Spider!

What you don't want to see inside your gingerbread house after you've been eating it...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Let the unwrapping begin (or continue)...

That's one way to unwrap....

Merry, merry day!

One day until Christmas!

My sweet ole' bear waiting quietly for Santa...

Two days until Christmas

One happy little Christmas boy

Three days until Christmas

One of our many visits with Santa Claus.

This Santa was particularly nice.

Johnny was half asleep and frozen. Poor little boy!

Four days until Christmas

Christmas cactus

Our beautiful plant bloomed again in time for Christmas (actually a little early-- and this picture was taken a bit too late after the blooms were already going downhill) and it would have been a nicer picture had Francie not built with Johnny's Legos all around it.

One day I will have a Christmas cactus beautifully blooming without any toys built up around it...and I will be sad.

Five days until Christmas

Six days until Christmas

Gingerbread houses (made with G'ma!)

Christmas Countdown

Last year around this time, Lorena began a Christmas countdown in pictures. I stole the idea and used it for my blog, the first entry right here.

This year, I am stealing her idea again and, I am stealing her words again. If you don't want to click on the link for my post last year, let me just repeat her words here.

Lorena said the idea is to blog, "simple pictures without lengthy posts as a way of capturing the beauty of the season- thus allowing the opportunity to focus on family, friends and final preparations!"

So, here I go, with seven days until Christmas-- Gingerbread cookies!

Thankful Thursday-Thank you anonymous person!

I received an email a few weeks back telling me that this blog was selected as a valuable resource for a company's website. And, they have chosen to feature me (as well as others) on their site as one of their "top family and children blogs." They even sent me that handy dandy looking little awards badge that I put over there on the right. How about that?

I have no idea who helped them find my site (she told me it was a "team of avid bloggers, who have wished to be named anonymous") but I am sending out a big thank you today to whomever it was! I appreciate you. :)

Here is a link, in case you want to see it (or you can click on that badge over there.)

Thanks again!

Wordless Wednesday- Bubbles!

Oh Christmas Tree

Natty and Francie both love to get the Christmas tree up and decorate it. Francie loves it so much it is actually her absolute favorite thing about Christmas!

This year, Sean took Natty and Francie next door to the Christmas tree farm and they chopped down and pulled home the biggest tree we have ever had.

It is so big that Sean had to call me from the driveway to help carry it home.

So big that our old Christmas tree stand didn't work and it fell over.

So big that we had to chop a bunch off the top just so it would fit in the living room.

And, of course, so big that I couldn't bring it in and set it up myself and we had to wait days after getting a new stand and before Sean, with his crazy work schedule, was home in the evening to help us.

This meant a couple of angry children, ornaments in hand, complaining that they couldn't wait another single second to decorate.

It was no surprise, then, when we finally brought it in and set it up, Natty couldn't wait for us to put the lights on. He plunged ahead by himself, grabbed a step-stool and the lights, and strung them on within minutes.

When he called us in to look, exclaiming how proud he was that he did it all by himself, I didn't have the heart to fix a single bulb. And so, our tree became decorated lovingly with lights that look like this:

Yes, those are colored lights at the bottom and white ones at the top, but not the very top where there are no lights, or the very bottom where there are no lights either. Ha!

And then my happy little elves decorated...

and decorated...

and decorated...

and decorated...

and took a break and woke up the next day and decorated some more...

until every single ornament that they could possibly find was hung up.

Whew!

My roses from Sean

Though it kind of makes you wonder what he did wrong, doesn't it? :)

Remembering G'pa

Today I am remembering my Grandpa, who passed away six months ago. I still have a hard time believing he is gone, that we won't be hearing him play an organ or the piano this Christmas season, that we won't be watching him open the can of nuts and laughing as the snake pops out, or watching him delight in seeing his five great-grandchildren unwrapping presents or frolicking around him.

The other day Johnny pulled a book of his bookshelf, one that used to be in Pop's apartment and he exclaimed, "POP read this book to me!!"

Though it brought tears to my eyes, as any mention of G'pa does, I was happy that he remembered. G'pa always said he wanted to live long enough so that his great-grandchildren would remember him and I happy to report that he did.

I pulled out an old picture today (which looked better before I scanned it and cropped it and put it here) that made me smile. This is G'pa/Pop just a few years ago on Francie's first birthday.

Wordless Wednesday

Homeschooling thought

Sometimes keeping three children home and homeschooling them seems rather insane and overwhelming to me. There are definitely some mornings I wake up and think about how nice it would be if all my beautiful children went off on their happy way to school while I spent the day doing...something (ha! Not exactly sure what that something would be yet, haven't gotten that far in this little fantasy.)

Lately I have been having those thoughts a lot more frequently, for a number of reasons, and every time I come up with one reason why they would be so much happier in school, I think of three reasons why I am so happy they are home. I guess I am not doing such a good job convincing myself to send them, though I keep trying. Ha!

Today, one of the biggest reasons I am glad they are home with me and with each other is because I love watching them interact and play with each other.

I have said it before but honestly, they play for hours with each other, seldom fighting, enjoying each other, pretending, playing board games, running around outside, drawing together, watching each other tackle various video games, etc.

I can't help but wonder- if they were apart all day, would they enjoy each other as much when they were reunited? Would they get along so beautifully, so peacefully, so happily?

Today, I don't think I want to find out.

Wordless Wednesday