Christmas break

Wow. Thank goodness for Christmas break. Mine has consisted of:

-belting out Christmas carols as often as possible
-decorating the tree, hanging lights, and wreaths everywhere (can I keep the Christmas tree in my room up until...March? Is that okay?)
-making and decorating cookies
-watching White Christmas way more than once
-seeing Bourne Ultimatum for the first time with Katie and Savannah (that's intense stuff right there)
-wrapping presents
-laughing around a game of Balderdash with the family + Savannah
-waking up Christmas morning to a "spider web" (a.k.a, colored yarn wrapped all through the house)
-having our annual brunch with the Moellers and the Robbins
-playing Catchphrase with all the kids
-trying to make some progress on an impossible puzzle
-reading Mansfield Park (I'm still not finished. But I'm getting there!)
-dominating Kelley and Jonathan in a game of Monopoly
-catching up on the scrapbooking I've neglected

(This was the only remotely good picture of all the kids)

P.S. Can you believe we're only about a day away from 2010? 2010...wow, that looks so strange.

Is it just me or this incredibly beautiful?

Glory to the newborn King

It's so easy to get caught up in all the busyness and excitement of Christmas. But it's also for us easy to carelessly say, "Jesus is the reason for the season" and "Keep Christ in Christmas" just because it's the right thing to say as "conservative Christians". But to really and truly say that He is the cause for all of our joy, not only at this time of year, but always, and to mean it and live upon it is a bit more difficult. But doesn't Christ deserve all of our joy, every thought, every action? Doesn't it become so much easier when we choose to do so out of love for Him who first loved us?

"For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given"; it's because of Christ's humble birth and His death on the cross that we can come before a holy and righteous God, for we are clothed in Christ's spotless righteousness, and say with joy, "I am His and He is mine." I hope that we might never forget the Reason - our "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace", Jesus Christ - and that we all might be able to sing with joy of the coming of our Savior:

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as Man with men to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Isaiah 45

²² “ Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.

This is awesome.

Sufjan Stevens and a victory dance

So Gileskirk ate my life. And then it gave it back to me! Please excuse my exuberance... Oh yes!!!!! The awful-and-ridiculously-abominable-Gileskirk exam is over, and I have successfully passed through the treacherous gauntlet, so to speak. No more school...until January!

After we finished the test, we did what all classically educated homeschoolers would do. Played Nintendo 64. And to top it all off we played Apples to Apples. After Aaron (yeah, the cheat - didn't take the test and still got to have fun) dominated us all in Apples to Apples, we headed over to Malco and saw The Blind Side. (Michael is such a sweetie. And Sandra Bullock actually did a really good job with her role.) And, it was ugly sweater day! But apparently only Luke and I are cool enough to participate in such awesome yuletide celebrations. His sweater was really, really...ugly. Uglier than mine. Yep, he beat me. I tried, but it just wasn't ugly enough! Oh well. Don't worry though, it was still quite grotesque. Trust me.

P.S. Isn't Sufjan Stevens amazing?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Good thing too. I love Christmas.

21

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this girl or how wonderful she really is. She's been a wondrous example of the love of Christ to me, shown me, taught me so much, and I've had the privilege of sharing so many amazing memories with her. She's one of the best sisters I could ever ask for. I've seen her made anew and grow so much in her walk with God and her love for Christ. And, as of today, December the 8th, she is officially twenty-one years of age (which is sort of a significant year, yikes). Katie, I love you and I pray that you would continue to persevere and that you would grow to love Christ more and more every day.

P.S. Don't forget us when you run off to Italy. And don't have too much fun without me. But you must have some fun, of course. Oh, and don't marry any Italian man. I hear they're quite immature.

P.P.S. Two posts in one day. This is a record. Don't I get some kind of award or something?

Recitals are unconstitutional: cruel and unusual punishment. I'll let you know if I make it out alive.

Thanksgiving...the most original title this world has ever laid eyes on

How many times have you been asked around Thanksgiving what you're thankful for? And how many times have you said, "My family" or "My house" or the oh-so-original, "My friends". Well, I don't know about you, but I've lost count. Yes, we ought to be thankful for all those things. God has given us so much. He has given us countless blessings. But He has provided so much more than mere physical needs. He has given us His Son, Jesus Christ! What more could we ask for? How often do we forget Our Savior? And we ought to remember always what a Gift has been bestowed upon us - poor, wretched, undeserving sinners as we are. We must not only remember and be thankful at Thanksgiving, but always.

Okay, here's where I get boring and tell you about my Thanksgiving week.

We drove 7 hours to Pioneer, Tennessee (which is pretty much the middle of nowhere) to Crampton Farm and visited my family. It was a lot of fun; we played countless card games, hiked (once even in the snow! But Katie would tell you I'm exaggerating and it was just a few flakes. Even so, there was snow), played a few very long games of Risk (one in which I actually dominated, thank you very much), some frisbee (a new Crampton tradition), ate a ridiculous amount of Aunt Carla's should-be-world-famous-cookies, stayed up late, lost a lot of sleep, and went home with very sore arms...and legs...and whatever else can be sore.

Then, we had a wonderfully non-eventful car ride home.

Not really. We're the Cramptons, remember?

Our trip home was more like a Griswold trip. 15 minutes down the road, we broke down. Luckily, we had two cars and at least one than was running properly. So, we decided to try to make it to the city (if you can call it that) and find a car repair shop. I knew it would be a long trip. Little did I know. We found an Advance Auto Parts shop and we got an employee to look at the car. He said it was just a battery problem and replaced it. After a that little detour, we drove on. After a while, we decided to split up. The car I was in planned to take a quick stop at York's home and burial ground (since we're homeschoolers and all) while Mom's car went home. I didn't really care to go explore the world that was Alvin C. York, but was too drained to switch cars. So off I went to the home of General Alvin York. (By the way, any detour remotely educational will not be "quick" with this family.) We finally leave and after an hours or so of driving we get a call from my mom. She's at the mall and we decide we'll have dinner at the food court. Notice anything? Yeah, I got to go explore the house of one called Alvin (hmm, future son-o'-mine's name? I think so!) and the girls got to go to the mall. Lucky me. But at least I'm not bitter or anything. After dinner, we set out for home. After only a little while on the road, guess what? We got home really quickly? Guess again. We stopped for ice cream? No. The newly replaced car battery was dead. So we searched for another Advance Auto Parts shop (a place we got to know well), finally found one and stopped. We got there just 10 minutes before they closed, hired an employee after closing time so he'd be free to work with us. It wasn't a battery problem after all, it was...some other car term that I can't remember right now. Anyway, the important part is he fixed it.

God was at work even then. It wasn't chance that we happened to break down as soon as we got back into the city. It wasn't chance that we were near an Advance Auto Parts shop when the battery died. It wasn't chance that we drove up to the shop exactly 10 minutes before no one would have been able to help us. It wasn't chance that after the store closed, the man could help us and that he would find the problem and fix it.

So, yes, I'm thankful for a whole lot. Especially handy-dandy-Advance-Auto-Parts-employees.

You know you're a homeschooler when...

You attend at least one Thanksgiving Feast dressed up. And especially so when you enjoy it.