Christmas Pictures 2010

Reading the Christmas Story on Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

A whirlwind of present opening

At church on Sunday

Christmas Letter 2010

All new for 2010! The Blakeslee annual (or semi annual or once in a while)Christmas letter now goes green. No more printing, no more stamps and envelopes, no more trying to fit pictures from a whole year on a 8x10 page. It must be the 21st century.

This year it seems I've heard many disparaging comments about 'Christmas letters'. So I decided to post mine on our blog where only those who wanted to read it would. So thank you for wanting to!

We thank and praise God for this year. Things have gotten smoother on the home front, but also quieter. Our family of nine has spent most of the year as a family of 6 with our three oldest out of the house.

Annie has been really stretched in her first year in ministry with Formando Vidas in Bogota Colombia. Rebecca is still enjoying her volunteer job at Overlook Farm in MA with Heifer International. She spends her time doing farm chores and being an educational volunteer . She shows people around the farm and encourages them to think more about world and their part in it. In her spare time she enjoys bread making and apparently, judging by all the hand crocheted gifts today, she has been enjoying crocheting.

Tim just finished his first semester at Adelphi College in New York. He did really well, but decided to take a semester off to work and look into another school for the fall.

Jonathan, Kai, Daniel and Sarah-Grace are all still homeschooling. This blog is mostly about them, so if you look back through the posts you can see lots of what they've been up to.

Dana and I are well. We can not believe we are in our fifties! Last night, after reading the Christmas Story and The Night Before Christmas to the kids, Dana admitted he was ready for grandchildren! He said the excitement level with our kids at Christmas time just isn't there anymore.

We hope Christmas and the New Year bring many blessings to you and yours!

What Kai Learned

This is a manger scene made by Annie's students in Colombia

We've been looking into the Christmas Story this year for school. We've learned a bit about shepherds and sheep, St. Nicholas of Myra and angels among other things. I decided to do this because last year the entire Christmas season went by and I'd only read about 2 of our Christmas story books with the kids. So we've taken advantage of "school time" and read our favorites.

Of course among the favorites is the Bible account of the birth of Jesus. While reading from Luke 1 about John the Baptist's birth and the Angel Gabriel coming to Mary we read about the Virgin Birth. Surprisingly, this was a new concept for Kai. He had thought Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Thus missing the whole glorious truth of "God becoming man." And he really seemed to get it. He looked totally awestruck. It was a good time for him to learn this fact because we are just finishing up a unit on human reproduction--so he knows all about how babies are conceived and grow in the womb. He was really amazed that God "put" Jesus into Mary and then he grew there--Son of God and Son of Man. It was also a wonderful time to talk about adoption. Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus; Jesus, had a "different" biological father than the rest of his siblings. I felt like it was an extra special Christmas gift from God for my adopted kids.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the shopping I still have left to do. We saved getting our tree until Annie, with Jonathan who went down for a 2 week visit in Colombia, came home. So we have a busy weekend in store: cut and decorate the tree, Christmas choir/play rehearsal and play for Sarah-Grace and Daniel and of course the ever present shopping! Hopefully I can post some of these events with pictures!