Guess What? It's Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Houghtons have a lot of traditions for Christmas time, so here, I'm going to tell you a little about them! 

• You must be singing (either out loud, or in your head) Christmas carols constantly between Thanksgiving and New Years Day. Only between those times.  There shall be no singing of Christmas Carols outside of those dates.
• Christmas Eve is Family Baking Day, and is to be devoted to making tea rings, eggnog rolls, cookies, and other assorted goodies to be distributed while caroling in the evening.
• The Happy Prince must be read aloud, part of Luke must be read aloud (by Luke), and Dad must give a schpeel about the true meaning of Christmas
• Each year, whenever Christmas presents are mentioned, Dad must say "Kids, this year we've decided to have a really low key, inexpensive Christmas."
•  Mom and Levi must haggle over how early we're getting up
• Christmas day Schedule:  Kids wake up at the time agreed upon by Mom and Levi, kids rouse parents, kids sit on stairs sleepily while Mom and Dad take pictures of them, kids are released, one by one, to go open stockings, stockings are dug into, breakfast is eaten (tea ring and eggs of some sort), presents are opened one by one (for about the first 15 minutes), kids run around the house and play with new toys/gifts until Mom and Dad decide it's time to make dinner, we eat dinner, we sing carols at the top of our lungs around the piano (Dad plays) until we're all hoarse, Mom and Dad order the kids to bed.

I think those are all of the major rules/traditions of a Houghton Christmas.  Of course the gift giving goes without saying.  Now, here are the pictures from our latest Christmas Adventure!

(I just LOVE this Picture)

Christmas Eve:

Marta and Tess cutting out cookies

Eggnog rolls, toffee, cranberry bread, lemon squares, cashew triangles, and cookies, in the prep. stage still

 The family decorating the menagerie of cookies (Tess bandaging some blistered toes)

The completed menagerie, please notice the detail

I love this story.  It is beautiful, and I would recommend reading it if you have not already

Mom and Dad always do a good job of reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas.  We usually talk about the things that have helped us feel the true spirit of Christmas, and we talk about the Saviors birth, and the wise men, shepherds, and the baby Jesus. Some of the things that were mentioned that bring the true spirit of Christmas were: giving the gift of music by caroling and singing in the choir at church, participating in the adopt-a-family program at school, bagging food for the ATCAA food bank, and singing, baking, and doing dishes, with the family.

Christmas Day:

 Sleepy on the Stairs, Christmas morning

Battles at the Stockings

 (Mom got a pedicure pistol)

 Gifts from Non-Santa Clauses 

Luke loves his new memory foam pillow... (love, Levi)

 To Mom

From, the Bad Wrappers

 Dad and Luke got embroidered socks (they always accuse each other of stealing the other's) and Mariokart Love, Marta and Tess

 Luke encourages Eliza to use gel in her new short hair-do

(Eliza re-wrapped up the CTR ring that she gave Luke in November)

   Marta got pants, and a hat from Mom and Dad 

 Levi was dying of curiosity concerning this package, turns out it was a bean bag (love Marta)

 Grandma Houghton sent Marry Poppins-themed items to the girls

The Kempers sent animal hats which have been quite a hit around the house

 Mom and Dad like to give practical gifts, for Christmas, and (almost) everyone received a coat or jacket for the winter months...

Let it Snow!

Thank you for reading about our Christmas, now I would encourage you to write down memories from your own Holiday experience.  It is my belief that every Christmas is better than the last (hopefully) because with each new year, you learn something new about the spirit of Christmas, or you get to serve in a new way, or you spend the holidays with new people.  Each Christmas is new and special, even better than the last.

Love,

Marta with help from whoever took all these pictures (I certainly didn't)

Christmas in the Air!

Tess and Marta, far right, part of the "Fiddle Gang" for many years running
at the annual Sonora Bean Feed

It has been two music-filled weeks for our Houghton crew.  Just this week included a wonderful (small town, but wonderful still) Messiah singalong last Sunday, group piano for Levi on Tuesday, Soulsbyville Christmas Concert with Levi on trumpet on Thursday, Sonora Bean Feed and violin music provided by Marta and Tess (and others) on Friday, choir practice on Friday night (and potluck), "Nutcracker" in Oakland on Temple Hill (http://www.templehillevents.com/)  Saturday night, choir performance today in church, more choir practice after church, and tonight, our annual caroling party!  Oh, and then there's the Christmas music constantly playing on the stereo system, radio, and every MP3 around.  Not tired of it yet, but maybe it is a good thing that our music Nazi (aka Mark) restricts Christmas music the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's!

Sorry, don't know how to rotate this. . .

Eliza arrived from BYU on Friday night in her blue 1991 Volvo.  We posted a few signs to welcome her, and  to counteract the one a grouchy neighbor posted last summer (the "Blue Volvo Slow Down" sign below the other two.)  She's hoping to find a few minutes to settle in during the coming days.  It feels complete when Eliza's home.  Though it's taking some getting used-to her new very short haircut--she's having fun playing with scarves, headbands, and spiking gel.

The Christmas tree is up, and hasn't deposited its needles on the skirt beneath, despite our faithlessness in watering it.  (It may help that Levi cut the tree fresh, and it is a Sequoia--without real needles).  Most of our traditional ornaments adorn the tree, though surprisingly, some of the owners of kindergarten-made items have declined to hang those.  We don't have one of those decorator trees, but we love many of the ornaments we do hang.  And Levi and Tess learned to sew a new dove ornament that went as teacher gifts this week!

Amazon.com and other boxes are arriving daily on the front porch. . .in batches.  Can you tell we had some Amazon points to spend.  There are even a few gifts wrapped under the tree--though many givers haven't even begun wrapping!  The wrapping station is set up in hopes that project won't be saved until Christmas Eve.

Shhh. . .what some may not know is that Denise enjoyed this last week of kids in school to finish a hand-made project.  Things went slower than hoped, so some gift ideas may have to surface as after-Christmas "do it together" projects.

Oh, and the ladies got together on Wednesday to dip chocolates--two 6'x2' tables-full.  Denise's hands-down favorites this year are the salted caramels.  The mid-week chocolate-fest may explain jer lack of enthusiasm for making chocolate cookies for the caroling party today.  Yes, there can be too much chocolate. . .but only rarely!  To be honest, much of the production went to the chocolate-dipping friends, and after that, he kids descended upon the tables and filled almost every festive container in the house to give as gifts.  Mark has hidden the remainder of the chocolates, prompting after-church "search and devour" missions by almost all the kids.

And about our annual caroling party. . .there was a little more than singing happening.  But it was well-attended, and hopefully, those who received the carols know they are loved, and those who caroled had a memorable time!

Shopping must be in their blood.  Watch out boys!

Nerf wars. . .just some of the action in the gattic

A little singing (guitar on the left), and eating and visiting.
With Christmas tree in the background.

Babies and hot chocolate and Eliza's short hair
(Marta, Mom, and Eliza, with Elyjah)

Mark has work for only three of the next fifteen days, and we're looking forward to some great family time.  No snow, so it'll be tennis and basketball and swimming.  Mark and Eliza have plans to begin training for a marathon they'd like to run next spring.  Many of the rest of us wonder why they'd like to jar their knees and sweat.  Swimming is just grand for us!

We are sorry.

We are sorry for not having posted lately, but our lives have just been a little bit crazy.  You see, sometimes, we just don't get on the computator at all, because we are so busy.  Haha.  If that ever really happened, Luke might die.  However, I do not have very much time right now, so I am going to give you a brief rundown of all the things that have happened since we last posted.

First, we sighted a new bobcat getting in our chicken coup and we almost got him for it.  Sadly, he has been too smart to come back, so we don't have any cool hats yet.  Or any princess stools, which is what I want.  Anywho, we have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the bobcat to come back, and every day she is home, Marta is placed in a position where she can see out the window and spot him, because she has always been the one to spot "Bob" before.

After that, we had normal lives for a little while before we went to Utah for Thanksgiving Break.  Marta, Luke, and Mom all went to tour BYU and pick up Eliza and then rejoined us in farther south where our grandmother lives.  Meanwhile, Levi, Dad, Grandma and Tess played tennis (Grandma included) and went to the Grand Canyon.  We had Thanksgiving at our grandmother's and enjoyed dressing up for the feast.  Then we spent all night Black Friday shopping and sleeping.  Sadly, misfortune was bound to strike, and that night, Marta broke Dad's nose when it got in the way of her head while playing keep-away in the pool.

When at last we returned home, we resumed our normal schedules.  One of those things that is in our "normal schedules" is swimming.  Since Marta and Tess started back after Water Polo, they have had the joy of swimming miles upon miles.  One day, they swam at least a mile of the breaststroke (as part of the set that day), and just this week, they swam they swam freestyle for thirty minutes without stopping to complete more than a mile (as part of the set that day), and then, just yesterday, they each swam a mile of butterfly (with nothing in between).  Tess thinks that she needs only to do a mile of backstroke before she can say she has accomplished everything she set out to do in life.

Another thing that happened recently was a HUGE windstorm.  Across the county, schools were closed due to power outages and at least 21,000 people were without power for at least a day, and as long as three.  Now, during this windstorm, Tess and Mom were two of the main contributors to our Church Christmas Gathering's food.  They spent seven hours on Friday (during the power outage)  buying the food in the valley, and all day Saturday preparing the food for that night.  Tess thinks it was a worthwhile thing to run around Costco with enough food for 200 people.  Mom isn't quite sure about how she feels about that though.  Despite the power outages they got a lot of support and are quite glad that it is done.

That is all I have time for now because we are going to one of the many Christmas concerts that the Houghton children are performing in, so I will say goodbye.

Goodbye,
The 4th Child

Craziness!

Over the last couple of weeks, we Houghtons have been up to a lot of mischief!  They say that a picture can tell a thousand words, so here are some pictures/videos of our latest achievements and activities.

Home Alone No More

Luke, Tess, Marta, and Levi "waiting up" for Mom and Dad to come home.

This was the state of Mom and Dad's room when they returned at 1 a.m. 

from a week in Chicago and Wisconsin.


Sweet Halloween

The bag of candy bars purchased in mid-October for school lunches was still around in mid-November--a puzzle until this picture of Levi's Halloween "take" surfaced!  No wonder there were significant quantities of candy wrappers in the laundry every time Levi's jeans were washed.  

Tess is 14!

Marta, birthday girl Tess, and Luke

Did Tess mention Mom and Dad were gone for her fourteenth birthday?  A travesty!  

In efforts at penance, a birthday dinner and cake and more presents were offered a week late.  

Fall Formal

Luke and Marta both attended Fall Formal--not together.  Luke went with a date, and Marta (still shy of sixteen) went with some girlfriends.  They looked good though, despite Luke's fashion sense!

Dad donned his fancy duds to chauffeur Marta and
friends for the event (in "Babe," the 15-passenger van).

Bob

 "Kitchen still life" reminds us that the calm of Sunday afternoon was disturbed by Marta's shouts of "Bob, bob, bob!" from her upstairs vantage point.  Indeed, a (new and larger) bobcat (than the one last summer) was circling the chicken coop (from which a chicken had recently "gone missing.")  Dad leapt from his slumber on the couch and dashed to the garage for the 22.  By the time he emerged into the back yard, our feline friend had already cleared the 8' fence, nabbed "Chloe the chicken" and effortlessly escaped the coop.  Dad got off two shots, causing "Bob" to drop the chicken (still alive and laying eggs now).  Too bad the sight wasn't in place for the shots.  At least, that's what Dad says.  The 22 is now back atop the corner shelf in the kitchen.  The chickens are under house arrest unless we determine we'll be around for the day and on "Bob alert!"

Von Houghton Trio

In addition, the Water Polo season ended, including sections and the awards banquet.  The high school football team made it to sections.  And the soon-to-be-famous “Von Houghton Family Trio” (Luke, Marta, and Tess) sang the national anthem for the game on Veteran’s Day.  They also played in the Golden Regiment band—a scraggly-looking lot given the holiday and cold weather.  (Mom and Dad's brag:  Listeners proclaimed the three-part harmony anthem as “the best all season!”)  We won the game.

Marta Celebrates #16

Marta, sweet sixteen, finally!

 To celebrate Marta's big day, Tess invited a friend of Marta's over and provided fun activities on Friday.  On Saturday, we got up, cleaned the church (and of course, celebrated with donuts).  Then we enjoyed reading aloud one of Marta's birthday presents, the recently-published "Inheritance" book, as we headed down to meet up with Levi (who was on a scout campout).  We picnicked at a river park and looked for spawning Salmon.  None to be seen this weekend.  We did find this crowd of kids horsing around though!

Levi (in scout uniform with bedhead), Luke, Tess, and Marta

Then we drove into "The City" (Modesto) to see "Riverdance."  We did love the dancing and the music--almost as mesmerizing now as it was to Luke when he was entranced by a video of the group when he was a little boy.  It was a fun family venture--we wish Eliza could have joined us!  At the end of the day, Marta proclaimed her favorite part of the occasion was everyone being happy together (e.g. not fighting, enjoying reading the book together, and doing something memorable).

How we Survived!?!

As previously posted, our parents abandoned us for a little while.  They are returning late tonight.  I am still wondering how we made it through this last week, so I will go over it with/for you.

Thursday: Go to school, water polo party, come home and try not to kill each other during dinner dishes.
That wasn't too bad.

Friday: Go to Seminary (at 5:55 a.m.), go to school, try to get everyone to and from sports and friends' houses, watch Tangled.  Ok, still not bad.

Saturday: My 14th birthday.  I felt extremely abandoned on this day.  First Marta wouldn't let me out of bed for breakfast preparations.  Then I went downstairs and had Cinnamon Toast Crunch, opened presents, and hurried to get ready for the Memorial Service for our friends that passed away (see previous posts).  While there, Marta and I performed four times and Luke performed thrice.  Do you know how hard it is to sing when you are crying?  Overall, the service was beautiful.  It was at our local LDS (Mormon) Chapel and we had the gym and overflow behind it open and there were still people standing.  Whoa!  Then we went home and Marta went to an old friend's birthday party (on my birthday!).  Later we went to our ward Trunk'r'Treat.  No pictures, sorry, our costumes were not very exciting in any way though, so you aren't missing much.  When we finally went home, we were undecided on what to do, so we played Wii Sports.  Extremely tiring. ;)

Sunday: Church and dinner at the Richardson's.  Pumpkin Waffles with some special sort of sauce.  It was amazing!

Monday: Seminary, school (Marta wasn't feeling well and stayed home that day), Levi went trick-or-treating with the Richardsons, and Luke and I went to the Deardens' for dinner and party.  There is too much candy at our house!  Still not awful...

Tuesday: Seminary, school, water polo for Marta, and homework (???).  Ok, that sounds easy...

Wednesday: Late Seminary and school, take Levi to swimming, get Marta's water polo bag to her so she will have it after practice (she forgot it), pick up Little Ceaser's, and go to the Mutual activity which was broom hockey.  I guess today was the only truly crazy one.

We are so glad that Mom and Dad are coming back and have several surprises for them for when they finally get home.

It was a great learning experience, but I like it better when Mom and Dad are here.

Love, Tess

Where did Mom and Dad go?

On Thursday morning, our parents abandoned us to this cruel, fatal world, where we probably could not survive...if Ariel wasn't here.  Mom and Dad are in Wisconsin and Illinois visiting family and fulfilling work duties.  May I just say that this was one of Mom's birthday wishes, so she better be happy for a long time when she gets home...even if the house is a sunken carrier.  You're Welcome Mom!  As you may have noticed, we lead extremely busy lives, in fact, they are so busy that it was not sufficient to have Luke be the only driver, since he has things he has to do and places he has to be.  Besides, that, our parents think that we can't deal with it by ourselves for almost a whole week, so they left us with a babysitter, Ariel.  Little did they know, that when they left her in charge of keeping us sane, they were really pushing s closer to the edge, because Ariel is the life of the party, or any party for that matter.  Ariel, is an awesome person, and very capable of getting stuff done, but sometimes, she just makes me laugh so hard, that I think I might fall over because I can't breathe.  Anyway, that is all for now, so I'll be off!

Tess

P.S. This has made our family laugh many a time...http://www.modbee.com/2011/10/14/1903363/mormon-candidates-stand-out.html

Individual Personalities

The other day, somebody told me that they liked it when Marta posted because she was funny and straight-forward about her opinions.  May I just say, that the rest of us are plenty funny.  We are just not as ready to announce our goofball-ness to the world like she is.  To prove it is this, which we all enjoy very much:

There are five more where this came from (youtube.com).  However, beware, if you watch them once, you will quote them forevermore.  But that is OK, because these are really funny.

Tess

Time Keeps On Slippin', Slippin', Slippin', Into the Future

One realization that I came to long ago, was that hours move way faster than minutes, days move way faster than hours, and weeks move way faster than days.  As a human, I become so concentrated on the present, that time truly flies away.  Already, I've got 15 years under my belt!! (almost 16)  The most disconcerting thing is that every now and then, you get pulled out of the present, and you watch the past and the future.  Meanwhile you miss out on the present.  The middle ground of these two view points is what is called Eternal Perspective.  This last week, I got to look through all three of these lenses, as did the whole Houghton family.

During the week, we had regular school stuff, water polo games and tournaments,

 homecoming prep.,

 

 (80's day above, crazy day below)

 soccer practices,

   football games in the band,

 music lessons, PSAT's, church group activities, parties, Scout camporees, girls' night, etc.  Basically, it was a typical crazy week, with lots of "present" stuff going on.  It flew by.

Then, on Saturday night, our family was whisked out of the present, into the ethereal land of "past and future."  Kelsea (15) and Savannah (13) Webster (who we have known for about eight years, and with whom we have shared friendship, dinners, church and school activities, and who had very recently gone to live in Utah) along with another friend, were caught in between two trains coming from opposite directions on parallel tracks.  Wind currents pushed them into the trains, and Kelsea and the friend were killed instantly.  Savannah is in critical condition with major injuries.

I'm finding that for me, when someone dies, it takes a while to truly comprehend that they are gone.  I forget the present, and let time flow by.  First, I have to think about how they lived, and what they meant to me.  After I've done that for a few hours, I think about what it will mean now that they're gone, and how I will move on with life.  The answer to "how do I move on with life" is simple: I trust in the Lord, and realize that I will see that person again.  Then I need to return to the present with a renewed purpose to live and appreciate life.

I think my whole family went through this process in different ways, and now we've been shoved back into the hectic life that we call our own.  We don't forget and move on.  We remember, and move on.  We try to remember to live a life that is fully worth living, because we never know how long we have until we must leave this earth behind.

Now, Mom is acting as the phone service for anyone who wants information on the funeral, memorial service, how Savannah's doing, etc.  This week is also homecoming for the high schoolers, and activities for that and for water polo occupy all the time not filled with school.  Time has started to slip away again.

Love, 

Marta 

(with help from Mom)

Aaaah, Conference Weekend!

Have you ever wondered what God would tell us if He had a prophet who could speak to the people on earth today?  Here are some of my highlight takeaways from the words of LDS Prophet Thomas S. Monson:

Thomas S. Monson
LDS Prophet

• We are responsible for our own actions
• The laws of God will not change and there is nothing which can bring more joy to our lives or peace to our souls than following those laws
• We must be vigilant and reject anything that does not conform to our standards
• Work towards the goal of communicating with God daily in prayer and receiving His inspiration and guidance, so we can recognize, trust, and follow the personal revelation we will receive
• Show increased kindness--ever be found doing the work of the Lord
• Fear not, for God is with us!

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we feast upon the words of God's prophets and apostles twice a year at "General Conference."  Yes, God loves us just as much as He loved the people of biblical times, and He speaks to us through the modern-day prophets and apostles He has called!  The great news is that this revelation is available here! (http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/10?lang=eng)

This year, we've reached a real landmark in General Conference listening--we all took notes!  Now the challenge is to make opportunities to go back to those notes and figure out, personally, and as a family, what we can do to implement what we have heard and learned this weekend, into our lives!

Tess, Luke, and Levi all set to watch Sunday morning
session of General Conference!

Mark, who really did take notes
during most of Conference

We love Conference weekends.  Even though our Saturday was jam-packed with soccer and water polo games and birthday parties and general household chores, we did get to watch some of the conference sessions.  And today, we incorporated our tradition of Kugen for breakfast with doodling, crocheting, snuggling under blankets on a cool autumn day, and listening to Conference.  We missed Eliza, and trust she was listening to Conference in Utah!

Of course, after all those hours of listening, a Sunday dinner (which doesn't happen every week around here), and games (ping pong, bocce, and "pajamas") were in order!  I think some of the kids never did change from their pajamas.  We don't get many of those days, so it's a welcome break from the cares and schedules of the world!  

Other news from the past couple of weeks:

The two bushels of apples from our
very own tree. . .and part of
the pumpkin and corn stalk ensemble
Marta and Tess created
on the front porch to welcome autumn!  

• We won some exciting items at an auction from a bakery that closed--among many things, a butcher block table, 50 pounds of honey bran muffin mix, and 20 pounds of cinnamon!  With the additions to our pantry, Marta has declared that breakfasts on Mondays will have to change from hot cereal (which she does not fully appreciate) to muffins!
• In the last six days, Marta and Tess have played in a total of 13 water polo games.  We've watched most of them.  And the girls even scored some goals--a great accomplishment for our family.
• Levi scored a goal in soccer!
• Luke's been quoted in the paper.  At least once or twice.  Nothing contentious though.
• Mom hosted "ladies lunches" twice  The house was clean for both.  Woohoo! 
• We picked two bushels of apples from our tree out front.  We'd better start eating!  And Marta and Tess had fun playing Martha Stewart with the pumpkins we picked up in the Valley and the corn stalks from our garden.
• We're gearing up for the water polo fundraiser dinner. 

Levi playing soccer on a beautiful
Saturday morning

Fun watching water polo?!  Go Cats!
(Pictured here, the coaches and bench of the Girls'
Varsity Team--Marta's in the water--maybe the one
with the hand up near the ball!)

Denise