Life At The Circus

It’s been a LOOOOONG time since I’ve posted about Shopping for Sudan , but as 2011 comes to a close I thought I’d say thanks to those of you that participated with me in Shopping for Sudan .   In 2011 you raised $47 dollars to help the people of Sudan.  It may not seem like much but it’s a lot to the people who receive it.  Furthermore, we are still matching the amount raised and so a total donation of $100 was made on your behalf.  Whoot!  That’s combines to a cumulative World Vision Sudan Relief Fund Donation of $550 since the “program” started one and a half years ago.  That’s real money! So, thank you to those of you that shopped on amazon through Life at the Circus… by simply clicking on amazon through my site, you made a difference in the lives of the people of Sudan.  And for those that maybe forgot about the Shop for Sudan opportunity, could you please book mark my page?? Then next time you shop at Amazon, simple visit Life At The Circu...

The most favorite Christmas cookie for the circus fam to make is sugar cookies.    Messiness + sugar = pure bliss for the circus crew!!     This year we enjoyed rolling and cutting the cookies with our cousin Eli.    It was also the first year that the youngest circus crew member got to participate in the cooking making fun.  And by participate, I of course mean, eating.    Since it took most of the morning to roll out and cut our our cookies, we saved the decorating for later that day.  Eli wasn’t with us for this part.  But, we still managed to make quite a mess with just 5 of us… want a little cookie with your sprinkles?                              I think this last one sums up the resulting sugar coma quite well.

It has become a Circus Fam tradition to eat Christmas Eve dinner at Boston Market.  We go to the 4:30 children’s service, then have dinner at Boston Market and then return for the 6:30 candlelight service at church.  There really isn’t time to eat dinner together and enjoy both services unless we eat out.  The horrendous service we received at Boston Market this year did cause all of us to question whether it may be the last year we partake of this tradition… I LOVE the candle light service…this year my favorite parts were holding my nephew Eli on my lap while singing Silent Night during the candle lighting and the look of TOTAL glee on my 4 year old’s face as she held her candle ALL BY HERSELF.  (She kept grinning ear to ear and whenever I looked over at her she’d say, “Papa isn’t holding it… I am holding it ALL ALONE!” Everyone enjoys putting up a figure on our nativity advent calendar. Putting out cookies for Santa… this concept was lost on one of us, wh...

When I uploaded my last video to you tube, I got side tracked with a little trip down memory lane as I then watched other videos the circus fam has posted to you tube in the past. And I came across this gem. A few things I noticed while re watching the video. 1.  My oldest son used to have that cute  4 year old voice you swear you’ll never forget but inevitably do.  Oh.my.goodness—listen to that sweet lil voice! 2.  It must have been spaghetti night at the circus for I can think of no other reason for all of my children to be walking around shirtless. 3.  A tripod can keep a toddler busy for a great amount of time… must pull out that tripod again next time I need an extra hand fixing dinner. 4.  On days when I think a tornado must have blown through my house, all I have to do is look back at the video, b/c I don’t think I have ever seen my house more messy than in this video clip.  Hello there is a an empty milk jug in baby doll stroller!! As I watched this clip part of me can’t believ...

When I saw the sign on the side of highway advertising a Live Nativity, I was instantly interested.  I’ve never seen one and thought it would be a great experience for the kids.  When talking to a friend I found out more details and made plans to bring them.  It was a simple production, put on by a small community church on a cold winter’s night on the side of a busy highway.   Not many were in attendance.  It reminded me a lot of that night in Bethlehem.  Few stopped then either.    Luke 2: 1-14:   1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while [ a ] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to regist...

We decorated our gingerbread house this weekend… before Christmas this year —astonishing, I know. The big 3 had a fabulous time. Unfortunately, our youngest found the experience quite confusing and a tad frustrating.  “Why, oh why, aren’t they letting me eat that candy?” I might have snuck the lil guy a few pieces of candy while they were busy working. The kids were quite proud of their work.  And I have to agree.. it is most definitely the best looking one they’ve ever done.  Of course the competitive and ahem, humble, little circus crew they are, they declared that “our house is so good, if we entered it in a competition it would surely win."     Yea… we’ll spend some time working on humility over the holiday season.

Scott took a vacation day on Thursday so he could spend the day with our oldest daughter.  First they went with the other kids in her Kindergarten class to see a performance of The Night Before Christmas.   Apparently the sets were gorgeous and the play was very well done.  Such a treat to go to a live theatre AND to get to see it with her school friends and Dad.  I think it was also a treat for Dad to get to see her with her school friends, it’s an aspect of her life that he doesn’t get to see very often.  Then it was out to lunch at the American Girl doll store (or the Molly store as she called it to me when she was describing later that day).   (OK so we don’t have American Girl dolls here yet… but we did work things out so that she she could borrow one for lunch that day, since she didn’t have one of her own.) She was quite excited to discover they both had brown hair and glasses. and they both were wearing the same shoes… Fillin...