Open your door at Christmas time, and you may be surprised at who you'll see.The Von 'Jones' Family singers. (not as widely known as the Von Trapp family, and not as talented...but just as cute. :)


After making plates of peppermint bark, ginger snaps, rocky road and of course, orange rolls, we set out, a merry group of carolers to some friends' homes.

A few days before, when Ethan went up skiing, the twins helped me string dried orange & lime slices and cranberries. It turned out very pretty. We made our string a little too long, but it looked nice, all the same, behind the Christmas tree.
All of Christmas Eve was full of baking, caroling and sitting by the fire listening to Christmas music. Pretty much how I remember it all growing up. The only difference was the frequent trips to the computer to watch NORAD Santa Tracker...full of News Flashes reporting where Santa was and a few actual clips of Santa and his Reindeer. Strange how the kids didn't register that Santa was a cartoon in each of those clips. Ethan, who has been trying his best to catch me denying the existence of Santa all week, blurted out, "See! That is a real video of Santa. On the computer! His is totally real. Asia (a girl in his class) is SO wrong! I'm going to tell her about this! Santa is real!" Ahh, my little black & white child. I'm going to have to break it to him gently next year before he gets into fistfights about it.

But not this year. Because, this year, Santa arrived at our house about 1 in the morning. He swooped down the chimney, filled up the stockings, ate the cookies and wrote a note to the kiddies. This year, he IS real.

And now...a little Christmas Magic.

Or maybe, more accurately, a little Cheeky Magic.


And I do hope you do recognize the ironic object Ethan innocently choose for his magic trick. It makes the magic that much better.

We were a little late on the mark, but we've finally gotten ready for Christmas! A week and a half ago, the news was full of weather woes. We were going to have the worst storm since 2004. People in parts of Oregon & Washington were experiencing flooding. People were buying sand bags and dry ice. And how did we prepare? We decided that we would go and chop down a Christmas tree. We is some smart folk. So off we went in our rain jackets, boots and umbrella. (Well...just the girls got the umbrella.) By the time we trudged out through the 5 inch mud puddles to look at the trees we were soaking and freezing. Alaina and I pointed out a random tree, shouted "cut it down!" and ran back into the barn where there was a heater and hot chocolate waiting. The boys and Bella, bless their hearts, stayed out in the downpour, found a better tree and sawed it down. By the time they came and got us, they were all soaked to the bone.This picture was taken after they got the tree on the car. What you can't see in this picture is the rain (although by this time, it wasn't coming down as hard) and you can only see a little bit of my umbrella I abandoned for the picture. Believe me, we had that sucker up as soon as the photo was snapped.

The tree is massive. We had to use a ladder to decorate it although it was worth the work. This is the first time in our marriage that we've gotten a real, live tree. I have to admit, it is prettier then our faithful old fake tree (although it has served us well) and it does smell better. Although the constant pine needles is a little annoying. :) After it was all up and done, we realized that there was one little string of lights that won't go on. We can't be bothered to switch it out, though.
Once the tree was up we decided we had better get going on our gingerbread houses (graham cracker houses?) I went to the store and bought too much candy. Robert went back to the store and bought even more. The kids eye's were wide and gleaming with anticipated gluttony. The flurry of little hands and flying candy that followed was sheer madness. Somehow we calmed them down long enough for them to make some pretty great gingerbread houses. Well...to be honest, we never really were able to slow down Austin from inhaling any candy he could get his sticky fingers on, despite our most creative threats. He was always a step ahead of us with excuses, "It broke so I had to eat it." "I had to clean my hands off and I didn't want to be wasteful." You can imagine.

Here we are after two hours of dedicated work. (I'm hiding behind the camera.)
Robert and Alaina worked together on theirs. And when I say, 'worked together' I mean that Alaina watched while Daddy took over. She was allowed to do some of the decorating under a watchful eye. I have to admit, as usual, it came out pretty cool. The house itself is full of secret compartments packed with candy. The smoke coming out is from some wire Rob found. There is a barn in the back.
Can you tell which parts Alaina did?

And here is their little skier, "Miss Alaina on the slopes."

Ethan's was really creative. He did all the decorating himself. To the left is Santa's sled and to the right is a path leading to his flag, claiming the land as his own. He also put it a cute flower patch on the right and an arch way to the front door. Very cool.


Austin did his house all by himself (after I helped him with the main construction.) He had fun stacking things and seeing how high they would go before they toppled over. He probably used the most candy on his than everyone put together. Unfortunately most of that candy ended up in his mouth before it got to his house.


And I saved the absolute best for last. Mine. :)
Austin and I share land and so I had a little path leading to his house. Little Miss Neat and Mr. Messy. I'm dangling my feet in the back pond. Aren't I so cute?
And here are my three little loves on their last day of school before Christmas break.

At school, all the kids got together for an assembly. Ethan's class had been chosen to learn a song in sign language and perform it in front of the assembly. I was pretty far away, so my picture is a little blurry. He remembered all the signs and was very serious about the whole thing. They signed "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." Only, for some reason Ethan is convinced that it is, "I'm Dreaming of a Wise Christmas." and he can't be convinced otherwise. I've tried. He has conceded that maybe that is the way that I sing it, however, his singing teacher sings it the other way. So we are both right. Can't beat that, I guess.Look how tall some of these kids are in Ethan's class. I swear, people are breeding giants these days. Ethan is about average...usually. In this picture he is third from the right.

So. You thought I was done, didn't you. Well, I'm not. I'm adding these last few pictures because they amaze me. Austin saved up all his allowance from doing chores for four months. He has been eyeing a certain Lego set for months and I had promised the kids that I would match their money if they saved up to buy something. He finally had enough and off we went to Target. As soon as week got home he started working on it. I was too busy to help that night. At nine the next morning he came down frustrated. He said, 'I've been up since six dot dot three oh and I am SO stuck." I went up and he was on his forth book of instructions. The majority was already finished. He was getting stuck because some of the instructions ended with an arrow, indicating that you need to repeat and mirror the instruction. He was able to repeat the instruction but didn't understand how to place the pieces on the opposite sides. I ended up helping him four times, and each time it was for the same reason. Here he is with the finished product. Not too shabby for a six year old!

Here is the inside.
The main piece lifts off and transforms into a ship.
I was glad I got the pictures. By the next day it was destroyed and rebuilt into something else.

Alaina is angry. Robert just blew her Christmas list in to a puff of sparkly-glittered smoke. I know, I am usually the dream-killer of the family but this one was all on Rob. And instead of being sad, she's angry. Fuming, actually. " The worst part", she says, in a huff, stamping her sequenced slipper hard onto the ground, "is that I already told Santa Claus and now he won't know what to get me!"

What was on my darling daughter's list? A Princess crown? A bucket of shiny new shoes? Bling? Oh no. The very first offending request was: A Jet Pack. A real one. The kind that makes you shoot out into the sky like a rocket. My pouting child told us that Santa, at her school party, already agreed to this one. The jet pack wish was whispered secretly into his ear with complete belief that once uttered would magically appear under the tree Christmas morning.
I start to nod with a casual, "We'll see..." ready to fall off my lips. "No." said Rob. Quite emphatically, I may add. "That's not going to happen." Whoa. Totally harsh. (I feel the need to fall back into my 80's lingo for some of this blog post.) Laina's face settled into a determined frown.

And what was her second choice? Isn't it obvious? "Super glasses that let me see through walls and up through space and to anywhere in the universe that I want to see." I shrug, thinking this was a more reasonable request. (Mrs. Santa did manage to get her the rainbow she asked for last year.) But Rob was definitely in charge of this conversation. "No. Santa won't be getting you that this year. Think of something else to ask him." Check him out! I zip my lips tight...I'm, for sure, gaining favorite parent chips on this one. Laina, not at all amused, purses her lips and with narrowed eyes glittering and hands (just the hand attached to the un-broken arm, actually) fused firmly to her hips she makes a sound that can only be described as rather drawn out, "mmm-humph!" This is not going well for her. Or for Daddy, although I'm not sure he's aware of this quite yet.

Robert continues his dream-crushing conversation. "Think of something that Santa can actually get for you." What? I thought Santa could get anything you asked him to get. I can see Alaina thinking the same thing. I decide to sit back and get a good seat for the firework show. Lainy takes a deep breath and with a patronizing (rather teenager-ish) smile says, "Fine. Then I want a unicorn. A real one." Well, then. Surely Santa can handle that one. He does have some magic, after all. And unicorns are clearly magical animals as well. He probably has one in his back yard right now, just waiting for a good home. (And bonus...we already have a place to put her.)

Unfazed, Robert continues on. "Nope. Santa can't do that one either. How about something you can get at a store." I'm gleefully smiling on the inside. I'm just surprised he didn't finish that sentence, 'like at Target. Pink aisle. Under 20 bucks.' Outside, I give Alaina a concerned grimace. She doesn't see me. She only sees the guy daring to tell her that Santa can't handle Christmas. And now, Alaina's just angry. In a very controlled but clearly a furious tone (ooooh, she's good.) she smirks, "Fine. Then maybe Santa can just give me money." This, followed by a perfectly executed heel-turn and haughty storming off stomp. Hee hee hee! (Not quite a Ho ho ho, but Santa isn't faring too well in this house today.)
Sure, I may have been the one to kill the Tooth Fairy (no fair, Ethan examined the note that the silly Tooth Fairy left and figured out that the only one who would write 'I love you!' and draw hearts over all the 'I's would be his Mama.) Granted, I'm also the one who outed the Easter Bunny. And yes, I do recall the conversation where Austin asked point blank if Santa was real and had to tell him no. (In my defense, he forced it out of me.) But this! Robert managed to beat out all the fun and magic of Christmas in one brutal sweep.

Now, my friends, relax. We still have a believer on our hands. Ever since that harsh Santa bashing, Alaina has chosen to ignore her Daddy's Grinchiness and has chosen to continue to believe in a Santa that can magically do anything he feels like. Some things are even bigger than Daddy, it seems.

Lora was able to stay for nearly three weeks with her two babies. We had a lot of fun having kick back baby time mixed in with a few big events during Thanksgiving.

Here we are with our huge, yummy Thanksgiving meal. Don't we look so calm after a hectic day of dicing, cutting, baking and frying? This year we had plenty of time to clean up since we never noticed when a certain little 2 year old turned down the heat on the Turkey. In the end, that probably gave us an extra 3 hours of vegging out time. It was worth the wait, though. :)


The weekend after Thanksgiving, Gina drove up from Santa Rosa with her two youngest cuties. Here is Shydon with Porter.
Alaina loved having so many girls around.

A close up of Naomi.

Chey.

And here are the three original Scribner girls.


At the very end of Lora's stay we had a little birthday party for Lora and Robert. He turned 35 this year and Lora turned 27. (Notice the tiny...and slightly creepy...face peeking out between them? We couldn't get Laina to leave.)


Smile time with Aunt Christy.

And yet another cool sunrise pic. from the back porch. Cloudy weather stinks but those clouds do make some pretty cool pictures.

Snow days.

We've been having some snowy experiences these last couple of weeks. For the most part, the kids have loved the new, white, adventure land. We've had the snow in the backyard which may have been enough for most people.

Although...we've never been like most people. So we took the kids up to Mount Hood for a day of sledding. The kids were quaduple layered with warm clothes and they loved slidding down some of those slippery slopes.




That is, until Mom found this one, HUGE, long hill that she thought would be brilliant to push her kids over. Here is the picture of them all before taking the plunge.

And here is my Ethan boy sailing down to his imminent doom. Can you see those little tiny people down there?He survived with a few bumps. Austin made it down with a pretty impressive face-plant at the end. I mistakenly thought that I could protect my sweet daughter by sitting on the sled with her. I guess if I would have paid more attention to Physics class, I would have understood that my weight was only going to make us go faster. And it did.

We would have made it to the bottom if we hadn't hit that sneaky jump at the end. We went flying. Alaina's arm went under the sled. Then we all went to the ER for a broken elbow. Poor girl. Last week they told us that we'd need to go into surgery, so tomorrow we'll go in and wait for them to put a pin in her elbow.

Here she is the next day, ready to go to church. (I tried to baby her at home but she wanted to go.) She also insisted on going to school all last week. The teacher pulled me aside and told me that her classmates had swarmed around her trying to help her out and she had to pull Lainy out of the mele before she got mobbed with affection. She is now limited to one special helper at a time.

With Laina was down and out for the snow season, and Austin hovering over her, Ethan and Robert made it back up to Mount Hood for Ethan's first skiing lesson. I heard he was really brave and did well in his lesson.


Here is a little clip that Robert took of him. He is getting a hang of the turns but Robert told me that he preferred flying straight down the hill and stopping himself by falling on his bum. That reminds me of when Spencer first learned how to ski and always insisted on going straight down without those bothersome turns to slow him down.