The Hazard Chronicles

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote here, but we've been having a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. First of all, I have a small complaint though- we have no snow! The weather feels like Spring! Yesterday (and I'll talk more about this later) Rachel and Evelyn stood outside for a full two hours with nothing but jeans and light jackets. If you can't tell, I'm sort of bummed about this, because this is really the first year we are going to have Christmas alone as a family, and one thing I remember doing on Christmas that I wanted to continue as a family was going sledding. We have these marvelous sledding hills at the golf course just two blocks away, and yet there are still people out there every day driving balls down the range because it is still rare for us to even get a frost.

Rant over.

Last weekend we had a great time exploring downtown Spokane. They were doing a Dr. Seuss Christmas thing, with a small parade and free hot chocolate and lots of performances and stuff. It sounded fun, so we took the kids and made an evening out of it. After we were done doing all that, we walked around the large downtown mall and took in the festival of trees they had going on there. At the end, the older kids and I decided we would take the stairs to the roof where we were parked and try to beat Mom and the "Littles" who were taking the elevator. Well, unbeknownst to us there were no stairs leading to the roof (at least not that we could find), but we did find ourselves in all sorts of places that we probably shouldn't have been. The kids especially liked when we ended up behind all the restaurants at the food court. Eventually we ended up going into a door that led to a stairway only to find that we were locked in. None of the doors would open to let us out. We walked up 7 or 8 flights of stairs without finding a way out, and then descended all the way to the basement were we finally located an opening into a dark ally with lots of trash strewn about and steam coming up from the streets. It looked like a place from a dark movie, and the kids got a little scared. Finally, about 30 minutes after Mom had been waiting for us, we made it to the car (via the elevator) and drove home. The reason I write about it is because the kids are still talking about this adventure today. Good times.

We always need to get a picture inside the giant shoe

At the downtown Dr. Seuss Festival

Rachel has been getting into the Christmas spirit a little more than me this year as she has been volunteering her time and doing a lot of fun things to help those in need (maybe it's just that she has more time than I do). For the last two weeks, her and Evelyn have gone together to ring the Salvation Army bell in front of local Wal-Marts. It sounds like this has been fun for everyone, and Evelyn talks about singing, dancing, and having competitions to see who could make the most people smile. As I mentioned above, the weather has been really nice for this and I am glad they got to do that. Also, through some friends at church we were able to find out about a neat program that is going on to buy clothes for kids who come from impoverished homes in our area (even as I write that I feel a little bit paternalistic, but I don't really know how else to say it- these families are poor and need all the help they can get.) With this program, Rachel gets to go to either the mall or Fred Meyer, is teamed up with a kid who is in the program (middle school age), and then goes on a shopping spree with this kid for a couple of hours and effectively outfits them for the rest of the year with the budget she has. It sounds really neat, and I wish that I could have been a part of it. After hearing about it, I'm not sure who got more out of it, the volunteers or the kids.

Also, I have to admit here that at first this whole concept sort of bothered me. I mean, for what they were spending on each kid, they could have helped 10 others if they had lowered their standards a little bit to thrift stores, or even wal-mart quality items. This is a betrayal of how my pragmatic mind works, and I suppose that on one level I was right. But then I started thinking about it, and I realized how much this must mean to people who hardly ever got to have nice things. Is is a luxury? Sure. But I think that it really mattered to those kids and their families in a way that transcended the utilitarian goal of keeping people fed and clothed- instead of just keeping them warm, it was able to help them smile as well and enjoy a side of life that they rarely see. Perhaps this provided some hope or joy or "warmth" that a mere blanket or food drive could never achieve. Those other things happen, and we participate in them too, but it sounded really neat to be able to touch someone on the individual level and really make things special for them.

Okay. Back to our week. Sorry- my mind tends to wander sometimes.

Rachel. Besides just watching the kids and holding down a job and serving at church and keeping our house clean and making meals for us and donating time and resources to others and indulging me in endless circular conversations, she also somehow finds time for a social life. This week she hosted a "Pinterest party" (whatever that is) at our home where she got together with all her lady friends and painted glasses (like the kind you drink out of) while enjoying fancy foods and engaging conversation. I took the kids to the Kroc center during most of it, and then they were EXCELLENT children who, when we got home, went right to bed without making hardly any sounds. Rachel told me later how everyone commented on how good they were. Mission accomplished! (What they didn't know was that there was a long talk in the car and a few bribes going on behind the scenes to make this happen). 

 Well- it's Monday morning and I need to get ready for work so I'm going to wrap this up. I usually don't work on Mondays, but I am this week due to the holidays. Besides the stuff mentioned, we have been having a great time getting ready for Christmas. Widget (our elf on the shelf) has returned and the kids like finding him every morning. Last night we drove around and looked at light displays at the resort and as some of the more lavish homes in our area. We've been baking a lot of goodies to bring to friends (and to eat), and are basically just doing the whole Christmas season. It's been a fun time of year.

Happy Holidays!

Here's a few extra pictures...just for fun.

Me and My Maren

Jack did his own hair. Can you tell?

Just a few pictures of Lindsey. She doesn't do much besides lay there. She spits bubbles a lot too. Also, she can now roll over and kind-of-sort-of sit up. Life must be exciting when you're an infant.

Family relay races