Bunker Bethlehem

This year we hosted our very first Christmas eve dinner in our new home. We wanted to make it a memorable one for everyone involved and we wanted it to NOT involve Santa Claus (no offense Santa) so we decided to spend the day turning our playhouse into a Bunker Bethlehem.

We invited my family and some friends of ours who are expecting their second child any day now, but right before it started they had to cancel since she started having contractions. As perfect as that would have been to have a real life Mary give birth DURING our Bunker Bethlehem nativity, we tried not to insist too hard that she come anyway. Hey, you can't get more authentic than that! We wouldn't need a Mary OR a baby Jesus. Sigh. Maybe next year we can hunt down another pregnant woman to invite.

First off, we made sure our guests were dressed up in their best Biblical attire, they even had to to pay their "taxes" upon arrival (it's a good thing Mary and Joseph's money weren't chocolate gold coins too or they would have shown up with nothing but foiled wrappers like -ahem- some of our guests did):

The long and arduous journey began in Nazareth:

Continued through Samaria

(Jared led everyone on a nice, dark nature walk in our lower yard...

what my poor family has to endure just for a decent meal!):

There was a pit-stop in Jerusalem:

And then finally the big arrival in Bethlehem:

Luckily no one got lost along the way,

thanks to the "Jesus Star" as Avery calls it:

Baby Jesus was there of course.

Avery was so excited to contribute her baby for the cause.

Although the first baby she brought out was super tiny.

Jared's response?

"No Avery, Jesus wasn't a premie, go get a bigger baby."

I tried to do the whole carpenter thing here

but my dad assured me that he doubted Joseph or Jesus

used a florescent orange hammer or had vice grips.

So much for authentic.

The grub:

dinner consisted of what we think Mary and Joseph might have eaten

(loosely interpreted of course)

Fish (yuck!) we opted for shrimp and cocktail sauce instead

Roast Beast (shrimp is expensive! We had to have some kind of filler meat)

Unleavened bread (whole wheat and regular, fancy schmancy!)

Garlic Roasted Potatoes (they're Jared's favorite so I snuck them in)

Fruit galore (we even splurged and bought papaya, little did I know that papaya stinks to high heaven and no one in their right mind likes papaya- we won't be making that mistake twice!)

Bitter Herbs (spinach salad)

Walnuts (would they have had nuts?)

Goat Cheese (I cheated and called it "Goata-Feta" cheese, I wasn't sure if people would actually like goat cheese but I was pretty sure feta would be a hit)

Veggies (lots of veggies, all raw and we didn't even offer Ranch dressing, how brave!)

**Avery actually helped me do all the shopping for the dinner. She was really cute and as we would go down the aisle she would say, "Mom, would they have had _____? When we got to broccoli she asked that same question and I took the "I'm not quite sure" response. She replied promptly with a, "Well let me ask and find out" and then right then and there, in front of the wall of veggies getting sprayed by mist in Henry's she folded her hands, squeezed her eyes shut, bowed her head and said the following prayer out loud, "Dear Heavenly Father, please tell us if Mary and Joseph had brocolli for dinner." After she ended the prayer she waited a moment, looked up and confidently replied, "Nope!" and then she moved right along. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. So in the end I just followed her lead and moved on to the next aisle.

The "mood lighting." This is how it looked when everyone came inside, thank goodness for Costco's battery-powered tea lights or I'm pretty sure our Bunker Bethlehem, not to mention our playhouse, would have gone up in flames by the time my pyro 15-year old brother and sister were done with it. Seriously, my brother spent half the meal seeing how closely he could put his hand on top of the flame. How bad is it that I was secretly hoping he would just get burned and get it over with?

I wonder if little Israeli children had as much fun with olives as the Bunker children do?

Didn't take long for these weary travelers to dig in!

Jared serenaded us with "O Holy Night" after dinner,

wish you all could have been there.

He's amazing.

What's Christmas Eve without the Nativity?

Corbin did a pretty good job as Samuel the Lamanite...

But Avery's version of pregnant Mary was pretty good too.

Check out that belly!

I love that Taylor was the donkey, what better role for a hyper teenager?

I love this.

There's just something about playing Mary that can make an energetic, bouncy five year old serenely, and ever so gently, cuddle and care for her baby doll like he was the Savior, Himself.

I just wish the Deans and Malufaus could have been there too.

I bet Cass would have gone into labor for the occasion.

She loves an authentic party as much as I do.

In the end, it was indeed, a memorable night that centered on Christ

(ahem, minus the crazy white elephant gift exchange we had)

and made us appreciate again

the gift of life, of family and of the love

that comes with the birth of our Savior.

Just pretend this is in a stamped personalized envelope.....

I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail and I know there's nothing better than actually opening up an envelope with the anticipation of what's inside. Will there be a form letter? Will there be a picture? (And with that, have they cut their hair? Are they bald? How much have their kids grown? Do they look the same?) and of course Jared's hopeful question with any letter (seriously), did they send us money? (Right Jared, like Verizon or the mortgage company sent us a check). Anyway, I know this is a lame substitute but hey, what can you do? After this last month, I just didn't have it in me to write up a card until my miscarriage was finally over and by that time it was practically Christmas.

So this year, I decided my game plan would be to send out card

s to those who I don't keep in contact with through blogs and for the rest of you reading this (lucky you!) I figured you probably at least check in with this every so often so you would already know a bit about what we're up to, what's going on with our lives and where we're living.

So for those of you dear friends (like the Bowlings, Phillips, Russ's, Larsons, Millers, Evans, Romneys, Buttons, Comins, Campbells, Graff, Winingers, Cherreys, Wuehlers, etc) and of course wonderful family (Deans, Bowens, Malufaus, Malones, Bunkers, Watsons, Mathews, Broughs, Jones...you know who you are) any others of you who might check in on us from time to time, here is your personalized (pretend) Christmas card from the Bunkers. Merry Christmas. Hey, while you're at it, you might as well also pretend we sent you a nice little fat gift card to a restaurant of your choosing. You're welcome. Think of it this way, this means that (I think at least) our friendship is strong enough that we don't have to rely on a Christmas card to maintain it for another year.

And for those of you just tuning in after receiving our card, hi. Welcome. Skip this part and feel free to roam freely. Thanks for being our friends.

Bunker 2010 Stats

3155- Our official address! Though we never thought it would be possible, we had a Bunker miracle and finally (after 9 years of renting!) have a home of our own. Not only that, we now even have an attic, a garage, a “barn” (as Avery calls it), a detached garage and 5 sheds. Just think of all the costumes and decorations we can store now- guilt free!!

10- Months spent living with Britt’s parents to afford our home. We’re lucky they’re still speaking to us. Although Harry, we mean Austin, loved having his “room” be the closet under the stairs, he’s adjusting just fine to his new space.

69- Number of days Avery has been in kindergarten. Minus the Disneyland days and minus the full week of school she missed when she came down with HPV (don’t worry, we hadn’t heard of it either- it’s basically head-to-toe hives). It’s just kindergarten right?

9- Avery’s new best friends from church, half of whom Britt teaches on Sunday which means for basically any church related question she asks, she gets a non-church answer like “I have a dog.” “I’m hungry.” “Ponies.” “My cat died.” “I’m 5.” “I need to go potty, again.”

624 (seriously!)- The amount of infected, oil-drenched loads of laundry that Britt has done this year taking care of an elderly woman. This doesn’t even count our own family’s laundry!

0- The amount of times we have washed Austin/Iron Man/Superman/Batman’s cape. It’s not like it’s dirty or anything being worn 24/7. Maybe we’ll peel it off of him someday.

$100- The amount we’ll pay you to take our new, cute white cock-a-poo family dog (Quincy Bark-ley Bunker) off of our hands. $300- The cost of our brand new rug that Quincy ruined already. Bless his little canine heart.

52- The amount of weeks Dr. Bunker has been employed. We LOVE cavities!!

4%- The percentage of home teaching completed when Jared was first called to be Elders Quorum president. He’s got his work cut out for him, lucky guy.

32,517 (and counting)- The funny things that our kids have said that have made us laugh. Like last week when Avery was writing her letters and told Brittany, “I LOVE the letter ‘o.’ I wish

MY name started with an ‘O.’” She’ll thank us later when she gets to health class.

27- The number of nickels in Avery’s “Okay Mom” obedience jar that she’s saving for a Toy Story Jessie doll. At this rate she’s get it when she’s 9 or when Toy Story 6 comes out, whichever comes later.

2010- The year that brought the Bunker family even closer together with wonderful memories, great adventures, a few trials along the way to keep us on our toes and countless blessings from our Father in Heaven, especially the blessing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate and remember this Christmas season.

Love,

Jared, Brittany, Avery, & Austin

Babies on the Brain

It's not unusual at this time of year to have one's thoughts revolve around the Savior. Nor is it unusual, after a miscarriage, to find oneself thinking often about babies. Which is why I find myself fixated this year on not only the Savior as we often think of Him: when He atoned for us, was crucified and was resurrected, but as the holy Christ child. Just a little baby born in the humblest of circumstances.

I've always felt a great love for our Savior and deep gratitude for His atoning sacrifice for us. I've tried to keep Him in mind throughout all the hustle and bustle of Christmas each year. But this year has been different. Because this year, I miscarried. For the first time ever. Only a week away from my 2nd trimester. Two weeks away from Thanksgiving. And 2 weeks away from announcing it in some creative fashion over Thanksgiving dinner to both families. It was our plan. It was the plan that we've figured out and felt really good about. Little did we know...

I debated about even blogging about this because, really, who wants to read about someone else's heartache? Kind of a downer. But of all the blog posts that I have read over the last couple of years, some of the most poignant ones that I remember are the ones that have shared, with brutal honesty, their struggles with health concerns, losing a job, having rough "mom days," etc. I felt like I've gained strength reading how other families are managing to endure faithfully when trials come, even when those trials stick around for awhile. Like mine did.

To be honest, I feel like I've miscarried 3 times in the last 7 weeks. Both emotionally and physically. Because, in a way, I actually did. Kind of. There are 3 different ways, as I now know, that you can miscarry. 1- "Naturally," which is what I thought my body was doing for 5 weeks, culminating with the full-on contractions in the car driving home from Vegas the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Not fun. 2- "Medically," which is just a term they use when they give medicine to induce a miscarriage. Which is what we tried when my 2nd ultra sound revealed that I was still as "pregnant" as I had been 5 weeks before. I was told it would hurt and I was really nervous the night before I would be "induced." It was so strange to have Jared call/text me for updates to see if my contractions were starting. It's very strange to be dreading and praying for something at the same time. The last time I was in a similar situation was when we were actually expecting a baby and Jared was constantly checking up on me to see if anything was starting. Unfortunately, after two days of serious cramps and contractions, no go. Still no miscarriage. Lots of expectation, tears, prayers, blessings, but no miscarriage. Finally, the 3rd way involves a D&C and a small fortune which is what we were hoping wouldn't need to happen. By that time we didn't have any other option though so last Thursday, with my mom by my side (Jared had to work), I went in for a D&C. My appointment was at 11 am and after 5 1/2 hours of sitting in a waiting room and 3 full movies later, I was finally called. Again, not the best day of my life but at least it was over. Almost 2 full months later, I could finally say that I had a miscarriage.

I would have thought that this experience would have killed my Christmas (and my Thanksgiving for that matter) but it's actually had the opposite affect. The Thanksgiving holiday was the perfect opportunity to remind me on a daily basis of all that I have been blessed with. I know it sounds strange but it's true.

And now at Christmas time, even with the sometimes overwhelming feelings of anxiousness and sadness that I felt, I knew that I would be okay. I don't have all the answers about why it all happened the way it did, I wish I did, but I'm finding little by little that I don't need to know. Because as much as I might have had my heart set on a little baby coming into our family, there was a different little baby that was born years ago that makes all of this okay. Because that little baby, was the Christ child, and because of His birth and His willingness to be our Savior, my Savior, I know I will be okay. So even though this Christmas has been an unusual one, filled with ultrasounds, doctors appointments and prayers for a miscarriage to finally happen, in the end it's been one of the best Christmas's we've ever had.