Decorating the Tree

We usually try to decorate our tree after M.'s birthday each year but this year, it just didn't work out. We ran out of weekends or would have to wait until the week before Christmas. Luckily, the sleepover for M. tonight was canceled so we decided to slip in our Christmas decorating early.

We had dinner, made cookies and hot chocolate, donned our Santa hats, and decorated the tree. Even K. put on a hat this year!

S. had a great time decorating the tree. Last year he was a little young to enjoy it or even to put very many ornaments on the tree. Actually, I think he enjoyed all the cookies and hot chocolate more.

I love our Christmas tree. No, it doesn't all match. No, it doesn't have a theme. It has lots of memories. I love all the handmade ornaments collected from through out the years. I have ornaments from my childhood--one that I made, one from my 5th grade bus driver, and a few from my grandmother. I also have many ornaments that my students gave me from my teaching years. I put their names and year on the back of each and each year that I put up the tree, I love to remember all my great students.

We also have lots of ornaments that the kids have made. Each year they make a few new ornaments in which we put their names and the year on. We also have all those lovely ornaments that they made in pre-school. I love the ones with their pictures in them!

We also decorate the tree with crafts and drawings the kids have done. We just nestle the crafts within the branches. We have the best tree ever!

I got out an ornament this year that my grandmother bought for me long ago. It is a bear that blows bubbles. I have never figured out how to put it in the tree but managed this year to balance it on a branch and bend all the needles around it to hold it steady. I don't want it to tip because it is holding a bowl of bubble solution! It seems to be working so far and J. and S. want me to turn it on each day.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. Kevin got up and got the turkey in the oven by about 9:AM. We had a 24 pound turkey this year so it needed awhile to cook! We hung around the house for the day, played Zelda, the kids raked leaves and played outside then we cleaned up the house a bit before everybody arrived.

The temperatures this past week have been very nice but a big cold front came through during the night and the temperatures dropped into the 40's with a wind chill in the 20's! Way to cold for me. The kids played outside in the leaves for a little while but agreed that it was a bit cold!

Grandma, Grandpa, Kevin's dad, brother, other brother and family came over along with Nana and her friend. All in all we had 15 for dinner. I am so glad Kevin's dad could make it. We didn't think he would be up to it but he seemed to enjoy himself for the day so I guess he is feeling better.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake for the first time for one of our desserts. We went to a birthday party recently and they had pumpkin cheesecake as the birthday cake...for a 7 year old! My kids loved it so I tried one for Thanksgiving. I used the Cheesecake Factory recipe on-line and it ended up being really good. Everybody who likes pumpkin loved the cheesecake and it was the first thing gone. I will have to make a bigger one next year. Kevin thought it was a waste of a good cheesecake but even he tried a slice. He is not a pumpkin person.

At the end of the evening, Aunt E. offered to take the kids to her house for a sleepover. The kids would not believe she was serious. It was very funny. They kept standing on the stairs saying, "Really?" After a few minutes, I went upstairs to see how the packing was going (P.J.'s and a pillow) and they were just sitting in J.'s room looking confused. J. said, "Really, are we going to spend the night?" I told them, "YES!!! Let's go!" They were then very excited and grabbed their stuff to go. They did not believe us at all. So cute!!!

I followed M. into his room to help grab his stuff and he said that this was scary. I think he was so caught off guard about being invited to go at the very last second that he was a bit nervous about going. But I am sure he had fun. I will go pick up the kids this afternoon sometime and will be regaled with all the fabulous things they got to do with Aunt E. that they don't get to do at home! :)

New Toy Storage for S.

The toys in S.'s room were out of control. He is also getting M.'s Geo Trax train set for Christmas which is now in the attic in about 4 moving boxes. There are LOTS of Geo Trax. We will need some place to put them so I went on a mad search for some kind of toy storage.

By the way, this photo is when I moved all the toys to the corner to bring in the new toy shelves. Yes, the room was out of control, but not like this!


I found this entertainment center on Craigslist and it looked perfect. It has two HUGE drawers at the bottom that act as perfect toy boxes. The shelves work out well as the bottom one is low enough and deep enough that S. can stand on it to reach the other shelves. I just need to go get some bins to keep all the Geo Trax stuff in once Christmas rolls around.

His room looks great...for now. Check back after Christmas and we will see how it looks then. :)

Too Long

It has been way too long since I made a post. I look back at my entries and long to read all the missing entries from the past two years. Two years? Yes! So much has happened in that time and I wish I had kept up with this blog. Let's see if I can make a New Year's resolution....here in November...to keep this updated.