Another End

Here's E with his Friday Co-Op crew.

Demonstrations today included one from their Swordplay class.

Their instructor is really interested in the history of swordplay.  Plus, he ends a lot of sentences with, "And this is where you stab them in the head", so E thinks he's cool.



It was difficult to get a good picture of his dance routine as I had only brought my phone camera.

Today was definitely an 'all about E' day. But A was there too. We did a little Christmas shopping. And he watched the demonstrations and grabbed some snacks too.

Take it easy on the red peppers A..leave some for the rest of us!



Homemade Hogwarts

We got a few things 'sorted out' around here today.

It was the first morning for our at-home Hogwarts school.

The boys wrote for a 'spell' in their books with feather pens and ink.

I hope they grow accustomed to their Herbology class as well as they did the pens.

We planted mimosa pudica seeds today.

They used their wands and a firm 'cresca planta' spell to get their seeds growing.

Lots of fun for the boys. Thoughtful planning for teacher.

This is a subject outside my comfort zone so it's going to be a real growth experience for me.



Christmas Day (on the 9th)

Turkey Time. Turns out I was able to cook the turkey all by myself. (wink)

 

K, Santa and an elf were there for some post-dinner entertainment.

Great job. Thanks for organizing K

   

And then there were presents. Lots of presents.

 

All the boys doing Christmas....gangnam style.

Did I mention there were presents?

 



Then we moved this party on to AuntiJ's house.

And guess what was there? Presents in stockings.

Looks like Adm is having a special moment with his stocking.

Everyone had a bit of a play. And some yummy dessert.

 



And here we all are. After eating and playing and unwrapping and playing and eating.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Christmas Version1

When Grandpa joined us in town on Friday we all met for a meal at the pizza place.

This was a fun pic Michael took while we were on our way in to the movie yesterday.

Grandma getting acquainted with the wildlife.

Laugh one laugh all. 

Cooking the turkey always makes me smile. It's remembering the other ways that the women in my family like to cook a turkey and all the conversations/heated discussions that have been had in the kitchen on holidays.

My mom loves to cook the meat until it screams!! She firmly believes that all recommended cooking times for turkeys should be doubled.....at least. If the turkey is checked and any moisture escapes from the meat....it's not done yet....cook it longer!

My other mom believes that turkeys should be completely dry when they are put in to cook. And she is not afraid to defile house towels in her efforts. The night before cooking the turkey she tucks it in to the fridge wrapped and stuffed with absorbent material.

All the better for gravy I hear.

Dip Dip Dip

First you make the cake and add some icing and mix it all up.

After they are formed into balls they need to be refrigerated for a while.

Then they come out of the fridge and the sticks are inserted with some white chocolate on the end to help hold them in.

During the waiting periods we worked on our Christmas cards.

Then comes the good part. Dip dip and sprinkle sprinkle.

Voila! Cake pops.

Keepin' On

We had been hoping to start swimming in September but could not get into a program that didn't conflict with our other scheduled activities. Lucky us....a spot opened up on Monday afternoons at a time we can do.
First class was this week and they really enjoyed it.

And since by 7p.m. I had:

taught the kids
visited 2 hard-to-get-to stores for Christmas presents
cleaned the bird cage
cleaned the guinea pig cage
folded 2 loads of laundry and started another load
hung a curtain rod
made the guest bed
cleaned the main floor bathroom
played with the neighbours from 3-5p.m.
exercised on my stationary bike for 40 minutes
and cooked dinner.....

I had time to get showered and dressed to attend a Christmas dessert church function this evening.

The Tree

Christmas tree decoration night is always a big deal around here.

It's a real highlight of the year.

Things can get a little silly....especially after all those chocolates we eat!

We took eighteen family pics and this was the best one.

Love my boys.

The boys feel they must both place the star on the top of tree at EXACTLY the same time.

First Weekend of December

We are so completely in the Christmas spirit around here.

We're counting down with our chocolate calendars AND our fabric advent calendar.

The Santa hats are out and the fun has begun.

T-3 days until the first of our Christmas visitors.

We pulled out our Christmas movies and the Christmas books.

The tree went up and we're decorating it tonight.

Though E got an early start and made a little home in it for the birds.

Can you see the paper tree and presents he put in there?

This is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in.

(The true horror of this can not be appreciated in the picture.)

This is what it looked like after we did the demo.

And this is what it looks like now.

Great job M and Grandad.

I'm so happy with it.