Friend-filled weekend

School's out, so what to day? A weekend of non-stop kid action - Friday night, Chris's friends Max and Camden slept over in the living room while Kelly's friend Brianna slept in the kids room. Pretty much immediately afterwards, on Saturday, we hosted our 4th (or so) annual neighborhood Christmas party with 16 kids (and a few adults) packed into our apartment - relatively few breakages or hurt feelings for that number over 6 hours, remarkably! However, the fun wasn't over yet - Kelly got a second sleepover with her friend Michaela, and Max also crashed here another night. Church Sunday morning was the first rest we got, and it was a really great Christmas sermon.

The Boys

The Girls, night 1

By night 2, we didn't do all the group photos, but here's Michaela!

1st Semester School Awards

The kids are off to a great start this semester. With a lot of hard work and a great result on one final test, Chris made the "Principal's Honor Roll" (4th & 5th graders with only the highest academic standards).


Kelly (in the back row with the big smile and red coupon), meanwhile, continues to excel in her writing, receives the Excellence in Writing award for her class.

Way to go, kids - Keep up the good work!

Nativity - Rocky Peak Style

This year we finally made it to the Rocky Peak Nativity "Back to Bethlehem" - a "recreation of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus's birth". Except for the coldness (which was actually probably pretty historically accurate, come to think of it!) this church does an excellent job of creating a mini 1st Century Bethlehem with Romans, merchants, shepherds, tax collectors, rabbis, singing angels and more! If you live in Southern California and have kids, I would definitely say it is worth the trip. Our kids gave it "2 thumbs up" - besides the history, Chris loved the pistachios and Kelly loved the bread they offered for just a few "shekels"! Entry is free, but they will accept donations.

Look - it really was cold (for Southern Californians, anyhow)

Real donkey, real petting, and real old dude

Nativity

For more information, go to http://www.rockypeak.org/ministryhighlight.asp?ministryHighlight_id=22. The Church at Rocky Peak is located in Chatsworth, CA, near the 118 & 405.

Advent 2008

One family tradition we have started and kept the last couple years is a celebration of Advent every night leading up to Christmas. We have a couple different books with sort passages we read (either a daily devotion from "Family Celebrations at Christmas" or a page of "What Nick & Holly Found in Grandpa's Attic" - an interactive book with 12 ornaments reminding us of 12 aspects of Jesus Christ). Its great for both the adults and kids to review these Bible stories and to remember how and why Jesus came to us as a child! We progressively light the candles each week - you can see how much the kids enjoy that in the pictures.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Its time once again that I (Robert) get to celebrate a few months of being married to "an older woman"! The kids made some crafts for Stacey, and I got her the door draft stopper of her dreams! Happy birthday!

Kids Sing at Fair Oaks Retirement

The Christmas Caroling season has officially begun - the kids sang with the children's choir at the Fair Oaks Retirement Center today - we couldn't find the camcorder in time, but we did get a couple stills (the choir was a lot bigger, but hey, you're coming to this blog to see our kids, right?!)...

Justice, Kelly and Melena

Max, Trey, Chris and Ted

Family Newsletter 2008

Hey - if you didn't get our annual family newsletter in the mail, click here for an online copy to peruse.

Flag Football Season

This year Chris decided to join after-school sports and play flag football. His coach, Manny (in the blue shirt) really encouraged him and worked with Chris's great speed and dodgability to become one of the high-scoring running backs on the team. By the end of the season he was selected to play on the all city All-Stars team. Unfortunately, they lost the first round against Azusa, but it was great fun and a great experience.

Part of the team - Chris is with his good friends Rikia and Grant.

On the line - when Chris played this game, we later learned the other team was told to "stop the fast kid in red"!

Joshua Tree with the Cub Scouts

Only in Southen California - camping in November! After Thanksgiving, the local cub scout troop went camping in Joshua Tree National Park. I really like this park, especially in the fall and spring. The weather was ideal - low 60's in the daytime, and high 40's at night, but not a cloud in the sky. Besides camping, hiking and climbing, we were able to see a rare close encounter of Venus and Jupiter in the night sky. Actually, because of the clear air, it was hard to find constellations - there were just too many stars out there!
If you get a chance to visit Joshua Tree National Park - run, don't walk!

Look, we're really here!

The camping scounts and siblings pose near the tents.

A Joshua Tree. as photographed on the kid's camera

Hiding in the cleft of the rocks - the kids had more fun climbing in caves and scaling HUGE (50 ft or more!) summits in the rocks. Gave a few of the moms short breaths and skipped heartbeats, but no children were injured in the filming of the weekend.