Pre-Christmas Fun

I have been a very slack blogger this week, but it's because we've been having so much fun doing things, that I haven't had time to record what we've been doing.  But I'm about to change that.

I had originally intended for us to only take off school the actual week of Christmas.  I love the structure that our school schedule adds to our days...structure that I think **I** need even more than the kiddos.  But, heading into the Christmas season, I wondered how we were going to accomplish all the fun things that we were wanting to do.  So after looking at the calendar and counting up where it would put us finishing the school year, I decided that we did indeed need to take off the week before Christmas also.  We simply had too many wonderful projects to do...and too many people to love on this week to let a silly thing like school interfere!

We started off Monday bright and early at Laoli's house.

We had breakfast and lunch there...

...and nine hours after we arrived, we finally headed home.




We made sugar cookies...and snickerdoodles...and "doo-dads" (what my Grandma called Chex Mix)...and pecan-drop cookies...and rocky road.

The children were big helps and were involved in all aspects of the goodie-making.

Well, most of the time they were helping...

...but sometimes they had to slip away (under the table) to play for a while!

And Mr. G?  He played nicely on the floor right there with us...or I wore him...

...and I brought his pack-n-play, and he took two naps at Laoli's also.

 In talking, mom and I discovered that we both wanted to make some treats to take to special people...so we came up with this idea to do all of that together.  This was our "First annual goodie-making day with Laoli".  And it may be our last, I don't know.  It was a long day...and she and I were both so sore after standing up for that many hours (who called me old? I heard that!).  BUT, I need to remember that this was Monday, and Kathy left early this same morning (6 a.m.) and I only got 4 hours of sleep this night...so I actually think I did well, all things considered.


With all these goodies, we had fun delivering treats to special people....

See our cute (foam) plates that we wove ribbon through?  Found that on pinterest.

...like some of our neighbors, our librarians (we have the sweetest librarians in the whole southeast US!), and our beloved piano teacher, and our beloved Mrs. Donna ("Haircut Mrs. Donna", to distinguish her from other "Mrs. Donnas" in our life), to name a few. Actually, we took Mrs. Donna this homemade hand scrub (you know I found it on Pinterest), because I knew she would like that better than sweets.

The kiddos discovered, about half way through our deliveries, that they prefer to hand over their presents as they sing.  Their favorite is "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  It is quite a sight (and sound) to behold.

When we've not been making deliveries, we been working on other projects, like these Christmas trees.

We first made them last year.

They are so easy, just covering ice cream cones with colored icing...and decorate to your heart's content.

We did math on this day...calculating how many cones each child could decorate given that our package contained 12 cones.

  The children ate, I think, one cone each.  (Not sure D even ate one.) And I stealthily threw the rest away a couple days later.  BLECHHH!

We have another Home Decor/Christmas craft going right now...

...that is not yet ready to reveal.  I hope to have it done by Christmas...not sure we'll make it.  But it will be used for years to come, so no worries.  Of course I found it on pinterest.


And when we were at the library delivering their goodies, Noah checked out a cookbook titled, "Popcorn."  ?????   He never ceases to boggle my mind.

Well, he ended up finding the best-sounding recipe in there: Candy Cane Corn. He and I made a batch. WINNER!

We all loved it so much that we're now about to make 5 (FIVE) batches, as Jas decided that is what he wants to give to his co-workers this year.

Great find, Noah!

As we do all our merry-making, Elisabeth frequently serenades us with beautiful Christmas songs.  I really can't believe how good she is getting.

Next, we had our beloved Dr. Kathy (our chiropractor) over for lunch.

All the crystal and fanciness is Elisabeth's idea...no joke.  She is the hostess with the most-ess.  If she doesn't end up being a missionary in a jungle somewhere...she is going to be an Event Planner.

 During Dr. Kathy's visit we somehow got onto the subject of how many teeth the children have each lost...and they ran and got out their teeth collections to show her!  Good times!

One of the many reasons I love Dr. Kathy:  she showed so much serious and rapt attention

as the children showed her all the teeth they've lost!

Mr. G loves the toy that Dr. Kathy brought him.

We love you Dr. Kathy...and we're so glad you got to come have lunch with us!

The following is a picture from a not-quite finished project...that I found on pinterest:

But HERE is a project I found on pinterest that I HAVE actually finished:

And I love it!  After becoming Christians 13 years ago (has it been that long, Lord?!?) Jas and I did an overhaul on our Christmas decorations, concentrating more on Christ-centered decorations.  I loved this one I found a pin for.  Jas made the "N" and "L", I took paint to several of the things...and I spray painted a gold tree we've had for about 15 years...and it will now live life as a silver tree instead!

And lastly, we had so much fun last night, attending a "Walk Through Bethlehem" event at the church of some of our homeschool-group friends.

Proof that I need to actually READ some of the photography pins I've pinned on Pinterest...instead of just re-pinning them:

They look scared of the Roman Soldier, don't they?

They children made salvation bracelets and/or keychains in one building...and saw how cloth was dyed in this "building":

And we finished off our fun (and cold!) night by stopping at DQ and using up the gift card that we received about 3 days earlier!

Yes, Daniel put his onion ring on top of his drink.  Don't all children do that?

I have had such fun with the children this week...preparing crafts...preparing gifts for others that the Lord has placed in our lives.  We are blessed!