Once or twice a year I finally get out the hair-cutting equipment and take care of my shaggy rag-muffins.  Today was THE day.  Some were thrilled and waiting in anticipation for their turn.  Others (i.e. Will) were devastated and uncomfortable and wiggly the whole time.

Aspen had been begging me for weeks now to cut her hair SHORT.  She wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love like Kylee did last Spring.  It wasn't quite long enough to cut off 10 inches during Thanksgiving break so we decided to give it a month more and cut it after Christmas.  Her hair was looking so scraggly and always tanglely. 

Her new do makes her look so grown up!  It is on the short side, but Aspen loves it.  I wish I was better at cutting hair (or at least quicker), but luckily they're still young enough that they don't need perfection.

On the other hand, I had been begging Will for a month now to cut his hair.  He loves his LONG hair and HATES haircuts.  I didn't battle too hard because he did look cutely impish in a boyish Peter Pan sort of way.  Too bad I didn't get the video camera out because it was down right hilarious to hear the tormented wails coming from this little four-year-old's mouth.

Kylee ended up being the only kid to NOT need a hair cut.  She wants to grow her hair out again.  Her hair is so sickeningly healthy that she didn't even really need a trim.  Below on the left, are the homemade portraits we took the day before Christmas.  On the right are what they look like now after their new haircuts.

    BEFORE PICTURE:              AFTER PICTURE:                NEW PROFILE:

I've been reflecting a lot about our Christmas already: the most meaningful things others did for me for Christmas, and the coolest things we were able to give to others.

More details will follow, but we'd love to hear how your Christmas went, and what thing(s) made it the most precious to you.
-  -  --  -  -  --  -  -  --  -  -  --  -  -  --  -  -  --  -  -  --  -  -  --  -  -
Darn it all, I procrastinate writing it down, and already I've forgotten some of the special things that warmed my heart this Christmas.  If I forgot something special that you did for us, I apologize!

Here's some of the things I remember:

1.  New van, of course, biggest Christmas present we've ever gotten ourselves.  It was especially generous of my Mom and Fred to take the time to shop around in Utah for one, and then for her to deliver it to us.

2.  Adopting (anonymously) a family with 5 kids for Christmas.  Sean's Mom helped with this.  We were able to give each child a few things, gift cards for the parents, plus a enough food for a great holiday dinner.  It felt so good giving to others this year instead of being the ones who were in need ourselves. 

3.  Going on splits with the Sister Missionaries and listening/participating with discussions at the home of Skip (investigator's house).  Skip is such a great guy and it was fun to get that missionary joy of sharing the gospel especially during Christmas time.

4.  Our kids drew names to get each other a Christmas gift.  This is the first year that they've really spent their own money to get something for one of their siblings.  We gave them a $3 limit (it's the thought that counts more than the amount anyway).  They spent forever picking out just the right thing for their assigned sibling.

5.  Our friends and neighbors invited us over for Christmas Eve celebrations, even though the mom had been in and out of hospitals a few times in the last three months.  It was so fun, and they were so gracious and thankful for all the help they had gotten the last little while.  I think we wore her out though, cuz she was sick again a few days after Christmas.  Oops.

6.  Driving around sweet ol' Linda Robb (an elderly wheelchair bound sister in our ward) for seven hours one day so she could go Christmas shopping.  I helped her wrap up the presents and we got them mailed at the Post Office.  It put my own holiday preparations behind a little, but it was worth it.

7.  Having Sister Robb over for Christmas dinner.  She would have been in her apartment all alone otherwise.  She really bonded with Will.  She's become our adopted Grandma, cuz my Grandma is far far away in Utah.

8.  My Dad picked out a sweater for me from a magazine for Christmas ALL BY HIMSELF!  Not only was it the right size, but it was a beautiful color and my kind of style.  That one little gift meant so much to me, so thoughtful and considerate.

9.  Re-framing a special Abraham Lincoln print for Sean's Mom for Christmas.  That picture really meant a lot to Sean and his Mom throughout the years.  The old frame was ugly, tiny, and falling apart.

10.  Framing all of Sean's official College Degree certificates without him knowing about it (it's hard to keep a secret from him).  Now he can hang them all up in his new office!

11.  Printing out four calendars with cute pics of the kids for the grandparents (and one for Sean's office).  Also I printed off tons of 4x6 snapshots for Sean's Mom's little photo books that she's had for years.  The ones for my kids have been sitting mostly empty.  Next year I'm not doing it on printer though.  What a pain!  The ink is way too expensive and goes too quickly.  Any ideas of what's cheap and convenient out there for snapshots and/or calendars? 

12.  Sean got up really early on Christmas morning and wrote letters to each child telling them how special they are and sharing his testimony with them.  What a stud I have for a husband!

And no . . . Again, it's not us getting a dog . . . yet.

Sean's parents have been without a dog since early this spring when they had to put down their beloved "Shadow."  Shadow was a huge, thick German shepherd and was getting rather old.  Until now they haven't been without a dog since Sean was ONE-YEAR-OLD!  WOW! 

They finally found THE dog for them.  The only problem was that he was in a German shepherd rescue shelter clear down in L.A.  Yes, that's right folks, California.  Guess it was worth the ten hour drive there and ten more back because they now have a good lookin' dog. 

He was found as a stray.  The shelter was guessing he's only a year or so old.  He was only at the shelter for 6 weeks.  He is TALL and LEAN, big paws, and hugely long tail.  Man, is this dog SKINNY!  All of his ribs and hip bones are sticking out.  Poor guy's had a rough life so far.  But now he's in for a treat:  PAMPER CITY at his new place!

He came with the name BLAKE VON LANCASTER.  He's only had that name for the time he was at the shelter.  Sean's family hate the name Blake.  They say it doesn't suit him.  So, we had a big Pow Wow last night to brainstorm names.  All of us (including grandkids) came up with 43 possibilities.  After Sean's parents vetoed most of them, we were down to a solid 13.  Then we all voted.  The three biggest winners were
Odysseus (aka ODIE),
CHIEF, and
Blitzkrieg (aka BLITZ). 
Some runners up were Beowolf, Kieffer, Ares, and Koopa.  When we left last night, they still hadn't decided.  Knowing them, they'll come up with a name out of the blue that wasn't ever on the list to begin with.

I realized that it is really hard to be around a dog when you don't know what to call it.  This poor dog wasn't responding to any name.  He only responded to someone whistling for him, or of course to food.

If you have any ideas or opinions as far as a name goes, please CHIME IN!  I'll update you when he finally has a name that has stuck.

!!! UPDATE !!!

I was right.  They came up with a name that wasn't any on the original brainstorming list.  But that's o.k. because everyone likes the name.  It fits him, and better yet, he actually occasionally responds to it!

HIS NEW NAME IS:  CODY!

Will's been part of a "Joy" school this whole semester.  Five other mom's and I rotate teaching six 4-year-olds at our home each week.  It's been a lot of fun, and a lot cheaper and convenient than a real pre-school.  They've been learning about different things that bring them joy such as obeying rules, the Earth, and serving others. 

For their grand fanale' activity this semester, they practiced hard and put on a special Christmas presentation.  It was an abridged version of the Nativity story from the Bible, and then a few special Christmas songs that they learned.  They had very simply put-together costumes.  And since there was only six of them, the boys played multiple parts.  Will was an innkeeper, a shepherd, and a wise-man. 

They performed for a senior care center this  morning.  They were so cute.  The "grandmas" and "grandpas" (as Will called them) were delighted.  Then later that night, those busy 4-year-olds preformed for all of their families.  The older siblings helped out with some of the songs at the end.  It was great fun for all of us.  And those kids learned to give of themselves and work hard to perform their best. 

We had an early Christmas this past week.  Even though it wasn't our plan to spend so much this Christmas, a good solid vehicle with enough seat belts for our family proved a Christmas necessity.  So after lots of research online and directing my parents to the specific dealers in Utah to go visit (see previous post), we got a Toyota Sienna!  My Mom ("Grandma Klaass") drove it out all by herself to deliver it to us personally.  She's been here since last Thursday.  It's been so fun having her here for a few days.

And our new mini-van is so incredible!  We have never had such a nice new vehicle in such great condition!  It's a 2005 with just under 40,000 miles on it.  We feel so spoiled having a family vehicle with a sliding door on each side, let alone one opens and closes by itself!  Will calls it our magic van.  It has more buttons, doo-dads, and compartments than we know what to do with.  It seriously looked brand-new.  We've since gotten it looking dirty with the mud and snow we got on Monday.  Ya, we got it just in time for our first real snow storm this winter.  It handles really pretty well in the snow/ice for being front-wheel drive (definitely better than our old rear-wheel drive that we'd have to weigh down in the back to get anywhere on icy roads).  We did get one with eight seat belts, which I love.  It's impossible to get in the back bench without folding down a side seat.  Luckily it's extremely easy to fold the seats up and down, all of the girls can do it without help.  Sorry if this is making you jealous, us parents are just so excited for our new "toy."  I think we made a great choice for our family.

On Sunday, we had an early Christmas opening up the presents from Grandma Klaass while she was here.  Our kids are already spoiled now, and we're still over a week before the REAL Christmas!  The highlights:  Aspen's favorite present was a little box of Crayola colored pencils.  Kylee got Littlest Pet Shops.  Celeste got the game Twister (boy that was fun watching Sean and I try to play with them).  Will got everything to do with Lightening McQueen.  Yes, he's still a HUGE fan.  Sean mostly got clothes for work.  He has to wear a suit or sports coat every day that he goes to court (which happens to be at least 4 out of 5 work days).

After fuming, grieving, and having a general pity-party about the demise of my rotten Chevy Astro, I started window shopping for a new vehicle.  It's already proven difficult without a second vehicle.  In just this week alone, there is a primary activity this afternoon (we're walking), Will's Joy-School, volunteering at the elementary school, a Christmas school concert, piano lessons (across town), and not to mention groceries to get (our fridge is empty), Christmas shopping, mailing Christmas packages, etc.  I can't take Sean to work and use his car during the day because he often has to go to court in Sparks and in Reno in the same day.  We don't even have enough seat-belts right now for our family to get to church together, etc.  A new van is not what we imagined getting ourselves for Christmas, but it sure is a necessity.  We have two options (I'm writing this all out mostly for my brainstorming benefit, but feel free to share your opinions): 

Option # 1--Get a cheaper (under $5K) tide-us-over mini-van to last us the next 2-5 years until finances/job/house situation is more stable. 
Pros:  This ensures that we don't use up too much of our house down-payment money that we plan to use this year to buy a house, maybe even money leftover for savings (what a concept!). 
Cons:  I am soooooo tired of driving a vehicle that I don't feel safe in, that may break down at a moment's notice.  I'm also tired of sinking thousands of dollars into a decrepit vehicle just to try to salvage it a bit longer.

Option # 2--Get what we really want: a newer vehicle that we trust, that's reliable, and that will last over a decade! 
Pros:  We'd be able to pay cash, no car loans to have to deal with.  Hopefully we can get a great deal in this bad economy as cash buyers.  We'd have a vehicle that we trust, that's reliable, and that will last over a decade!  
Cons:  This means spending $13K-$20K.  This takes a serious chunk out of our house money (which has already dwindled after living all summer/autumn with no jobs).  It may mean delaying buying a house for another year, or putting less of a down and having higher mortgage payments.  Is it worth it?!?

As we're deciding our options, we've been researching what's out there.  I don't want a pricey, gus-guzzling, monster-sized SUV.  So all of those Tahoes, Suburbans, Sequoias, and Explorers are automatically out for me.  We can't afford a brand-new anything because those are well over $20K.  So we're looking at a 2005-2007 mini-van with low miles in good condition.

All Wheel Drive (AWD) would be nice (if it ever snows here that is), but those are hard to come by unless we get a HUGE SUV.  Also for some reason,
8 passenger mini-vans NEVER come with AWD!!  Why is that?!?  So we have to decide which is more important to us (which will we use more), 8 seat belts or AWD?  We voted for 8 seat belts.  I end up car-pooling cousins all the time, plus we want growing room if we have 1-2 more kids.

We started window-shopping (online of course) to see what makes/models we prefer.  Dodge Caravans seemed the most economical and plentiful, but may have the most problems down the line and not last as long.  Chrysler Town & Country and Ford Freestars  seemed decent quality but again consistently have some problems after a few years.  These models only come with 7 seats.  Plus, even though we like buying American, we're worried these companies may go bankrupt, and are not sure where that will leave us.  If we go with option #1, one of these models would have to do, because the others have way worse quality/reliability ratings, OR they're much more expensive $$$.

The two best mini-vans out there according to lots of safety/quality/convenience ratings are:
the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna.  These are both very high quality, are built to last 20 years, and are therefore VERY pricey (even used).  The Honda seemed to take the cake for the best all-around mini-van and is more expensive than the Toyota.  However when comparing the 8 passenger option, then the Toyota was more generally preferred.  The Toyota Sienna is definitely our DREAM vehicle, at least as far as mini-vans go.  The only problem is that I couldn't find any 2005-2007 8- passenger Toyota Siennas available here in Reno.   So, what to do?!?

Well, my Mom volunteered to buy us one in Utah (with OUR own money of course).  There is a lot more to choose from in the mini-van capital of the world, plus prices seemed a touch cheaper in Happy Valley.  Then they'll drive it here and stay for a short Christmas-time visit.  They even went and looked at a Toyota Sienna near their house yesterday.  My Mom LOVED it!  That's always good news.  Hopefully things will work out.  Either way I'm moving out of my grieving funk, and onto an exciting "I can't wait!" hyper-crazy state.  Below are a few pictures of what our new Christmas present might look like! 
I can't wait till Christmas!

Our minivan broke down yet again, on the way home from piano lessons on the I-80.  (and this after we've spent $2500 on it in the last two months, remember the Disneyland trip in October?) Aaarrgghhh!  I was actually hoping that someone would slam into it and total the thing (after the kids and I were safely away from it of course).  It needs to be put out of its misery.  Don't worry though, we're all safe.  Our van's all in one piece, just leaking all of its transmission fluid.  The tow truck took it to our repair guy who will tell us the damage tomorrow.  Very frustrating, but it always could be worse.  Kids are safe, healthy and sleeping soundly in their beds.  What more could I ask for, right?  --Maybe a van that doesn't break down every other freaking month, guess that's asking for too much.

UPDATE:
The van's done.  No funeral, no nothing!  I hope I never see the pitiful thing again.  Transmission's completely shot, $2700 estimate.  NO WAY!  We're not even going to get penny for it either.  If it had been totaled, at least we would have gotten a little something from our insurance company.  Sean said the easiest thing is to hand to title over to the repair shop and let them junk or fix or sell the thing.  I feel like crying.  I guess we're meant to only ever be a ONE car family.  We've only ever had one vehicle, why start being spoiled now, right?  I wish more things were in walking distance though!  Maybe it's time to get familiar with the good ole Reno Bus system.  Merry Christmas!

Will played with his legos for hours this afternoon.  I think he used pretty much every single lego block he owns.  Beside his tall tall tower, notice the small tower out of regular legos, and the cars parked perfectly in front of the tower (lol, so Will).  I was amazed at how he fit all different sizes, heights, etc, to make a perfect rectangular shape all the way up.  Way to go Will!

We haven't put up Christmas decorations for the last three years since we were busy with school up in Idaho and always traveled down to Grandparents for the holiday.  It was well over-due that we actually pulled some of our own things out this year. 

We don't have a ton, but it was like an early Christmas itself to pull out most of these things that we hadn't seen in four years.  It was all especially exciting and new to Will.  He had so much fun helping Daddy put the fake Christmas tree together.  Will is having a terrible time waiting for Santa to come already.  Every day he asks how many more days.  Sometimes he even demands,

"I want Santa to come now!"  The advent calendar that Sean's Mom made and the paper chains are helping, but only barely.

We have two nativities.  A porcelain one that Sean's Mom made for Sean long long ago, and kids' Christmas pageant one that I painted before I knew Sean or had kids.  The kids love it though because they can play with it.  We also decided to make a snowman out of our Halloween pumpkins.  Aspen and Kylee made me Christmas banners out of their handprints back in 2001 when they were 3 and 1.  And a very few things from Germany.  And that's that.