Happy New Year!

From the SIX Crosbys to you and yours!  May the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Linda be ever present in your thoughts and abundant with blessings and guidance in 2012!  Make this next year ROCK for Jesus!

Christmas Blessings

Previously I mentioned Christmas blessings abounded in our home this year.  Please let me share.  It always brings peace to my heart when we see God’s hand in gift selections and giving hearts. Of course Blessing #1 was the wiener dog, who is still not home and still nameless. 

Blessing #2 occurred when my 13-year-old son, Keeve, and I were in TJ Maxx hunting for the perfect gift for his older sister.  Flannel pajamas were on her list, so we were painstakingly making our way through the night-wear section of the store when it happened.  An epiphany.  We came across a cream-colored flannel set with BOW WOW written all over them…. and WIENER DOGS.  They were so perfect… I did a happy dance in the nightgown section of TJ Maxx. 

Blessing #3 surprised me.  My eldest son mentioned that he would really like a leather jacket.  I gingerly explained that we were buying his cycling helmet and gloves for his new team…. and there wasn’t a leather-coat-amount of money left with his name on it.  He took it all in stride and his response made me proud of his grown-up attitude in the face of disappointment.  Two hours later my brother called and asked if my eldest son would like a faux-leather jacket for Christmas.  Love it.  They happened to find one that was 83% off, but were concerned that the sleeves were really long. My only concern was finding one with long enough sleeves for my long-armed son. Not only was he surprised, but it fit perfectly and he was thrilled.  Not wiener-dog-thrilled, but still thrilled for a 15-year-old male.

Christmas Blessing #4…. Nora asked for a Nintendo DS.  Normally, we do not spend DS-amounts of money on our children at Christmas.  We keep the focus on giving and serving… not asking for expensive toys or clothes.  However, my sister called and asked if we wanted to buy their daughter’s DS.  YES!  Not only is it pink, it was delivered!  Nora was more than wiener-dog-thrilled.  I think that might change once she can squeeze the little doggy, but for now, the DS is the BEST gift ever… well, with the exception of Jesus coming as a baby.

Some would call these incidents coincidents, but I know better.  They are orchestrated works of the almighty God who cares about the little things in our lives.  I hope you were able to see God working in your lives this Christmas season!

HELLO! and come in for some hot cocoa!

Many disturbances in the force have contributed to my blogging absence… including, but not limited to, Christmas, my sister and her family visiting from Washington, Christmas Eve service, an Elvis Dinner Theater double date, Jesus’ Birthday party, cookie decorating, shopping, wrapping, Chelsea (Larisa’s friend) visiting for a week, and an Amazon gift wrapping experience that made me appreciate my life. (That warranted a blog all by itself!) Oh, and I almost forgot the most important reason I have not been on MSJ…. my laptop got a virus and wouldn’t let me get online.  It’s all better now, thanks to Howard.

Many Christmas blessings transpired which I have been eager to share.  #1 (and most important) I got a text from my friend Jill on Dec. 22nd near midnight that read “A friend has two free baby wiener dogs. Did you get Larisa a gift yet?”  That was it.  I was ruined.  Have you seen dachshund puppies?  They are irresistible… even if you have sworn by the Virgin Mother and the baby Jesus child that you will never go through puppy-raising a second time in your entire life.  My 18-year-old daughter has wanted a wiener dog for years.  She has a dog.  But she wanted a wiener dog.  I’ve said NO for years.  She has taped pictures of wiener dogs on my bedroom door.  She has posted wiener dog pictures on my facebook page.  She even doggy-sits wiener dogs… and brings them over to show me how adorable they are.  I finally broke down and told her I would buy a wiener dog for her as a wedding gift.  (She doesn’t even have a love interest at the moment… and as I said previously, she’s only 18.)  I thought it was a great compromise.  Then came the text.  I didn’t say anything, I simply showed the text to my husband.  We both raised our eyebrows and shook our heads.  We were thinking the same thing….. FREE…. and our little Colombian princess would love to have a puppy to play with.  It could be a doggy for both of our girls to share.  Then when Larisa goes to college, Nora is still here to clean up the back yard of doggy doodoo.  Perfect.

I called another friend who received a baby wiener dog for Christmas last year…. and didn’t keep it.  I wanted to know why.  Her answer didn’t help me.  She didn’t have time to train him.  Well, I’m home all the time… with nothing to do.  Perfect.  I started to list off all the things we would need to purchase for the puppy…. doggy door, crate, gate, etc.  She piped in with a FREE doggy door and crate.  Perfect.

Christmas Eve at approximately 11:59 and 1/2 Rick gave his blessing for the acquisition of the baby wiener dog.  Oh, were our girls going to be thrilled.  A few glitches have occurred.  It took us so long to decide, the puppy missed ride #1 from California to Phoenix.  Ride #2 is on Jan. 3rd.  At least that gives us a week before we start school again!  Here are the girls when they heard the new puppy news:

Shocked and amazed.  It was priceless.  We only have a few blurry pictures from which to choose a new family pet… and they are from a cell phone.  We don’t have a name chosen yet, and Larisa is leaning toward the bigger brown puppy not the smaller black puppy.  I’ll keep you posted and hopefully get some blog-worthy photos.

I’ll save #2 and #3 Christmas blessings for other blogs.  Needless to say… not much else could beat a Christmas puppy… and it isn’t even home yet.  (I’m seeing this as my ticket to new carpet… in a year!)

Yet Again…. Evil Knieval LIVES!

My 15-year-old son, who broke his nose and left the right side of his face on the ski mountain in January….. attempted a 360 on a bmx bike on Sunday and it didn’t exactly go down as planned.  Well, HE went down.  And the bike went down… but not in the 360 fashion that was in my son’s head.  We arrived home a few hours later and he announced, “Something’s not right in my elbow.”  It was swollen but he had almost full range of motion… no blue fingernails (we learned to check that the first time he broke this arm 11 year ago)… so we iced it.  He took two ibuprofen and went to bed.  The next morning, he asked if we would take him in to have it looked at (obviously by someone more compassionate than his parents.) 

Austin has a high pain tolerance, we have learned from various past experiences.  When the skin was missing from his face, he only took four Tylenol…. the entire time.  It just looked painful.  I took a few, just to deal with it. So I figured we should probably have it looked at by someone more compassionate than us, if he was complaining.

A call was made and an appointment with the chiropractor was scheduled for 3:30.  A few adjustments and all would be right!  Bam!  See, I am the caring parent after all.  The doctor took one look at the arm and sent us off for x-rays.  Seems something wasn’t right. 

Day #3… we visited a rather hip orthopedic surgeon (I just assume they will be 67-years-old when they are surgeons.)  I’m pretty sure I was older than this doctor by at least ten years.  Anyway, seems something wasn’t right…. the humerus had a chip off the bottom of it… and the muscles on the inside of the elbow were hyper extended, but not torn.  I was thankful no Christmas cast was called for!  Whew!  He’s in a sling and will start cold-lazer therapy today. (Whatever that is…. sounds like something from Star Trek.) 

Since my absence at the ER was more than 11 months, someone had taken my designated parking spot!  The nerve!  At least I got my frequent flyer card punched!

Nora’s First Piano Recital

Nora began taking piano lessons in September… just as soon as she learned her alphabet A-G.  She is a quick little study as she can already play recognizable songs… that I admit, are a bit hard to sing along with, but STILL!  She was darling and so proud of herself!

That is Suzi, my friend who teaches piano.  She has taught all of our kids to read music and play the piano.  We are blessed!!!  Nora played Jingle Bells… almost perfectly.  Made her mommy and daddy’s buttons almost burst.  When she practices at home, she sings along with all her notes either the finger number or the note name… and it’s all perfectly on key.  When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Nora responded, “A singer….. or a ninja.”  Perfect!  You go, girlfriend!

Family Pictures….. ugh.

This pretty well sums up our family picture attempt.  We laughed.  We cried. It moved us, Bob.  (sorry… Veggietales does it to me every time.)  The sun was too bright.  The shadows were too dark.  We squinted too much. And on and on.

It started at 10 a.m. when I realized that it was the only day in the following six that we had a chance to take a family picture when the sun was still up in the sky.  I picked light blue for everyone to wear… but this did not go down without major whining from the chillins.  Good grief. Calm Down.  We did have to borrow a shirt for Larisa from her cousin… and jeans for Keeve from his cousin.  I’m very thankful our cousins live across the street and are relatively the same sizes as most of my kids!  Also, my sister-in-law, Julie took the photos for us. 

After the clothing issue was settled (at least in my mind) and the fronts of all the shirts were ironed…. we moved on to hair.  Two haircuts were had by the shaggiest members of the clan. And showers were had by most.  By then it was noon.  Off to the park… where the sun was shining so brightly we could barely open our eyes.  It was awesome!  Not really.

That was as good as that pose got after 17 tries…. good grief. Calm down.  The shadows were just too harsh and we moved to the shade, much to my husband’s chagrin as he loves sending pictures of green grass in December to his friends and family in the frozen north.  We moved to the back of the community center cement sign… so it looks like we’re in the hood.

Finally, at least most of us are smiling half-normally.  And a family photo shoot would not be complete without some planking……

2:00.  Bam!  Family pictures done for another 12 months.  Only took four hours.

Snow Angels and Snow Balls

The Colombian princess played in the snow for her first time today up in Prescott, AZ.  In the morning I pulled out some snow pants and boots for her.  She was jazzed about the boots, but the snow pants were not her thing at all.   First she started to take off her jeans to put them on, but her brother explained that they go over your clothes.  This didn’t fly either.  Of course, this was in our balmy 74 degree house.  Her tune changed when we arrived to snow and chilly weather.  For some reason she asked for her hair to be tucked in her jacket???  Not sure what that was all about.

Next came the making of snow angels for the frist time.  I never realized how hard it is to describe the making of a snow angel until today.  She didn’t want her hair touching the snow… then I told her to move her arms up and down and she repeatedly raised them off the ground straight up and down. (She is good at following directions!)  Finally a kindly friend plopped down next to her and showed her how it’s done.  The result she loved…. the snow in the hair, not so much.

Then the snowball war commenced.  Nora loved throwing the snowballs and sneaking up behind unsuspecting targets…. but she didn’t exactly love being hit by snowballs.  I can relate.  I’ve been trying to teach her how to throw like a boy, but it’s not sinking in yet.  Lots of girly-thrown snowballs today.

So much fun to see the wonder on a child’s face the first time their little fingers freeze from making a snowman!  I loved that we got to share this day with Nora… and I love that God let there be snow in Arizona at least once in a while.

Lately Nora has been fascinated by eyebrows… and uni-brows… and snowman brows… awesome!

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Really!  In Phoenix… in December… it snowed only 25 miles from our house!  We had rain … but we are not used to harsh conditions where we need closed-toed shoes… and a jacket!  I can imagine the sympathy in your heart for us!  haha.

December brought out Christmas decorations with a vengeance… lights, wreaths, trees, snowmen, etc.  First year EVER… I got the fake tree up with all the silver, blue and white ornaments… on December 1st!  A week later, we are still waiting to go buy a tree for all the non-blue ornaments.  A few years back, I came to the realization that red is not my favorite color.  In fact in the ROYGBIV list… I’m basically loving the rainbow in reverse order.  I’m a violet, indigo and blue gal from the boots up.  SO…. I went blue Christmas shopping and the blue tree was born.  I love it more each year… as the ornaments accumulate.  There are a few homemade preschool ornaments that made the cut… we have a popsicle stick Star of David with blue glitter…. and a dough star painted royal blue.  Yes, they are on the back, but they did make the cut for MY tree.

I love these stained glass snow flakes.  Rick and I bought these in Mexico two years ago at Christmas time.  Love them!

This stained glass trio was purchased last Christmas in Bogota, Colombia.  Yes, it’s supposed to by Mary, Joseph and the Babe Jesus, but I also like to think of it as Rick, me and our little colombian princess who joined us last Christmas!

Nora has loved the thought of Christmas since her first days in the USA.  She arrived to her forever home on December 22nd and it was one big blur of Christmas bliss her first week home!  Her eyes sparkled when she saw Grandma’s house all decorated in every corner!  A village with ice skaters and lights in the windows… a sleigh full of teddy bears… brass reindeer with ribbons… embroidered Santa pillows…. snowmen that play the piano and sing…. little Christmas mice climbing candles… matching wreaths on the front doors… and Santa himself waving the lantern from the top of the tree…Spendid!  All year long she has repeated that Christmas is her favorite!  We have stressed over and over that it is our favorite too, because Jesus was born then and THAT is the reason we celebrate.

We are doing the Jesse Advent Tree devotional with the kids.  We bought a little tree for the kitchen table that looks pretty lame right now with only five ornaments, but it looks a little better each day as we add to the story of Jesus!  We review every night and Nora basically gets it so far…. just a bit off on a few stories!  It is a bit alarming that of the first five stories, death is talked about three times!  (Adam and Eve’s disobedience, Noah’s neighbors and Abraham starting to sacrifice Isaac!)  I never thought of it before, but it’s all part of the story of our salvation!

So thankful for a relaxed Christmas month to share with our little girl!