I woke up this morning to SNOW! not much, but we're happy for that-- everything was white. DH had the foresight to put the minivan in the garage last night when we returned home from my mom's house (Thanksgiving) so that was nice, although I've not gone anywhere today anyway.

This afternoon kiddo saw the Advent House I'd gotten a few weeks ago from World Market and inquired about it. This is the first time we've had a HOUSE to countdown to Christmas with! Usually I've bought those cheap flat chocolate filled door things from who knows where. Once we did a candy cane countdown (but that got boring! LOL) She opened the front door (day 1) after her shower time this evening.

We had a simple meal of grilled ham & cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. (They just HAVE to go together, ya know!) Nothing fancy, but after DH came home from work  and shoveled outside again it was a perfect fit for dinner! I made a batch of peanut butter cookies afterwards and we enjoyed a few. I tried to watch a Netflix rental, Tropic Thunder, with him but my brain just couldn't take the sheer stupidity... no matter how many actors in it I actually like. So I'm up here wrapping up this blog entry for today while he sits and watches the rest of it.

Well that's all for today, December 1st! I've saved these photos and will copy/paste my blog entry to a Word document so I can get this day into my 2008 Christmas Season binder. (No Trish, I've not FINISHED putting the darn thing together yet! *sigh*)

A bit of light homeschooling today: math, spelling, Illinois History (have to use the library books while we have them) and history reading.

Dinner: "yum-fest" trays consisting of smoked sausage, 2 different cheese balls, colby-jack cheese, two types of crackers, cucumber slices, baby carrots, ranch veggie dip, mint cookies, M&M's, a chocolate orange, eggnog, and sparkling cider served in holiday glasses. Not as big as the yum-fest my mom had when we decorated her tree, but there was only three of us tonight!




Activity: decorating the Christmas tree (finally!), watching Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas (my DH's favorite Christmas movie), Garfield Christmas, and part of Jack Frost (1979 animation). Additionally I also got two presents wrapped after DH and DD went to bed. I would have wrapped more but that was all I had downstairs!



Books: Tonight's read-aloud was Bright Christmas: An Angel Remembers (another Christmas Mosaic featured title) which had BEAUTIFUL illustrations. It told the story of The Nativity from the perspective of one Angel who was there. And, of course, we read more from Bartholomew's Passage.

Today was spent being busy around the house. I did laundry, tidied the downstairs, baked off more cookies (from the dough in the freezer I'd previously made), and various other things, including moving some furniture around to make room for our Christmas tree we've yet to put up! *gasp*!! DD spent most of the day cleaning her room and her bathroom.  Dinner was delicious: marinade pork loin, "fried" potatoes, steamed broccoli. Tonight  I read aloud The First Christmas Stocking. Then we read two days worth from Bartholomew's Passage. We're still not caught up yet, but will be tomorrow or the next day.

Oh, let me tell you a funny from today. So this afternoon my dear mom calls me up and after a few minutes of chit-chat finally tells me "what she did." It turns out she had ordered a ProClick Binding system for me for Christmas. She'd seen it in my Amazon store as  "must have" and thought that meant that *I* must have it., as in I REALLY, REALLY wanted it. Well, nice gift for a homeschooler, right?! Yes! However, I already OWN IT!!!  And have for a few years. LOL It wasn't until she went back to my Amazon store to then access the regular Amazon (for me to get affiliate credits for purchases) did it dawn on her what my "must haves" truly meant!  When she told me this I just laughed. I thought it was priceless. She thought it was pretty funny, too, and I reassured her she'd be able to send it back to Amazon for a refund, even telling her where on the site to do this. Gotta love her for trying!!! {{{hugs, Mom!}}}

And finally, I came across these computer wallpapers this evening. I thought they were rather funny, and perfect for the summer gardener who is going through a cold, snowy, icy winter now.. just like me!  Check them out!

Well, i knew it was too good to be true... trying to blog every day this month. HA! So the next best thing I can do is just catch up a bit and continue on.

This weekend was a flurry of activity starting with homemade pizzas on Friday night. DD and I followed that up with a bedtime reading of Danny and the Kings. (A featured title in Christmas Mosaic.) Surprisingly DD said that she remembered this story. I didn't recall reading it before so we decided it must have been one of the MANY, MANY library books I checked out last year for the CHRISTmas season and one that she just read herself. It is a really good book, nice storyline, easy to make connections with the "three wise men". 

Saturday my DH had duty so was at work most of the day. DD and I went to another homeschool group's entrepreneurial "Stop and Shop." I don't know MUCH about how they work it, but I've heard that this is for an entrepreneurial club of some sort.... with writing out a business plan, costs involved, etc. etc. for each kid/group of kids. I haven't verified that yet, but it's what I was told. This event was in their gym and each family looked to have a table with whatever crafts, baked goods, and other  handmade items they were selling. There was everything from flannel pajama pants, to cookies & brownies, to decorated journals, hand-cut wooden trivets,soups and baking mixes in jars, jewelry of all kinds, terracotta pottery items, blankets, crocheted dishtowels, and much more! Truly a wide variety of things. It was a really neat idea, indeed. We'll definitely go to their next one! I had hoped to find a something or two to pick up as gifts but, while everything was very lovely, nothing jumped out and said, "BUY ME!" Maybe next time!


After a brief stop at the library to pick up the next book in the series I'm reading and a swing by the house for my cell phone we went on to the Youth Center's Holiday Celebration. We had attended it last year and really enjoyed it so looked forward to going. It's a free event to military families in the area. There was a raffle, refreshments, arts & crafts for the kids, a Santa for visiting, and wonderful dancers from a local dance academy.








Would you believe it... I actually won something! Too bad it was only a jar of chocolates! Bah!! LOL I was surprised though. I guessed 122 and there was 123! LOL I'll be sending the candies with DH to take to work and will keep the jar for some future use.


After all that excitement DD and I went out to  lunch at our current favorite restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes then out for a little holiday shopping. How come she comes up with great "stocking stuffer" type ideas for herself when she's WITH ME shopping??! This makes it incredibly difficult to actually GET THEM, as I don't want her to SEE anything! *sigh* I did manage to buy a cute pair of slipper socks for her while out with her though, bwahahaha.


Saturday night after having worked on the sidewalk and driveway a bit together, decided to move around back and begin the private sledding hill. LOL (Something they did last year together too!) And, because you're lucky... here are a few photos from that, too!

DD also finished up reading a Nancy Drew book, The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears, over the weekend.

Tonight DD had rehearsal again for a Grease Jr. production she's in. While she was there (and DH was at home) I was able to slip away to Target and pick up a few stocking stuffers for the kids and DH. Oh, and I also picked up a gingerbread house kit. Having done them in the past from scratch, and wanting to make giant gingerbread men this year instead, I thought this little kit (marked down a lot from the original price!) would be a fun activity for DD to do this coming week sometime. Plus, I figured it was cheaper to buy this kit than if I had gone out and bought all the various candies to use to decorate a gingerbread house.