Family and holidays

I have been so busy of late as I am sure you all have been too. I have not been around much. Alot has been going on, you know the usual of getting ready for the holidays and then surviving them. I am truly disappointed that I didn't make that many cookies this year. I love baking truly I do but with everything happening with my hubs my heart wasn't really in the Christmas spirit this year. I have since realized how silly I am being and am pushing my way out of this little funk I am in. The boys did make gingerbread houses and we baked some sugar cookies that we were going to decorate with a friend but the boys ended up playing instead and my friend and I just talked while I oohed and head over her home school room.

OH and my One year anniversary of this blog passed on the 22nd as well. Do you remember that one, I had chopped ten inches off my hair to donate to Locks of Love. I had always wanted to do that. My sister was right though my hair just about is as long as it was before I cut it. It was above my shoulders this time last year. I guess my hair does still grow like a weed. Boy has a lot happened since I started this blog. I hope that I can make my blog better next year.

We went ice skating and had a great game day with our local home school group. My boys enjoyed both but I think they liked the ice skating a bit more. Fine by me it gets them to have a bit of exercise while they are having fun. This is supposed to be a bi-weekly thing so I think the boys may tire of it at some point. We also made homemade ornaments and almost homemade ornaments. I got some Styrofoam balls and we hot glued bits of fabric into them and then a loop so it could hang on the tree. The almost homemade ornaments were some of those cool plaster of Paris ornaments you can paint. We also took some beads and bells and put them on those pipe cleaners to make cute rings. I love, Absolutely LOVE homemade ornaments.

My grandparents put on the holidays every year. There is a huge and I mean huge feast to be had with several choices of deserts. One would think a restaurant should have this many choices but as Austin says Grandma makes the best food. I showed my mom my feeble attempt at knitting a scarf, my first mind you. And of course I should have known better because my mom looked at it and took half a minute to try and fix the dropped stitches and decided the best way to go would be to start over. I was almost done and she just took it apart and then started knitting telling me she was doing me a favor. HUH? that is my mom to the tee. That and when Chris was trying to be nice by getting some family pics my mom smacked me every time he took on of her. This caused my grandmother to stop her yearly reading of a Christmas book and tell me to stop. Of course it was all in fun. We exchanged our gifts and boy am I glad we do the secret Santa or I would be broke right now or no one would have gotten anything from us. I love going to my grandparents house they are the only sane people in my family everyone else is nuts. We all had such a wonderful evening.

The whole Clan. My mil in front with all the grand kids. I am standing next to my grandparents and of course both my mom and brother conveniently hid from the camera.

But here my hubs captured this shot of my brother with his best Friend and both their girlfriends. My brother is the one with the hat sort of center in the picture

My mom and sister both knitting. This is the scarf my mom unraveled and did me a "favor" by redoing it.

Colin gets money as usual. He loves money.

Here is my dad. I swear every picture he has these glasses up on his forehead. Honestly he looks so handsome when he smiles.

And of course a pic of my kids decorating my tree for me. I treasure this time, won't be long before I can have my tree look just the way I want but will miss the ornaments being in all the wierd places the kids put them.

How was your holiday? I sure hope good.

Vanessa

Weekly happenings

Boy has this been some week. We started out by finishing up out mini unit on Thanksgiving. We only did it for a week and really didn't do all that much in it but it was fun and the kids and I learned alot about thanksgiving. We then started some initial work on a Christmas unit that I am sort of throwing together as we go. The history Channel has a great video on the history of Christmas. I am gathering links and such so I can share all I have found. I am really going to try and make it fun.

Tuesday brought my Birthday. I am officially 33 yrs old. I don't really feel old but I do feel like certain things aren't within my capabilities anymore. Or maybe that is my mind playing tricks on me. I do know that I have outgrown a few things say like judging others. Ok I'm not perfect at it but to a big extent I no longer find myself judging someone when a friend tells me about said someone and what they did. I now think to myself what is the other side of that story? I had been doing this for a bit now. We did a very low key Birthday. Well a couple of months ago Dh felt inclined to get me a dachshund and two days later another one. They were to be my Birthday present. Let me say I really really enjoy these little guys. Honestly until they came I considered myself a cat person. I mean cats aren't all over you all the time, they don't slobber on you. they generally don't scare anyone either or hurt them in any real way or at least none of the cats I have had. You are on your own with any you have had. We have had numerous animals throughout our marriage and with that came a few dogs. They all always loved Dh and then loved Colin. None of them seemed to love me, they liked me sure. More like they put up with me. Anyway these guys genuinely seem so happy to see me and love on me that they officially have me wrapped around their fingers (or would that be toes? )Are you ready for the cuteness if not turn away now this is a warning of severe cuteness. Here are my dogs Sophie and Snoopy.

Sickening isn't it how cute they are?

Wednesday Austin got his braces installed. Is it installed or just on? I never had braces so I don't know. He has had a heck of a time refiguring out how to eat. We have a pet peeve about seeing people chew their food. During dinner I saw all of Austin's food and so I asked him to please try to chew with his mouth closed. He ended up in tears. I officially felt like a crumb . It was not my intent to hurt his feelings but he is aware of our rules and when they don't follow I can be rather unnice especially since he is almost 13 I feel he knows better and I expect more from him.

Thursday Dh had his finger amputated. More on that on my well spouse blog.

Friday we had to go to co-op. I really didn't want to as my emotions were all wrought. I felt like I would spring into tears at an inopportune time and I did. Luckily I have a very good friend there who has such a big heart. She prayed with me and I was comforted and inspired and very impressed. I don't come from a big religious family. As a matter of fact I come from a family that believes that whatever you do in church you can do at home just as well. It used to sound like a good theory but since I have been going to church more lately I find that it doesn't work because those people don't do it at home its just said. kwim? I really felt better and really really appreciate my friend. One day I hope I can return the favor or perhaps spread a bit of Karma by praying for someone else in need. Co-op went great. The kids got to launch their rockets (mini rockets). They also got to meet a detective and he talked about his job and gave all the kids a miniature pin. It is a replica of the shield they carry. They also got to work with the science of architecture. They formed groups and built a building out of marshmallows and spaghetti. They had a blast.

How was your week?

Vanessa

Advent fun

I am originally from Germany. I was born there and spent the first 10 yrs of my life there. My mother married and American when I was 2 and 8 yrs later he wanted to go home. So we went. I knew a handful of American words (that's what I still call them most times, its weird). I had to have special tutors and my clothes were not up to standards. Us German Frauleins were still wearing puffy skirts with colored stockings and knitted sweaters. The American girls wore jeans and t-shirts. Another newbie for me was Thanksgiving, what was this strange holiday? And of course no one knew what an Advent Calendar was or at least in the way I was used to. Now I won't say my mom was all creative and stuff but each year my sister and I would get an Advent Calendar. You can now buy them in most stores. You know the ones with the chocolates in them?

In the yrs past this great thing has caught on here. I was so happy to have found a great link for an advent calendar that has all sorts of fun stuff. There is a link for every day till Christmas and on each day there are games, crafts, recipes, history and all sorts of fun that I would probably never be able to do all of but I can do some and record the rest for next yr although I may find something else.

http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/unitssubjhol/a/advent125.htm

We are going to do these things. I'm not sure what category they will all fit into but that is okay I am just going to simplify by saying it's a unit study. There all done in the hs field, lol. Each of the kids will get to pick something each and then I will get to pick at least one. That will have us doing four things on our Unit (like how I did that???) every day. I hope to share pictures and stuff.

Our tree is up and there is snow that is sticking to the ground or at least the roof tops. We have turkey, candied yams and green bean casserole for leftovers. I have put together two deer and a spiral tree to put in our yard. Dh got Santa out and put him on our porch he speaks and sings in American English and Spanish. Most of the decorations are up. We had a great four day weekend, how about you?

Vanessa