After Christmas notes....

 Christmas Day Dinner at my Mom's was great!  Surrounded by family at the table we had a relaxed and festive meal.

We gave Derek a "Wahoo!" for Christmas.  It's a very strong toy that boasts a "no weight limit."  I envision it being around for a long time.

I've been wanting to collect gnomes and this Christmas Mom Patty gave me my very first garden gnome "Brumbiddle."  He's a heavy cast iron little guy who watches over the yard at night.

Doesn't he look at home.

Twas the night before Christmas....

The night before Christmas is always a treat.  The boys get to open presents from a special Aunt.

 It has become a welcome tradition to receive Christmas pajamas from Auntie.

This year the gifts included a yummy homemade treat.

We had a great dinner with Grandma Patty and Uncle Chuck.

You know it's a big tree when it's taller than Uncle Chuck!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007 Flashback

Two Chess Mates....

It's fun to watch kids play chess especially little ones.  They may not know all the rules but the game is still fascinating and fun for them.  I enjoy playing a game of chess but I almost never win and that's ok.  I can capture plenty of my opponents pieces but I just haven't figured out how to trap the king.  The check mate eludes me every time.  **Did you know that the term check mate comes from the Arabic language.  Mat means death and Shek means King.  To Shek Mat meant the King is dead.**

Three Ships a Sailing...

We're studying the Vikings in our overview of civilizations through the ages.  (They got their name from the term describing their exploring ~ "e-viking.") The boys colored these boats and I helped them cut them out and assemble them.  They turned out pretty well.  We learned that it was the Vikings who probably discovered North America hundreds of years before Columbus.  (Newfoundland) We also learned that the Native Americans were more tough than the brawny Vikings and scared them off and kept them from settling.  Cool stuff to think about and ponder.  I wonder if the boys will remember any of this when they are older.

Four Long Hours

The oldest was very upset at 8:30pm when he looked outside and could only see clouds.  He was really looking forward to seeing the lunar eclipe.  So Josh set up a computer and found a live feed from the NASA website streaming from Chile.  It was great. The boys were happy. 

This guy was in a giddy mood.  The way kids get when they stay up too late.

This is the live picture from Chile around 11:30pm.

They stayed glued to the screan for a long time.

Around 12 midnight the sky was clear and I rushed the boys outside to see the last part of the cresent slip into a sliver and then all but disapear.  The boys loved it but they were cold and ready to go to sleep after their long night.

♪ ♫ ♪ Five Gollldennnnn...... ♪ ♫

Marshmallows!

Why do we have a plate of golden marshmallows in the middle of December?  Just try and guess?  It's really a very practical reason that went awry. 

A week ago the boys received a marshmallow shooter for selling lots of popcorn in the cub scout fundraiser.  I finally got to the store and bought the right size marshmallows.  Then I decided to put some on a plate to dry them out over night so they wouldn't get all gummied up in the barrel of the shooter.  I also decided the nifty place to dry them would be the oven.  Well, I forgot about them and two days later we heated the oven up for dinner and a wonderful, yummy smell wafted from it.  That's when I realized what I had done and a yummy plate of golden, toasted marshmallows came out.  We ate a couple and then they got hard and we tossed them.   At least I know we can make some nice looking smores in the oven if we want. 

6 Days to go

For the past two days I have been to nearly ever store that carries toys in hopes of finding one of these....

Remember this toy from the the 80's?  I loved this toy and wanted to get one for one of my boys.  I know they still make them because I've seen them in catalogs.  But I could not find one in my area.  So I finally ordered it.  Payed more than I wanted to for shipping and I'm not positive it will be here by the 24th.  Yikes!  This is why I like to have my shopping done 2 weeks before Christmas. 

7 Days

I'm off to town today to do a little shopping.  It's been pretty quiet around here.  The boys have been at their Grandma's and Grammy's house for the last 18 hours.  It was nice to wrap presents without the worry of little ones sneaking a peak.  I did have to tell our big puppy Bristol to move out of the way several times.  She's very curious and likes to know about everything. She wanted to be right next to the scissors and the tape while I was using them and lay on the wrapping paper.  I told Josh it was great the we have the Grandmother's for the boys, now if we could only get someone to take the dogs for a night.  Then it would be really quiet.

8 Days to Christmas

These two thermometers are right next to each other outside and they never tell the same temperature. I think the round one is the bad one.

Oh well,  I love seeing the sun and the chilly weather that goes with it.

9 Days until Christmas

Little one says, "Mom, does God stand on the clouds?"
"Hmmmmm," I say.  "I'm not really sure."
"Well," says little one, "when I'm in heaven I'll call you and let you know... ya know, if they have phones."

This morning the kids are watching our local animal shelter program on TV called "Pet Watch."  They show the cats and dogs that need adopting.  I'm explaining to the boys that when they are 12 they can volunteer at the shelter and help out feeding or playing with the pets. 
Then my 10 year old says, "I could bring my children there."
"Hhhuuu?" I say  "Twelve is only in two years, you won't have children then, right?"
"Right." he says.

Twelve must seem so old to a 10 year old.

What is sweet is that the boys do want to be daddy's someday and I hope that's because they think so fondly of their own Papa.  But they've had the speech about getting a good job so you can have a house and food to eat so many times that they now give it to each other.

This is the new kitten at our piano teacher's house.  It's so fun to visit each week.  Puppies, kittens, legos.  I  never have to convince anyone to get ready to go to piano lessons. 

10 Days to Christmas and I'm tired

We are taking a sick day today.  It's to be expected with the schedule we have been keeping that someone was bound to get sick.  It's my oldest.  He's stuffy, runny, sneezing and tired of blowing his nose.  But he's determine to get to everything on the schedule.  He wants perfect attendance at scouts so I patched him up, stuffed him with medicine and told Josh to tell the leaders what was going on and that we have one very determined scout on our hands.  He made it through the whole meeting.

While they were at scouts I had the younger two with me at the Whatcom Homeschool Association Christmas Program.  My wolf scout helped to hand out programs.  It was a great program of talent provided by the homeschool families.  I loved it and my wolf scout said he wants to come back next year.  He liked handing out programs.  (Building a heart for service to community)

Today the older boys have piano lessons and then we are home again to rest.  I'd really like to stay in my P.J.'s today.  Maybe tomorrow.

11 Days left...

Yesterday afternoon was a busy, no minutes to spare type of day.  I don't like rushing nor do I like being late.  Both make me a wreck.  We had a cub scout pack meeting last night but we made it through and today is here.  It's a thunder, lighting and the power went out in the night type of morning.  The rain is coming down again.  Thankfully there was enough of a break yesterday that we got out for a nice walk with the dogs and the creek had time to recede some more.

This morning we are headed into town to see a play called Strega Nona.  It's part of the Mt. Baker Theatre series for all elementary school children.  The play is about an old magical Italian woman who makes heaps of Spaghetti and lots of funny things happen.  We'll be taking both Grandmothers with us and heading out to lunch afterwards.  I love these Theatre days.  My oldest was pondering what they might use on stage to represent the spaghetti noodles.  He thinks maybe they'll use yarn.  I love that forward thinking. 

Tonight, the oldest has a Webelos scout meeting with Dad and I'll be taking the other boys to the Whatcom Homeschool Association Christmas Program with talent show. 

Below is a picture of the boys dressed up in their costumes for last Sunday's Church Program.

12 Days until Christmas

Even though I have a documented count down I'm still a bit shocked each morning and have to count the days to make sure I write the correct one.  With less than two weeks until the day there is still much to do.  Thankfully our tree is up and the boys have settled down about that. 
The creek near our house was an exciting thing to watch yesterday.  This is the before picture.  The water normally flows 4-5 feet below this level during rainy weather and 10 feet below this during the summer. It really is a quiet little creek most of the time.




These pictures are about 30 minutes apart.  The water is now running through the ravine.



It's definitely crested.  About 1:30 pm.

Josh said the ravine needed a good scrubbing out anyways. I think it got a good scrubbing.

This morning when we checked in the day light the water had gone back down and the big logs are beginging to show again.  Here's a link to summer photos.

13 Days and Counting

The little creek that runs near our house is feeling the effects of all this rain.  We watch it's levels fluctuate daily and this is the highest I've ever seen it.  It still has 2 feet, I think, before it crests and even when it does it has another gully to flow into before it has to crest over that and reach our backyard.  I'm fond of the creek when it looks like a creek but not so much when it looks like a small river raging out there.

I try not to think about it too much. 

The boys will be preforming in the Church Christmas play this evening.  It's been challenging spending time in rehearsals late in the evening and early on Saturday morning but they have done great.   Even the little guy will have a significant roll.  He's with a group of chickens who celebrate by doing the chicken dance.  It's pretty darn cute.  The 7 year old is a shepherd and the oldest opted for the donkey role.  He follows Mary and Joseph around and stays quietly still most of the time.  It's a bit of a stretch for a guy who is talking and moving most of his waking hours.  I'm most surprised at what the 7 year old has accomplished this year.  He's gone from shy guy to confident guy before my eyes.  The first 3 months of school the boys had a choir/music/drama class that they attended weekly and the teacher was great.  With confidence now the 7 year old sings and preforms in small skits.  He's not nervous one bit about being on stage.  I'm just amazed.

It reaffirms my confidence that he's well adjusted and thriving in the home school environment.

Josh and I attended the Company Holiday Party last night. Here's a picture. 

Still 14 days....

It's a double post kinda day.

We picked out our tree yesterday.  We decided to go to a different u - cut place than we normally go.  Ya know, to shake things up a bit.  We're crazy like that.  And ya know how I LOVE a good deal?  Well, we did NOT get a good deal on our tree.  We had the whole extended family together picking out trees so this tree farm made a bundle on us.  I'm not going to name names but I'll say that next year we'll go back to trusty old "Manthey's" Tree Farm and get our selves a good deal.

Found our tree.

He said it was easier to carry it this way.



My brother helping Josh's Mom and Uncle.

 

My Mom found her tree.



14 Days until Chirstmas

The boys had a busy day yesterday with school in the morning, cookie decorating and crafts after lunch with Grandma Patty and then going to get our tree around 4:00.  The boys had a great time and made lots of  cookies.  Yeah Grandma Patty!