New Year's Eve

Technically, we rang in the new year asleep, I think.  But it was a nice day.  

Everyone loves a good DMV story, right?  Hahaha...  

Well, Jeremy let me know yesterday that I needed to go to the DMV today to renew the plates for the Prius.  I called this morning to see when they'd be closing, since it was New Year's Eve.  When I called, I politely asked what time they would be closing today, and the sweet lady who answered barked, "Why? Whaddyou need done?!"  When I told her I just needed to renew my plates, she snapped, "You mean you need a sticker?"  I affirmed, yes.  She spat, "Well, we walk out the door at 5:30, but I'll warn you, we are extremely busy today!"  Wow, I couldn't wait to go meet her! 

When the kids and I arrived there around 1:30 this afternoon, there were no cars in the parking lot.  We walked inside and there were no other patrons, and only a man and a woman working behind the desk.  I didn't want to go in the woman's line, anticipating that she was the delightful woman I talked with this morning!  I looked up at the clock, handed the man the paperwork and a check Jeremy had written for the renewal, and walked out with my sticker less than 30 seconds later.  I laughed about that for next few hours!

The kids and I picked up a few groceries for snack-y treats for tonight.  Our friends, Shannon, Dawn, Addie, and Reece came over for the evening.  We had lots of food, relaxed, played a bit of Tenzi, laughed a lot, watched National Treasure and decided just before 11:30 that we were going to have "fake midnight."  Shannon set his phone timer for 5 minutes, and when it went off, we had our "New Year!"  

2013 ~ 2012 ~ 2011 ~ 2010 ~ 2009 ~ 2008 ~ 2006 ~ 2003 ~ 2001

Surprise on the ride home

Daddy has had a little thought/plan up his sleeve for a while, and on the way home to Illinois today, we made a quick stop at the store.  The kids thought we were stopping so Jeremy could get me a bottle of water.  He came out of the store with a double screen portable dvd player!  The kids were really surprised and very excited!  A little late Christmas present.

They watched Despicable Me 2 on the way home, and squealed and giggled all the way through.

Gram's and Krampa's

Bryce LOVES his Mamaw and his Pampaw!  

Sylvia gave me a little tour of the Barbies at Gram's house.  Some of them were mine when I was little.  Pretty neat to see my girls enjoying them with their cousin now!  It makes me smile.

And, now the kids LOVE the marble machine my cousins and I loved at Grandma Mc's house when we were growing up!  My Grandpa Mc made it for my Uncle Roger when he was a boy, and it has been well loved--now for 3 generations.  I'm sure Grandpa would be so pleased to know that his great grandchildren are giggling like crazy and getting lots of enjoyment playing with it!

This evening, we had a little gift exchange in the sunroom.  All the kids received pajamas from Gram and Krampa.  They were very surprised and excited! 

(I love that in this picture and at times in the video clips, you can see reflections in the windows that reveal that all  of us were there--even if we weren't "in" the picture...)

It was an extra special blessing for all 12 of us to be together to celebrate this Christmas.  

God is so good.

Dad gave Mom a pretty neat present--2 paintings by P. Buckley Moss, her favorite painter.  The larger one is a young newlywed couple, and the smaller print is of an elderly couple.  They will display these together as an illustration of their own marriage.  How blessed to be together...for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish...

Such a merry, merry Christmas.

Christmas in Indiana

This morning we left the house at 5:04 AM!  We decided to try the trip to Indiana early in the morning, rather than arriving late at night.  The kids and I preferred this option.  We even saw the beautiful sunrise as we drove East, right into it.

We arrived at my parents' house around 11am--Indiana time, after a few stops on the way.  Mom and Dad were watching Tessa and Bryce, as poor Grayson was in the hospital with a very serious infection in his eye.  Tessie kept the kids busy, and they all have tons of fun together.  They made some cool snowflakes.  

There were a couple games of Aggravation.

Tess likes the cake baking/decorating game on Annah's iPod.  

We visited Jeremy's parents and Grandma for supper.

Grandma had arranged a game of BINGO, complete with prizes!

Grandpa was the BINGO Caller.  Jeremy was the biggest winner of the prizes.

We all had a lot of fun and laughs!!  It was a sweet evening together.

Enjoying the quiet

Caeden is pretty much a morning person.  He was up before the girls this morning, and this is how I found him when I came into the living room...

...reading his new Big Nate book.

I love the quiet moments at home.

Christmas Day

Merry, merry!  It's Christmas Day!  I can't thank Jesus enough for leaving heaven to become human and die to save my sin-sick soul!  And, I can't thank him enough for the wonder, joy, peace, and happiness that come with celebrating His birth and having a special day at home with my family!

The Lord woke me up at 6:30 this morning, just 5 hours after I'd fallen asleep! 

I enjoyed some quiet time with him and The Christ of Christmas:Readings for Advent; 31 Days of Devotions book, some coffee, and the glow of the Christmas tree.  Then I started the wassail in the crockpot, made both blueberry and chocolate chip pancake squares, and washed dishes while waiting for everyone else to wake.

Caeden was the next to get up.  I found him sitting up in our bed talking to Jeremy.  When we went in his room, I noticed this and asked him what was going on here...He said he'd stood on his bed and placed those socks up there; they are his "emergency socks."  I'm not sure how they're easier to get in an urgent sock situation, but it did make me chuckle.

We actually started breakfast without Sylvia, since she was feeling a great need for more sleep and our pancake squares were getting cold.  She needs her beauty rest, and came down after a few minutes and ate with us.

Finally, around 8:30, we gathered in the living room to hear Jeremy read 

the Christmas story from Luke 2.

We always start with the stockings.

Then the kids opened their presents from each other.  

Sylvia received a rubber band loom and thousands of bands to make bracelets and such.

Caeden received a Star Wars/Clone Wars AT-RT Walker Lego Set.

Annah received a Taste of Home Recipes Across America cookbook.  It's pretty cool--the recipes are grouped by regions of the country where they are most commonly made.

Sylvia received a new sleeping bag, as she outgrew hers in the last year.

Annah received a jewelry organizer.

Sylvia made Jeremy a beautiful glass ornament at school.

Caeden made book marks for Jeremy and me at school.  They are laminated and have acrostics of our names.  Very, very sweet.

Games and DVD's for our man!

I made a big Christmas dinner of filet mignon, salad, wild rice, wassail carrots, green beans, and cranberry sauce.  After we cleaned up lunch, we relaxed the rest of the day.

It didn't take long for Caeden to put the AT-RT Walker together.

Caeden also received a huge Lego Star Wars set of Jabba's Sail Barge.  Annah helped him put it together, and it's even cooler than we expected!

The sides open, the cannon shoots, the sails move, and the top comes off.  Plus it comes with a big slobby Jabba-the-Hutt, Princess Leia (in her gold bikini), Max Rebo, Weequay, and Ree-Yees.  This is a set Caeden will probably leave put together and play with a lot! 

Sylvie quickly started making bracelets with her loom.

And she and I played a couple games with her new Kerplunk!

It was pretty messy around here this afternoon.

We called all the grandparents to share Christmas blessings, then watched a couple movies to end the night.  Sylvia had asked for and received Miracle at Midnight, which is a true story of how a danish family saved thousands of Jews from Nazi concentration camps.  After that we watched Jeremy's dvd of National Treasure...always a fun movie.

It was a peaceful day full of love.  So blessed, so blessed.

Christmas Eve

The kids and I stayed home today and were glad to be there.  Jeremy went to work, and we are glad for his good job.  

I did a lot of laundry, 3 loads of dishes, and spent quite a while wrapping presents.  The kids played and enjoyed being kids.

This evening, I made chili for supper, and Annah made an amazing Pumpkin Dump Cake for Jesus' birthday.  We played games after supper, and about 8:30 we snuggled in to watch our favorite version of A Christmas Carol--the Albert Finney musical version, Scrooge.  I fell asleep several times during it, and all of us were pretty groggy when it was over at 10:30 and it was just time to leave for church. 

But Christmas Eve service was so worth it.  When we entered the foyer, we were greeted by friends who told us to "follow the stars."  My two phone snapshots are horrible, but the lights strung down the hall were beautiful...

...and they led to a star in the center of the sanctuary and formed a beautiful pillar of light around a tree.  The chairs were arranged in a circle, so the congregation was drawn together.  Our youth pastor, Scott, and some of our wonderful college students led the service with beautiful music.  Pastor Todd brought a short message about how the angels on Christmas night brought light and announced the The Light of the world had come.  He challenged us to think of what darkness might be in our lives that needs Jesus, the Light, to illuminate and restore it.  It was a beautiful, quiet time of reflecting on the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

The kids were all tuckered out when we got them back home to tuck them in.  I quickly put the presents under the tree, and was thankful for the quietness that seems to come like this only in the middle of the night.  (I don't see 1am very often!)  

We really are so fortunate to get to celebrate Christmas in the ways we do.  We really are fortunate to know Christmas at all.  

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for stopping in here at this little blog, dear friend!  We want to wish you a very blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!  You are precious to us, and we thank the Lord for your part in our lives!  We pray you enjoy this wonderful season and celebrating Jesus' love for you!

Instead of a Christmas letter, we invite you to visit this blog regularly
to read, see, and hear more about what we’re up to throughout the year.  Or you can subscribe to receive blog posts by email; just send Taryn a quick email at tarynlopshire@gmail.com to sign up.

Love,

Jeremy & Taryn,
 Annah, Sylvia, & Caeden 

Christmas Eve Eve

We had a fun, relaxing day at home today.  Well, the kids and I did--Jeremy had to work.  I did some cleaning and organizing around the house in the morning.  The kids played, and we watched the Mickey Mouse and Frosty the Snowman Christmas movies.  We played Tenzi and Uno Attack.  This evening, Jeremy and Caeden had wrestling practice.  

I gave the girls peppermint manicures.  

When the boys came home, the kids requested Daddy to read The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, and their favorite Christmas book: Mooseltoe.

Christmas Open House and Staff Party

Today was a very full and blessed day, and I loved every moment of it!!

This morning, I got up early to make White Pizza Dip (times 4) for the church Christmas Open House.  I'd made 2 batches of Chocolate Dipped Macaroons and 3 batches of Mom's Dusty Millers over the past couple days.  (Notes about those--The White Pizza Dip was excellent, and I loved all the fresh ingredients!!  I discovered the key to melting chocolate chips for dipping the macaroons--If you want it to set up once they're dipped, you should microwave them, not melt them on the stovetop.  And, the Dusty Millers are about the easiest gingerbread cookie around...love 'em!)

Here is Mom's recipe for Dusty Millers:

1/3 cup molasses
1/2 c. butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. ginger
1 egg
1 tsp. soda
2 1/4 c. flour
powdered sugar

Mix together butter and sugar, add egg and molasses. Add dry ingredients. Chill 15 minutes. Roll into walnut size ball and roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 24 cookies.

I had taken my hair and makeup stuff to our front room to finish getting ready so Annah and Jeremy could have the bathroom for showers.  We had an extra hour this morning, so once the kids were all ready to go, they just picked up instruments and tried to find songs they could sight read together!  Jeremy and I were totally loving that.  

The open house started at 10am. Annah helped with childcare.  They watched Veggie Tales Christmas movies, made popsicle stick reindeer, and had all kinds of fun.

 Jeremy greeted people at the front door and visited with them in the foyer during the 4 hours.  

There were all kinds of yummy foods prepared by the church staff members, and Kim made the foyer look even more beautiful than usual!

 There was hot coffee, hot chocolate, peppermint slush, and mocha slush.  

 I had the privilege of playing piano in the sanctuary during family communion with the pastors.  

The open house was just wonderful and beautiful.  I love our church family so much!

After some tear-down, the church staff families had our Christmas party at Medici in Uptown Normal.  We exchanged cards, ate more fabulous food, prayed and laughed together, took communion together, and played a crazy dice game called Tenzi that pastor Todd gave us.

So many beautiful moments in one day!  Thank you, Jesus.

An Icy Saturday

We had a wonderful day of ministering and celebrating Jesus and Christmas today!

We're enjoying our Christmas tree in the living room; it's a particularly lovely one this year!  And, I think the "Auto Awesome" feature of Google+ Photos is pretty cool...It automatically makes Christmas tree lights twinkle!  Nifty!

This morning when we woke up, everything outside was covered in a sheet of ice that seemed to be getting thicker by the minute!  However, the kids and were scheduled to be part of a Christmas music program at Evergreen Place, and assisted living community in Normal, and I wasn't about to drive on ice.  Jeremy had been planning to go to work, but chose to drive the rest of us to Normal instead.  I'm very grateful.  We had a great time making music for the folks at Evergreen Place!  Caeden started off the program playing Jingle Bells on his guitar, and Annah did a beautiful medley of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and O Come All Ye Faithful on her violin. One of my voice students, Allison, sang Welcome to Our World and Here With Us and I accompanied her on piano.  Her mom Joyce is the director of Evergreen place, who invited us to be part of the program along with her family.  Joyce sang a beautiful performance of Ave Maria.  Sylvia played a violin medley of Angels We Have Heard On High and Hark! The Harald Angels Sing and Annah added some nice harmony to parts of it. I sang and played Christmas Is and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and at the end all of the families joined together to sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas.   Then we were able to spend a little time visiting with some of the sweet residents.  We were so blessed to meet them, and Jeremy and I spent quite some time talking with a couple in their 90's who will celebrate their 68th anniversary tomorrow.  I'm sure we were ministered to more than they, and I'm so glad we could go!

On our way home, we had lunch at Moe's--YUM!!!  Then this afternoon, the kids played Wii and watched Christmas movies while I baked more Christmas cookies and Jeremy worked on pumping water out of the basement.  It rained all day long, and I heard we had a 1-3 inches of rain.  There was beautiful, scary thick ice on everything when we went back into town to set up for Open House at church.  In fact, Jeremy and I argued loudly in the car about whether or not we should be going at all. Neither of us won the argument.

At setup, Kim had me get the girls going on making adorable chocolate dipped marshmallows with candy canes for people to drop in hot chocolate at the open house tomorrow.  So cute!!

We left church before setup was completely finished, since Jeremy had left the pump running in the basement and we needed to get home to attend to it before it ran dry and burned up.  He has spent quite a bit of time not sleeping but attending to that pump lately.  Such a never-ending frustration.