Anderson Christmas Eve poems

Sara's poem:
Today is Christmas Eve and so
The sewing machine light is all aglo.
It must be genetic
My pace is frenetic
I hope all is finished tomorrROW.


Abby's poem:
Christmas is the time of year
When bells are ringing
And presents
But most of all, Christmas trees.


Adam's poem:
Christmas is a time of year
For everyone to have great cheer.
Christmas is very fun
But we're sorry when Christmas is done.


Mark's poem:
Jesus's birth is Christmas
because he was born on Christmas.
The shepherds were watching over their flocks.
The star told about Jesus being born.
Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes.
The shepherds came.
The wise men came.
And laid him in a manger.
We like to think of Jesus being born.

2008 Christmas Eve poems

We're starting here with Mom's and Dad's. Feel free to append yours in comments. Merry Christmas!

I feel blessed
with all the rest
of you

for God's riches bestowed
to lighten our load
anew.

In times of distress
and all of the rest,
He is true.

With comfort and love
from Heaven above,
and you.

--DAD

Mom's Christmas Eve Poem

Our Christmas was in the garage, boxed and bagged.
As the days flew by, both Mom and Dad sagged.

James and Regent bought home a fresh tree
It finally got set up by sons, by now three.

And there it stood like the house, a bare tree.
Then a neighbor found out and said, "Leave it to me.'

We went to meet friends and watch a great show
Our hearts were cheered as home we did go.

But while we were gone, a true gift of selves
Was given by neighbors who worked hard, like elves.

The twinkling tree lights showed off decorations
The house was covered by lovingly preparations.

It made me remember the very best things
Are the kind things we do, not the stuff that we bring.


Thank you, Barkers, Olsens, Watsons, Maywald, Bessons.

Halloween 08

Adam and Rab

Our Rab is so cute

Here are some not-so-great pictures of our uneventful Halloween.



The crew: Adam (Luke Skywalker), Abby (witch), Mark (ninja), and Jack (didn't get the concept).

Ninja Mark

Before school (they have a dress up parade)

We borrowed this costume (so easy)

Adam as the young Obi Wan (or whatever)

A Baptism and a Blessing

In Search Of

We need a new name for this blog. Main House of Payne was a good stopgap, but Sam and I both have blogs with House of Payne in the title, and two is the limit. (Unless we want to do House of Payne World Tour, in honor of that t-shirt Sara made like ten years ago, which I still wear.)

How about one of these? They're all terrible, but . . .

* Grandchild Photo Exchange
* Life is Payne
* Dad Doesn't Read This
* Payndersons
* Fatti and Mutti
* Former Umbarts Association (Umbarts Anonymous?)
* Oh Du Froehliche
* The Payne Plantation
* Moving Day Soup

Anyone else have ideas?

--JOHN

I can't stop!!

Clearly I am the only one who posts here, but hopefully someone is seeing these pictures. Here is Jack as Clifford, the big red dog.



Adam, just with a great smile; I couldn't pass this one up.


Don't have too many full face pictures of me, but here are a couple of me and Rab.




A rite of passage at the Anderson house -- holding on to Dad's thumbs.



All the junk Jack had in his bed. He likes his stuff. He gathers it at night when the other kids are asleep and puts it in his bed to sleep with. Also he is not doing PJs these days. Just clothes.




Abby lost her two front teeth. Wants them back before Christmas.



Mark started to scale a dead palm leaf (frond?) and made it about half way up the tree. He is also good at climbing stop sign poles and street sign poles. He has some real physical talent.

Camping August 08

We decided to take everyone camping for Labor Day weekend. We went up to "the rim," which is not the Grand Canyon rim, but another geological rim-like feature about 2 hours north of us. We had a great time and will try to go again soon. Here is Adam setting up the kids' tent. We slept with Rab in another tent. They did pretty well, waking up and getting rowdy (I think they were cold) around 2:30, and then not again until 6. Of course, I call that "pretty well" because I was not the one getting up at 2:30 to get their blankets straightened up and tell them to go back to sleep.



Here are the Big 4 enjoying the campfire.



Rab is congested (again!) and sick, so he mostly slept.



Preparing our smoked milk for breakfast . . . (actually we had to thaw it; I had frozen it).




Chopping wood with axe-shaped sticks they found.






The kids were shocked to discover that Dad can cook!

Mom comes to visit

We had a great time with Mom this week. We went swimming, the kids listened to stories, and we had a good time seeing Uncle Dan.

More from Arizona

Fun when Dad is home . . .



At the hospital.



We all fall down! Jack loves Ring Around the Rosie in the pool. This is the continuation of the shot in the previous post.


Holy cow. When did we get 5 kids?


OK, I should have rotated this before I posted it.


Rab has an infected, clogged tear duct today, so his eye is looking pretty bad. Got some ointment and some antibiotics for him, so it should clear up soon. Poor kid.

AZ Anderson Update July 2008

Jack never kisses anyone; he only offers his cheek so that you might have the privilege of kissing him. But he does kiss Rab. Very cute, we think.



The day I came home from the hospital.



Mark and Rab.



Playing Ring Around the Rosie.




Rab Elijah. Read "Johnny Tremain" for more info.