On the Fifth day of Christmas

The great day has arrived...Christmas break officially starts at the end of today's school day!!! Mere words cannot convey how happy I am about this, lol. I plan to thoroughly enjoy the time, though it will undoubtedly fly by. My husband has accumulated some bonus days off from working on a special project at work, so we'll be getting to see quite a bit more of him than usual...can't wait!!

ON to the 12 days of Christmas. We've been adding a new tradition each year as our kids grow older. Some small, some not so much. So this year we decided to do the 12 days of Christmas activities. If only I could have looked into my crystal ball and foreseen that I would have a marathon migraine (going on day #4) during this same time...wouldn't that have been nice? But, honestly, it's been somewhat of a distraction. And the kids have had such a good time looking forward to each evening's activity. That's what it's all about, right?

This is what we've done so far:
Day 1) Game night of Christmas Trivia- SO much fun! I couldn't believe how much my boys knew about Christmas traditions in other countries.
Day 2) A very awesome Christmas puzzle- Even the 12-year-old I babysit was enticed away from his portable game system (which I can never remember the name of, but I do know that it costs a small fortune, lol).
Day 3) Decorating/painting ornaments.
Day 5) Decorated sugar cookies. Wild-looking bunch, don't you think? ;)
Day 4) Read/Listen to The Christmas Shoes. Write Christmas letters to grandparents.
5) Watch It's a wonderful Life.

Some of these activities we would normally do during the Christmas season anyway. But it's definitely added a little extra excitement for them to be able to look at the list and know it's a sure thing each day. And knowing that they were looking forward to it helped me to push through my aching head. Its made for some wonderful evenings, accompanied by hot chocolate, sparkling cider, and a little Nat King Cole and Rosemary Clooney playing in the background.

Good times, good memories~

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Can it possibly be only 17 more days until Christmas? I'm not even going to give excuses for not doing a Thanksgiving post. Suffice to say I did my fair share of being thankful and had a wonderful time with family and friends.

No pictures except for this one

due to the fact that lately anytime we go to an activity/gathering I forget to take pictures. But taking pictures of food I remember...wonder why that is?

This past Friday Hubby and I once again went to the Singing Christmas Tree with a group from our church. This is my favorite activity of the year. We had a wonderful time and, once again, I forgot to take along the camera... at least I'm consistent.

Saturday evening we went to a progressive dinner with our adopted adult Sunday school class. I should clarify that we are the adopted ones, due to the fact that we are both teaching 2nd grade kids during the time period that the adults meet. It was SO much fun. I have to admit it's nice to hang around with people your own age from time to time.

Just 9 more school days left until Christmas break...and so much work to do. After the break we'll be doing our state testing, which I actually look forward to... in a way. The Professor will be taking the writing test this year in addition to math and science. So he will be doing a few practice runs between now and then, including a 600 word research paper he's working on right now.

I CANNOT wait until this coming weekend when I will be able to indulge my intense desire to finally do some holiday baking! In plain language: I'll be baking up a storm. Our church is having it's annual Taste of Christmas, and so I'll have the perfect excuse for indulging in some holiday baking. I'm looking forward to trying a few new recipes, as well as some traditional ones. Our aprons are ready and waiting...and since I ALWAYS remember to take pictures of food, you can come here to drool :)

I have more to say (due to the fact that I have been posting so little) but the school books are beckoning. So maybe I'll manage to pull off posting two days in a row; we'll see.

Happy Tuesday~

I'm finally getting with the program

It only took me two years of blogging to get a background. I wouldn't want to rush into anything...

Hopefully it won't be too much of a sensory overload. Honestly, some backgrounds make my eyes cross with all their effects. I suppose a tendency toward migraines doesn't help. So I'm trying this on a strictly trial basis.

I just couldn't resist the red and green. Good night to all~