Wii Elbow
I’ve got a serious case of Wii elbow…and Wii shoulder.
I think it might need medical attention 
This year we opted for one "family gift" and purchased a Wii. Noah’s been bugging us for one since they came out but since we just bought the Gamecube like a year ago I thought that was pretty silly. Well you know, boys and their toys. Dad thought it would be great fun and something we could all play together. So we decided on the family gift. I figure you divide $250 by 4 gifts (2 kids, ours to each other) and that was pretty good.
So we’ve been having a blast. It was the hit of Christmas Day with the Aunts and Uncles and even grandparents getting in on some of the bowling action. The last two nights Mark and I have stayed up past 10 playing. He’s boxing as we speak.
We figure it’ll make a good "at home date night" so we can save up for the adoption
Could It Be?
It’s 9:24 on Christmas Eve.
The kids are asleep.
The gifts are all wrapped.
The stockings are stuffed.
Could it be?
It’s time for me to head to bed.
I don’t think I’ve been to bed this early on Christmas Eve since I had kids.
Oh My, The Cookies
Working at the church office definitely has it perks, but no one told me what it was like at holiday time! It’s like a revolving door of cookie trays! And they are awesome. Brenda brought in a tray that must have had, and I am NOT exaggerating, like 40 different kinds of cookies. The were so delicious. Mark and I probably ate about 4 each before we went back to his office and realized she had brought us our own goodie tray. We promptly hid that and took it home The kids favorite thing was the Nutter Butter Santa & Snowman.
It’s a good thing I’m not going in the office much in the next two weeks!
Our Big Announcement
The Gumm family will be getting two new additions this year as we will be adopting!
Over the last year, God has really laid a burden on both of our hearts to care for widows and orphans as we are called to do in scripture. There are many ways this can be done – financial, missions trips, etc. and we
are looking at all the ways in which we can be a blessing to this special group of people. But one way we know that we can get involved is to open our homes and our hearts.
We are applying to adopt an older sibling group (between the ages of 5-8) from Ethiopia, Africa. We have just begun the arduous paperwork process and it will most likely be 9 months or so before we bring our new family members
home. The kids are super excited and pray daily that “God will help us find the right kids to adopt”.
I set up a separate adoption blog – www.fourplusmore.com that will focus on our adoption journey and finding ways to minister to the widows and orphans.
How Noah’s Paying for College
Who knew that I could turn Noah’s K’nex obsession into a college savings account. Let’s start building!
Kid wins $10k for K’NEX rollercoaster
“I Can Fly”
I really didn’t have much of a chance to post about our cruise before we got slammed with holiday stuff.
We had a great time and it changed my "I’ll never cruise again" mentality that I had after our first cruise. This 8 day cruise on Norwegian was night and day different from our 3 day Carnival Cruise.
However, my favorite thing about the whole trip was our Canopy Tour with Los Veranos Canopy Tours.
"This is Mexico’s most popular canopy tour,
stretching over 2 miles with 14 zip lines, including a thrilling last run where a double line allows you to race each other! In this lush, tropical location, you will glide effortlessly at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, at a whopping 500 feet above the
beautiful Orquidias River."
We actually booked the tour independently (instead of a ship shore excursion) and saved $80 which was awesome. What was NOT awesome was us realizing after we got off the ship that someone had told us the wrong time difference and we were late for our tour. After a expensive but quick taxi ride we arrived at the tour company office. The graciously put us on the next tour which would still get us back to the ship in time. It actually worked out great because about 8 more people showed up from our ship so that was fun.
After a 40 minute bus ride into the jungle the tour guides outfitted you with harnesses and gave you all your instructions, cracking jokes the entire time. The whole guide team had so much enthusiasm. You could tell they loved their jobs and they made the entire experience tons of fun.
A couple people have asked me if it was scary and I said "No way." Of course I don’t have height problems and ever since watching Amazing Race 1 I’ve been wanting to do a zip line course. They start you out on some really short lines that aren’t very steep to build your confidence. Finally, toward the end you get to cross the canyon 3 different times, riding over the river. It was amazing to feel the rush of the wind. Once I even got to ride tandem with a guide which meant I got to ride hands-free and just flap my arms.
I love going on vacation with Mark. We try really hard to get away, just the two of us, at least once a year. A lot of times it’s just driving to San Diego for 3 days, but it’s still a great time for us to relax and have fun as a couple.
Our Version of Snow
It may seem weird, even anti-Christmas, but this is our version of snow in December.
Yes, it comes from a truck
Saturday we braved the wet and rainy weather to participate in Verrado’s Christmas Pancake Breakfast festivities at the invitation of Greg and his family. Fortunately they had put tents up so we were able to stay dry while we ate.
Santa made a visit but Noah (8) is apparently too old for that stuff now and so Natalie, who is quite conflicted about whether or not she believes in Santa, was the only one to visit with the jolly fellow. It was actually quite cute.
Then they got busy in the snow. I’m glad we brought their big coats and gloves. There were tons of kids w/o gloves and they didn’t last long.
The kids had a blast pelting each other with snowballs. My mind was churning with ideas for a Christmas card picture so I told each of the kids to make a snowball and then stand next to each other.
"When I count to 3, throw the snowballs toward me," I naively said.
I made it to 2 before they got me I should have known better.
