Playing Hooky

Roger, Lee, Alec, Jesse and Peet laboured in 33 degree heat in Toowoomba pouring a concrete driveway - but Joan and I took Louisa and Max to the beach.

Max was not all that impressed with a morning of shopping.

But the rest of the trip spent swimming at Little Cove, watching kite surfers and playing with rocks made up for it.

Max

We pair up a big kid and a little kid to go Christmas shopping - usually Jesse goes with Max and Peet goes with Louisa. Then we turn them loose in a shopping center.

Jesse and Max spent an inordinate amount of time in Borders. Max found a book with a monkey on the cover and told Jesse he would really like that book.

Jesse: Oh

Max: Yeah I really like monkeys - it 'cause we're related.

I can feel a FHE lesson on the creation coming up early in January.

The groups meet up and swap partners so they can buy for each other. So Peet and Max went to buy for Jesse and Louisa. Peet asked what Max would like to get for Jesse - 'I don't know - she didn't really give any clues this time.'

Peet told Jesse later and she was aghast "I said 'Max, when you are shopping with Peet I would like this' maybe four times." Maybe she should have been more subtle - still there's no doubting his masculinity!

Yesterday Max was talking about Christmas presents with Jesse and told her that 'your present was hard because you didn't give any clues, but it was alright because Peet remembered that you wanted that little book'. Apparently we're not so much into surprise this year!

Peet

Just for the record (keep in mind that Peet is also unbelievably stubborn and definitely has his faults!):

Turns out Peet is an 'Academic Achiever'. I had a call from the Gifted and Talented Association based at the high school to ask if Peet would please go into the Academic Achievers class - I said maybe not. I'm more keen on time to spend with family and play than on too much time spent hitting the books etc, and I really can't see the point of pushing kids early when in the end they all go through uni or whatever and come out ok at the end. (Apparently that was not the right answer because the G&T woman sounded a little incredulous - maybe even a bit hurt -when I said I'd talk to Peet and get back them but probably no.)

Roger called and I told him that Peet had been asked to join the AA class - he said 'why?' So we're not off to a particularly good start.

Then Peet came home and we asked him - he fretted over it and thought that maybe he should not go to Mutual that night because he needed to think about it - we sent him to Mutual anyway - it was a pool party so you don't want to miss that.

In the end Peet said he would like to do it - because the teachers should be pretty happy to be there and he had a friend who lives at Samford in that class (I spared the G&T woman his reasoning).

Then a couple of days later his report card came home - and now we see 'why'. Out of 24 places for a mark he got 22 A's and 2B's (and one of the B's was for HPE which he missed the last exam in - just couldn't be bothered - and the other was for Italian in which he is the top student). Jesse said it's a good thing we never started paying for A's. Alec said 'you never saw that many B's on a report card from me'.

Apparently they held exams a few weeks ago for anyone wanting to go into the AA class - but Peet got in on his laurels.

So it turns out Peet really is an Academic Achiever - who knew?

(I would like to find the med student who did some testing on him when he was nine months old for a uni paper and reported to me that he was badly developmentally delayed and I should seek help - he was my 4th so I just laughed and went on my way - but if he'd been my first I might have been devastated.)

Night in Bethlehem

We have a new and enthusiastic Ward Activities committee - so the Christmas party this year was a bit special - a night in Bethlehem. I was not pleased - I'm all about simplicity and this involved dressing up - but I got on board when Jesse made most of the costumes.

(Roger and I had our 23rd wedding anniversary on Friday and our kids were so sweet all week and kept encouraging us to take a night off and go to Sunshine - along the lines of 'you could have dinner and go swimming - it will be great'. So sweet I thought - till I came home on Saturday afternoon to discover that they had actually been planning a party for Friday night. Not a wild party - Robert and Samuel were on the guest list- but a party none the less - at my house - my messy house. Jesse claims it was more of a gathering and apparently they turned off the verandah lights so no one could see the mess! Max and Louisa loved it - so did Jesse and Alec. Peet was in at Joan's for a dinner party so he could go mountain biking the next morning. So it was lucky that Jesse was almost finished making everyone's costumes by the time we got home!)

LilyRhadika came too - she is a fixture at ward Christmas parties. And since she and Louisa have long felt they are twins separated at birth, Lily ate a grasshopper - just to be one of the family.

Jesse was a roman soldier - probably present in Bethlehem but not quite in the spirit of things - the girl is obsessed by all things Roman. Max was a lowly (and picked upon) shepherd.

Peet dressed up reluctantly and helped out at the food stall that Anne and I were running.

Roger had a 'Bishops Inn' and Alec skipped out for the night to go see Twilight - serves him right for not going to the ward Christmas party.

Celebrate

The Christmas tree is up and decorated.

Some of us were more into it than others.

Grasshoppers

See this is why I can't do a yearly letter. I could write about Peet being vice captain or Jesse's formal, but then in the interests of a full and frank disclosure I would have to include that on Sunday the kids ate live grasshoppers.

Louisa and Max caught a jar full out of the mint garden and then cheekily dared Alec to eat one. He said he would if they did too. So they did - all five of the kids ate one - except Max who developed a taste for the crunchy little critters and ate 3 - we told him no more - we're good parents like that.

We don't have any photos of Peet because Jesse who was taking the photos was laughing so hard she forgot to take a photo - and Peet wouldn't go again just for posterity.

If you look closely - that's a grasshopper leg on Alec's lips.

Apparently they are ok going down but have a dreadful after taste - still if there's a biblical plague of locusts we won't even have to dip into the food storage!

Last week

Monday: Anne's birthday barbeque at our place with all her family in Australia.

Tuesday: Sydney for a seminar that was cancelled - so Sydney for some shopping.

Wednesday: Free night - except for a practice of the grown up play for Jesse

Thursday: Middle school Awards night - Peet was awarded a silver academic award - which means he got A's and B's only on his report card.

Peet was also announced as Middle School Vice Captain - cute. The boy captain is an African kid who is lovely - Peet says it's the flavour of the month - everyone wants to elect a black person.

Friday: Pine Christmas Concert. It was all a bit high brow for a Pine concert - really impressive singing of Christmas Carols from the middle ages, bongo playing and genuinely funny skits.

Then - in a return to true Pine style - the kids decided to do some unscripted skits. Each kid just picked what they wanted to be, thought of a general storyline then gave it a go.

Max was a dragon named Custard.

Louisa was a porcupine and Peter Pan. (That's Declan in her lap - he's 3 and his sister is at school - he just wanted to be on stage so Louisa had him sit on her lap.)

I keep telling Roger that he is the best costume maker in our whole family and he should make all the costumes from now on - he's not buying it.

Jesse was in the grown up play - a High School Musical/Hairspray/Abba Movie spoof. We don't have decent photos because she was dancing so wildly the whole time that all the photos are badly blurred.

That's Annabelle as the girl from HSM, Tildy as the boy, Josh and Fraser as the basketballers, Jesse and Patty as the nicest kids in town from Hairspray, Maris as the teacher from HSM and Tina as the piano girl.

And Peet picked up his new Tuba - shiny, gold, and huge.

Alec went to a party, and the rest of us went to Sunshine for the night - which was absolutely worth the trip - and back in time for a baptism on Saturday afternoon.

Jesse's Christmas article

Jesse was asked to write 600 words on 'Putting Christ in Christmas' for the Stake newletter - here it is:

My favourite Christmas hymn is without a doubt Silent Night. I love this hymn for
many reasons - one of them being its connection with history. I am a history
nerd, and so I love the story of how this hymn was part of the Christmas
celebrations in World War One. I am sure that you all know the story of how, on
December the 24th 1914, enemies came together to celebrate Christmas. There
are many different versions of this story, however all of these stories involve the
singing of Silent Night. I often think of what it would have been like to be one of
those soldiers and hear the words of this hymn slowly gaining strength across
the ravaged fields that lay between the trenches.

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace;
Sleep in heavenly peace.

It must have calmed the rushing hearts of those young men to hear the wonder
of Christ’s coming rising through the air on wings of song. I love the way that
this hymn focuses specifically on Christ. The Christmas of 1914 held very few of
the trimmings that our society gives importance to at Christmas - there was no
roasted turkey instead it was the luxury of a rabbit stew shared with the Allies
and Germans alike. The focus was on service that could be done for either side,
not on the decorations that adorned Christmas trees. This was a time when the
western world was predominately Christian, and this hymn would have reminded
the young men who heard it of the miracles that they had learnt from childhood.
It was a reminder of the love of our Saviour in a scene which appeared to deny
all Christian values. I can easily imagine the calmness that reassurance the
soldiers would have felt from this peaceful hymn.

Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight!
Glories stream from heaven afar;
Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour, is born!
Christ, the Saviour, is born!

I love this hymn because of the story that it tells - the story of the beginning of a
pivotal stage in the plan of salvation. It signals a coming of miracles and a
coming of redemption for mankind. I like to imagine, and indeed, join in the joy
that must have been felt in that Bethlehem field as the angels announced the
coming of the Saviour. I think of the sight seen by those shepherds and the
excitement that they must have felt, and I know that their joy was not about the
presents that would come or the celebrations that would come. Rather their joy
was about the redemption of the world. I like to think about the experience of the
shepherds in Bethlehem and the soldiers in 1914, who chose to turn their
attention to the Saviour and the love of our Father in Heaven who sent his only
begotten as Saviour of the world.

My favourite verse is definitely the last, it reads:

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth;
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

This verse places emphasis on Christ as the redeemer of the world. The birth of
Jesus Christ, heralded by both angels and a new star, was indeed a miracle;
however it pales in comparison to the miracle that was to come with His
atonement. I love to sing the hymns of Christmas and participate in the nativities
and other festivities; I love the talks that are presented in sacrament meetings
that surround Christmas. However at times the clamour of the worldly trappings
become too much and it is then that I love to think of this hymn, and its meaning
in order to bring Christ to Christmas.