merry christmas eve!

Elsie got a trial run of her christmas outfit this morning so I could take a few pictures when the sun is up. I had to make a photo collage because she is a moving target and a tricky one to capture.  (I just went through the last five years of Christmas blogging and found this sweet video of my kids from last year. Look at how this little girl has grown in one year!)

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope and pray the enormity of this holy day moves our hearts once again. God came to rescue each one of us, to rescue us from this fallen world, our sinful self, to bring us hope, new life, peace that passes understanding, forgiveness and life never-ending through this tiny little baby Jesus. May that good news sink deep into each of our souls.

The Christmas City Express

A week ago Ivar was eating lunch at the kitchen table and sadly lamented, "I miss my choo choo trains." I asked to clarify, "You mean the ones up in your room?" "Yes. I miss them. I want to play with them." I assured him he could go and play with them after lunch.

But it got me thinking. This boy is crazy about trains right now. I sat eating my lunch, watching him miss his trains and thought I've got to get this kid on a train. And then I realized there probably are some Christmas train rides this time of year.

I found The Christmas City Express up in Duluth, emailed Rory out in his office with the last minute idea and called my folks to see if they would watch Elsie for the 24 hours we would be gone. It was a go.

So Friday afternoon the three of us drove up to Duluth for 24 hours of Christmas magic. Ivar was so excited when the train pulled up at Fitgers Depot. He held his ticket and gave it to the conductor proudly. The train ride was fifteen minutes and drove so we could see Bentleyville, a huge and awesome light display in Duluth. When the train stopped we were at the Duluth Depot, also known as Christmas City.

Inside there were model railroads and play railroads. We stayed in that room and played for a while until a bell rang and the doors opened into the next room housing all the huge trains. When we walked in there was a girl singing Christmas carols with her keyboard. And all the trains had wreaths on them.

We were led to a carpeted area where a fantastically animated woman greeted us. We sang Jingle Bells with the girl who had now left her keyboard and picked up her guitar. And then the woman who greeted us started telling us the story of The Christmas City Express, a story that she herself wrote. She was awesome. I'm assuming some sort of Elementary Ed major with a theater background. She knew her audience.

The story was about a train that she once rode when she was a little girl, going to see family for Christmas. The train got stuck in the snow while deep in the woods and everyone was so sad that they would miss Christmas. So the conductor went out into the woods and brought back a beautiful spruce tree to set up in the train. The little girl took the bow off of the package she held on her lap, and placed it on the tree. And then everyone else took the ribbons and bows off their gifts and decorated the tree too. The other passengers on the train began singing Christmas carols and then they heard jingle bells out in the snow.

And this point, we all heard jingle bells coming from inside the train behind the screen. The kids started yelling, "It's Santa! It's Santa!" And sure enough, just like in the story, Santa appeared.

Oh my word. Christmas joy filled my heart! I was as excited as the kids.

After the story we got a snowflake ornament, just like the one Santa had given to the little girl in the book before the train started back up and the people in the story returned to the Duluth Depot. And then we got to meet Santa.

Ivar had practiced many times in the car. We would say, "And Santa will say, 'and what do you want for Christmas, little boy?" And Ivar knew his answer, "A choo choo train!!!" I got a little video of their sweet farewell.


santa and ivar from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

After we met Santa the bell rang and it was time to get back on the train, back to Fitgers Station. It was a fifteen minute ride, and when we returned they had hot chocolate, cookies and a huge bon fire waiting for us. The program director in me was in awe. They hit  this whole experience out. of. the. park.

Then we drove to the lift bridge and had supper at Grandma's. But not Grandma Margaret's, Ivar would have you know. A restaurant named Grandma's was just about as confusing as it gets.

It was an awesome 24 hours. We stayed at the Best Western in Superior, Wisconsin, where the rooms were about fifty dollars cheaper than any hotel in Duluth, and it is just over the bridge. We watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Ivar got a real kick out of Guy's name. A guy named Guy. Now that is silly.

In the morning we had breakfast and swam in the pool before we went back to Canal Park to get hot drinks at Caribou. We were home by 1:30 to get Elsie and were so glad to see her, and so glad we had left her for special time with Grandma and Grandpa. She would have loved the train ride, but the drive back and forth and overnight in a pack and play would have been hairy. It just made our quick trip so much smoother. And fun to focus solely on Ivar.

I can't say enough good things about this experience. Look it up next year: The Christmas City Express. Super sweet, a super fun memory and hopefully a new tradition for our family.

lately at the grovestead

It's cold here. The cats hang out under their heat lamp like the spoiled sort-of-farm-cats-sort-of-pets that they are. Elsie can be found hanging out with them every chance she gets. Which makes getting her into her car seat a bear...why would you ever want to get in a cold car when you can hang out with warm cats?

Ivar used his dump truck to haul dirty ice chunks that he found in the garage that had fallen off the cars. He took that load up and down the driveway on Monday morning when we were getting some new snow.

The chickens don't get out much anymore. We force them out for fresh air when we can, but most of the time they huddle together in their down comforter feathers.

Ivar LOVES making sugar cookies. And really, who doesn't. I can't help myself with that dough and ended up with a tummy ache. It's a crappy feeling when, as an adult, you give yourself a tummy ache by eating too much cookie dough. It's like a double insult: I feel gross and I should know better.

When I returned from putting Elsie to bed I found a few additions had been made to the counter. Ivar played with the dough until it was his bedtime, and then that cookie dough was thrown away.

Since Thanksgiving Rory has been determined to make a turkey. He thawed it for days, soaked it in a brine overnight and people, I usually do not like turkey, but I loved that bird. Something about that brine. I made stuffing, Rory roasted some vegetables, we opened a can of cranberries and we ate like kings on a low-key Sunday night.

The turkey that changed my thoughts on turkey.

Ivar has gotten creative in keeping Elsie away. Here he made a barricade and played happily with his train while she watched from the outside. And you know, I found it to be very smart. Some days I encourage sharing and togetherness, but other days I see a sibling barricade as a wise idea that leads to peace.

But honestly, who wouldn't want to play with this girl?!!

all in a good day's work...

Rory has gone to work in his office-in-the-woods every day this cold winter. His little wood burning stove has been working great.

Which means each morning we watch Daddy walk to work, across the snow, with his hot coffee in one hand and five gallon bucket of wood in the other, laptop strapped around his shoulders. We know the day is especially cold when he comes in at lunch and cuts more wood with the circular saw.

family bloopers

Oh man. We got a CD in the mail today full of glorious family pictures taken on our farm. We have hundreds to pick from and they are awesome. Jaime Rau came and worked her magic with our family and she. is. magic. I can't wait to share more pictures here...from Ivar pulling a wagon of pumpkins, to colorful quilts under big oak trees. They're awesome.

But with hundreds of stunning pictures to choose from, my favorite pictures, the ones I keep returning to, are the pictures Jaime put in a file of bloopers. Because they feel the most true to our life. We live bloopers every day. Some of us try really hard each day to keep up appearances, but not everyone is cooperative. Though dressed adorably, they've got their finger up their nose.

But this is our every day. A mom moves about each day trying to make sure life runs smoothly because this is our job. But life doesn't run smoothly because kids by their very definition ensure life stops running smoothly. A fact that makes these blooper pictures feel so strangely affirming. I love them. I love the picture perfect ones too, but I really love the bloopers.

An awesome shift has happened in me over the past two months. It's a shift I've been praying would happen for a very long time. I couldn't force it. I wasn't able to bring the change in myself. And I don't know how to describe it much more than I feel like I'm back. Something changed so that I've started dreaming up projects again and things I want to accomplish. And then I've been getting things done. It's like I have room to be creative again and have my imagination back.

I have found a sincere joy for the season of motherhood I am smack in the middle of. It was really hard there for a while. There still are really hard moments. But my kids are good company. I love being with them. I'm better at getting away so I can come back home. I am not as resentful toward the daily tasks, and even more importantly, I am way more graceful in the way I treat myself and how I am measuring up to my intense personal expectations. I'm trying to measure my life less on how my life looks, and more on how my life feels. And my life is feeling fun.

These bloopers mean so much to me because these are the true pictures of our imperfect, multiple-chins, beautiful life.

(And just to keep it totally real, just a few minutes after this picture of me and Elsie was taken, she started throwing up with a violent case of the 12 hour stomach flu that then morphed into Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Which would explain her not-super-smiley mood during the photo shoot. Now that's real life.)