Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas with our whole family. Christmas Eve Day was spent with Colombo, Karen, Jonathan & Andrea, Nick and Uncle Joe. Karen made a beautiful brunch spread and the kids enjoyed openning up presents. Nathanael got some of the hockey equipment he was hoping for, and Madison and C4 got their DS games.

Jonathan and Annie shared their exciting news that they will be having their first baby in July. We are so excited for them!

Christmas Eve we went to church with both sides of our family including Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Lee, Melody and Johnny from New York. After church, we all (24 of us) had dinner at our house.

Christmas Day was spent at Lisa's house. The kids made out very well, of course. It was just great to all be together; to reflect with each other about God's goodness throughout the last year.

The Christmas Story

"She gave birth to her first baby. It was a boy. She wrapped him in large strips of cloth. Then she placed him in a manger. There was no room for them in the inn."

"When the Wise Men had left, Joseph had a dream. In the dream an angel of the Lord appeared to him. 'Get up!' the angel said. 'Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you to come back.'"

Only in the DiSalvatore home would Joseph use a hockey stick for a staff! Or a couch for a donkey and a tae kwon do belt to lead it. Madison and Nathanael got this all put together themselves. Since the 1st time, they've done it every day. They've packed up wise men outfits, treasures, an angel outfit, etc. in hopes that their cousins will help them recreate the story on Christmas Day. Be warned, little Amanda...I think you're a sheep!

One more funny story

I remembered another Fan-Man story from several weeks ago. We had my friend's 15 year old and 8 year old here for a few days. We were all around the table having dinner and I was trying to make conversation with Rebekah, the 15 year old. I was making sure she'd had a good lunch at school. She was talking about how her cafeteria has pizza, quesadilla maker, pasta station, salad bar, etc. She said, "My school has really good food for high school." Nathanael chimed in, "Yeah, we have really good food for homeschool."


Pictured here is an Edible Arrangement from another friend for Christmas. It lasted about 26 hours. The kids loved it.



The video is from the other day. Let's call it Interpretive Music Class.

Funny Stories

C4--C4 and my husband were sitting in the first service in our new sanctuary at church Saturday night. The Pastor was announcing that our dedication service will be January 6th. Pastor said to the congregation, "This will be a chance for you to invite your aunts, uncles, grandparents, the dog, the cat to come to this special service to dedicate the new building."

C4 leaned over to his father and said, "We can't have food or drinks in here, but we can have dogs and cats...nice!"

Nathanael--I brought all three to the dentist a couple weeks ago. They all checked out great!!! It was C4's turn to get up in the chair. Nathanael turned to the dentist and very seriously said, "You might be missing some of C4's teeth because he lost them."

Baby to Boy

I had a "this-might-be-my-last-baby" crisis and decided I loved Trevor's long baby locks. It got quite long and people started really making comments, so I started thinking, "What if he looks back on Christmas pictures and says, Mom what were you thinking-I look like a girl!"

So, I broke down (literally) and did the deed. It was all over before he finished his lollipop. It aged him at least a year, I feel, and he looks like a different kid...sort of. Now it's deja vu of C4 at that age. When Maddy first saw him she said, "Oh my gosh, it's a mini C4!"

'Tis the Season

We're getting in the Christmas spirit here as the big day quickly approaches. On Tuesday, we went caroling at the nursing home with some other homeschool families. Then on Friday we had our friends, the Cards, over. The kids made cookies (that was interesting!) and then they did a little yankee swap of gifts. Now I just need to finish my last minute errands and we'll be ready!

Back from D.C.

Madison and I, along with 85 others from church, just spent the weekend outside of D.C. at Word of Life Church in Springfield, VA. We presented "The Richest Man in the Valley" on Saturday and Sunday night to almost 2000 people. We had a great time!!! We had a great girls' road trip and late nights in the hotel room. Our group got along really well and the host church was warm and welcoming and thrilled to have us there. The best part was that we witnessed many receiving salvation. That's what it's all about.

Picking out a tree

Well we happened to pick the coldest day so far to go look for a tree. The kids and dog didn't seem to notice. We settled on a nice, small white pine for downstairs, which I get to decorate and a smaller one for upstairs, that the kids can decorate. It all turned out well. The only casualty of the day was Colombo's gloves, which apparently were left on the roof of the van. Whoops!