I thought I'd try and put up a real post for a change! LOL!  We are doing something a little different this year.

   I usually do regular school all the way till next week, but this year I decided that it usually means that all the fun Christmasy stuff gets missed. So..........we finished regular school last week and are doing Christmas school for two weeks!

   What is Christmas school you ask? Well, it means that we dont' do anything that isn't directly related to the holiday season (including Hanukah which we are learning about this year). So, we have read lots of Christmas books, watched Christmas DVD's snuggled up on the sofa, decorated the house, made Christmas crafts, baked Christmas cookies, did Christmas coloring sheets, a Christmas words Spanish book, and all the many fun Christmasy things that have been sitting on my computer waiting to be done!

   We have had alot more play time and fun stuff and it has been great! We have had alot of stress in the house the past few weeks as you may have guessed by my silence and absence. I don't really want to go into it all on here, but suffice it to say that we have been under attack spiritually and in every other way. We have had problems with our church, fostering, family, work, and our current foster children are needing ALOT more support as we prepare them for the upcoming adoption in the New Year!

   It has been good to just take some time out and do the fun stuff and prepare our hearts for this Christmas season. I ordered 'Jotham's Journey' for our advent reading but in arrived late as it was shipping from the states. So we are now reading several days together to catch up and still do the book this year. I know that's not how it was meant to be used, but the boys have looked forward to hearing the story - so we are reading it fast this year and can use it for daily readings again next year.

   We did something new for our advent calendar this year too. We have a large pocket advent calendar that I made years ago when we were first married. I purchased the playmobile nativity set and the wise men set to go with it. Then I set up the stable and a couple of very large pieces, like the camel. The rest of the set was put into the 24 pockets on the calendar. Each day one of the children takes a turn in seeing which part of the set is in that days pocket and adding that character or piece to the nativity set on top of the TV. It has been a good reminder to the kids of what we are counting down to - and of course baby Jesus will be found in the last pocket to complete the picture!

   I think this will give us the break we need so we can start fresh and new in January with the 'normal' school schedule. Anyway, better get going - there is alot more cookie baking to do today. Whatever you are doing in your school - have fun and enjoy remembering the reason for the season!

   I'm carrying on the theme of pointless blogging and posting another map. This time it is of all the countries of the world I have been to.  Not as impressive as the last map but still not bad for a little girl from New Jersey, huh? LOL!

   So, where have you been? And Shani, I would LOVE to add Arizona to the map! I'm kind of hoping that when you move it will be one of the states that I've already managed - that way there is a greater chance of getting there next time we fly in!

   Gotta go, cookies to bake!

visited 13 states (5.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World

   This was kind of fun and pointless - so I did it! I've had such a ridiculous week last week that I needed to do something pointless, if you know what I mean?  

   So here is a map of all the states in the USA that I have been to. Not bad since it covers over half the states in the USA. Since I have lived outside the states for almost 16 years this is quite an accomplishment!

visited 27 states (54%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I've been so slow with blogging lately!  The holiday season has us busy!  (My photo host has also been giving me fits in uploading pictures.  It is usually fabulous, so I'm spoiled.)

I finally managed to upload pictures, so we'll continue the play-by-play of our Arizona trip!



Over there:


And a then from "over there":

What a beautiful and awe inspiring sight.  Pictures (at least my pictures) can't do the Grand Canyon justice. 

As amazing as the natural wonder is, anywhere we go I enjoy watching people:  the people were fascinating, and in return, I realized that people were watching us. 

So many people wanted to take our pictures!  Oh, yes, a  few kind souls offered to take a picture of our whole family (one of them is posted a few posts down).  That didn't surprise me.  What was odd was those who wanted to take our picture with their own cameras!  There were visitors from all over the world--many from Asian countries.  The Asian women were fascinated with our children.  They'd see Kieran coming around a corner and "ooh!" and "aah" over him.  (We think he's pretty cute ourselves.) Then they'd see Keegan and say, "Brother?  Oh!  he has brother!"  A moment later they'd clap their hands in delight seeing the three girls!  "All brothers and sisters?  All?  One, two, three, four, five?"   It was astounding to me because while five is more than our national average, it isn't something that usually stops traffic.  Several of the ladies asked if they could take the children's picture.  Their exuberance and genuine excitement was irresistible, so we were happy to oblige, but  I do wish I'd taken a picture of them taking their pictures.

The other picture I wish I'd taken was of the Condor Man.  As we were heading back toward the train, we saw a man waving an antenna back and forth.  He was off by himself, but as we got closer he looked over at us, and seemed amiable.  The children asked what he was doing,.  (Ken and I were curious ourselves).  We walked over to ask, and ended up being given a wonderful science lesson.  He explained that he was picking up signals from California Condors, and provided a wealth of information on the enormous, endangered birds.

Next up, in my super-slow play-by-play, the return train ride.   Stay tuned, it might be a day or three unless I can mend my ways.

I started to post about our trip to Arizona and the Grand Canyon, but got derailed just before posting about the train!  We took a train to the north rim, and the ride was an experience to remember! 

Before the trip: Kieran got in with a rough crowd, and made the acquaintance of some train robbers!:

The train!

Kieran much prefered this mode of travel to his car seat:


Outside our window--Looks alot like Wyoming!

And in addition to fascinating information told as we traveled, we had great entertainment!

Stay tuned.  I really will get to the actual canyon soon!  (If I don't get derailed again.  It seemed that once we got home and unpacked the Christmas season just hit full force!  Life is busy, but good!)

Next stop: The North Rim.

Over the last few days I have been checking out some of the online advent calendars.  Many I've seen have just been advertising yet more stuff to buy, but here are a few you may find useful:

This one is from Activity Village and every day has a variety of activities suggested and games to play.  There is a fun 'Reindeer Keyboard' game on Day 2.

This is from a school in Kent and has a daily country and its customs to learn about.

The BBC have a couple of interesting pieces about advent, the first here.  They also have a Bach Christmas calendar with loads of information about Bach and some of his music each day.  Beautiful!

And finally, one that's mainly for fun, though we started to learn about time zones through this one last year:  Norad tracks Santa 

I cannot vouch for all the content on these sites, not least because most of the 'doors' are not open yet, but what I've seen so far seems to be okay.

If you have found a 'gem' please do share it with us by leaving a comment.  Thank you!

Enjoy!

Sarah 

The National Trust has many special events on at this time of year.  There are craft fairs, a chance to take part in a Dickensian Christmas, lantern lit walks, carol singing and of course, the opportunity to visit Father Christmas.  Have a look here to see if there's anything local to you.

Enjoy!

Sarah