The Day After

For the second year in a row, my surprise Christmas present is strep throat! And just like last year, I started to hurt on Christmas Eve. By Christmas morning it was pretty clear that I’d been bitten: my tonsils were trying to push themselves right out of my throat. In fact you can hear my just-swallowed-marshmallows-voice in the Christmas videos I took.

Christmas day was still great but I’m feeling pretty low right now. I’m in good company, Calvin has strep too. And we’ve been administrating antibiotics to Enoch and Taran for the last week. At least this year wasn’t as painful as last year. And it’s kind of nice to sit around on the day after Christmas and read and watch TV and ignore the mess and tell myself, “I’m too sick to clean.”

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful year! We are so blessed. Life with four kids on a student salary shouldn't be this bounteous. We cannot thank those who love us enough. All we have to share in return are these pictures. It's not much, but the pure, unabated joy in our faces says it all.





Calvin pulling the sheet off of his biggest gift, a play kitchen.




Enoch and Taran looking at a gift from Amy and the boys to both of them.


Mommy and Calvin open his gift from Amy.


Cheryl ponders: What is the significance of Christmas? or What did she get me?


A picture of Emma on the "best day of her life."


Merry Christmas!

Santa Came!

This is a picture of the tree, stockings, and gifts waiting for the Martins. It was taken right after Santa came. I thought I'd add it here as a contrast to the chaos of Christmas morning.

Christmas Morning--Before the Gifts

Each Christmas morning, before we open gifts, we sit as a family and think of a gift to offer Christ. We write that gift down on a Christmas card and (try to) work on it through the year.
Here we are writing down our gifts while Enoch hides in the bed.


The kids are done and READY to go down!

The Nativity

Our Christmas Eve tradition is acting out the nativity. Enjoy...

Emma played Mary, Taran was Joseph, and Enoch was a shepard.


Calvin was a king. However, he didn't like the costume.


We read the story from Luke and Matthew and sang Christmas songs while the players pantomimed. Here the shepard has just arrived. The former king watches too.


The story in action.


The whole gang, Cheryl as a king and David at the piano.


And me.

Peace on Earth, good will to men!

Christmas Dinner

The table set and waiting for us! Emma did the fancy napkins in the goblets. She calls them roses.
Yum! We had crown roast, salad, rolls with Meyer honey, apple cider, potatoes, and chocolate cake and pie.

Christmas Caroling

Ever since I was young, my family has gone caroling to neighbors and friends. As the Martin family, we are continuing that tradition here in Minneapolis.
There are some essential points of the tradition. These are:
-Kids goofing off.
-Which quickly turns into kids fighting.
-Dad gets mad.
-Then the kids get quiet.
-Which is usually, but not always, followed by the kids goofing off quietly. In my day it included imitating dad's angry face.
-Then of course, singing Christmas songs to some very patient souls.
-We always leave a plate of cookies at each house. It's a way to say Thank You for listening to our "joyful noise."
-We end our annual song fest at home eating leftover cookies!

We are proud to maintain this honored family tradition!


Emma, Taran, and Calvin bundled and ready to go.


Enoch pitching a fit in the snow.


It's over! We're all happy and ready to eat OUR cookies.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!