Before Christmas

Here is what was happening in the Miller family during the week leading up to Christmas. Weds., Dec. 17 found Drew, Ben and me sitting on the floor watching yet another performance at Noah's pre-school. This time we heard "I know a man with a long white beard and Santa is his name-O, S-A-N-T-A...."(to the tune of BINGO), "Santa Claus is big and fat, he has black boots and a big red hat, his nose is red just like a rose, and he Ho, Ho, Ho's from his head to his toes", and a holiday favorite "Rudolph the red nose reighdeer" but with a small variation (Noah thought Rudolph's nose "blows" instead of "glows").



Obviously Noah had fun during his Christmas program. We also enjoyed the cookies and games in the gym afterward.

On Saturday, Dec. 20th we had folks over from our home group at church. We did a white elephant gift exchange. Below are some of the gifts that were "won". For those of you who weren't there...Matt is where a shirt that Tabitha saved from her time in Japan as a teenage missionary kid. It says "God Bress You Forevwer".



Then on Sunday through Tuesday the boys and I made the trip to Richmond to visit my family. We had dinner at my mom's house on Sunday night and the kid's put on a little Christmas play. My camera ran out of juice, so I only got this picture of Ben as one of the wise men.

In this picture my brother is demonstrating the zipper feature of his apron that I made him for Christmas. Drew got one as well. I haven't come up with a name for this manly apron yet...any ideas???


We had a great time with my family this week. We went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see the lights show. This was the first time I have been back there since Drew and I got married there over 7 years ago. It was a nice time for me to stop and notice all of the ways God has blessed and challenged us in our married life.

We got home in time to celebrate Christmas Eve dinner with friends (Drew cooked a tasty dinner of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes and ginger cashew green beans) and to attend the Christmas Eve service at our church. It was fun to look around the church and get a sense of how our church friends really are like extended family.

A Turkey Trot is the perfect way to start out your day on Thanksgiving

Noah ran in his first official race on Thanksgiving. He looked forward to it for weeks. He even practiced the half mile run at the gym the week before Thanksgiving just to get an idea of the pace he should set. I also ran in a 10K race with my sister, brother and dad. My mom was our wonderful assistant who watched the kids for an hour while we ran around the University of Richmond. The race was the highlight of my Thanksgiving and set a wonderful tone for the rest of the day.

Here are Noah, Philip and Grace with my sister, Patricia, in the background. They are standing in a mob of children all waiting to run. I ran alongside Noah and had to scoop him up at one point so that he would not end up in a pile of children who tripped just after the starting line.

Outside activities before our Thanksgiving meal
We were blessed with nice weather on Thanksgiving and took full advantage of it. Drew brought a flag football set and the boys played for an hour while the women folk got the meal ready. It worked out well for all of us.

Drew, Noah, Steve and Philip (my sister's husband and son) teamed up against my brother and his two brother-in-laws.

Noah and Philip enjoyed being one of the big boys and playing in their first "real" football game.

Grace...

Betsy...

...and Ben enjoyed watching from the sidelines.

The day culminated in a wonderful meal at my sisters and a game of charades put on by the kids.

Summer Pictures
(better late than never...right?)

Me and my sister-in-law, Debbie

Noah, Drew and Drew's brother, Jay and his son, Jonathan

Noah and Jonathan on the day Noah conquered his fear of the water and went out in the big waves with Drew.

Noah with cousins, Jonathan, Emma and Julia

These two pictures of Ben are great example of a quirky little trait of his. He hates getting dirt or sand on his hands and feet. I discovered these swim socks (they only had pink) at a beach shop and they changed our time at the beach significantly. Ben was finally able to enjoy himself. He chased the waves on the shore and looked at shells and seagulls. We didn't build many sand castles, but at least we made it to the beach.

Crabbing...

While in the Outerbanks this past July, we spent one morning crabbing in the sound. I grew up crabbing on the Rappahannock River with my grandfather and enjoyed passing along some of the things I learned from him. At night when we talk about our favorite thing of the day, Ben still frequently says "crabbing". I think we would all agree that it was one of our favorite events of the Summer.

Creative Corner...


Here is a picture of my most recent baby quilt.


I am also posting a picture of the boys in sweaters made by NuNu so that she can see how great the sweaters look. (I took the pictures and then removed the sweaters because they are saved for special occasions only.)

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This is our most recent photo that includes the whole family. This picture was taken in July at the beach in North Carolina. Three out of four people smiling is pretty good for our family.