Putting up the Christmas tree is a great tradition for the Jeubs. Every Sunday following Thanksgiving, we yank out the artificial tree, the ornaments, the decorations, the lights…all the things that carry so many fond memories. The kids pull out ornament by ornament, reminescing how they were made/given/received. “Remember when…” is a common conversation starter. Christmas music blares in the background.

We bought an 8′ Christmas tree last Christmas to replace the 5′ rickety thing. It’s a good thing, too, because we have well over 100 ornaments to cram on the tree. The 5-footer wasn’t working well. Here are a few good shots:

Cramming the ornaments on.

Josiah puts the angel on top. The family

A couple weeks ago I wrote on Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, a reminder of how important community is. I drew a conclusion that a family of many siblings is a strong “cord” that “is not quickly broken” (verse 12). While some may scoff at a large family as a sign of dependence and weakness, we believe it is a sign of strength and stability.

The verse is broad, and I witnessed this strength of community yesterday morning as a group of friends—eight families in all—put together the most beautiful Thanksgiving dinner we have ever had. As I explained to one of the moms a couple weeks ago, we, right now, are very needy. Mom is constantly feeding twins, Dad is self-employed and constantly needing to get to work, and kids are still just as demanding as ever.

This is such a testimony of the strength of community. All eight families attend the local home school group. One mom desired to make a turkey for us, but thought of asking other moms who knew us to make side dishes. On Thursday morning, we had the most exquisite Thanksgiving dinner delivered to us that included not only turkey, but two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn bread, muffins, cranberry sauce, green beans, a number of pies, and much more. What a blessing!

Also two weeks ago, Wendy and I were contemplating dropping our traditional Thanksgiving tradition. Every year we get together with another family who doesn’t have immediate family in the area (most gather with their families; our families are all out east). Though we have only done this for five years, this is a big deal to our kids. However, with twins, we were thinking of NOT having anyone over. With the announcement of this large blessing from family friends, we invited our chiropractor and his family over for the meal. The tradition lives on and our blessing was shared!

Wow, what a Thanksgiving to be thankful for! We can’t say how much we appreciate our good friends. We are humbled at their heartwarming generosity. Thank you so much!

Thanksgiving is a regular tradition in the Jeub home. As most people would have it, our traditions involve mainly food, family and fellowship. First, there are the standards: turkey, cranberry sauce and yams. We also enjoy our own family traditions, inherited from Dad’s great-great Grandfather, from Germany; which include the sweet and sour green beans, and plenty of homemade rolls and potatoes. But the best part comes before the big dinner: the h’orderves. With plenty of black olives (one for each finger), shrimp with cocktail sauce, stuffed eggs, stuffed celery, Dad’s cheese ball with crackers, cheese and summer sausage on crackers. Not to mention the pie. At the end of the evening we enjoyed 6 different types of pie: Apple, cherry, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate cream, and key-lime.

God has really blessed us this year. Besides the h’orderves, main meal and pie, He has blessed us with a much deeper blessing: friends and family. Every year, we enjoy fellowship with friends and family by visiting a good friends’ house, or inviting a good friend over. This year, the Otto’s joined us for our yearly traditions. The Otto children brought games of their own, and it was a regular holiday complete. After h’orderves and a walk down to the creek, we enjoyed a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner. But to make it 110%, our home school group got together to make us the thanksgiving dinner. Eight different families made side dishes, and Mrs. Byrnes made the turkey. Provision is the only word for it. When Dad had decided not to go elk hunting this year because hunting season was so near Mom’s due date, we worried that we might not have a enough to eat through the winter. We should not have worried. I am reminded again and again of the bible verse that says “Even the birds never go hungry, and they don’t need clothing. How much more important are you than the birds?” two days ago, a friend stopped by to drop off four large turkeys for our freezer, and friends have been dropping off pre-cooked meals often enough that I may not need to cook from scratch for a long time yet.

Last week at church, our pastor gave the message: do you worship your food, clothing, house, or even your children? These are good things to be thankful for, but we need to know what is under the icing. God and salvation are the cake, the best part, the nutritious part. Our family, friends, food, houses, animals, property, are just the icing on the cake. How loving our God is to frost this cake so generously! This above all, is what we are to be thankful for: for the God, the baker, as we enjoy in his many blessings.

I’m reading through Ecclesiastes, you know. Chapter 3 is a famous one:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven.

Then the verse starts “a time to be born and a time to die,” and so on.

In everyone’s life, there is a time to have children, a “biological clock” that is ticking. I have met some who think that this clock is not a definite amount of time, that they literally have their entire lives to bare children. Haven’t you ever talked with, say, someone in their late 30s who claims, “We’re waiting a little longer to have children.”

The seductive argument is that parents have control over the time to have children. I have also talked with parents who, after several years choosing not to have children, end up finally having children, then discovering the great joy of raising a family. These parents often say things like, “I never realized the joy of parenting,” “I couldn’t fathom what it was like to have my own children,” or “I didn’t really know how selfish I was without children.” (I know a mother of four who used to claim “I will never have children”!)

I can’t shout it louder from the mountain top how great it is to have children…even 13 children. Yes, I really believe that. I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. And my hope is that this blog is a subtle persuasion for those parents choosing not to have children (for whatever reason) to take that step of faith and start parenting. Their time may be now.

By Lydia Jeub

The Pinewood Derby consisted of Cynthia, Lydia, Isaiah, Micah, Noah and (for the first year) Tabitha.

Cynthia made a Thanksgiving table and made the Turkey out of play dough and glued it to a piece of cloth. Then she glued it to her car and painted the car brown.

Lydia made just an ordinary car and painted it silver. She drilled one hole all the way through her car to go for speed (not most creative).

Isaiah made a Viking ship. He made a paddle boat at first then he made a circle and put it on top. He painted that part brown. Then he cut a metal sheet and put triangles of the metal on the top of the boat and put five bolts on each side for shields.

Micah made a torpedo. First he made a pencil shape. Then he made two triangles of wood and glued them to the sides diagonally. Then he made one strait piece and put it in between the other pieces and painted it silver.

Noah made an ordinary race car and painted it gold and painted the front silver.

Tabitha (it is her first year in Sparks and her first year in Pinewood Derby) made a teddy bear. She drew it on her wood and cut it and painted it brown. Then she painted it eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

At Awana Pinewood Derby Night

The first person to race their (in our family) was Lydia. She had the ordinary car but it was fast. She got 2nd place two inches from the winner and three feet away from the two other cars.

The next person to race was Cynthia. She had the turkey dinner car. She thought her car was going to be the slowest car but the most creative, but she won first place on a practice round!

The next person to race was Isaiah, Micah, Noah, and Tabitha all at once. Tabitha won 1 st place. Isaiah got 2nd place Noah got 3 rd place Micah got 4 th place. After it was over we listened to the awards. Cynthia won 3rd place in speed and 1st place in most creative. Lydia didn’t win a trophy but she won a ribbon saying that she was there. Isaiah won 3rd place in creative (he had the cool ship). Micah didn’t win a trophy but he had the time of his life and got a ribbon. Noah got a ribbon and had the time of his life watching Tabitha’s car. Tabitha won 1st place in speed and had a blast running to get her car.

The End

Other pictures:

I received a the National Review today and noticed a picture of William F. Buckley. It was a black-and-white photo with Buckley as a young child. I could pick him out in the crowd of people. I did a little bit of research anf found the William Buckley — one of the century’s most influential conservatives — was one of 10 children.Check out the family stats here. Further down the page we learn that Buckley’s siblings include authors, debate masters and judges. Quite a brood.

I wonder if he was neglected at a child, being that he was one of 10? I wonder if he suffered from loneliness or depravity. Hmmm…

We’re fighting a cold through our family. We woke up Sunday morning all wanting to go to church. The plan was for Dad (me) to bring all the kids and leave Mom home with the twins. When Dad (ha-choo!) came down with a worse cold than the night before, we decided to hang out at home.

At 11:00, we had a worship service in the living room. We sang the songs I knew the chords to (Jehovah Jirah, The Lord of the Dance, This Is the Day, As a Deer Panteth for the Water, and others). The verses we opened to (a total random chance) spoke specifically toward the large family.

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

While the twins slept, Wendy and I and the kids at home (Cynthia, Lydia, Isaiah, Micah, Noah, Tabitha, Keilah, Hannah and Josiah) meditated on these verses. They related to playing outside and hurting themselves. Was there ever no one to help? They related to cold winter nights or evenings camping. Had any of them never had a sibling to cuddle up with? They related to bullying and teasing. Had they ever felt no one at home to retreat to?

No, these kids don’t know what it is like to be alone. They are a cord of a dozen strands. They will grow up knowing an unbreakable strength in their family that many families seldom experience. This meditation was understood by even Keilah, 4.

There are strong families with fewer kids, I know. My point is not more-kids-the-better. My point is simply this: there is strength in numbers. These verses revolt against the modern idea that too many kids will leave a child unattended and neglected. We laugh at how empty this opinion is! There is hardly an unattended moment, and if Mom and Dad aren’t there for a child, a sibling is close at hand. How can anyone fathom that our children are alone?

There are some that try to fathom it, like Mark Morford of the failing San Fransisco Chronicle, a single man who took potshots at a family of 16 kids in his article, “God Does Not Want 16 Kids.” As if he knows anything about God’s will or anything about the dynamics of large families, Mr. Morford said,

I have a friend who used to co-babysit (yes, it required two sitters) for a family of 10 kids, and she reports that they were, almost without fail, manic and hyper and bewildered and attention deprived in the worst way, half of them addicted to prescription meds to calm their neglected nerves and the other half bound for years of therapy due to complete loss of having the slightest clue as to who they actually were, lost in the family crowd, just another blank, needy face at the table. Is this the guaranteed affliction for every child of very large families? Of course not. But I’m guessing it’s more common than you imagine. (underscores mine)

“I have a friend…” is a pathetic argument. Other than the family he read about, Mr. Morford has not one personal story to share about a large family other than this “friend” who “co-babysat” for a large family. Funny, Mr. Morford preaches tolerance for homosexuals and affection for the culture of pornography…but families with too many children, they’re “lost.”

Readers of the San Fransisco Chronicle (there aren’t many left…circulation dropped 17 percent last year) may enjoy “manic and hyper and bewildered” ad hominem attacks on families of which they have absolutely no understanding. My children know nothing of the depravity cited above. The argument that children from large families are deprived and neglected is an empty argument, one grasping for a truth that isn’t there, having to rely on anecdotal evidence to make a point.

We snapped another slideshow of the twins. They’re all dressed up and no place to go. They are growing like weeds, praise God. Wendy is returning to health and the home is returning to normal.

God has been good, and His people have flooded us with help cleaning, meals, groceries and, of course, diapers. We can’t thank them enough!

Enjoy the slideshow. Know that God takes care of you and your children. Your daily bread is always there!