Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!!!!

From our Family . . . to Yours!!!!

Until next time . . .

Miscellaneous Holiday Musings . . .

Last week Baby Boy had surgery.  Nothing major, as he does have this same procedure every year.  Mom #2 and I always anxiously await biopsy results.  For the first time in literally 10 years the biopsy found ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  We're so excited!  We feel like we have just witnessed our very own private Christmas miracle.  There is usually a little something, often a lot of something, but we are extremely grateful for absolutely nothing.  Hurray!  I hope this positive trend is indicative of our fortune for the new year.

Even though no one in this family is Italian or Catholic, Mom #2 and I decided to have a Feast of Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve dinner this year.  Why?  Because we like seafood.  It's yummy!  We felt like doing something a little different from the same old thing . . . our families were VERY against any Christmas change in the Christmas day meal, so we're having our own pre-Christmas whatever-the-heck-we-want celebration on Christmas Eve with our family and Mom #2's daughter, son-in-law, and the three Fairies. 

I have a 40 point cleaning list posted on the pantry door.  All of those items must be done before a single guest is allowed to set foot in this house.  We got about half of them done today, so that puts us right on schedule.  Mom #2 and I have done almost all of our assignments.  Baby Boy is procrastinating.  Oh, the joys of being 18.  If he thinks he'll enjoy one. single. moment of Christmas without getting his assigned cleaning duties completed, he has another think coming, I assure you.

Finally, Baby Boy experienced some natural consequences today.  Because he procrastinated so much ordering a gift for his *ahem* *cough* girlfriend *cough* and it just got here today, he had to pay almost three times what I consider a reasonable amount to get it to her by Christmas, since she's not exactly local.  Now he sees why I preach "The early bird gets the worm," all day and all night.  Once again, the joys of being 18. 

Nothing earth shattering.  Just wanted to catch y'all up on everything that has been going on with us this Holiday Season. 

I wish you all love, peace, and prosperity in everything you say, think, and do this Holiday Season!


Until next time . . .

I'm Already Having a Freaky Fun Christmas!!!

Well I'd like to say that I successfully completed two VERY intense presentations at school over the last couple of weeks.  One in Spanish, OMG, that was tough.  The other was presenting a research poster on a project I've been working on all semester.  It was so intense and scary.  I hate speaking in front of groups, especially when I'm supposed to be an expert on something and I feel like a blubbering idiot on the subject, LOL.  But look, I'm still alive . . . I'm battling hell week right now, but that's ok, after this, it'll be over. 

One reason I was able to get through the last week was because of some great advice and just a general friendly listening ear from one of my very best blogging buddies, Freakmom.  Thanks to her years of experience speaking in front of groups, she really helped me calm my nerves and get the job done.  I was all ready to send her a thank-you email, when something super special showed up in my mailbox. 

 Isn't it beautiful??!!!! 

It's a real live handmade knitted from scratch scarf!  I've never had anyone sit down and actually make something with their own two hands while thinking of me.  I just about burst into tears when I saw it.  It's just the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.  It really made my whole day/week/month/year/lifetime. 

It got here just in time too, because it's been freakishly cold here in Central Texas.  You know, I don't do well when the temperature falls below 65 degrees.  That's hibernating weather to me!

See, I like it so much, I'm wearing it right now.  

This is how my face looks with no make-up.  Don't allow your small children to look directly into the computer screen, they may turn to stone.  Grownups, you can just ignore it if you like.  How do you like my Merry Christmas Rudolph pajamas?  We're already in full-fledged Christmas mode right now.  

Anyway, What a Freaky Fresh start to the Christmas season. 

Thanks, Freakmom!

Until next time . . .

Our Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful holiday and hope your family did as well!!!

Big sighs of relief until another holiday rolls around.  Enjoy a few photos from our celebration.

Off to relax and enjoy my miraculously-still-spotless house!!

Until next time . . .

One Tippy Toe at a Time . . .

. . . is how you ease back into blogging after an extended absence, No?

Did anyone see the Lunar Eclipse?  When we went to bed last night, it was too cloudy to see much of anything, but around 3 o'clock this morning, it was very red and super cool.  Insomnia has its privileges. 

Baby Boy and I finished our Fall semesters successfully.  Whew!  I took 15 hours this semester, and let me just say that was too many.  Housework, schoolwork, sanity in general . . . it all suffered.  I'll be pulling back to part time in the spring.  Well . . . not exactly part time, but less than 15 hours.  Let's just say that. 

Great news!  I finally received my acceptance letter to my first choice university.  I have one more semester at the community college and then I'm headed for the Big Time.  I think Baby Boy is going to take another 2 or 3 semesters before he's ready to transfer.  He has a very strategic plan.   

I'm still trying to get motivated for Christmas. 

My sister bought a new house and graciously hosted Thanksgiving Dinner there, but it looks like it's back over here for Christmas Eve Dinner for Mom #2's daughter and her brood and Christmas Day Dinner for my family this year. 

I won't bore you with all the details, but I have extreme entertaining anxiety, and I am not looking forward to any of it.  I hate holidays, but I've already got the house-cleaning list up on the white board.  Grab a pair of rubber gloves and come on over if you have any free time.


Did y'all see Fabio win Survivor?  I thought he was so cute during the season, but on the reunion show, I didn't really care for his haircut.  I liked it better long.  Not that he's asking me for any styling tips now that he has a million dollars.  I could use a donation though, so if any of you know him personally, send him by my house, LOL. 

OK, I think that's all for now.  I'll try not to be such a stranger.





Until next time . . .

Semester Summary

In case you were wondering, yes, I did survive Christmas.

I definitely think I'll plan a more low-key holiday next year, as I was so spazzed out that I could barely enjoy myself.  Mom #2 really wanted lots of family around this Christmas, so I guess we'll have to manage a way to take turns so we can both enjoy our holidays.  I'm taking suggestions if anyone has a workable solution.  Maybe one of my New Year's Resolutions will be to be more laid-back in general  so that I don't obsess over house cleaning when people come to visit.  After all, it's mostly family and they all know and love us whether the house is spotless or not.

Of course, I've come to that conclusion only after putting Baby Boy and Mom #2 through high-holy-heck in the house cleaning department. Hindsight, you know. 


I hope everyone has and continues to have a wonderful holiday.  Ours was lovely and frankly, I'm glad it's over.  Kind of like a roller coaster ride . . . the anticipation is delicious, the experience is dramatic, and the after glow is oh-so-delightful.  *HAPPY * SIGH*


On the homeschool front, I guess it's time to wrap up the first semester and label our hits and misses . . . so without further ado . . .

• Composition - We completed all the lessons in SWI-C.  I'm glad we finished it.  I did consider throwing it out a few times, but I'm also attempting to teach character here and we know that the entire world won't be structured to our liking once we hit the big time.  All in all, I think we learned a lot from it.  It really got us looking at writing from a different angle.  It certainly is a different style of writing.  Baby Boy and I had sort of fallen into the routine of simply writing book reports and lecture summaries, but this taught us to think outside the box a little bit and write from different angles and viewpoints.  My only concern is the extreme rigidity and formulaic approach.  Like any homeschool Mom, I tweaked it to fit our needs, but the setup can be a bit too structured for us loosey-goosey homeschooling types.  Another concern is that I personally think it's very expensive and I don't really know if I'd recommend it to a friend new, but I purchased it used at a substantial discount.  It's definitely worth it from that standpoint.  I think we'll label this one a moderate hit on sale and a miss at full price.     

•  Vocabulary - We managed to get through the first half of Vocabulary Cartoons 2 book, approximately 150 words.  As a matter of fact, I gave Baby Boy a comprehensive quiz covering all of the words we've covered so far this year and he made a 100%!  What we really do is try to incorporate the words we learn into our every day speech, although you can't tell from the simpleton talk on this blog, LOL.  This helps to solidify what we've learned and take the knowledge from being only abstract in nature to more concrete.  We'd already had success with Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power last year, so this was a no brainer for us this year.  This is definitely a big hit. 

• Literature -  We have thoroughly enjoyed our literature selections so far this year:  Frankenstein, The War of the Worlds, and our most recent The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.   After years of the obligatory American Lit and British Lit, it has been fun to branch out and do a little something free and fluid on our own.  I've never read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde before myself, but had lots of ideas about how the book would actually be since it's such a classic story.  It was fun to read the actual text firsthand instead of relying on popular culture for the plot.  Baby Boy also enjoyed it too.  I think he may have enjoyed this book over Frankenstein, which was hard to beat.  Neither of us really enjoyed reading The War of the Worlds, but listening to the 1938 radio broadcast and watching two versions of the movie, I can say we definitely made the best of that one.  I think this idea of reading classic sci-fi and fantasy has been a great big hit.   

• Pre-Calculus -  I heart Teaching Textbooks.  That's all I have to say.  I know there is talk amongst those on certain homeschool message boards that it is not as rigorous as other math texts.  I don't know about too many other texts as we began homeschooling Baby Boy his last year of elementary school, reviewed a little with workbooks during an abbreviated middle school and jumped right into high school math.  I guess he can be labeled a "mathy" kid.  Our first attempt at higher level mathematics was Saxon Math with DIVE cds, as it was recommended to me by everyone as the gold standard, but it simply wasn't a good fit for us.  We switched to Teaching Textbooks at pre-algebra and have never looked back.  Pre-calculus has been the most challenging subject we've had to tackle thus far, but having the detailed video explanations for each and every problem has really been beneficial.  Baby Boy has consistently placed better than grade-level on standardized testing and also tested solidly into collegiate level math on the COMPASS just a few weeks ago.  That's good enough proof for me and I've long since gotten over concerning myself with what others think anyway, so as you can imagine, another enthusiastic hit is among us.  
  

• Chemistry -  As you know, we've outsourced this subject this year, but that hasn't stopped me from developing opinions on it, LOL, because that's just the kinda gal I am.  If you've been reading for a while, you know this is our second attempt at chemistry.  Last year was a big-ole-bust.  Historically we've used Apologia high school science courses because they are extremely user friendly and many online retailers have supply packs for them at reasonable costs.  We've had great success with biology, marine biology and advanced biology/human anatomy (Can you tell we like biology?), however the chemistry was a huge struggle for some reason.  Baby Boy and I both read the textbook and couldn't seem to make heads or tails of it and ended up ditching it about 1/4 way through the year anticipating he'd just eventually take it at community college.  Our new textbook, Chemistry Matters, from Singapore Math, has been a transformational improvement.  Even though I am not the primary instructor for this particular class, when I do have to assist either with Baby Boy's homework, lab presentation, or grading during co-op time, everything makes so much more sense to me.  Also, this may not matter to some people, but the text is lavishly illustrated with lots of color and holds the interest of even the most non-sciencey Mom (and student).  Baby Boy has also commented on how much better he likes it at well, so I'm going to rate this one another hit.  Additionally, adding in The Teaching Company's chemistry DVDs have been invaluable.  Mr. Cardulla is both entertaining and enthusiastic about chemistry, something I thought was virtually impossible.  These have been well-worth the expense and receive a whole-hearted thumbs up from both Baby Boy and myself.  Consider chemistry to be a double hit.   

All of the extra-curricular activities are still big hits except for homeschool bowling.  That will have to be put on the back burner for now because the time won't work for us any longer.  It will directly conflict with Baby Boy's community college schedule beginning next month.  Teen participation has really been dwindling anyway, which makes me feel even more guilty about letting it go, but something really has to give.  We're going to attempt to keep everything else going.  More intensive black belt training (IS there such a thing?) will also begin next month, so the spring and summer should really be hopping around here.  

Baby Boy will be taking Freshman Composition and math at community college and will continue with his chemistry co-op next semester, so the frequency and depth of our weekly monthly wrap-ups may diminish, but I'm going to try to find a way to keep them up.  I like putting our work down in a tangible way so I'm going to have to get creative about how to keep the rhythm flowing.  I'll figure something out.  I'm not sure what yet, but something.

This has been a loooooonnnnnnggggg post.  If you read it all, thanks.  If not, I completely understand, it's just something that simply had to be done for my sanity's sake.

We'll return to our regularly scheduled silliness . . . soon . . . you know . . . when I get around to it.  ;-)  

Until next time . . .

Holiday Honey-Do

Here's a list of things that need to get done before we can consider this a successful Christmas.

This is a list for everyone in the house to work from, not just me, although I think we can all agree that I'm the most psychotic and anal retentive serious about making sure it all gets done.

During Holiday season, I generally do the majority of the cleaning and Mom #2 does the majority of the cooking. I have no patience for meals that take more than an hour or so . . . so everyone lives to die another day benefits from me not being in the kitchen during this time of year.

Oh, and if you're wondering why some or all of this wasn't done in advance instead of being saved for the last minute, the answer's simple:

I. Have. A. Problem.

Housework must be done directly before guests walk into the house. Clean has a special feel and aroma. It cannot be imitated, duplicated or preserved. A house that is clean and sits is not as delicious or impressive as a freshly cleaned house. I know, sad, but true. Many prayers for my family. They have to live with it all. year. long.


Wish us luck!

• Get up EARLY CHECK!
  

• Wash dishes (For the first time in GENERATIONS we manged to get to bed last night without a clean kitchen. My whole face is twitching which is why I'm up at such an ungodly hour writing this.)
  

• Wash dog

• Trim dog's toenails
  

• Sweep floors

• Mop floors

• Vacuum carpet

• Clean guest bathroom (to MY standards, not general purpose cleaning)

• Dust EVERYTHING

• Wrap gifts for Mom #2's grandchildren (because I'm too young and fresh-faced to be a grandma), daughter and guest (LOL), who will be coming over for Christmas Eve Dinner

• Prepare big enchilada dinner

• Be gracious hostess for above mentioned dinner which should last just long enough, but not too long as many chores still need to be done once they leave
  

• Wash dishes, again

• Revisit sweeping, mopping and vacuuming but hopefully not as aggressively as before
  

• Pick up Christmas gifts from their secret sneaky-teenage-son-proof-location

• Wrap above mentioned gifts and also wrap the gift for my Baby Niece (I hate wrapping gifts and prefer to leave it until the last possible moment. This strategy has obviously not served me well this year.)
  

• Write my Mom a Christmas gift letter congratulating her on all the hard emotional work she's done this year with her mental illness because, even though my entire family agreed months ago that we'd only purchase gifts for the children this year, her quack of a therapist thinks we're gypping her out of her apparent birthright to have a present. *SIGH* This bullet could be parlayed into an entire blog post all on it's own . . . but I'll just let it sit at that for now. Maybe we can discuss it in detail after the New Year. I'll bring the couch. I'm sure I'll need to lie down (or is it lay down . . . no time for a grammar lesson today).
  

• Get to bed early enough so that Santa Clause doesn't pass our house up

• Get up EARLY Christmas Morning and hope Santa did indeed make it by

• Have a short but sweet intimate 3-people-and-a-dog Christmas Morning
  

• Put Christmas turkey in the roaster
  

• Go to Mom #2's parents' house to have a delicious Christmas Morning Breakfast
  

• Come home and prepare big Christmas Dinner

• Yet again, be the Hostess with the Mostess as my Sister, Niece, Mom and Dad are coming over for Christmas Dinner

• Wash dishes, again
  

• Go to bed . . . and sleep-sleep-sleep . . . until it all feels like a god forsaken nightmare dream

Everyone please have a lovely and safe Holiday. Be well and laugh loudly as often as possible. Spend it with someone you love and who loves you right back.

Until next time . . .

Big Kids at the Festival of Lights

Yesterday Baby Boy and I drove into town, which I rarely do, and ended up spending the entire day out and about.

We started out with our homeschool group Game Day. Let me tell you, there is nothing more heartwarming than listening to 10 to 15 teenagers playing board games and drinking hot chocolate making so much noise that the Moms almost have to leave the room. They played Apples to Apples, I Doubt That, and some other made up games that only they know the rules to. We Moms had fun too sitting and chatting and not worrying about where our children were or what they were doing, because we could see them right there.

After Game Day, we went out to lunch and had some delicious Mexican food. More teenage noise. We Moms wanted to relax and enjoy our lunches, but the kids forced us to hurry it up because they wanted to walk over to the park (which is really just a field) so they could toss the Ultimate disc around a little bit. Once again, we Moms were regulated to a park bench to sit and watch the whole shebang. Baby Boy has a little bit of a chest cough, so somehow he managed to convince the entire group that standing still and playing catch would be way more fun than a full out game of Ultimate Frisbee. Luckily for him because, I told him that if he started running, diving and jumping . . . he would be homeward bound. I don't want him getting a full-on chest cold the week of Christmas.

Finally, we took another walk to the holiday Festival of Lights. It was so beautiful and such a fantastic time. We parked about a mile away so that we could 1) have free parking, 2) not get gridlocked by all of the traffic, and 3) leave whenever we wanted to. It was a stroke of genius, if we do say so ourselves. It was a lovely brisk night, perfect for a nighttime stroll to the park. We all had a great time looking at the lights and listening to the various holiday music. There were local bands around every corner performing their various interpretations of the holidays. Long live diversity!

After we had looked at all the lights, the kids actually took over the play scape including the swings, slides, castle and moat. It's a good thing that it was dark outside or I'm sure we would have encountered dirty looks from the preschool Moms. I guess something about it being dark made everything more exciting and "teenagery" because they all let loose and had a great time. It was so funny to watch, because, as the Moms of teenagers know very well, they spend so much time acting too cool to move or speak that it's rare to see them run, jump, play and just let loose. It did all of our hearts a lot of good and we ended up spending an extra hour or so there after we had finished with the festival just watching our teen group play freeze tag, king of the castle and other childlike games. Hilarious!

We came home and had a delicious barbecue chicken dinner prepared by our very own Mom #2. I'm so sorry she missed the good time, but I am glad she had that hot delicious dinner waiting. After all of that fun, we were ravenous for a good meal.

We had such a fabulous day! With Baby Boy growing up so fast and many of the students in our homeschool group making college plans (although we Moms are seriously planning on holding things together as a homeschool alumni group since most of our teens will be doing time at the community college before actually going away to school), I get a little nostalgic as I know days like this will be fewer and farther in between.

Don't get me started on Christmas just yet. Apparently our Thanksgiving dinner was such a roaring success that we are recreating the event two more times, once for a Christmas Eve dinner and another big gathering on Christmas Day. I really need a nice, low key, immediate family only day to get me ready to deal with the hustle and bustle of gift wrapping, cooking, cleaning and . . . more cleaning. I guess today will have to be that day . . . all the rest starts tomorrow.



Happy Holidays to all of you!



Until next time . . .

Walking in a Winter Wonderland . . .

Since we never get snow in this part of Texas, we like to make a little Winter Wonderland of our own around the Holiday Season.

Since you've already dropped in, why not dust off your feet and take a tour?

Go ahead and hum Winter Wonderland to yourself while you enjoy the attractions. It'll seem more real, if you do. I don't like blogs with music, so be sure to hum nice and loudly.


We really enjoyed having you. Thanks so much for dropping by!


Until next time . . .

Time To Get It Started

This is all that's left to represent Christmas Season 2008 and Baby Boy and Mom #2 are getting ready to take it down to the storage unit right now. Yes, I'm one of those people. We practically had to renovate the whole place to get all of the Christmas stuff up; which of course has to be done in reverse to get it all down again.


We ate our black-eyed peas with the celebration chopsticks that SabrinaT sent us from Japan, so we're all set in the superstitious good-luck department, LOL.


This morning Mom #2 is on her way back to work and Baby Boy and I are getting ready to jump into our schoolwork all the way in the deep in. We've been doing a little school "lite" for the past couple of weeks just to keep our brains nice and sharp but now we're going back to cooking with gas. Sizzle!


I've made my usual resolution to lose lots of weight and start exercising much more regularly. . . I'm not sure if black-eyed peas are conducive to that goal or not, but it doesn't matter because I hate them and won't be eating them anymore until New Years Day 2010, LOL. Maybe I should continue using those chopsticks, because it sure was a workout trying to get food onto them and I was all worn out way before all of my food was gone ;-).


I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, or continues to have one, if yours isn't quite over yet.


I hope getting back into the swing of things doesn't hurt too badly. I'm a bit of a night owl and all three of us have been sleeping in every single morning . . . so I'm already hurting a little bit, and since I don't drink coffee - - I have to wait for my natural stimulants to kick in . . . so I'm waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting, LOL.


Have a great week and a fantabulous 2009.


In the words of my favorite late night host from seasons past, Arsenio Hall,

LET'S GET BUSY!

Until next time . . .

Hope You All Had A Fabulous Holiday . . .

. . . Filled with FAMILY, FRIENDS and lots of FUN!!!

Until next time . . .

The Most AMAZING Christmas Gift EVER!!!

Over the past 6 or 7 months our family has been somewhat quietly enduring a crisis situation.


Baby Boy has several health conditions that affect his life daily; however, we do not dwell on the negative - we remain positive and encourage him and ourselves to live our lives to the fullest.

We've made several trips to the doctor's office, to various lab facilities and finally a couple of weeks ago, as you know, Baby Boy had to have a little bit of surgery. I guess I can tell you now, he had a series of three biopsies.


* * * I'll take this moment and just mention right here and now that I am the kind of parent who leaves . . . shall we say . . . an impression. For better or for worse, once medical staff has met me, I'm rarely forgotten. I'm not pushy or rude, just a tireless advocate for Baby Boy, if you know what I mean. I have an extremely strong Mama Bear complex. * * *


So . . . we've had to endure I don't know how many series of blood tests, another series of fairly invasive tests that Baby Boy won't let me tell you about, a probe test (don't ask), and finally the three biopsies. Every test was more stressful than the last AND we kept getting inconclusive results. It's been frustrating and somewhat paralyzing as we've just been sort of "marking time" in a daze waiting to hear some real results of all of this hard work.

Well . . . on Christmas Eve, while everyone else was at home with their families cooking and shopping and enjoying the hustle and bustle of the season, a very sweet nurse took time out of her day to give me a phone call.


These were her words:

"I was on my way home and we're going to be closed for a few days over the Christmas break, but I noticed that Baby Boy's results came back and I remembered how concerned you and Mom #2 were, so I thought I'd go ahead and call you. All of his biopsies came back crystal clear. He's fine. You don't need a follow up appointment. Come back in for a check-up in 6 months, and you don't have to put it on your calender, I'll give you a call. Have a Merry Christmas."


*SIGH*


It's finally over.


Merry Christmas!




Until next time . . .

Last Day Of Vacation And Other Various Ramblings.

This week has been spent winding down from all the holiday hype and un-decorating the house.

Everything seems a little empty and plain looking compared to the big colorful collection of Christmas decorations we had around here. It sure takes a little getting used to again. Every time I go into the living room, the dining room, or the bathroom, I keep thinking "Something is missing." But it's just the lack of festive decor. Ho Hum. I guess that's the extent of my after holiday blahs. The holidays were really great around here considering all the financial woes we had this past year, so I have absolutely nothing but gratitude for the season, no blahs here.

This morning I've been trying to get my lesson plan together for next week. It seems to be in working order. I think I'm ready to hit the ground running on Monday.

Now getting up and ready on Monday morning is going to be a real chore. Mom #2 has been getting up this week for work, and I get up with her to get her breakfast and such, but Baby Boy has been sleeping until one or two in the afternoon. I know I should probably be slowly working him into getting up earlier, so as not to shock his system on Monday, but I guess it's too late for that. I've been kind of enjoying the peace and quiet I get in the mornings since Mom #2 is at work and Baby Boy has been sleeping in. Yikes! Am I aloud to admit that? Well, I guess I already did. Anyway, it was nice, but now it's over anyway...so LOL.

Anyway, I'm not feeling too insightful or even thoughtful today. I just wanted to post a little something so you would know I'm still alive. It has been a very uneventful start to the new year, but I like it like that. No events are much better than a negative course of events, and I'm trying to remove all negativity from my life right now.

So that's a good thing.

Smooches!

Some Christmas Photos And After-Christmas Musings . . . Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas. We had a wonderful time.

We went to Mom #2's parents' house for breakfast (delicious bacon, homemade waffles, and homemade biscuits and gravy) and then to my sister's house for dinner. Dinner was potluck style since my sister doesn't really cook. We brought the turkey. (I simply must laugh every time I say that we brought the turkey to Christmas dinner - LOL)

This is the first super-big holiday since my mom and dad have separated, and Dad in true difficult man fashion, showed up very late and then refused to eat, but we had a good time anyway.

Here's a photo of us all sans Dad at my sister's house. Mom #2's family doesn't really take the time to do photos, but I hope to change that in the upcoming new year. They are very nice people, just more private, I guess.

My sister, Me (Mom #1), My Niece, Baby Boy, My Mom and Mom #2

Baby Boy got everything he wanted for Christmas. *Santa* heard his many powerful prayers and came through like a champ on the Nintendo Wii.


Actually it's for the entire family. We have been having so much fun playing it. My whole body is sore! I haven't moved around this much in months. It may actually have been the smartest gift we could have given/received this Christmas.

Baby Boy also received a new formal white tae kwon do uniform. He wears the casual black uniforms for every day classes/training, but the formal uniform for belt and phase testing each quarter. Last quarter his uniform was looking a little dingy and small, so a new one was definitely in order. He seemed pleased with it.


I received gift certificates for professional massages, manicures, and pedicures. I am so happy and excited! These are the things I have given up in light of our recent financial troubles. Now I can go without feeling guilty because they are pre-paid. Hallelujah! There is a God!

Mom #2 is back to work today, well not really, but she did go in to check on some jobs she was finishing up before Christmas and getting an ETA on some work to come after the holidays. Just keep us all in your hearts and minds this coming New Year. It seems like we're always on the brink of financial disaster, but have managed this far and won't be giving up anytime soon.

Baby Boy and I are taking two weeks off from school so I have none of those details and no curriculum reviews for you today. In fact he's finally sleeping in today. He's been getting up at the crack of dawn everyday, I guess just typical Christmas excitement.

I'm going to use this vacation to take a little time to reflect on what my New Year's resolutions will be, deep clean the house (or not), get some advanced lesson planning done for our home school, and take a good hard look at our family budget (YUCK!). I'm also going to try to free up a little extra change to get fireworks for New Years Eve - Yes we're one of THOSE families.

Anyway, I hope every one's holiday was wonderful and peaceful, full of family togetherness and love.

I'll try to get back on board before the New Year, but no promises. New Year's Day is also Mom #2's and my anniversary, so I'm trying to put together a little something for that.

So much to do... is two weeks vacation enough? I guess I'll find out.

Until next time . . .

Smooches!

The Christmas Tour!

I thought I'd give you a little tour of some of our inside Christmas decorations. There are lots more lights and stuff outside, but it's too cold to go out. It's about 40 degrees today, and while that may not be cold for some, it's freezing to me and I am not interested in getting all bundled up and going out into the elements.

It's supposed to get back into the 70s later this week, so I'll try to get the outside shots then.

So, without further ado. . .


Our Christmas Tree and Dining Area
(Notice the garland and ribbon around the window frame and the snow globe on the buffet.)

Our Mantle

Our Breakfast Bar
(The top is covered with snowflakes which we use for decoration and as coasters for drinks.)

Our Coffee Table
(More snowflake Coasters and do you think I like giant snow globes or what?)

And now we head into the guest bathroom. . .


The Toilet Seat



The Mat You Stand On To Wash Your Hands




The Hand Towel

And finally, the pièce de résistance, The Soap Dispenser
(When you press the top to get soap, it lights up in red and sings a little Christmas carol.)
I LOVE IT!

I know it's not quite as fancy as the White House Christmas Special that I just watched on TLC, but it's the best we can do on our country-time budget. When it warms up outside, I'll post some shots of the lights.

Until then. . .


Smooches!