Christmas 2007

We've had a great time this week. It's been fun playing with the kids and enjoying our break from school, but what I have felt the most blessed for having this Christmas is family surrounding us. It's enough of a blessing just to have Jeff and our children to share this time with, but it is spending time with our extended family that reminds me of how fortunate we are. We gathered with Jeff's family on Sunday. There were 13 of us there to eat together and exchange gifts. We sang together then listened as our niece told us the Christmas story before opening gifts. It's a good thing that we have Christmas together before Christmas because no one is rushing off to the next place. Our complete focus is the time we're sharing together at that moment.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. There were 21 of us in all this year...I can't believe how big our family is getting! There are so many that it's hard to see and visit with everyone. Since it's Christmas Eve and everyone has other places to go, we don't have as much time to sit and visit. It's hectic, but so much fun!

As always, we spent Christmas Day at home. We woke the kids up at 6:00...yep, we woke them up! We like them all to see their stuff at the same time, so we set the alarm early and wake them up. Nothing compares to walking into the living room with them on Christmas morning and the day that follows. It's a special time between the five of us that goes way beyond just the gifts that we open.

I Got It!!!

I asked Jeff for The Complete Far Side two volume set for Christmas, but didn't think that he was able to find it. He did!!!!!!!!!! I've always loved The Far Side, especially when I was in college. When I heard that they were putting out the complete set a few years ago, I really wanted it!!! I can't believe I finally have it.....4,337 cartoons in all....1,272 pages! Yes, I did ask for some more useful things for Christmas, but we all have to have a little fun too, right?

Christmas Is Upon Us

I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We realized last night that we haven't even watched Frosty yet this year. We thought about taking the kids to the movies, but decided to stay home and watch Frostie instead..it just wouldn't be Christmas without him. We attempted to make some cute reindeer cookies that I saw on a couple of other blogs, but they didn't turn out so well. The poor things baked right into each other so that we had antlers growing into mouths, resulting in antlerless reindeer and bucktooth whatever they were. "sigh" We tried!

I call this the "Island of Misfits"!

We exchanged gifts with our neighbor, Josh, today. He got Madison, Patrick, and Carter the Twister Dance game. It's so much fun. Madison and Carter are still at it, but I had to stop after working up a pretty good sweat and making a small fool of myself.








Merry Christmas from OurPlace!

Tree Ornaments and Gingerbread Cookies

We made our Christmas tree ornaments today. I bought a cool kit from Oriental Trading to make little foam gingerbread men/women. I liked them because we were able to put our names on them with little foam letters. We had Josh and a friend over to make them with us. We also made and decorated gingerbread cookies.

A Little Christmas Fun

A Beautiful Sight

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!

Let The Fun Begin!

We're finished with school until after New Year's. The kids did journal pages about Christmas today.









So, how excited are we to start our Christmas fun? This excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Pajama Night At Awana

Last Week At OurPlace

It's getting harder and harder to stay focused and on track with Christmas vacation right around the corner. We're counting down the days we have left of school before taking our break. I'm trying to include a lot of fun stuff to make these last couple of weeks easier.

In Science, we are still studying space. Last week, we focused on space exploration and rockets. We made three different rockets and were amused to find out that the one that looked the least like a rocket..the film canister...worked the best! We made another one that we had to blow into to set off and a third one that was supposed to take off with a little baking soda and vinegar. Notice I said it was "supposed" to take off. I guess we just got a defected rocket in our little kit because all of the gases kept escaping out of gaps in the seam. Oh well, it was a good opportunity to reinforce how complicated rocket science is :)!

On Friday, they did journal pages on the first trip to the moon. I told them to imagine that they were one of the astronauts and draw a picture of what they might have seen when looking out of the window of the ship.

We finished our study of Africa this week. I couldn't decide on making a dish that is common here that originated in Africa or a dish that is eaten there, but not here. I decided on Fou Fou, a common African dish made with cornmeal. I told them ahead of time that, unlike the other dishes that we've made, that this would probably not be one that we'd enjoy eating. I was wrong. While I wasn't too crazy about it, they emptied the pot!! It was cornmeal cooked in boiling water with a little salt and butter added. Who would have imagined that they would have actually LIKED it!!!

We also made a traditional African game, called Mancala, with an egg carton and marbles. Madison and Carter loved it, but they are like me and will play any type of game set before them.

We managed to fit all of our book work in with the activities and were happy to put one more week behind us...one step closer to break. We have our homeschool Christmas party this week, so that means only four days of school work left. We're ready!