The Twelfth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, twelve drummers drumming,
which represent the twelve vital Christian beliefs as stated in the Apostle's Creed:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father.
He shall return to judge both the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Christmas Day

It was a White Christmas!

In the morning we woke up to filled stockings and presents under the tree. We spent the afternoon and evening at Kari's parent's house. The best part of the day, I think, was holding the sweet new baby, Shane!

It was a very Merry Christmas!

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, eleven pipers piping,
which represent the eleven faithful apostles/disciples who joyfully followed Jesus. Mark 3:16-19

Christmas Eve
Great-Grandpa and Mackie came over for dinner, actually Tyler drove over to get them since the roads are still snow-packed and hard to drive on. We had dinner and opened gifts.In Denmark...they do all their celebrations on Christmas Eve. They have a big feast, then sing and dance around the Christmas tree, then stay up until midnight opening gifts! So we let Sandra sing and dance for us ;-) and open her many gifts from her family. She even got a gift from her cat!

The Tenth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, ten lords a-leaping,
which symbolize God's ten basic laws; The Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:3-17

Here are a few short video clips of the fun we are having these last 9 days!

The Ninth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, nine ladies dancing,

which represent the nine fruits the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. Every Christian should dance joyfully and rejoice over the life-changing fruit of the Holy Spirit.

"The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23.

I am dancing joyfully today at the amount of snow we have! After apx 8 inches of snowfall on Saturday, Sunday we woke up to apx 1/2 inch of ice on top of the snow! Then it began snowing again, all day, all night, and still today...this morning at 10am we measured 16 inches!

Happy Birthday Wong!

Today Wong is 16 years old.

We did fireworks last night to celebrate Hector and Wong's birthdays!

The Eighth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, Eight maids a-milking,

which represent the eight teachings of Jesus, the Beatitudes:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:3-12

These words nurture and strengthen us like milk nourishes a child.

Speaking of milk, we have gone through 6 gallons of milk since we've been snowed-in (7 days)! That is almost a gallon a day!

Happy Birthday Hector!

Hector is 18 today.

Yesterday Hector made an igloo.

He wanted to sleep in it!

The Seventh Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, Seven Swans a-swimming,

which symbolize the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership and mercy. Just like a baby swan grows and changes from an "ugly duckling" into a beautiful swan, so do God's children grow and change through the work of the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:6-8.

I am so thankful yesterday's snow melted long enough for us to drive to the hospital to see my new nephew! My sister Erika and Bobby rushed to the hospital Thursday night on slushy roads (glad Thursday's snow had melted also!) and delivered Shane Preston Cooley at 12:58 AM, December 19th.

He is 7lb, 7oz and has strawberry blonde hair and light grey eyes. He is precious!

The Sixth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, 6 geese a-laying,

which represent new life. Eggs symbolize new life, so the six geese a-laying are a reminder of the six days of creation. Genesis 1:1, 31.

6. S.i.x. Six. Kids. My mom had 6 kids. As the oldest, I often babysat my younger siblings while my parents worked, my mom is a part-time nurse at Providence Child Center. I definately didn't want to have 6 kids of my own. I wanted 2. 1 boy, 1 girl. We don't always get what we want because God knows what we need. :-)

So here I am, snowed-in for a week with 6 kids! THE MORE THE MERRIER is such a true saying. We are so lucky and blessed to have a full-house this year! Love it!

Our Christmas card picture: Mr. & Mrs. Claus/Lewis with our 3 precious Reindeer and 3 helpful, Merry Elves! (Isaac grabbed Mrs. Claus' spatula and was looking through the holes in it! ;-)

The Fifth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, Fiiiiiiiiiive Golden Riiiiiiiings,

which represent the first 5 books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy. Gold rings are among the most valuable of all gifts, and these books, known as the Torah, were treated with great reverence and considered to be worth more than gold. They record the creation of the world and God's Law.

Deuteronomy 26:18 "The Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands."

It has been a frozen winter wonderland in the Portland, OR area! The snow melted for a little bit today but more started falling this evening!

The Fourth Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, Four Calling Birds,

which represent the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

John 20:31 "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

It is the Fourth day of being snowed-in! We are having so much fun playing in the snow and hanging out together inside a warm home.

Today we walked over to Grandpa and Mackie's house to see how he is doing after hip surgery and bring them our Christmas gifts of laughter and joy! :-D

The Third Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, 3 French Hens,

representing Faith, Hope and Love or the 3 gifts of the Magi:

Matthew 2:10-11 "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh."

Saturday night we went to Follow The Star, an interactive, walk-thru live nativity event. We followed the Star with the 3 Magi until we stopped to rest with the Shepherds. Then we walked with one Shepherd into Bethleham and searched for the baby the angels told us about. The baby Jesus looked so real!

The Second Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me, 2 Turtle Doves,

which represent the Old and New Testaments in the Bible.

or the actual sacrifice Joseph and Mary made when they consecrated Jesus.

Luke 2:22-24.

This year we got 2 Christmas Trees!

Brianna wanted her own Christmas tree for her bedroom. Saturday we went to Grandpa's Christmas Tree Farm to get our trees.In search of the perfect Christmas tree!

The biggest one we've ever had.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

taken from Wikipedia:
"The Twelve Days of Christmas, and the associated evenings of those twelve days, are the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas, December 25th, through the morning of Epiphany, January 6th. This period is also known as Christmastide.
Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame, and their interpretations. Today, some give gifts each of the twelve days, feast and otherwise celebrate the entire time through to Epiphany morning. Lighting a candle for each day has become a modern tradition in the U.S., and of course, singing the appropriate verses of the famous song each day is also an important and fun part of the American celebrations. With the onset of more Americanized and secular traditions throughout the past two centuries (such as the American "Santa Claus", popularity of Christmas Eve itself as a holiday, and rise in popularity of New Year's Eve parties as well), the traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas have been largely forgotten in the U.S. This is also heightened by the commercial practice to have "After-Christmas Sales" beginning on December 26th, running until New Year's Eve. Indeed, contemporary marketing and media tend to espouse the belief that the Twelve Days end on Christmas, and thus begin December 14."

The First Day of Christmas,

my true love gave to me, A Partridge in a Pear Tree.
The Partridge represents Jesus Christ and the Pear Tree represents The Cross. John 3:16.

Today we were supposed to get our Christmas Tree but we were snowed in! Luckily, I decided to make a quick trip out to my parent's Christmas Tree Farm yesterday in case it snowed today. :-) Today we decorated the Christmas Tree and on this First Day of Christmas, the kids are sleeping under the tree!

My Merry Elves helped me decorate the tree!

Sandra's Danish traditions:

Denmark's Flag, a white cross, hangs on the Christmas Tree.

and The Advent Candle counts down the days until Christmas.

Hector's First Snow!

Today was the first time Hector has seen snow! Tyler's family's tradition is to run barefoot around the yard in the first snowfall. Hector braved it. Sandra sprinted past 2 snowball throwers!The kids played in the snow many times, coming inside to warm cold feet and hands and noses by the heater, then going back out to make a snowman and throw snowballs Inside, we baked and ate and laughed and rested and watched movies.
Our big family is having a GREAT time being snowed-in!

if you havn't figured it out already

I like to keep my blog chronologically correct. Sometimes I don't have time to post things but when I finally do, I make sure to post them with the correct date that they happened.
So, if you visit my blog often, remember to scroll down to see if there is anything new you havn't seen yet... like pictures from our Thanksgiving trip and the Christmas musical!
Scroll Down :-)

Family pictures

Family pictures are so much fun! Even funner with 5 kids :-) Even funner with a screaming baby ;-)

Could have been better, though, if the photographer was more experienced.

Winter Formal

Christmas Play

Their favorite song to perform was "Let Your Light Shine Out!"Dominick and Brianna will be performing and singing in their first play!