Our Family Flashback

Another year is coming to an end and what a great year it has been! I'm feeling incredibly thankful as I look back at all that has happened. I wanted to share some of my favorite moments from this past year!

We potty trained and got earrings!

We had a special announcement!

Stella got her first haircut...

and her first trip to the E.R.!

There was a wedding, but it wasn't ours... 

it was theirs!

We had our first family vacation!

We started kindergarten!

We had a ton of pretty awesome family days!

and last but certainly not the least, our family grew by another little girl!

I'm really looking forward to what 2019 has in store for our family! I hope you all have a Happy New Year!!

What is your favorite memory from this year?

Traditions

With the year coming to a close, I thought we could all share a little about what our holidays are like.

• How many times do you generally celebrate Christmas in one year? (example: your personal family, with parents, in-laws, grandparents) 

• What is your traditional Christmas dinner?

Home made cinnamon rolls. YUM!!!!

Ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls, and grape juice. 

• What time of day do you eat Christmas dinner?

• What is your least favorite food at the Christmas dinner table?

I LOVE THEM ALL!!

• When do you open stockings?

• What was your favorite gift this year?

• How do you determine how many gifts to buy for your kids? Set number of gifts, set amount to spend? Simply, whether or not you're feeling generous??

This was our list. The difference between boys and girls.

• Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

We open one present on Christmas Eve. Usually jammies and slippers.

• When do you take down your Christmas decorations?

• Be honest, when do you stop listening to Christmas music?

We didn't have snow, so we played in the rain on Christmas Day.

Sunday before Christmas, my kids saying a Bible verse in church. My daughter doesn't need a monkey because she is one.

Answer one, answer all, we'd love you know how your Holidays were. 

The Off Year

Ever since our children started getting married, every other year is the "off" Christmas year. We're taught when we're little that we need to share, but that concept takes on a whole new meaning when you have married children and they have children.

All this means that this was our off year so our married children and all of our grandchildren were visiting the other halves of their families, leaving us with a very small group of our own for this year.

Side Note: Stephanie and her family are going to miss more than an off year because they are currently on the mission field. I'm not thinking of that yet though because the off year is hard enough to get through.

At any rate, I decided that, if I'm going to enjoy the years when all of our children can't be here, I needed to start looking at some of the blessings of an off year. Here are a few:

Most years we have a LOT of presents because we have a lot of people. So I end up using some basic stick-on name tags. Since the presents were far fewer, I was able to splurge on the really pretty tags.

I also was able to color coordinate the wrapping paper instead of using every scrap of every color leftover from every previous year.

Presents are easy to buy because protein is always in style.

And crackers and spray cheese make everybody happy.

In addition, I take shortcuts in the off years. For instance, I don't make homemade stuffing. I use Stovetop. To be honest, I think they prefer it anyway.

And this year hardly anyone did any wrapping until Christmas morning. I felt guilty for getting up at 6:00 to wrap presents, but by the time I was finished ALL of the rest of them were scrambling for wrapping paper and tape to wrap their gifts as well. Not a tradition I want to continue, but definitely something that wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the off year.

As much as I miss all the ones who aren't here, it makes for a more enjoyable day when they all call even if it's just to chat for a few minutes. We also had video calls and multiple group chats which, if you've never been in a Boyd group chat, let's just say you're missing something ... crazy.

I try to cherish the moments we have because I know that, with the passage of time, we'll get to the point where those off years consist of only me and my hubby. That's not necessarily a bad thought, though. I've been thinking that it would be really sad to stay at home by ourselves, so maybe in the future, off years can consist of some really cool trips. Hawaii anyone?

In the meantime, there are some Boyd traditions that will never change no matter who comes and goes. And the most steadfast Boyd holiday tradition of all is--guys do the dishes.

So how was your Christmas?

The Sass is Strong!

Have you ever noticed when you wear something fancy or do your hair a certain way, you act a bit different? Maybe, it’s a boost of confidence because you know you are looking good?  Well I’m thinking my daughters have had a boost of whatever that is exactly.

Having four little girls, I knew that in the teenage years I might be dealing with some attitude and sass. What I didn’t realize is that it can start way earlier than when they are teenagers, say ages 2, 4, and 6. The sass has been quite strong lately.  

I’m starting to think I made a huge mistake when I let them watch Barbie. They started saying things like “Whatevs” and “Hi, I’m Barbie, What’s up?” One day it was getting a little out of hand. I told them we would no longer be watching Barbie because I could see a difference in how they were acting and it was giving them an attitude. We went to work in the church office the other day and Talia walked into my mother in law’s office to chat. Talia happily told her, “Barbie gives me attitude.” I’m glad she was listening to me, but I’m pretty sure there was sass when she told her Nana that.

I believe it was the very next day we were getting ready for our evening church service which happened to be our Christmas Cantata so we were all matching in red and black outfits. I had pulled one of my scarves out of my closet and Stella asked if she could wear one. I picked out one that would match her outfit and tied it for her. Talia came into my room and said that she wanted one too.  She decided that she wanted to wear an orange one. I told her she couldn’t because it wouldn’t match her outfit. She didn’t like my answer and whined saying it did match and she wanted to wear it. My husband was hearing all of this, so when I told her no, he agreed and told her it didn’t match and told her to obey. He said, “What are you, four? What do you know?” She replied, “ I know Jesus Christ the Lord.” She said it with much sass, but the conversation was over. She didn’t win the scarf battle but she won with that statement. 

Is the sass strong with you?

Strange Visitors

  Living in Brazil is definitely different. From the food, to the way you clean your house, to where you put or do not put the toilet paper after you use the bathroom. I'll let you figure that one out.

  One of the most interesting things to us has been the wildlife. There is no air conditioning in most homes, so your home is always open. Well, that is if you don't want to literally have your home heat up like an oven. So with all the windows and doors open, you hear the birds all day, and are constantly swatting flies and bees that have decided to join you inside. 

  Our home seems to be exceptionally appealing to the wildlife. If you haven't read my other posts, we have already had to deal with a bee hive that was growing in our roof, and also spreading into my closet and bathroom. Then there were the bats that were living in the roof and a few of them decided to come see what the inside of the house was like a couple of nights. 

  Our most recent visitor made it's way in a few nights ago. Meet this guy.... 

This is a Maritaca (MA-DEE-TA-KA), a type of parrot. 

We had been hearing something outside of our bathroom for a few days. I thought it was just a bird trying to make a nest in our roof.  Apparently, he was doing more than that. He was picking through some foam sealant that had been used to fill a hole. I tried to upload a video for you all to watch this little adventure, but unfortunately I'm not tech savvy and I couldn't make it play.  Anyways, Mr. Maritaca made it through, stuck his head in, looked around, saw my hubby, and quickly pulled his head back out. A few seconds later, he stuck his head back in very slowly, and peeked at my hubby, the quickly pulled it out again. One last time, as if in disbelief of what he'd stumbled upon, he stuck his head back in, just barely. Then he grabbed one last piece of foam and rushed off. 

Hubby thought it was hilarious. I laughed watching the video, but then reminded hubby that he would be gone all day the next day and I really did not want one of those terrorizing me and the kids. If he hadn't been there, Mr. Maritaca could have decided to come in and explore, and I did not have a tennis racket or a bat on hand to defend myself. Before you all freak out, no, I would not attack an innocent bird, but these guys panic and attack when they feel like they are trapped. So the tennis racket and bat would be purely self defense. 

  Sometimes, living here is almost like living in a zoo, and not the good parts. The bird area and the reptile area are not my favorite parts of the zoo. Just a few minutes ago as I was writing, a large humming bird flew in and was circling the house. I'm just glad the kids are still asleep because that panic would not have been a fun start to the day! 

I'm just praying that we never get a visitor of the slithering on it's belly variety. The other day my three year old told me that God hates snakes too, and I opened my mouth to say something (I don't really know what I was going to say, maybe some parental pearls of wisdom.. 😆), I stopped. I can't really argue with that because Satan came in the form of a snake and then the snake became a cursed creature.... I think it's a logical thought to believe that God hates snakes. 

Now if I could just get my kids to stop asking for a monkey. Any suggestions??

Are We Stressed Yet?

Christmas is only six days away.

In case you didn't know that.

How're you doing on that to-do list? Baking done yet? Decorations up? Shopping finished? Presents wrapped? Cards sent?

Are we having fun yet?

Studies show that Christmas is one of the most stressful holidays of the year, but you probably already knew that, right? There are so many extra activities/responsibilities during this season that it's easy to get overwhelmed. There's school parties and church parties and neighborhood parties and family parties and programs and events and ... well, you get the idea.

Since you're reading the blog right now, you're probably procrastinating from all the Christmas work that you should be doing, so let me help ease a little of your burden. Here's a few simple ways to lighten some of the stress from the holidays.

1. Don't focus on what you can't do. Focus on what you can. Maybe you didn't personalize all your cards this year. Don't beat yourself up. Be glad you actually got them in the mail before the 24th.

2. Don't put added stress on yourself. For instance, if you're not a gourmet cook at other times of the year, don't plan on a culinary masterpiece to wow everyone at the dessert fellowship. Go ahead and make that boxed brownie mix. It's chocolate--who doesn't love that? Make it special by adding frosting and sprinkles. Hey, look, you just made a Christmas dessert!

3. If you're putting up your decorations a little at a time, then make today the day that you say "I'm finished decorating". Who cares if you only have half your tree decorated? Maybe you're starting a new trend.

4. Is it not Christmas until you've watched your favorite Christmas movie? Don't wait until you have a free evening because you know that's not happening until after New Year's. Find your movie on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon video, Vudu, Sling or some other streaming service. Now watch the movie on your phone while you do the dishes.

5. Haven't finished all your shopping? Stop looking for bargains and start shopping on Amazon. Get a prime membership if you don't already have one, and get all your packages delivered by Friday. Then check present shopping off the list. And don't beat yourself up looking for the perfect gift. You're past that point now. Instead you need to start truly believing that it's the thought that counts. And if all else fails, give chocolate.

6. Kiss your plans for the perfect Christmas goodbye. It was never going to happen anyway and with less than a week to go, you've got no time for fantasy. Realize that an adequate Christmas is really okay. If you're still striving for the perfect Christmas, you will fail. Adequate beats failure every time.

7. Stressing over gift wrapping? Buy gift bags and tissue paper. No hunting for scissors, no need to buy tape. And you an reuse the bags. Look at you being all thrifty!

8. Getting way behind on your list? Go put a load of laundry in the washer. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but after falling behind all day long, you'll still be able to feel like you've accomplished something. And as an added bonus, you'll have clean towels for tomorrow morning's shower. Your welcome.

9. Do not, under any circumstances, try to eat healthy or stick to a diet right now. No one needs that kind of stress. Instead, limit yourself to one dessert a day and then congratulate yourself on your self-control. Bonus tip:  Two cookies counts as one serving and if you split them up during the day, you'll feel like you've had two desserts with only half the guilt.

10. Set your sights a little lower. Don't worry about living in the moment. With less than a week to go, you don't have time for that. Instead, your goal should be to survive the moment.

So how're you handling the stress?

Merry Makeshifter

We are officially in the middle of the Christmas season, which means Christmas Parties! There is no such thing as a party if you don't have decorating, right? Well that is one of my jobs at the church and when it comes to decorating I like to think ahead and pick decor that can be used for more than one event. Take this past weekend for example. We had our Sunday School class party Friday night, and our Cantata was Sunday evening followed by a dessert fellowship, both called for some decorating. 

My go to place for ideas for everything is Pinterest! I means whose isn't?

I was scrolling through different ideas of what I can do with things we already had between myself and the church. Also, something that was simple and elegant because my husband and I were also planning and prepping the party Friday night.

So I came across this:

Simple enough, all I had to buy was some Christmas Ribbon and Pine Cones! 

I did my shopping and I was all set. I had everything I needed to decorate and was ready to get started. I even got cinnamon pine cones, jackpot! Not only was it going to look pretty but it would smell pretty too! I must have been too confident with my plan because my first idea was a fail. My pine cones we're too large and my vases weren't as big as I remembered them being. Only two pine cones fit in each vase. 

So, I had to come up with something else. Ideas were spinning through my mind.  

Back story: We had just put a box with a Christmas tree in the next room that we attempted to put up. To make a long story short, it was a piece by piece tree, we were in a time crunch and couldn't figure out how to put the stand together. Needless to say we decided to not put up the tree and just do the table decorations. 

A new idea struck. I went to the next room and got two of the branches out of the box, fluffed them out and put them together. Then laid them on the table and it looked really good, until I added the vase with only two pine cones.

That plan was also a fail. I did away with the vase completely. 

Now what?

Finally, I decided on rustic simplicity.

I kept the tree branches and stuck the pine cones on top! It was simple, elegant, it smelled amazing, and it was easy to clean up! It wasn't my original idea but sometimes you have to makeshift what you have and keep on going, eventually it will all fall into place!

Your turn. Are you a decorator?

Do you quit working when your ideas do or do you keep on going?

Portuguese Word Vomit

One of the hardest things about this transition is that we cannot talk to anyone. One of the first phrases we learned was "I don't speak Portuguese".   Now we are working on fixing that problem. We recently started language school. YAY!... well, sort of.. I have homework again. 

 Anyways, having started classes, hubby and I have decided that when we go out, we make it a point to use what we've learned. We went out a few days ago to get some Christmas shopping done, and then we went to dinner at a place we have been a few times. It's a buffet type place which makes it easier. No menu to read or ordering to do.  As we walked into the restaurant, we were giving each other phrases to use.

We were greeted by a waiter who had seen us before, but he had not been our waiter before. He asked us a few typical questions like, "what do you want to drink" and "do you want ice and lemon". We learned how to answer those questions shortly after arriving in Brazil, so no big deal. Hubby used his phrases in the first five minutes of being there, but I hadn't.

The waiter came back and started really trying to chat with us, so we finally said  "We only speak a little Portuguese". He laughed and then tried to talk to us some more. He asked if we were Americans and how long we had been in Brazil. We picked the few words we knew out of his phrases and pieced together what he was saying.

Oh, ok he said "America".. yes, we're Americans. he said "time" and "Brazil" .. ok, we've been here 4 months. Then he asked why we were in this city. We tried to tell him that we were going to language school. He kept saying "Oh, Professors?" ... uh, no... we're not professors...  "School. Professors?" .. no, no, no.... Students... He kept laughing, so I'm not sure what we said, unless he was just laughing at the thought of us being language professors... that thought makes me laugh too.

Towards the end of our meal, he came back. He had seen us there before with another missionary. So, he asked us, "The tall man. Is he your dad? or your dad?" Oh, we laughed. That was the second time someone had asked if he was our dad. Hubby said he was our friend, not our dad.

That's when it happened. I thought "He's not going to be happy that you thought he was our dad" ... then i thought "I know those words. Say them, it'll make the guy laugh." So, I opened my mouth and said the words in Portuguese "He no happy..." That was all I had. I suddenly realized I did not know all the words needed to say that phrase... but my mouth, for some reason, did not get the memo that was going through my brain. My mouth kept spewing Portuguese words. "He no happy like you dad no happy"..... I felt like I was watching myself, and my brain was screaming "SSSTTOOOOPPPP TALKING!!!!!" 

When I finally stopped saying words, the man just stared... then said "OI???" (HUH??) My hubby was trying really hard not to laugh, and his face was saying the same thing, "WHAT??".   OK, Google Translate to save the day. I typed it out, showed him, he laughed. When he walked away, hubby looked at me and said "Wow. You really wanted to talk didn't you?"  Ya, well my mouth was more confident than my brain.

Pretty much sums it up.                                

My first big blunder, and I'm sure there will be so many more to come.

Taking One for theTeam

So how many parties are you/have you gone to so far this season? And at how many of these parties did you do a White Elephant Gift Exchange? I think it's a required game at all Independent Baptist Church Christmas parties.

In case you're unfamiliar with the game, everyone brings a gift to the party. Mostly new gifts, but sometimes used. The crazier the gift the better, usually. Everyone draws a number and when it's your turn, you can choose a gift from under the tree, or "steal" a gift from someone who went before you. Needless to say, the game can get quite boring if no one steals.

One year we had a party at our house and we did the gift exchange. NO ONE was stealing, so it was a very polite, boring game. As the hostess, I felt like it was my duty to stir things up and make them more interesting. So when my turn came, I stole a gift from someone else. I stole a Christmas cookie jar, filled with homemade Christmas cookies. It was the perfect move to inspire everyone. Except that, unfortunately, I was the only one to steal a present. Ah well. I felt like I was acting in everyone's best interest. It was a my duty as the hostess to liven things up.

Apparently my husband didn't see it that way.

Fast forward a year. We were preparing for a Christmas party at our house again. A White Elephant Gift Exchange was on the schedule again. The night of the party my husband reminded me in advance not to take the nicest gift at the party that night. Like it was my fault no one else would play the game like they were supposed to. Or like it's my fault I ended up with the best present of the night. My husband can't remember something I've told him two minutes after I said it, but for an entire year he remembered that I took the cookie jar. There's something so wrong about that.

In the interest of being the obedient wife, I agreed not to take the nicest present that year. But just before the party started, I took out my Christmas cookie jar and made sure it was shined up and displayed prominently in my kitchen. Sometimes the wordless gesture says it all.

Ho Ho Ho!

Mission Impossible

Your mission readers, should you choose to accept...

Help me figure out the secret of Christmas gift giving, or how to get gifts secretly.

You see, my mission is to surprise my husband with a really great gift.

I have two specific ideas, both of which I don't know much about. One is something electronic and the other is a gun that he has been wanting. Neither of which I feel like I should pick out on my own. One, because he knows so much about electronics, that if I picked it out he would most likely have to return it the next day. The next gift would be a new gun, and I feel like if I'm going shopping for a gun I should know more than just the name of the gun I'm looking for.

I have asked him to give me a list of ideas of what I can get him for Christmas because this year I'm a little lost on what to do. He gave me a very short list and most of the list consists of stuff he needs which isn't very fun. 

My husband isn't picky and he isn't a snob, but sometimes it seems impossible to shop for him.

So my mission is to find at least one thing that is totally unexpected and pretty cool. As, for the rest I'm not quite sure yet.

We have done Christmas's where we have picked out each other's gifts and we didn't know what we were getting until Christmas day. We have also done Christmas where we pick out our own gifts.

How do you and your spouse do Christmas? Are you surprised or do you pick out your own gifts?

A trip down memory lane

Yesterday I was looking through our old pictures. I don't know where the last three years went. They seem to be a blur in my mind. I remember all of these moments, but they just flew by.

First we had this crazy kid, who still always keeps us on our toes.

First VBS... Exhausting!

Then came baby #2

Baby Brother

First VBS... I see a pattern here... 

Shopping Shenanigans!

The Christmas cookies that probably should not have been eaten. There were a lot of baby hands in there... 

Christmas with cousins

I'm not really sure what happened here. 

First Fourth of July. He was wowed!

Can't resist those smiles. 

Then came baby #3. Baby Sister. 

That's all folks! The last three and a half years of my life in a nutshell. 

I feel like I just blinked and there it went. What did you miss the last time you blinked?