Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head and M&Ms

That's what I won at our annual Life Group Christmas Party - I know you are jealous. Every year, we play Dirty Santa, but this year, we decided to bring things from around the house instead of buying gifts. The result? A lot of laughter. We chose to give the money we would have spent on gifts to an orphanage in Guatemala for diapers. How cool is that? I love my group!

The highlight of the game was, of course, the aforementioned basket from the Stone residence. Here's a better glimpse in case you missed it - notice the animal detail:

I re-gifted a lamp and a Christmas puzzle which provided minutes of enjoyment:

Garet was out of town for the festivities, so my date got to be none other than the man of the evening:

The group:

Some of my favorite people!

Edward came to my house!

Because of my "near deer" experience last night, I apparently missed my Twilight hero, Edward, on my very doorstep! He even had some "Christmas Poo" with him. As much as I wanted to keep him all for myself, I sadly bid him farewell tonight. I hope he makes someone very happy.

Background: As if our group didn't have enough fun with the tissue box, Heather & Israel brought this little gem to our Christmas Party. It is making its way to doorsteps near and far and getting a little more festive in the process. Can you believe Heather received this as a gift last year for Christmas?!?!

Oh, and Kara refused to go near it. Levi wanted to leave it lit up on the porch (sigh). It can't be any worse than the fact I still have pumpkins on our porch!!

Quote & Event of the Day

First "the quote". Most days after school, Levi and 3 of his friends run around and around this ramp. Kara has started joining in and the kids are so cute with her. Today, Levi and his friends were huddled around her and patting her on the head like a little puppy. Then Levi said:

We don't have a doggie at our house because we have baby Kara

He was so serious when he said it - we cracked up.

Second "the event". On our way home from Wal-mart tonight, I almost hit a deer.....in my Cul-de-sac!!! Seriously. I turned the corner and this dear darted out in front of my car and ran into the backyard of my neighbor. We turned our lights on it and it ran around my neighbor's house and then stopped in the front yard. I tried to take a picture with my camera phone, but it was too dark. Am I supposed to call someone? Needless to say, I closed the garage door before I got out of the car - I am NOT a country girl.

Our Official Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas from the Fields! I'd like to say that I'm moving on with the times and posting our Christmas Letter here instead of doing a paper version, but truth be told, I don't have time to do it any other way! Hopefully our picture will make it out before the end of the year!

Kara turned 1 in October and brought with it all the joys of "toddlerhood" - walking, talking, climbing, falling down, breaking things, eating non-edible items, etc. She is Ms. Personality and is the source of much laughter and crying every day. I wrote about her in detail here, but we are thrilled to have her in our lives and look forward to see what she has up her sleeve next. She adores her big brother and it is a joy to see them play together.

Levi turned 3 in October and has become quite the little man. He is very inquisitive and is constantly asking questions until he is satisfied with your answer. He loves school and is learning so much - he blows me away with something new everyday. Lightning McQueen has overtaken our house - Cars is by far Levi's favorite interest - I'd like to personally thank all the marketing people for putting McQueens face on EVERYTHING imaginable - it makes it very difficult to go to the store these days. I wrote about Levi for his birthday here.

Garet has become a traveling man these days with work - all to the usual places...Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico and California. We miss him while he's gone, but the one positive is that we get to go to some cool places because of his miles and points. He started leading our Life Group for Young Marrieds again this year and is also leading the 10th-12th grade guys small group. He's a kid at heart, so this has been a great thing for him (when he's in town). Garet allows himself two hobbies and this year they were biking (mountain and road) and slot cars. He has enjoyed riding his bike to work, but those busy roads scare me!

I am still enjoying the best of both worlds. Working part time as the Life Group Minister at our church and being a part time stay at home mom. It's been a good balance for me and I am thankful for the opportunity. I have WAY too many hobbies at the moment, but who's counting. Blogging has been a great way for me to easily get things on a page instead of scrapbooking and I seem to enjoy it more. I also research travel like crazy. I have 10 trips planned and ready to go - just need the time and money! Finally, I learned to sew a little this year and have been dabbling in that. If only there was more time!

Traveling is always one of my favorite things to do. We were lucky to visit our siblings early in the year - My brother & wife in Maryland and Garet's sister & family in Detroit. I turned the Big 3-0 in March and after a failed trip to NYC and the Caribbean, we packed our bags and went for a family vacation in San Antonio - such a cool city! Sea World was a hit and hanging out with the Gibsons was a special treat! We also made the trek to the Hurter farm in July - a natural kids' playground!

In August, we had the first annual "Christy Family Vacation". We rented a house in the mountains of North Carolina and enjoyed a peaceful 3 days in Asheville, at the Biltmore and the Blue Ridge Parkway. A special time. Since the kids had never been to the beach, we headed over to Litchfield Beach, SC and had a much needed "Fields Family Four" vacation. Levi, especially, loved the ocean and we hope to make this a yearly occurrence. Garet and I enjoyed probably my favorite weekend of the year with our Life Group at the beach in Destin. We left the kids at home with grandparents and got 3 days to rejuvenate. We went in October this year and the weather could not have been more perfect!

Our moment of travel insanity might have happened in November when we packed up and headed to Oahu and Kauai, Hawaii with the kids. Nine hours in a plane wasn't so bad, but the time change was a little bit of a struggle. We spent two weeks out there while Garet was working and I posted way too much, so I'm just going to link you to the month of November. My heart is happy out there and I didn't miss the cold at all.

2008 was probably the toughest of our 8-year marriage (see video here).Garet lost his Granddaddy in June and having two children two and under forced some stressful periods of time. However, we are thankful to be out of the baby stage and looking forward to a (hopefully) less dramatic year in 2009.

As always, know that we love each and every one of you (at least those of you we know - although, I'll send some love out to you blog stalkers!). We are thankful for the times you have been a part of our life. Being a parent has made me realize just how precious life is and I don't want to ever take for granted the people God has given to us through family and friends. We are especially thankful for the gift that we received from God in the form of a baby so many years ago.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Love,
Alison, Garet, Levi & Kara

PS: Sorry for the link-o-rama. I realized that this could make for a very ADD type reading experience after I was done...

You know I went to see it...

...Twilight, that is. I've never been much of a movie person. In fact, over the past 5 years, I have probably only seen 5 movies in the movie theater. However, I couldn't miss this one! My friend, Mary, and I couldn't wait! Thankfully, she waited for me to get back from Hawaii so we could go together. I don't know who was more excited to see the movie, us:

or the 6 teenagers we brought along:I thought it was a great movie, IF you have read the books. Otherwise, I think you would have been completely lost - there was no character development at all within the actual movie. For those who have read the books, I thought the movie was the icing on the cake.

I decided why I think so many ladies adore these books. It is because every single one of us wants that guy who will do absolutely anything to keep us safe - no matter how hard that might be. Anyway, that was my thoughts. Anyone else see the movie? What did you think?

A Different Thanksgiving - Happy Birthday Garet!

For the second time in our marriage, Garet's birthday fell on Thanksgiving. In order to not have his birthday get "lost" in the festivities, I planned an overnight get-away for us. Wednesday Morning, I told him to pack his bags and his bike because we were going camping and we were dropping the kids off with his parents. My original plan was to take him down to Oak Mountain, but since he has been traveling so much, he decided he would rather go to Monte Sano (and because he knows all the trails there).

We had the BEST time on Wednesday Night...it felt just like we were married without kids again! We ate at Little Rosie's, did a little shopping and then headed up the mountain. We just sat and talked in front of the fire and made smores - it was great! I was really worried it would be too cold, but it turned out to be the perfect weather. The weather was SO perfect that I actually slept until 9 AM!! Who sleeps until 9 AM while camping?!?! I was thrilled to see a paper stand at the camp store and so I had to get my paper to plan my "Black Friday" shopping adventures:

The main reason for the camping trip was to allow Garet to mountain bike on his birthday. He actually opted to take his road bike (with bigger tires for those of you questioning his bike choice) so he could try out his new handle bars:

Garet has always wanted me to go mountain biking with him, so here was the opportunity. I didn't give up, but I did hit my fair share of trees...I even had a pedal casualty. I mean, seriously, 2 feet is just not a wide enough opening to bike through! It was fun, but I don't think he is holding his breath for my next attempt.

When we went back to pick up the kids, Garet's mom had a little turkey and dressing waiting. We, of course, ate a chocolate pie as well for Garet's birthday. The kids are getting really good at blowing out candles.

I have to say that this is one of the most nontraditional Thanksgiving's that I have ever had and it was probably my favorite! I am thankful for so many things in my life, but I am so thankful that I just got a day to rest with my best friend this year.

lu Garet - Happy Birthday!

The Long Trip Home & Kara in California?

We were not looking forward to the trip home. Over the course of 22 hours, we would be riding in 4 airplanes with two small children. Here we are walking through the Honolulu airport about 3 hours into our journey home. Levi LOVED his Cars backpack (thanks Duncan Family!) Before we left the islands, I had Levi show and tell you what he learned in Hawaii. You will hear "Aloha" a couple of times and see the "Shaka" (the Hang Loose symbol).

Here we are hanging out at LAX for our 3.5 hour layover in the middle of the night. The kids were wide awake and running all over the place. Garet & Levi in their matching shirts doing the "shaka":

So, here is my picture of Kara IN California. Garet and I have a disagreement regarding this though. I say that Kara can check CA off her list of states - she was on California ground for over 3 hours, ate there, played there, etc. Garet disagrees - he says airports don't count. Since we have lots of family in California, we should be out there again soon, but what if this was Iowa or something. Do you think we should count it or not?

We were a little delirious at this point. Just over 13 hours into the trip and I was getting tired!

The trip home went pretty good. I liked having two shorter flights instead of one long flight for the kids sake even though it took longer. It gave them a chance to run-around half way. The only problem we had was really bad turbulence for the first hour and a half out of Honolulu. Our plane kept fish tailing and that makes me SO sick. Needless to say, I had the "barf bag" open the rest of the way home which meant I did not sleep. Garet even gave me his first class upgrade from LAX-ATL - what a sweetie - but, I still couldn't fall asleep! I went 26 hours without sleep which is the longest I've ever gone and I don't recommend to anyone!

We are now home and very thankful for the opportunity we were given. There were moments that were hard (Kara's vaccination reaction, having the kids by myself without a car while Garet worked, the rain, adjusting to a different time zone, etc), but overall the trip was fun. However, Garet and I are not ready to take the kids far away anytime soon! Aloha!

Last Night in Hawaii

We stopped by Spouting Horn to see the big blow hole and to watch the sunset. It was too cloudy to see a sunset, but Spouting Horn did not disappoint. We didn't get a great picture of it, but that's OK.

We then went over to Smith's Tropical Luau with the Creamers. It was POURING down rain and so I didn't get hardly any pictures while we were there. The performers were out in the rain and I don't know how they did it! The kids really enjoyed dancing during the dining entertainment.