Another Christmas Day highlight: I gave Nate a new Henckel Santoku knife for Christmas.

Nate got in a fight with the knife, and the knife won.  As he was cleaning it right before we sat down for dinner, it slipped out of his grip and sliced two fingers on his right hand.  The cut was really deep, so I wanted him to see a doctor.  Lucky for us, we have a GREAT friend and neighbor who is a doctor in a residency here.  We called him up on Christmas Day after he had gotten off of a 24+ hour hospital shift (we actually woke him up!), and he turned his kitchen table into an ER.  Nate supplied the local (pina colada flavored…don’t think that mattered to the finger), and Dr. X supplied the sutures.  Next time we’ll bring a stick for Nate to bite on, because the anesthetic didn’t quite numb him to the degree he would have liked.

I wont name names for a variety of reasons, but we would like to thank Doctor and Mrs. Doctor who took us in on Christmas Day at a most unconvenient time and performed a huge act of kindness, service, and a little surgery on the side.  Nate is recovering and learning how to do things one-handed.  Although, no dishes…doctor’s orders.

Christmas was a success!  The kids were literally running to their stockings.  I’m not sure Sam knew why he was supposed to be so excited, but he followed Magei’s lead and they both had a blast.  They unloaded everyone’s stockings and opened everyone’s presents.  The biggest hits were Play Doh, Mega Blocks, princess nightgowns, and band aids.

The rest of the day was spent playing with our new toys and making homemade potato chips and paninis.

Tennille and Darren came to visit for a week over Christmas, and it was so fun to have them here!  I have no idea how to organize a week’s worth of “partying” so I’ll start with Christmas Eve.  Magei wanted to have her nails painted, so we decided on red with white dots.

Sam woke up happy from his nap and joined us all in a game of Disney Bingo.

Magei and I tied for the most wins.

Christmas Eve dinner was fondu.  Magei and Sam kept their fondu forks under control this year, so everyone got through dinner unscathed.

We had a Christmas Family Home Evening.  Nate read out of the Bible.

We sang Christmas carols, and then Magei did a little violin concert, playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

Next it was time to open the Christmas jammies.

Finally, even more cookie decorating.  This time it was for the big guy, himself.

Dr. Holloway invited us over to her house on Saturday to make Christmas cookies.  The kids were in heaven.  She had an awesome train under her tree that the kids spent some quality time with.  It had lights and blew smoke out of the pipe, so they thought it was really cool.  Of course, their favorite part was decorating the sugar cookies.  Dr. Holloway is an excellent cook, so I brought home some GREAT recipes for fudge, sour cream sugar cookies, english toffee, and russian tea cakes.

The kids before church:

Melinda and Sam sent a story with their Christmas card this year, so we read it for advent on Sunday.  It was so fun to get the star in the mail that went with the story, and Magei got to hang it on the tree.

…for a To Do list that is a mile long.  Which is why it has been a while since I’ve posted.  So, what have we been up to?  This:

• Finals - Nate (already counting down to graduation in May 2011)
• Finals - Laura (only five glorious months left!)

And that is about it.  Oh, and all the other tasks that come with just living life: leaky kitchen sink, fixing the short in the power outlet, hanging new closet doors, winterizing patio furniture and grill, raking leaves…

But - let the Christmas break begin!  I still have a little bit of homework, but I officially have two weeks off from school.  Nate will be home for part of that, too!  Although he also has homework and labwork to do, he doesn’t have patients from December 24 - Jan 1…yeah!  And so…

Magei wrote me a Christmas note.

We made Christmas cupcakes for Nate’s patients.

 We braved the snow and ice.

Magei sent out her own Christmas cards.

We observe advent at our house, so each Sunday in December we light the appropriate number of candles, have a little devotional, and then sing a Christmas song.

I also light the rauchermann.  It’s not part of advent - I just love the smell.

Nate read a story about a nail and remembering Christ at Christmas.  Sam put it on the tree when he was done.

And for a little randomness, here is Magei before church.  This dress is actually a matching cousin dress from last Christmas, but I thought she could wear it one more time.

We always keep a basket of Christmas books under our tree.  The kids love to grab the baskets and look through the books throughout the day.

Last Saturday was our annual Christmas concert.  This year we went to the symphony.  Ronald Jenkins has been the conductor since 1982, and it is a treat to see him.  It is especially fun because he wears a sequined red vest and bow tie to the Christmas concert…and he puts the french horns on the front row for a portion.  The first half was classical and the second half more traditional/contemporary with some old gospel mixed in.  We all had a great time and we are so glad the symphony is back!  We were worried that they might be gone for awhile…their funding has not been sufficient to meet their needs and they had to cancel a number shows this season, including all the Picnic with the Pops concerts - which we were so sad about, because they are so fun!

Here are the kids all dressed up in their Christmas clothes before the show:

We ate dinner at La Tavola before the concert.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the Columbus area looking for something nice on a special occasion.  Nate had the house stuffed sausage, which was incredibly spicy, but so good (according to him…I did not try it).  I had the handmade pumkin ravioli with sage sauce, which was excellent.  Magei got a pizza and Sam had the best grilled cheese sandwich I have ever tasted…I snuck a few bites.

Here are the kids at The Ohio Theatre getting ready to take their seats.  Santa Claus comes out at the end, but Magei was lucky enough to get to meet him personally in the lobby before he took the stage.  He bent down to talk to her and it was really adorable…I couln’t grab my camera fast enough!

St. Nikolaus is really a German tradition, but he makes his way to our house, too.  Every year on December 6th, St. Nikolaus visits us.  The kids put their shoes by the door, and if they have been good, they get filled with goodies.  If they are bad, they get a tree branch that serves as a warning to get it together before Christmas.

Magei and Sam instisted on using their slippers this year…looks like they were pretty good!

The kids immediately went to work making Christmas cards with their new stickers.

They also got to wear their new socks…Sam couldn’t wait to take off his jammies first.

One of our Christmas traditions is to have our own little family party on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  We get out all our Christmas decorations and eat fun food while we set everything up.

Nate’s mom gave Magei this Rudolph Mickey from Disney World on her first Christmas.  She loves it and looks forward to getting it out every year…now Sam does, too.

We took a little break to go to church…or at least we tried.  We were about 2 seconds away from walking out the door when Sam grabbed the hot curling iron I had just used to curl Magei’s hair with.  He cried for about an hour, so I stayed home with him while Magei and Nate went to church.  He finally fell asleep with his ice pack and woke up as good as new.

Our traditional spread: cucumber, salami, cheese, and sushi (made with tapioca rice paper instead of seaweed…the kids don’t do seaweed).

Sam was so funny.  He seriously made this face for every ornament that he got to put on the tree.

We also have a family tradition to add a Santa to our collection every year.  This is our Santa for 2008.  We got him in Edinburgh.

Magei got to put the star on the top of the tree.

The kids in their matching pajamas.  Sam looks like he is throwing gang signs…

I also finished this Christmas quilt.  The fabric is scraps from matching pajama pants that I made in Christmas’ past.  I’m embarrassed to admit that it was something I started last year and only just finished.  I decided to embroider the red squares by hand and it took forever…and then I got so busy with school that I didn’t get the the backing and binding put on until this year.  One project down; a million more to go.

We took the kids to see the lights at the Columbus Zoo on Saturday night.  Since it was in the 40’s, we thought we would take advantage of the “nice” weather and get out for the night.  It was freezing, but the lights are amazing and always worth it.