Merry Christmas!!

Alicia's apron i sewed her

The christmas dresses I made all the girl cousins
Here is a link to the pattern/blog that i got this dress from

All the skirts I made for the girls for christmas

Twirling

Hey all!! Well...I am sitting here, post easy bake oven testing (two cookies...took about an hour to cook after going around town searching for the correct light bulb...at least she had fun!) watching the USC/Boston game at my in laws sitting wishing I hadn't eaten so much...Thought it'd be a great time to update y'all

Christmas was awesome this year! It always is...but man...it was really an amazing few days. I have not been shopping really since August and it was such a overload of stuff! I wasn't so sure about going out by myself as gift giving is a HUGE love of mine, so Ry and I went together. That was so much fun! We also only went over budget by about $50...when usually it's more like $500! so...i'm sooo proud of us!!

We also tried to institute some new traditions of our own. We really wanted to figure out a way to bring home the idea/reality of Christ's birth and that we are celebrating his birth, not just opening presents. So, we took about 10% of what we allocated for christmas shopping money and went on www.worldvision.com and the kids got to choose two gifts to give to Jesus. Emily chose two baby chickens to give to a family and William chose two soccer balls to give away.

We spent Christmas Eve with The Lows and Christmas day with my family ending the day at the Lows. Here are some photos of our 24 hrs. I hope and pray you had such a wonderful time with family and friends. Love to you and yours!
The Lows

2009-a RAD christmas letter!!!

The Low’s: A RAD Christmas Letter

Hello everyone and welcome to our RAD Christmas letter!!!

Why do you call it RAD? Is it not a bit presumptuous to say your letter is RAD? Whose standards do you use to actually make an accurate reading as far as if this is really RAD or not? And by the way: Who uses the word RAD anymore?

These are great questions. Totally! Who uses the word RAD anymore? WE DO!!! We use it in the terms of RAD being short for the word “radical” which is defined by Webster’s dictionary as: marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional : extreme b : tending or disposed to make extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions.

So check it out: This letter is truly RAD because it talks about the ways we departed from the norm and, my hope, is that it departs from the norm of Christmas letters out there. Are we presumptuous? Maybe but then again, we do not normally consider ourselves as presumptuous so...We are ALREADY BEING RAD!!!! WooHOO!

Some RAD things that happened this year:

1) RAD Utah Trip: A couple of years ago, Aly and I were stupid enough to buy a timeshare. So we decided we would use it and go to Utah where one of our timeshare locations is. We took the kids (this was the first time we had been to Utah as a family how RAD is that?) and also went with my sister Nikki and her family. On our first day there, William got altitude sickness (He does not normally contract this sickness thus it is out of the norm, thus it is RAD), and threw up several times. He slept the entire night and then woke up as good as new. What did we do in Utah? We hiked to a secluded waterfall, we overlooked Cedar breaks national monument (Huge canyon with red clay rock formations, absolutely breathtaking). My nephew, bro-in-law and myself went fishing on a dingy in the middle of a lake in the mountains and totally owned it. I am not usually a good fishermen. I’m not even good enough to be a bad fisherman. But this day, I caught fish. This is out of the norm. We were so Stinking RAD that day!!! All in all, it was a RAD trip.

2) Alyssa RADically sticks it to the man!!! About six months ago, Alyssa decided she was going to stop shopping for a year. This has been a very challenging exercise for her but it has been so awesome! Have you ever sat down and thought about just what it is you spend money on and why you do? Over these last few years we have come face to face with our ability to spend impulsively (refer to line item #1), feeling so swayed by our desire for something (clothing for Alyssa, Del Taco red burritos for Ryan) that we begin misconstruing our wants for needs. To take a break from spending impulsively has been SO CHALLENGING. Man it’s digging stuff from the corners of our souls that are mostly covered in cobwebs. This has been such a RAD change.

3) RADical beginnings: Kids provide us with the great opportunity to experience “firsts” again in our lives. This year Emily began kindergarten. She is no longer a toddler. She graduated from toddler clothing. William, began preschool this year. He is such a little man! They both played in a soccer league at church. It was an indoor soccer league. It was mostly a frustrating experience. As a parent you want your children to just naturally walk out there and dominate everyone. I thought to myself: “My kids are athletic, they like to run and climb, they should be great!” Hmmmmmm.

On the first day of the soccer league I got a dose of reality that would last the entire duration of our season. Emily and William were on the same team. So in the middle of a basketball court surrounded by 5 foot high walls, is a group of children with team uniforms, shin guards and very little control. It was pretty close to chaos. Us parents were ordered to march our children out to the middle of the court and help them warm up. My daughter begins running around, with no particular intended direction seeming to become evident. My son is hugging my leg furiously with no particular intention of letting go seeming to become evident. The game begins, and just as quickly do my dreams of my children’s dominance end. My son has no interest in joining the swirling maelstrom of children chasing a soccer ball. I don’t blame him though, you see every child out there was older than him and to be honest William has not really grasped the art of running well. Certainly he can run, but his stride is not a straight forward gallop, but rather more like the illegitimate lovechild of skipping, and cross country skiing. While he performs what ballet dancers call a sauté (pronounced “so-Tay”) his hands awkwardly spin in wide circles at his sides rising and dipping. There is no purpose to his run, no immediacy, no mechanical efficiency and thus, no speed. And so with this in mind, we see a scared little boy holding feverishly to his father’s leg as twenty children dart around him in what can only be described as a mad tribal dance of chaos and pigtails. My daughter on the other hand, was running furiously after the ball (Due to my instruction), but would then inexplicably veer off to look at a crack in the wall, or to say “hello” to her grandparents. I could only sigh. We’ve got a long way to go. So later, I took them out to the soccer field to practice their kicking, head butting skills, and their killer instinct. After five minutes my children began asking for water, and when we were going to go back to the house. I wondered if I failed as a father. Spongebob wins again...

Still, after all is said and done, it was a year of firsts, stepping out of the norm. And for that I must say it was RAD.

4) RAD musicians: Now that the children are getting a little older we decided it was time to begin their education. Education in what? Education in music! More precisely: the good stuff. As this year progressed Aly and I began to see just how much our children love music. We decided it was time for their education to begin. I began to put together CDs that were mixes of the important stuff for them to know. Example; the latest CD had “Living on a prayer” by Bon Jovi, and “Sweet Child of mine” by Guns and Roses. We had to. Life without a knowledge of these two songs is like having a diet without dairy, or protein, or in my case, cola. My Children both love Switchfoot and they are beginning to get a working knowledge of one of the most underrated rock bands of all time: “Journey”. I love how my son screams along to “Panama”, By Van Halen and my daughter loves to scream to “put your records on” by Corrinne Bailey Rae. My kids are rockers!!! Yea! So RAD! Just recently we were given four tickets to the Switchfoot new album release concert at the house of blues. We decided to take the kids. I know, this is not a good idea, but we thought, let’s give it a shot. So we put earplugs in their ears, and went to the show. Before the concert my son told us: “I’m so excited I might explode”. The truth? He was pretty much beside himself the whole show, grinning ear to ear, singing along, playing air drums. Yes I have begun instructing them in the sacred art of playing air instruments. Mostly, drums, guitar, bass, and a little bit of keyboard. (Yes there is a difference between air bass and air guitar, it’s all in the placement of the fingers, and hand movements in coordination with musical timing. Hey, this is important stuff). It was our first concert and has cemented in my son’s mind; that he wants to be a rock star. Which isn’t too bad, he’s already deathly pale and wafe-ishly thin. He’s well on his way!!

5) RADical Endings: Alyssa finished grad school. How RAD is that! We were so stoked to celebrate her as she walked forward to get her Master’s degree. Since then she has been working for the university in a variety of roles and basically growing as a group leader, a director, a therapist, and other overall RADness! Sometimes people comment how they are so amazed she got her Bachelor’s and master’s degree all the while being pregnant, giving birth, and raising two children. I am amazed myself. Another RADical ending? I ended my five-year gig as a worship music director at church. It became absolutely clear that I needed to step down and though I have missed leading, I am so certain this was the right choice. It has been so wonderful to have a more simple way of living life. We are so grateful because financially, God has really provided in amazing ways, which serves as more confirmation that this was the path he wanted us to walk. We have really been walking a path of trust and uncertainty in some areas, and yet God has truly been faithful to us.

Some Random RAD things:

- Alyssa has learned to sew, and is a sewing fiend

- I have finally admitted I like strawberry daiquiris more than beer, martinis, or margarita’s. I know, Daiquiri’s are the ultimate “girly” drink, but they’re so good, while drinking beer is just a chore.

- Emily is a Rock Climber!!! We took the kids to a rock climbing gym- Emily tore that place up!

- William starts his career as a barber- by cutting his own hair. Let’s say this career did not have an auspicious beginning.

Well, we truly wish to once again send you our love and appreciation. This has been a very special year for our family and many of you have been part of that. We are so grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been very actively transforming us as we come to know him more and more. May your holidays and the year to come be filled with RADness. Merry Christmas- The Lows