tree in Dad’s Arms and Falling Asleep in the Backpack because Mom is Busy ~

 

10. Christmas Eve Nativity ~ There are many Christmas stories we like to tell each year and the Nativity is, of course, our favorite. It’s especially refreshing to see our children’s personal interpretations. This year, our Nativity included innocent politically correct possibilities like Mary (Kirsti) pulling Joseph (Adorable Cousin Alan) on the donkey, three tough wise men (Uncle Brad, Kenny, and Diggy) wearing Jedi costumes, a beautiful angel (Allison) with a purple halo, and Cheer Bear (Cienna) assisting a very precious Baby Jesus (MaryAnn).  Diggy shared a “We Three Kings” variation on piano. Kenny and Kirsti played “Silent Night” on strings. And Kenny favored us with a jammin’ saxophone rendition of “Angels We Have Heard on High”.

11. Presents and Lots of Hugs ~ The anticipation and sharing of presents is full of heart-warming moments. Among many exciting gifts was THE Pink Phone from the Dollar Store. The discovery of it de-railed Cienna from picking out gifts for her siblings nearly a month ago. But, thankfully, her very aware 4-yr-old sister noticed her meltdown (actually the whole store noticed) and sneaked the Pink Phone into her basket as her “Cienna Gift”. Many more tears were shed throughout the month whenever Cienna remembered that she still didn’t own it (and have I mentioned what a great memory Cienna has??)…We were all so glad when the long wait to “see if you get the Pink Phone for Christmas” was over for Cienna. She called everyone with it to thank them for presents all day long. **long exhale**

12. Worshiping Him Whose Birthday We Celebrate ~ Having Christmas fall on Sunday was extra special because that meant attending church together and feeling the strong Spirit we always feel when we remember our Savior Jesus Christ.