You probably have already noticed how young the girls look in our Christmas photo this year. We had decided over a year ago, that when Kathy’s mom passed away, we would honor her on our Christmas card, since Christmas was her favorite holiday, and many celebrations were spent with our family prior to her stroke in 2005. Doris Mullen went home to be with her Savior on July 21. She got to see all of Kathy and Cindy’s families before her final breath. Amy and Wendy were at her side when she left us. We are all blessed to have been able to call her Mom or Grandma. She left an indelible mark on all of us, for which we will always be grateful. We are even more blessed to know that we will see her again in eternity.
Every year, we love to create clever themed Christmas cards to send to our friends and family. Each year has been a bit of a challenge to create, but this year's card posed some unique problems. Namely, the theme was of the four Mack girls posing in a gingerbread house in a winter wonderland. The problem? We now live in Santa Clarita where it doesn't snow...ever.
Since giant gingerbread houses are in short supply at this time of year, we built our own out of wood and thick cardboard. We designed special candies for the front of the house out of tissue paper and colored cling wrap and spray painted the house to look more authentic. On a bright, windy day, the four of us carried the house into the backyard and posed in front of our palm tree (not very Christmassy, right?)
This past Christmas, The Fellowship of the Ring had the incredible privilege of performing in The Master's College 2011 Come Christmas Sing. Our quartet, which consisted of Lindsay Christoph, Wendy Mack, Amy Mack, and Morgan Ruthardt performed both outside as the audience was standing in line waiting to enter and inside during the concert. The theme of this year's concert was the 1920's, so during the prelude our quartet dressed in fur coats and top hats and stood in front of the building. We performed numerous four-in-hand pieces that Amy arranged for our group.
As part of a class project, Morgan Ruthardt and I edited a handbell piece arranged by Paul Ellsworth. We auditioned the piece and were accepted into the concert. We had a wonderful time being a part of Come Christmas Sing in this way and we are looking forward to hopefully doing it again in the future.
This Christmas was full of music for Wendy and I as we performed with seven different groups over the holiday season. All but one of the groups were in handbells - the most handbells groups we have ever been in at one time. Through The Master's College handbell groups, we had the privilege of playing in the annual Come Christmas Sing concerts - a week long concert series put on by the college and featuring a wide variety of music and instruments. We were also able to expand our musical abilities under the direction of Professor Claire Blackwell and enjoyed playing songs such as, "Angels We Have Heard on High", "The First Noel", "Joy to the World", and even a funky version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".
This past semester, our handbell trio The Fellowship of the Ring had the opportunity to perform in the prelude of The Master's College annual Come Christmas Sing Christmas Concerts. We performed Wendy's and my arrangement of "What Child is This".
This particular song really stretched the three of us as we had to come up with creative ways to cover as many bells as possible while still making the piece look easy and sound good to the audience. The song included everything from the very lowest bells (weighing nearly sixteen pounds apiece!) to some of the highest and each of us covered over an octave of bells.
Through this semester we have been able to expand our repertoire as well as enjoy practicing challenging pieces together. This next semester we are looking forward to playing a Lord of the Rings medley (since our group is named after it) and to pulling off another fun song!
Why is there no Christmas store at Disneyland anymore? It was charming when it was in the castle, but bigger and better stocked when moved to New Orleans Square, it kind of got put back in Fantasyland, although it never seemed to be open when I was at the Park. Other than a few odds and ends at World of Disney - there is nothing!!! It can't be for lack of sales - I had to fight crowds and stand in line every time I shopped there. Let's bring back the Christmas shop - what could be better than a combination of Christmas and Disney?
Tonight, my three sisters and I sang at our local church for their annual Candlelight Christmas Eve Service. The song we chose to sing was "A Carol for Today". The song recounts the story of Christmas and asks us this challenging question: "Can we like the shepherds and angels say... Glory to God on high"? Christmas is not about Santa, presents, decorations, or even about visiting one's family. It's about God's incredible love for us. Love so strong that He was willing to come to earth as a baby to pay for our sins through his death and resurrection. So we on this night - as we should every night - praise God and say "Glory to God on High!"
Have you ever wondered how Santa maintains perspective and control over everything that has his attention? I mean, with all of the letters, a toy shop to supervise, flight plans and air travel restrictions to deal with ... and the weather! It's enough to drive any normal person crazy.
I always thought Santa must have a secret to staying productive. Apparently, he does.
The Mack family department of homeland
security is pleased to report that it now has photographic evidence of
Santa's visit on Christmas Eve. The Mack children are ecstatic to
have photos of Santa, captured during his brief visit to deliver presents.
A total of five of internet-enabled webcams
were set up in the living room and automatic capture software was used
to record images at brief intervals. Web visitors were able to select
any of the 5 cameras and view them from their web browser. This morning,
after a review of many of the thousands of images captured last night,
Investigators Amy & Wendy Mack (age 11) shared the photos with their
sisters.
Amy and Wendy have tried on two previous
occasions to capture pictures of Santa. On their first attempt to capture
Santa, several years ago, Santa was captured briefly on tape as he munched
on cookies and milk and unloaded presents near the tree. On their second
attempt, no images were captured, as the camera mysteriously tipped over
sometime before Santa's arrival.
"This is the most successful capture
of images ever," said Amy Mack. "It's just great!"
says Kelly Marie, Age 4. Emily Danielle, age 6, when asked what she
thought of Santa, reported "He's nice."
Greetings! 2003 has been a very busy year, with ups and downs, but
always full of lots of love.
We are grateful for all of the blessings God has given us. Here are some
highlights to share with you.
Please enjoy our web site.
Grace to You!
Eric, Kathy, Wendy, Amy, Emily & Kelly
We have truly been blessed by the opportunities that we have been given
this year; we have had a full plate almost every week in school and at
home and Eric and Kathy have been very involved with the girls in their
activities.
This year, we actually managed to get our house decorated for the holidays
before Thanksgiving! The girls have all enjoyed helping to decorate
and enjoy the festivities.
Our Christmas Musical
Our homeschool drama group presented its musical this month. Kathy
ran the sound system and Eric recorded the event on video. In the
play, Wendy played a reporter, Amy a palace servant to King Herod, Emily
was Mary and Kelly was a little angel. (She still runs around the
house singing "Angels We Have Heard on High" every day!) The
production went very well and we are grateful to have had the opportunity
to be involved.
Mommy mans the sound booth
As we shared at the beginning of this letter, this year has been a challenge
financially as Eric's business has been severely affected by the post 9/11
economy. While it has been stressful and even nerve racking at times,
God has been faithful to provide for us and to help us keep our roof over
our heads, and the bills paid; but it has been very difficult. We
are grateful for the key clients that Eric still serves on a regular basis.
While Eric receives many client referrals; fewer businesses are able to
make the investment in his services at this time. We hope that next year,
we will see a recovery in the economy and in business in general.
The details we have shared above tell of some of the highlights of our
activities and events this year, but not of the truly important things
that we have experienced. We have felt God's presence in our lives
so very strongly. He has helped us build a strong marriage over
the years; one that could truly be celebrated and enjoyed this past year.
He has given us good health - most of Eric's health problems from
past years have been absent this year. God has given us a family
that loves each other deeply, enjoys encouraging each other, and truly
relishes being together.
Our faith has been challenged and we have grown a lot this year as we learn
to rely on God, rather than ourselves.
Christmas 2002
As we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year, we pray that you have the
peace of knowing our Lord. May your Christmas be a joyous blessing
of His love.
p.s. As I conclude this letter, it is 2:00 am, there is 4" of snow
on the ground, the gingerbread is almost ready to pull out of the oven,
and the kids will be awake in 5 1/2 hours. Tomorrow is another day.
Since I not employed outside of the home, many have asked "what does
a homeschool mom do with all of her free time?"
Amy and Wendy took communion for the first
time this month. What a joy, as a parent, to participate in such
a holy event with our daughters.
Many of you may remember, about 6 years ago, our Christmas card picture
showed Amy as an angel, Wendy as Mary, and cousin Steven as Joseph, in
a manger setting. We were honored this year when our friend, Pastor
Frank Riley, asked if they could use that picture in a local newspaper
ad to let the public know of their church's Christmas schedule. It
has been one of our favorite pictures. (You can see the original
in the "Christmas Card Section of our web site)
Away in a manger...
Our LEGO team had a busy month. They appeared on the front page of
our local newspaper, and participated in a scrimmage at CSUN. Kathy,
Emily, and Kelly attended, as well, to cheer the team on.
Our drama group gathered together to begin practicing for our annual Christmas
show. This year our director bravely chose a Christmas musical. Many
of us were quite surprised at the talent these young children have!
Wendy & Amy, serving at the Angel breakfast
Thanksgiving was spent with Eric's family. On Thanksgiving Day, we
gathered at our home, and the following day at Eric's sister's home. It
was great to see all of our family and extended family.
This afternoon, our family decided to put together a CD of some of our favorite Christmas Songs. There's even a surprise patriotic song from little Kelly Marie, age two. We asked her to sing "Away in a Manger" and she launched into the full version of "God Bless America."
With songbooks in hand we sat down around the table and recorded the songs for the CD. It's not very fancy - just songs from the heart. We had a lot of fun making the CD between takes, double takes, and outtakes.
Here's what we recorded on the CD:
Introduction (Eric) Joy To The World (Emily, Wendy, Amy) Away In A Manger (Kelly & Mommy) Away In A Manger (Kelly) I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Amy) Angels We Have Heard On High (Eric & Kathy) Jingle Bells (Kelly, Emily, Amy, Wendy) Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Amy, Wendy, Daddy) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Wendy, Amy, Daddy) Oh Come All Ye Faithful (Emily, Amy, Wendy) Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem (Wendy & Amy) The First Noel (Wendy & Amy) We Three Kings (Wendy, Amy, Daddy) Hark the Herald Angels Sing (Amy & Wendy) Silent Night Holy Night (Emily, Amy, Wendy) Twas The Night Before Christmas (Read by Wendy) Closing (The Mack Family & Lassie) God Bless America (Surprise song by Kelly Marie, Age 2)
Simply put, Christmas is the celebration
of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In our home, that is first and
foremost. But the Macks, who enjoy a bit of whimsy and tradition, clean
out the chimney every year and set out the cookies and egg nog to welcome
Santa. This Christmas, Amy and Wendy asked Daddy to take our webcam and
point it at our Christmas tree. We set the webcam to snap a picture every
five minutes from 8:00 pm on December 24th to 10:00 am on Christmas Day,
December 25th.
NEWS UPDATE: 02:08 AM, December
25, 1999: that spry old elf was caught in the act!
Our webcam, which we set up to catch Santa, has been taking pictures of
our living room and Christmas tree every five minutes throughout the night.
This morning, we logged in and found that we had captured Santa in two
of the many frames snapped during the night.
SantaCam 12/25/99 02:03:16 AM
SantaCam 12/25/99 02:08:34 AM
SantaCam 12/25/99 02:13:11 AM
SantaCam 12/25/99 02:18:33 AM
We love you Santa! Thank you for the presents, we hope to "see"
you next year!
Dear Mr. Iger, 
New Orleans Square, it kind of got put back in Fantasyland, although it never seemed to be open when I was at the Park. Other than a few odds and ends at World of Disney - there is nothing!!! It can't be for lack of sales - I had to fight crowds and stand in line every time I shopped there. Let's bring back the Christmas shop - what could be better than a combination of Christmas and Disney? 
