The Smith Family Adventures

Elias posing proudly with the wreath he made. Well…he picked out all the stuff, and told me where to put most of it. I actually stuck the stuff together.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. The final Sunday in Pentecost, the last Sunday in the liturgical year, the day where we recognize Christ as King and Lord over our lives, and celebrate it! This I knew, and I was excited to go to church and celebrate and worship. I was so glad that there is a day set aside to fully recognize that our true allegiance does not lie anywhere on earth, but rather in a different sort of Kingdom. It’s so easy to get caught up in secular problems…especially after the recent election. But “render under to Caesar” as Jesus so wisely put it.

But I was especially delighted to learn about the origins of Christ the King Sunday today. It is a relatively recent addition to the church year. Pope Pius the XI instituted the idea in 1925 as nationalism and secularism was rising with Mussolini’s power. I love how “in your face” it is. Declaring a day in the church year to celebrate the greatest power, the greatest King, the greatest leader…..Jesus…and no one on earth could ever hope to match Him. I wish the church would do such things more often.

Elias coloring with Ellie, a college student at our church.

Anyway….Elias and I had a fun time at church. (Nathan went Steel head fishing with my brother on the Nehalem river). We arrived at 9:00 for a fun inter-generational event. Elias got to make an advent wreath with real greens! He got to color some Jesse Tree ornaments, and decorate some cards that will go in food baskets this Christmas.

Elias as usual cried when I tried to take him to the church nursery. I had to practically drag him down the stairs while carrying a bazillion things. Pretty much the entire choir was watching (don’t worry… many people offered help). He screamed and tried to run out the door and dripped tears, drool and snot everywhere as usual when I left. Then two minutes later when I peeked in the window he was playing happily and smiling and laughing. It’s all so dramatic.

Then, as usual, I went and picked him up to join me for communion. He ate “the bread” and sang “Crown Him With Many Crowns” in his cute little voice. It was a good morning!

Nathan carving the turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had our second Thanksgiving celebration today on the “real” Thanksgiving. Elias had a nice surprise this morning because Daddy was home. We relaxed and played together, but then the work had to begin. We got to host a Thanksgiving meal at our house this time!

I baked a pumpkin pie in the late morning. I just found out a couple weeks ago that Nathan even likes pumpkin pie. I don’t know why he never told me before. I also baked a yummy green bean dish in the morning which would be reheated later just before dinner.

Elias and Nana reading the comics.

Nana came over to play around 11:00. Elias had lots of fun playing with her. Nathan and I prepped the turkey just before nap time, and got it in the oven just after Elias fell asleep. Then we had a few quiet hours of relaxation and good smells as the turkey roasted and Elias rested.

We had a very yummy meal with good company and an overabundance of food! (Elias, of course, refused to try any of the good food and ate a bit of cheese quesadilla instead.) After dinner, we all played some more. Elias enjoyed reading the comics with Nana.

It’s bad lighting because we all just wanted to start eating….but I snapped this photo of Nathan, the head of the house, at our Thanksgiving meal.

The day went by very quickly, and I am now exhausted. We have much to be thankful for.

Well, sickness has now fully overtaken our household. It got Elias first at the beginning of the week. I was next to succumb. And finally, Nathan admitted that he is feeling the bug in his body. Needless to say…we have spent a lot of time indoors this week. We’ve had to cancel on lots of play dates and errands and rehearsals other such fun events. But the good news is that it is definitely on its way out! Good riddance!

The boys with their block tower. Actually, it got taller than this, but I couldn’t get a picture of Elias next to it before he knocked it over.

But my boys know how to have fun indoors. On a stormy Saturday where we don’t feel tip top, we still managed to have some great family fun today. Elias and Nathan built enormous block towers and duplo houses. They wrestled and rough housed a bit. Elias likes to have Nathan “squeeze” him against the couch so they did that a few times…and they played the “upside down” game where they lay on the floor and throw balls up in the air. Elias even got a Thanksgiving card in the mail from Nana complete with stickers! I tried to read the card to Elias, but he snatched it and threw it aside so that I would help him open the stickers instead.

Then for dinner, I made homemade chili and we watched the Ducks game. (One of our bucket list items). I had never made homemade chili before, but it turned out pretty tasty. Nana came over to visit as well in the evening. Here are some pictures of my boys:

Elias getting squeezed…something he requested many times today.

Here is the game Elias calls “upside down”

Elias wrestling Daddy.

It’s official! Nathan and I are now student loan debt free! (Well technically I’ve merely scheduled the final payment…but it should go through tomorrow!) So we like to joke that we now own our brains…and the knowledge within!

It’s not fun to have tens of thousands of dollars in debt…especially when I’m not teaching at the moment, and Nathan is not currently working in his field of study. We wanted to get those babies paid off as quick as possible so we sent in extra every time we could. We have spent almost all of our tax refunds for the last six or or so years on the loans. And we’ve received some help in generous gifts toward the loans from others.

We have been saving for quite awhile without any real idea of where the saved money was going to go. We had quite a large chunk left on the loans….and with a baby on the way it took awhile to make the decision to use a large chunk of savings to pay off the loans. But we aren’t earning anywhere near 5.8% on our saved money in the bank (or 4.75% on the other loan for that matter)… and that is what we were paying in interest. That combined with the fact that we’ll have over $200 more to work with each month when don’t have to make payments anymore…we figured it was worth it.

It feels good to be debt free…well except for our mortgage, anyway. 🙂

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries after only one picture. But here you can see Elias playing with his Uncles, Daddy, and Shaina.

What is Thanksgiving, really? It’s a holiday….it’s always on the fourth Thursday in November…but what is it really? It’s a meal. Time with family. A reminder to filled with thanks and love.

This year, Nathan and I are spending Thanksgiving day with his mom. One of my brothers will be with his wife’s family, and the other will be in Ohio with his girlfriend’s family. My parents found that it would just be the two of them….for the first time…probably ever. They will be heading out of town for Thanksgiving day to celebrate in their own way, but wanted to still gather as a family for a good meal and some good times together.

Hence, we had Thanksgiving #1 last weekend! It was Bartle Thanksgiving. My mom cooked a delicious meal, and we all gathered together. We got to meet Uncle Greg’s girlfriend. (Elias is still pretending to call Shaina on the phone…it’s quite cute). We played games and talked and just enjoyed the company of family. What better way to spend a Sunday evening than to make time for extra Thanksgiving?

As I was looking through some pictures of Elias from last fall, I realized that we have not been outdoors nearly as much this year. So…when Elias woke up early from his nap on Monday, and it wasn’t raining, I jumped at the chance to get us some fresh air.

It was so simple to just put on some shoes and head out to the grassy area of our complex. It made me wonder why I’ve waited so long. Elias loved throwing his ball around, playing “bat and ball”, running in circles on the grass, and just plain stomping around in some leaves.

Now I will share some of our joy:

Good ‘ol fashioned bat and ball

Elias yelling, “Mommy get it” after his ball rolled into the parking lot

Experimenting with the bat and the tree….

Happy Boy

And finally…the perfectly timed shot…Mommy watch out!