Gwan in action! (Port Elizabeth 2009)

Here's just a lovely photo of my talented mom taking photos.

Christmas with children!

For God so loved the world, that He gave us His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall have everlasting life.
What a gift!
We woke up early this morning. Josephine was diving under the Christmas tree, digging out any other presents she could find! I had to stop her from opening Gramps' one several times! Finally, she said she'd look after it very nicely and she put it into her little flower "handbag" to give him later in the day.

We started off travelling to St Albans to join Gran and Gramps in a church service at their Spicer Street church. What a blessing! Our first sight as we rounded the corner from the car park was Gramps! He braved the cold and kindly waited outside for us waving us down. How welcoming it felt!
After that we had a little nappy-problem as Evie needed compleeete changing (a bath would have been best, but well).
Josephine was so keen on the carols and held her yellow sheet out proudly in front of her telling me to join in and sing louder. About 20 minutes into the service Michael and Gramps took the girls out and Gran and I enjoyed being together.
It was a beautiful day, but once again bitter-sweet. Remembering my brother, Michael, who was at his peak of suffering from cancer only 4 years ago, was a heartsore memory to be faced with again. One always remembers and thinks back to what was going on this time 4 years ago. Hard. And to think of what my mom and dad must be feeling...I can only try to imagine...we shed many laughs and tears together today...
The service message was very clear and freshly put. In a nutshell: Jesus was born to sort out the mess Adam created!
After church we started a delightful time with my parents. We had a ball!!!!! Where to start with that!?! From Schlur to snacks, to a DELICIOUS meal (gammon & gravy, bobootie, salad, potatoes, beans, fresh bread) to opening presents (our children and us were spoilt with gifts given with such LOVE!!)....somewhere along the line we danced! My mom put on some golden oldies...at first a slowish one and then "The Hippie Hippie Shake!!" and Jozie went ape with her dancing! She jumped, shook, jiggled, turned around and around and even stood on her head too in sheer delight of the rhythm! For dessert, we had a malva pudding (a DELICIOUS Afrikaans (?) South African pud....soooo lekker!) with custard, and a French dessert too! It was more than a treat! Mom, if you ever read this - thanks for the love you put into it.
And did I mention the decorations....so cosy and Christmasy in Gwan and Gwamps' lovely home!
We danced again to "Singing in the rain" and Gwan even hauled out an umbrella for us to dance under. Jozie just loved it all! Michael and I had a dance, Dad and I had a dance, Jozie and Michael had a dance. How special that was!
Evie was so laid back today and enjoyed playing with all the wrapping paper and being cuddled.
To round it all off, we went on a nice walk and breathed some cool British air! Jozie spent the last of her energy running up and down a little hill and getting us to catch her.
Back home, we had a lovely warm cuppa and soon Jozie was nearly falling asleep on her feet. So we whipped our littlies up and gave lots of goodbye cuddles to Gwan and Gwamps and made our way home. Jozie went straight to bed and is still in La-la land. Evie and I had a warm bath together and then she went to la-la land.
And now, it's my turn to go to La-la land....

Merry Christmas everyone! And let us never forget the true meaning of Christmas: God's gift to us - Jesus.

x



What a gift family is too

Chopsticks and Christmas Eve

Stepping out...into the bloggin' world! A small step for mankind, a big step for me!

So, let me introduce myself. My name is Isabelle Schmidt. I'm married to the love of my life, Michael Schmidt and together we have been blessed from above with 2 beautiful daughters, Josephine (2 years and 10mnths) and Evie Marie (6 months).

Tonight is Christmas Eve...and we've just had a lovely family day. Michael had the day off work so it was a real treat to have him home in the middle of the week! Yay! This morning, he and Josephine went delivering my late Christmas cards to the neighbours. It was like an ice-rink outside and they skidded and slid their way from door to door. It looked like little and big Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk right here. Had me tickled pink! And Evie just blew bubbles at them as we watched from the window!

At midday we put the kids down for their nap. I overheard JOsephine saying her goodnight prayer (which she also says at naptime)...."Dear Gord Jesus. Tank you for Mamma and Pappa and Jozie and Pappa and my milk. Aaaaamen!" Pappa repeated "Thank you for my milk too?" "Hey, Pappa. I already said that!" (i.e. don't you listen to me!?!)

After the kids had woken up from their midday sleep, we had some chicken curry with basmati rice. Now, that would be an ordinary meal, I guess. But for us it was special. Because we tried it with chopsticks. Or what did Michael call them....hashi?

We're moving to Japan quite soon - not sure of the date yet, but in the meanwhile Michael thought it would be a good idea to start practising eating with chopsticks! It was a lot of fun. Josephine was really quite patient, I must say. She never gave up at all throughout. Unfortunately, she also didn't get very much food into her tummy either! As she couldn't quite get her little fingers around these adult chopsticks (poor thing!) she resorted to dumping the one and sticking it out with the other. She poked, proded, sucked the end of her one chopstick which would occassionally (and luckily) pick up one grain of rice at a time or at the least a thin layer of sauce. After about half an hour of this, and being really determined (refusing any spoon offered), she finally ditched the lot and decided playing with regular kids toys would be more rewarding.

After lunch, we headed off to St Albans to meet Gran and Gramps at the cathedral where they were having a family Christmas service. It was lovely. Bit strange when they prayed for all Christmas trees to be blessed, but well. Was nice to see the little shepherds, baby Jesus in the manger, Mary and Joseph (all knitted and large toys - Gran's comment was "Wow, that's a lot of knitting!). Josephine was listening intently and tugged on my arm several times as she wanted to show me where baby Jesus was lying. We went there and crouched in front of the nativity scene and went over the story of Jesus' birth 1000+ years ago.

Was lovely to see Gran and Gramps! Gran whipped out some gingerbread men and chocolate muffins...we enjoyed those while all the others queued to leave the cathedral. By the time we had finished, we didn't have to wait to leave and had had a scrumptious little snack! Thanks Gran!

At home, we did the German thing and had some sausages with potato salad. Normally we'd also open presents on Christmas Eve, but this year as the kids are still too small to know the difference between the 23rd and 24th, our family Christmas started on the 23rd and we're celebrating all the way through.

This year, we gave Josephine a tall rocking horse called Chestnut. He's on a glider and is very handsome! She also got a little racetrack for 2 zooty cars. Evie got a toybox with her name engraved on it, some leather sheepskin booties and a baby toy.

Tomorrow is Christmas day and we're excited to be spending the day with Gran and Gramps at their home.