Decorations for the Christmas Tree

We finally filled the empty space set for the Christmas tree. 

Lit the first night we put it up. 

Since then we've added just a few touches. We make ornaments, of some kind or another, each year to put on the tree. Here are the ones we made this year. We think they are neat but, uh, not too pretty lol. 

These are the two I made.

These are Lee's ornaments.

Here are the two that Fox made.

We also strung popcorn, cranberries and cherries up to put on the tree. Each of us made our own strands. At first I thought I'd have a nice order of cranberry, two popcorn and one cheerio. Well the popcorn proved more fragile than I originally though so I changed the order. Lee chose just cranberries and popcorn; Fox went with cranberries and cheerios.

We didn't spray these to preserve them. They'll have to go after a few days, I suppose.

And that is the end of our decorating for the year! Done. No more. Nope. :)

Getting Into the Groove- It's A Little Slow Going

This year our 'getting into the spirit of the season' has been disrupted. Perhaps it's partially to do with the seeming speed the seasons have gone. They've not gone any faster, literally, than they should but it's felt like they have. 

By now we usually get the tree up and decorated, as well as our house decorations out. I'm just getting out of Thanksgiving! Here is as far as we've made it so far and it's the end of the first week of December {already!? and that's it!?}.

We cleaned behind the couch in anticipation of the tree.
It might not make it this year...still waiting to see. 

All that 'stuff' went into the dining room.
It might look a little cramped but it's not too bad.

Our little snowman collection. I think we need more.
Uh, pay no attention to the dust on the stairs.

A little more decorations. Our tree topper is here so if the tree
doesn't make it this year, it's okay.

Our stockings, hung ...by the fire? ehehhe The little stocking is the kitty's.

We don't go overboard on decorations and such. If we don't get the tree up, I will admit I will be a little sad but, it's not about the tree. I'll live ;)

What I’ve Been Up To…

It seems like it’s been a really long time since I’ve been here. Prior to Christmas I was working on …stuff. You know, getting ready for Christmas. I was also working on Everyday Explorers Australia (EE-A) for SchoolhouseTeachers. Also attempted was the kids’ school schedules but for whatever reason, yeah, that didn’t really amount to much. I’ve been working on that the last couple of days. It’s going well –when I stay focused!

Right before Christmas, I posted a quick post about Lee completing her first sewing project. It took her a few days to get it all done because she had other commitments but really was quite a quick project. Watching her and helping her some gave me the sewing itch. I haven’t sewn an actual patterned project since high school (and then I think my teacher did most of the work!) so I knew I needed something easy.

With somewhat moderate expectations of receiving a gift card to Jo-Ann’s Fabric for Christmas (*wink*), I started looking online for what I’d spend my money on. I just so happened to receive a gift card to said store from my sister-in-law for Christmas Here is what I chose (B):

 

and this for the top (A- short sleeves) –the pattern says see&sew B5480:

It was very tough to find the fabric for my choices! I was at Jo-Ann’s for 2 hours. No joke. The lady that helped me was very nice since I apparently knew nothing about sewing lol.

Here are the final results of my sewing projects I’m very proud of them (now I want to lose some weight so my skirt will be smaller next time!). I wear a size *ahem* 12 when I buy clothes off the rack. The pattern size: 16. And that was for the waist measurement. The skirt color on my monitor is fairly close to what I see in real life. The inside is double stitched to prevent too much fraying but I think next time I’ll try something else; I just don’t like it much. Oh and I don’t have a zipper foot so I had to do some hand-stitching at the zipper. Silly me, I didn’t bother matching the thread. The fabric is microsuede.

The shirt I chose size medium, which is interestingly what I generally wear for off-the-rack clothing. The color is an off-white, very very light cream color. The closest perhaps for my monitor is the last one. This will definitely be a warmer weather shirt! It is also sheer so I’ll wear a tank top under it. I did French seams for the shirt and am very happy with how that looks. The fabric is… uh, oops. I don’t remember. Those who sew more or have a fabric inclined nature probably know what it is It flows, and doesn’t wrinkle.

And since that is a warm weather shirt, I have to share what other shopping I’ve done. I got a Target gift card from my father-in-law and found this on sale:

At first I wasn’t crazy about the cowl neck (if that is what it’s called- and I’m still not crazy about it) but this sweater is so extremely soft that I don’t care what kind of neck it has! The color is a lot like the shirt I made. It’s a creamy white that has a hint of yellow. The photos make it whiter than it is.

While I was at Target I picked up some smashbook goodies. I’d heard about a smashbook not long ago- it’s a bit like a portable scrapbook- perhaps it could even be like a commonplace book but a bit more fancy. Anyway- my other sister-in-law had given me a great fat notebook (with my favorite color) and purple ink pens for Christmas. I loved them right away. The smashbook additions are just making it even better The pen has a glue stick on one end and a .45 point pen on the other. Here’s a pinterest search for smashbooks or you can see some for sale here.

I also received Amazon gift cards that I purchased an MP3 player (mine broke shortly after moving here) and two sets of 5 Pyrex glass containers. They should arrive in the next few days.

Yesterday and today I’ve been finishing up the week’s work for EE-A and also the kids’ school schedules. I’ve got Lee’s all done, just have to get Fox’s independent subjects plugged in. Tomorrow and the next day I have training at H&R Block for 3 hours each.

And that will mark the end of my break! It’s been a good month and some, that’s for sure

Hymn (Days # 91-92)

O Come All Ye Faithful
O Tannenbaum & Oh Christmas Tree

We haven’t been doing so swell with ‘school work’ but we’ve listened to hymns thought I’d share what we’ve listened to.

Days # 84 & 85- Saturday School is Sometimes Necessary & Some Christmas Talk

I debated whether to include the Saturday work the kids did for school as an official day. In the end I went ahead and counted it. After all work was done, why not include it?

One reason we had to have school on Saturday is because we were just blah on one day during the week and not much school got done. I think Fox did half of his work and Lee did only 3 subjects. Just one of those needed extra light days.

12/2&3/11

Both:
Hymn: Christmas Carols {both days: Little Drummer Boy- we listened to Faith Hill sing this song- it is my favorite Christmas song}
Worked on and completed making a catapult from Pitsco Education.

Lee:
Bible: Reading (Deut. 22); Verse (Colossians 3:1-10); Mark Commentary
Math: Life of Fred Beginning Algebra (Lesson 95)
History/Geography: Western Civilization (pages 350-351); Francis Bacon (narrated); Heritage History (read about Robert Bruce; narrated)
Language Arts: Shakespeare Sonnets; Westward Ho!
Foreign Language: Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek (Level 4, lesson 23); First Form Latin (Lesson 24, worksheet 5)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: Current Events (wrote a post)
Science: Biology (chapter 6 test)

Fox:
Bible: Reading (Deut. 1); Verse (Proverbs 15:16-17); Saints & Heroes (Martin Luther)
Math: ck-12 Grade 6 (lesson 10.9)
History/Geography: Heritage History (read, narrated); Read from World Studies (China)
Language Arts: Jensen’s Grammar (Lesson 5); The Age of Fable (chapter 35; statures of gods- Jupiter and Minerva)
Foreign Language: First Form Latin (Lesson 24, worksheet 5)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: -
Science: The Story Book of Science (narrated)

And now it’s Monday…yet again. It’s almost noon and we’ve still not started on school. Sigh. There’s two weeks until Winter Break…will we make it?? Interestingly, I still haven’t received our letter from the school district pertaining to homeschooling. I did get a membership with HSLDA because it makes me nervous homeschooling here.

We went Christmas shopping this morning instead of working on school. We found some cute things that will be good gifts {I hope, and I crossed out cute because I’m sure the guys on my list don’t want ‘cute’ things lol!}. Fortunately, the individuals we shop for are so easy to please. It isn’t about what we get it’s about the thought that is put into getting the item. Honestly, it’s usually more about the family getting together but this year we can’t do that. We must settle for sending some gifts –as if they could replace our presence…never. Family is more important than any of the material things we will receive or give.

It was fun to choose gifts for the people on our list. And thankfully, I only heard “oh, I want this!” two times. Someone forgot, momentarily, that we were shopping for others, not for ourselves. The kids had chosen a gift for each other a few weeks ago and they wrapped them today. I had one that I could wrap as well. It was so much fun wrapping them. I disguised the gift I wrapped. The person who opens it will never have guessed what’s inside! Mwahahaha!

Christmas Tree 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We had a blast decorating our tree on Saturday night. Then we went to an old building in town to see some awesome lights. It is a GE Lighting shop that is something like 100 years old. They deck out the building, adjoining buildings and the lawn with fantastic displays with lights. Here you can see a photo collection from 2009. The road was so cramped with cars (whether to look at the displays as well or just traveling the same road, I don’t know) so we were not able to actually stop and get any shots to share. It was so neat though. But of course, it’s online! If the video doesn’t work below, click the link in the previous sentence

And I should get off of here and get us going…Monday, Monday, Monday…