Our most delectable Christmas Photos

front side of house

backside of house

My Big Helpers

Madeline's House

Not sure about Ella's expression

He likes to say "cheese" now for pictures

Madeline's present to Ella:  homemade necklace, bracelet, and Pokeman ball

Christmas Thoughts

Here's what we've been working on (and in the background, what Sam's been working on):

It started a few days ago when Ella got off her bus and told me she wanted to make some cookies for her bus driver.
"I think his name is Ralph, but you can ask my teacher to be sure, I'm certain she would know my bus driver's name" said Ella.
As she said this, I remembered the time that Ralph, had waited for Ella the time it appeared I wasn't home (and indeed I wasn't- I didn't know she had gotten out of school early that day).  When I didn't answer the door, he picked Ella back up on the bus, and dropped her back off after dropping everyone else off.  I'm very thankful for a bus driver who waits to make sure that Kindergarteners get inside the house before they leave, especially when it's often freezing when he drops them off.

I'm also thankful for Madeline's second grade teacher, who she describes as both silly and smart-the ultimate compliment.  "Second grade isn't even hard as first grade," she said.  That is a testament to her teacher and his excitement for education.

Ella is also enjoying kindergarten, many thanks to her teacher and helper.

I'm also grateful for the office staff at the school, who called me yesterday to inform me that I left my stroller outside when I left the school during the blizzard.  An observant man wheeled it inside with several inches of snow coating the seats when it was still there an hour after he had seen it the first time.  How they maintained their composure while they called me is an indication of their professionalism (though we did have a laugh when I came to get it).

Perhaps because I am my kids' teacher, trainer, nurturer, etc, I'm grateful for all the support staff who help make me successful at my job.  They work for pay, but no one can force them to care about my children, and I know that caring takes much effort.

And here are Max and Sam in another favorite destruction site.

\

O Christmas Tree

Ella asked me why our Christmas tree looked so much more terrible (her words, not mine) than other peoples, and I had to agree with her that it looked pretty bad.  After Sam pulled off all the lower ornaments, he managed to tip the tree over on him three times in the same day, so the rest of the ornaments shifted, and the lights on the top and lower third stopped working.  

Ryan and I decided to leave well enough alone and didn't try to fight the second law of thermodynamics, or the law of entropy, which states that the quality of matter deteriorates over time.  While I've no idea how to describe this in the science world, I need only look to my house for innumerable explanations in the natural world.

I was pleasantly surprised to go in one morning to discover Madeline's note to Santa, which brightened the tree immensely and stayed there until it deteriorated.

In case you can't decipher, she wants a "Wee", lot's of candy, her own laptop, more craft stuff and 100 dollar bills.

What a Find

Thanksgiving at the Swapps' found the boys divvying up remnants from childhood (not to mention from their parents' childhoods).  Since we've carried around Ryan's remnants of childhood from Utah to Virginia (I think he left them home when we went to Slovenia) and now to Minnesota, without once opening or paying homage to these boxes, I was a little hesitant about adding to our storage.  

Ryan has assured me that his backup plan, should medicine not pan out after these many years, would be to sell all of his old baseball cards, all of which are in immaculate condition.  I told him it might be a good time right now to sell them and kill two birds with one stone- we won't have to carry them around any more, and we could leap (well maybe hobble is a better word) out of the forced medicinal life of poverty that ends in middle age.

Nevertheless, we found this gem ( along with our new fake Christmas tree-to which I've been converted) among the baseball cards.  From what I gathered, this was worn by Ryan and perhaps all the boys as babies. It's quite stunning, and Sam has received many complements from it, especially when I proudly tell people that Ryan wore it as a baby.  

Since the only remnants of my childhood are the numerous beloved brothers and sisters I grew up with and the still wooded hills of Virginia, I can appreciate being able to see this outfit into the next generation.

Here's Sam in his element- removing everything from any drawer that won't fit a rubberband, and seeing how it rolls, or spills out  or crashes.

I've found Max to be quite the chaos contributor.  My rubberbands that hold the doors together have continued to disappear, and I recently dicovered that Max removes them for Sam and then joins Sam in whatever havoc he engages in.  

That is the price, I can only reassure myself of taking a shower, or vacuuming, or fixing dinner.  Sam has his favorite spots.  The garden tub in our bathroom is one.  Whatever isn't bolted down finds it's way there.  It's always the strangest assortments, like the pillows Sam managed to pull off my bed and chuck in the tub along with my makeup maneuved out of my drawer.  I thought to myself, "Well, Sam, I definitely wouldn't have envisioned those two together, but I see that you pulled it off magnificently".  It's almost sacrilegious how he manages to put together the most devastating of companions.  Like last week when I found him and Max in the kitchen, rolling bottles of carbonated water after they shook them up and down.

His outfit does make it a little easier to bear though, I get a smile watching him walk around in it.

Christmas gratitude

 Yesterday, as I drove to the YMCA, I was reminded of my humanity.  I got off on 2nd str SW. It was two days after a blizzard, so the roads were very icy and slushy.  As I drove off the exit up the ramp, I saw a man standing in the cold, begging.  Begging hasn't looked the same to me since I read Carol Shields book, Unless, which so vividly illustrates that each beggar is a human who used to live similar to the way I live.  


I checked first to make sure he had on hat, gloves, boots and snowpants, just as I inventory my children in the morning before they leave.  He was barely suitable to be outside, he rubbed his gloved hands together to keep friction going, and to stay warm.  


I had a red light, and impulsively tore open my bag of oranges and bag of apples in my front seat.  They were there because I was going to a friends house for lunch after the gym.  As I gathered an orange and apple, I thought that he needed to have some carbs as well, as saw a snack bag of animal crackers I'd packed for Sam and Max.  I decided the homeless man needed them more.


  I threw my car into park and just as impulsively ran across a lane, covered with snow and ice to hand him the food.  I was afriad of being shunned, weary with the assumption that "bums" only want money for alcohol and drugs.  He toke my offering, and held out his arm to steady me as I ran over some ice.  "You didn't have to get out Ma'am", he said.  I felt the awkward lump in my throat that prevented me from speaking for a few moments, then I said, "Take care of yourself, Merry Christmas".  He stuffed the fruit and crackers into various pockets and Thanked me, and I ran back to my car. 


 I was then betrayed by the same emotions that overtake me every time I see a child who is separated from their parents and looking around with fear for a familiar face.  I turned away from him so I could compose myself.  I turned to him as the light turned green and I drove away, and saw he was waving to me, as if we were friends who had reconnected.  I waved back and as I drove away, I thought of all the questions that I wanted to ask him:  Do you have a warm place to sleep at night, Do you have warm meals to eat? Do you feel like there are still people who care about you.   These are all questions that have come to me by virtue of being a mother, by virtue of thinking about my children's emotional and physical needs, and then remembering that we are all God's children. It's only myself who can treat other people like they are beloved children of God.

I have recently heard an increase in concern from knowledgeable parties about the rising number of hungry kids and homeless families.  We are grateful for the organizations that provide hot meals and a warm place to sleep at night.  Perhaps these are the simple luxuries that remind the homeless that they are human and connected to our community.  This reminder can be a solid foundation against a total sense of isolation.  

Swapp Girls' Halloween Violin Recital

Thanksgiving Fun

Since Ed and Jayne were leaving for a mission to the Dominican Republic the beginning of December, we all traipsed to Denver for the week of Thanksgiving.

Our highlights from Thanksgiving:

1.  The trip there- we had so much fun (unusual to enjoy the travel, I know)

2.  A visit to my a dear friend from my mission- it's wonderful to visit 10 years later

3.  All the time spent playing games and talking with the family

4.  A note Ella made for Ashley's dog, Charlie, after she had a girl parts surgery, which Ella placed face down on top of the cage so that Charlie would see it and would feel better.

5.  Black Friday, which I had grown so excited for that I had to withdraw from because I was worried that I would be too assertive (Ryan went for me and was successful)

6.  Picking toys from Grandma's prize basket

Reading with Grandma and grandpa is one of the kids favorite things to do

They also love their uncles and aunts and cousin Charlie (the dog)

Ryan is pretending that he helped clean up the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner

Sam adopted Mai as his surrogate mother while we were there,  he followed her around the whole time

Here is the Swapp Family

Max found a nice hat on the give away table

The boys spent a considerable amount of time in the dog kennel

I downloaded Thanksgiving photos this morning, and these were the first three of Sam:

I'm not happy, mom!

I feel and look like an old man here

Uh Oh the world is not a safe place.

I wondered a little at Sam's brief existence in the world from these three pictures.  He looks uncertain, apprehensive and bewildered.  Luckily, if we tell much of a person's existence from the brief millisecond in which a picture is taken, the rest of the pictures represented a different Sam.

exuberant satisfaction with the level of entertainment he's experiencing

singing and clapping much of the day

his shirt is an accurate reflection of his outlook on approach to life

and finally, a little meditative, humming action

I must have really caught him on a bad time of day with the first three pictures.  Of course, I just realized some of the doozies of pictures Ryan and the girls have taken of me might suggest I am certifiably odd.  Perhaps for fun Ill dig some up. Unfortunately, I don't have to dig, they appear in each batch of pictures.

 I had another fabulous conversation with Ella.  She has really laments having a boy named Charlie sit next to her in Kindergarten.  I haven't decided whether Ella is sitting by a bully in the making, or whether she likes the attention, but every day when she comes home, she usually mentions what Charlie did that day in negative terms:  he called me "hairy chest", he made fun of my snack (apple),  he budged in front of me, but most of all I heard- he stepped on my foot and hurt my blister.  I have no idea whether he did this several times a week, or whether it was so traumatic that Ella brought it up often.

Nevertheless, we were driving somewhere when a raucous laughter from the backseat prompted me to ask Ella what was so funny.  Giggling, she told me, "I stepped hard on chawwie's foot today in the hallway, and it huwt so bad he's afwaid of me now".  "Did he tell the teacher"? Madeline asked.  "No, he would have gone to the back of the line if he talked in the hallway, that's a vewy important wule- no talking in the hallway" (giggle, giggle, giggle)"Now, he's vewy afwaid of me" (giggle, giggle, giggle).

Later, I asked Ella to tell Ryan the story, and he asked her if she thought of it earlier at school or if she just thought of it then.  "I thought of it at home, and planned it at home before school".  She confirmed this was a case of premeditated stepping on a foot at a time when teacher could not intervene.   The good thing is that she no longer feels like Chawlie has control over her.

Candy and Costumes

Hello Girls!

Fireman Max

Hi Boys.

It's work trying to take a picture of four kids, especially when Fireman won't wear his hat, and bat nosedives off the chair when I move out of range.

I think this when I came up for air after diving for Sam, who dove off the chair.  

Big Sisters............

are the crabgrass in the lawn of life (Charles M.Shultz).

October 12 was Ella'a birthday.  Madeline can sometimes feel sensitive on this day, both dismay and joy dot her canvas as she paints the day.  So as the day came, I was thinking of both girls, and how to help Madeline make this day a good day for Ella.

I realized at 7 am what a task I would have, as Madeline began the first of many, "That's not fair"s.  I made a bargain with myself to focus on Ella and give Madeline some leeway, as she had her breakdowns.

 Ella embraced the day with her usual enthusiasm and joy, which make a birthday so fun. (For an activity she had chosen to go swimming at the YMCA on Saturday).  I gave her the day off from chores- which is always an exciting proposition- maybe on my birthday someone will give me that gift:)  For breakfast, she choose waffles.  She was excited to take oreos to her classmates, and to go on a field-trip on her birthday.  

After school, we went to the dollar store, where she told anyone who looked at her that she was now 6 years old.  Then it was off to violin, and she could barely wait to get inside the door before she burst out to her teacher that it was her birthday.  Her teacher played Happy Birthday on her violin while Ella looked on in shear joy.  She expression on her face was priceless- she thought that was so great.

A serendipitous mistake at work had Ryan home by six, as opposed to the normal 7-8 these days, so we partied with silly string, and a Jack O Lantern birthday cake, followed by presents. 

By far, the best part of the day were the gifts on Madeline's part.  A kind birthday card that communicated the true joy she felt for her sister, sometimes obscured by conflicted feelings, and her "Come on Sis, let's go ride our scooters" when Ella opened her new scooter (which she had been wanting for some time to be like Madeline and our other neighbors). 

 I was grateful I didn't complicate the day by communicating frustration towards Madeline when she also took the day off from chores and violin.  The dishwasher waited all day long for her (until Ryan unwittingly emptied it), I cleaned her room, and even her pull-up.  I gave her many hugs as she expressed her dismay that Ella got better presents and had more nice things from us.  In the end, she was able to express her love towards her sister and that was a gift for both of them.

Happy Birthday Ella.  Welcome to age 6- I hope it treats you as well as you expect it to, and deserve.

what we've been up to...........

Enjoying the last warm weather.  Every day it's nice, I feel obligated to participate outside since you never know here if it's the last nice day.