This year, Ariana has had the opportunity to participate in several choir performances as a member of …

our church choir …

and her school’s honor choir …

and “All City Choir” (she is one of three children from her school to be a part of this prestigious performing group).

One particularly fun performance was at the mall with Honor Choir, after which the students got to go ice skating.  Membership has its privileges! 🙂

The “littles” and I ventured out to the mall to see her perform, and then I took them to sit on Santa’s lap.

‘Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and all through the house …

All we creatures were stirring, especially my spouse.

(The girls and I had come down with a very nasty stomach flu, and BT was having to take care of the unpleasantries)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

But Vivi was stripped down to her Sleeping Beauty underwear.

(Did I mention that this was a VERY nasty stomach flu?)

I in my jammies and BT in his cap

Were scrubbing the bathroom, cleaning the ____.

(Yeah, REALLY nasty).

And laying a finger aside of his nose,

BT spread Vicks all around to help the stench smell like a rose.

(Well, maybe not a “rose,” but it did stop him from hurling).

The baby was nestled all snug in his bed,

While visions of sugarplums danced in his head.

(Thankfully, Tad slept through most of the chaos).

When down the hallway there arose such a clatter,

BT sprang to his feet to see what was the matter.

(I said that he slept through MOST of the chaos …)

When what to his blood shot eyes should appear,

But a sad Baby Tad, shedding many a tear.

(It was an answer to prayer that Tad was spared from the illness. I honestly think he would have ended up hospitalized if he had gotten it).

He spoke not a word and went straight to his work,

Soothing the baby … let me remember this night when BT acts like a jerk.

(I’ll never forget the weary look on BT’s face (and the intense love I felt for him) as he, also suffering from a mild case of the illness, mopped the tile, cleaned the carpet, tied our hair back to keep it out of the yuck … )

I heard him exclaim as he surveyed the sight.

Merry Christmas to all?!?  Oh, what a night!

The next day (Christmas Eve), I was able to wrap a present … and then lay down before I passed out … and then wrap another present … and then lay down before I passed out…)

By Christmas Day, we felt well enough to open gifts, nibble on crackers and sip Gatorade.

I’ve fallen IN LOVE with a line of children’s clothing patterns called “Oliver + S“.  It doesn’t help that I also have an addiction to paper dolls and all things vintage, but patterns just don’t get any cuter than this:

These are just a few of the patterns that will be arriving in the next few days.

I had seen them at various quilt stores in Utah before, but I had never dared buy them because they didn’t have real photos, and they were kinda pricey. This morning, however, I found them for 30% off + free shipping … and Googling revealed tons of praise for and plenty of pictures of finished garments from these darling patterns.  There’s even a Flickr group dedicated solely to “Oliver and S.”

They have a couple of free pattern downloads, one of which was used by a crafty someone to make a vintage pillowcase dress.  Yes, I will be making one of these in the near future, too.  I even have the perfect pillowcase for it.

It’s not very often that I get THIS excited about something.

Stay tuned for pictures of Vivi modeling the finished projects. 🙂

This year, Ariana divided her Christmas list into “Needs” and “Wants.”

Being the frugal little soul that she is, there was only one item in each column. (Uncle David would be SO proud).

Need–a belt

Want–string

The belt, I understood.

But string??? When pressed for an explanation, she indicated that it would be really handy if she had her own own supply of string for when she wanted to do an art project or science experiment.  Currently, she has to ask to use Mom’s string, and sometimes Mom doesn’t want to share the string.

This is the kid that received a $15 Target gift card for her birthday back in August, and in her thank you note to her friend, she penned, “Thank you for the gift card.  I’ll be sure to use it wisely.”

Use it wisely? She’s 9 years old, for heaven’s sake.  And each time she tries to bring herself to use the gift card, she changes her mind because she can’t bear to part with the money.

Part of me is grateful for a child that is so fiscally responsible and unselfish; but part of me is worried that someone is going to get wind of her meager Christmas list and erroneously make us their Secret Santa project.

Ariana has the gift … the gift of being simple and amazingly untouched by worldly things.

I love this song and the beautiful sentiments it expresses. It epitomizes Ariana:
[audio:http://tolberts.org/lori/Audio/simplegifts.mp3]

Between being gone for a week and a half on vacation, my suddenly busy little jewelry & photo card business (simple-blessings.com), homework, etc., etc. Halloween had long since come and gone, and our pumpkin remained uncarved.  I was grateful when BT and the kids sat down one evening and worked their magic.

I thought it was quite creative (not to mention thrifty) to give Vivi one side of the pumpkin to carve (design) and Ariana the other.  Good job, BT.

READER ALERT: The following post is a boring travelogue. If you choose to read beyond this point and end up falling asleep, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

For nine glorious days, our Tolbert tribe basked in the sunshine (and a day of rain) in Orlando, FL over Thanksgiving break.  I even embroidered/appliqued matching shirts for us to commemorate the momentous occasion.  If only I could come up with these grand ideas a little sooner than the night before we leave … but nonetheless, I miraculously got them done.

Gran joined us on the front-end of our trip, but after having to ride everywhere we went in the cramped hatchback area of the small SUV we rented and ducking whenever we spotted a cop, I think she was thankful that he had only booked her ticket to spend part of the time with us.

The kids were mesmerized with the magic of Disney, and for the first two days of our trip, it was almost like we had the parks (Magic Kingdom, Day 1; Animal Kingdom, Day 2) all to ourselves.  We literally walked right on any ride we wanted to. The girls even got to ride the Tea Cups with Alice!

And because we had Gran with us, BT, Ari and I even got to ride a few of the more rambunctious rides together. We never would have purchased the $Splash Mountain$ picture they snap as you plunge 50 feet … but it was just so dang funny, we couldn’t resist!

Day Three, we went to Coco Beach.  Although it was a bit ghetto by So. Cal standards, no one seemed to care.  Vivi spent hours collecting sea shells, Ariana loved splashing in the waves, and I even curled up and took a nap with Baby Tad in the warm sunshine.  When it came time to leave, Baby Tad threw a full on tizzy fit.

Day Four, we loaded Gran back into the hatchback and went to church.  BT was mortified that he forgot his Sunday shoes, but I reminded him that Jesus likely wore sandals to church, too.  We got more funny looks about Gran stuffed in the back of the car than about his sandals, anyway.  The evening was spent playing Skip-Bo together.

Day Five, back at Disney (Hollywood Studios) … along with the most of the population from the Eastern half of the U.S. and parts of China, Japan, Europe and the Middle East.  Crowded, crowded, crowded.

Day Six, back at Disney (Epcot) … along with hordes of other people.  Clearly, we weren’t the only ones who thought that Disney would be a fun way to spend Thanksgiving break.  Despite the chaos, we got to ride our favorite ride–Soarin’–but Ariana and BT were disappointed that Test Track would have to wait for another day.

Day Seven, in the midst of a torrential downpour and determined to eek out every last penny of our Disney passes, back at Disney (Magic Kingdom) … after a stop at the $1.99 store to get rain ponchos (yellow plastic bags w/ a hood).  I honestly thought that this would be the most miserable day ever, but the rain helped keep the crowds down.

Day Eight, back at Hollywood Studios … with massive crowds.

Day Nine … you guessed it … back at Disney (Epcot) so that we could ride Test Track and Soarin’ for one last time. By this point, I was ready to soar back to the solitude of my own home, which we did later that evening.

Yes, Disney was the happiest place on earth.

But so was the beach.

And church.

And our run-down condo (from which water poured from the vent in the ceiling as Ari showered our final morning there).

And even our home as we spent Saturday together as our vacation week came to a close.

I give thanks for my dear family who makes anywhere we are together the happiest place on earth.