Rinn Reflections: December 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Frosty the Snowman

Isaac and I had tickets to "Frosty the Snowman" at Casa Manana this morning! Even though we've been a little touch and go with sickness over the past few days, we couldn't miss this performance. We've been singing "Frosty the Snowman" and reading Frosty books for days to get ready for the show!

Isaac was a little confused why Frosty was an actual actor and not a snowman. When the audience was very quiet, Isaac asked in a very NOT quiet voice, "But why isn't he a snowman?" :) There was a sweet adoption storyline in the play where an orphan, who had escaped from the local orphanage, was adopted by the town grocer, who didn't have a family. Talk about tears! That part of the show, combined with Isaac reaching over and holding my hand for a few minutes during the play, made for an especially sweet morning.

I love this boy!

Christmas in Downtown Fort Worth

This past Saturday night, we met Uncle Mike for an evening in downtown Fort Worth. It was so great to take a break from packing and do something festive! We bought tickets to ride the Holiday Lights Tour on the city bus. Before the tour left, we had time to see a few things in the Stockyards.

Isaac loved riding a pony in the Stockyards...as you can see, Emma did NOT!

Poor Emma! Dave held her and talked calmly with her the entire time. The horses only went around the circle twice, and she had stopped crying by the end of the second lap. :) She still wasn't smiling, but not crying was an improvement!

After the pony ride, Dave held Emma by one of the ponies and tried to see if she'd like to pet him. Hmmm...not quite! Maybe next time. :)

We boarded one of the 30 city busses for a Holiday Lights Tour! It was a little bit long--especially for Emma--but Isaac loved riding a bus. I also think he loved spending time with Uncle Mike and eating candy canes!

I snapped this picture of Isaac when Santa and Mrs. Claus came on the bus. He stared at them the whole time!

our family and Michael....we love having him in Texas! :)

Curious George

Our sweet friends have a membership to the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History. They let us buddy up with them last week at the museum to see Curious George! Isaac was so excited when I told him that he'd get to see Curious George. He asked if he'd be "real" (as in a real monkey) and also wondered if he'd get to meet the Man with the Yellow Hat. :)

The Curious George exhibit runs through early January and is fantastic! We stayed in just this exhibit for over two hours. There was a grocery store modeled after one in a Curious George book where kids could weigh and sort produce and then "pay" for groceries at the cash register. (Isaac had a ball playing cashier and counting out money.) There was a small farm area, a building area, and a mini-golf area...Isaac, Emma, and their friends all had so much fun! Unfortunately, my camera battery died right after we met Curious George, but here are the shots I took of our morning.

Emma opened and closed the firehouse doors for a long time.

The museum had Curious George puppets on display at each craft table. Emma found two and had a hard time letting them go. :) She finally dropped one when she realized it was impossible to play in the exhibit with a monkey in each hand, but this other one was in her hand for over an hour.

And, we got to meet Curious George. Emma was desperately trying to get out of my arms and run, and Isaac started acting very shy. :)

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Winter Was Here!

Icepocalypse! Icemageddon!

Icepocalypse and Icemageddon were a few words floating around North Texas last week as we had a huge ice storm. Our storm started last Thursday; it's now nine days later, and we still have a few patches of snow. (Snow rarely stays around that long around here!)

The storm was starting on Thursday. Thankfully, I had just been grocery shopping on Wednesday night; there were many reports saying our grocery stores were out of bread, milk, and eggs until earlier this week. We spent Thursday evening huddled around our TV with hot chocolate while we watched the live "Sound of Music" on NBC. (I know there are a lot of opinions about this version of "Sound of Music"--but it was a hit at our house. We even let Isaac stay up until the very end.)

Hot chocolate, The Sound of Music, & jammies...also, notice Emma's necklaces? One of her favorite new things to do is find my necklace tree and pull as many off as she can. :)
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here are a few other pictures from our "snowed-in" days

On Friday morning, we all went outside and tried sledding around our backyard. It was still very windy and icing, so I took Emma in after ten minutes. She stood by the back door and cried, "more outside! Outside please!" over and over.

We read a lot of Christmas books by the fire.

Isaac and Emma received one of their Christmas presents early--another Jingle book! Emma wasn't too eager to let go of Jingle the Dog. She loves when he barks and howls in response to the Jingle book.

A family from church gave us a set of Tinker Toys that Isaac especially loves.

We really weren't homebound for the entire storm. We looked at houses with our realtor on Saturday, which ended up being quite an adventure. We got stuck several times and even had to get pulled out once. :) When we arrived home late that afternoon, our driveway was glare ice. Dave and Isaac chipped away at it for almost an hour before Dave could pull up into the driveway!

On Sunday morning, we watched a live feed of our service at Keystone!

We also ventured out on Sunday afternoon to my parent's house. Their snow was "stickier" than our snow, so Isaac was finally able to build a snowman. He told me, "Mommy, this is not a snowman--this is a Snow Isaac!"

Since Dave was heading back to work on Monday morning, we knew our little snow-cation was winding down last Sunday night. After we put Emma to bed, we let Isaac stay up that evening a little bit later for hot chocolate and our new favorite game to play with Isaac, "Spot It!" Isaac also received his 2013 Christmas ornament--a crab since we had so much fun crabbing at the beach this past summer.

Our forecast is set for 60s later this week, but we definitely enjoyed our wintry weather while it lasted!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

"It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas"

Since we are moving after New Year's, we decided not to decorate our house for Christmas very much. But, I couldn't bear not to decorate at all. I convinced Dave that--since the tree was going to have to come out of the attic anyway--we might as well take it out of its box on its way down. :) My husband was a sweetheart and happily decorated our miniature tree last night.

As a surprise, we bought Isaac footed reindeer pajamas to match a pair Emma already had from a friend. You would have thought he had received a new bicycle or swing set--he was ECSTATIC! He hugged them to himself and said, "Beautiful!" when we surprised him with them.

matching Christmas jammies--hands up in the air to show off their reindeers :)

Isaac started putting ornaments up right away. Emma was mostly happy to just watch! She did stare at the tree and giggle a lot, too! There is nothing like Christmas through the eyes of a child.

After we decorated the tree and put the star on top, I tried to convince Isaac that we should weave ribbon through the branches. He was sure it was perfect just the way it was. :) Dave and Isaac turned out all the lights in the house and on the count of 3 we turned on the star! This is a tradition from Dave's childhood, and it's so fun!

After we lit the star, we sang "Away in the Manger." We took a few more pictures and then ate cookies Isaac and Emma had helped me bake earlier in the day and read "Jesus, My Christmas Tree, and Me."

Even after Emma went to bed, Isaac was still rehanging ornaments and admiring our tree. :) This was a good reminder to me that Christmas is not about my decorations or Pinterest projects. I may not have all my decorations up like I usually love to do, and our little tree will soon be alone in a room full of moving boxes. But, the real reason for Christmas is still fully present in our home: Jesus was born so that we can have true life!

Thanksgiving 2013

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever."

Psalm 107:1

Isaac memorized this Scripture verse before Thanksgiving and has been singing it over (and over) to a little repeating tune. :)

We loved having time with family over Thanksgiving to give thanks to the Lord.

It was an extra-special Thanksgiving because my sister and her husband came from Chicago.

We all loved having lots of time with Emily & Caleb!

Every time I asked Isaac what he was thankful for, he'd always say "I'm thankful for the pies you're going to make." This is the first holiday season where our family has been dye-free. I wasn't about to stop making the Rinn 7-layer jello, so I found dye-free fruit gelatin online and tried it in the recipe. It tasted as good as regular Jello, but was more liquidy. Apparently Isaac wasn't disappointed, though, because when I asked Isaac if it was as good as ever he said, "It's better than ever, Mom."

"Better than ever, Mom!" -- I love this boy!

My cousin Nate took over job of baking the turkey this year and did an AWESOME job! It was so good! (Nate, we'll sign you up for this job every year now!)

He even garnished it! :)

Isaac, Emma, and Great-Grandma Joan waiting for everyone to join us for dinner!

"I'm just waiting for my turkey!"

Isn't this the sweetest picture of my parents at Thanksgiving dinner?

This was also such a specialThanksgiving because my sweet friend, Shamron, joined our family for Thanksgiving Day! She loved on my kids with new toys & even played crazy board games with my family. :) After an intense game of "Settlers of Catan," it'll be amazing if she ever comes back again for a Bergstrom family Thanksgiving! :)

Isaac and Emma also loved playing with both Uncle Nate and Uncle Mike on Thanksgiving Day.

Isaac got Chutes & Ladders for his birthday. It's his favorite new game to ~~win~~ play. :)

Emma had fun playing Fisher Price Little People with Uncle Mike! These kids are LOVED by many!

One more cute picture from Thanksgiving...Isaac, Emma, and Grandma were all watching an old "Psalty" video that from our childhood VHS collection. It makes me laugh how Isaac and Emma are just FROZEN watching the show!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

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