There's Some New Kids in Town

 

I have been taking care of my grand-kitties this week, while movers have been packing my son's house for the move south. Twice each day Jonathan and I have been going to my son's corporate apartment to feed and pet the cats, and scoop out the litter boxes! Rusty (top) has been with them for their entire marriage, I used to kitty-sit him when they lived in the area before their move north.

As of last night, there's a couple of new kids in town! My son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren have officially arrived! They will be living in a condo while they search for the perfect home for their family.

Next Friday, both of the kids will be spending the night with me! I am so happy to have them close by once again.

Five Christmases

Every Christmas Eve, Jonathan stand on the fireplace hearth. Look at how much he has grown!

2007 age 18 months

2008 age 2 1/2

2009 age 3 1/2

2010 age 4 1/2

2011 age 5 1/2

Our Christmas

I enjoy looking at Christmas pictures on blogs, seeing how each home has their own way of doing things and their own traditions. We were joined on Christmas Eve by my sister, my nephew, and Jonathan's surrogate grandparents. Here are a few pictures from our holiday.
We made and decorated cookies for Santa:

A bountiful table awaits our Christmas Eve guests:

Jonathan tracks Santa's ETA on Norad Santa Tracker:

A magic set is a fun gift:

Friends Edie & Bobby gave him a special gift, a quilt made by Bobby's late mother, and he has slept under it every night since Christmas:

Cookies were left for Santa on another gift, a painted plate from our friend Brenda: 

Christmas morning brings more gifts, these from Santa:

We are so blessed that we had family and friends to share the holidays with us. It was indeed a merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Busy Week

It has been quite a busy week, as I expected. Lots of time spent cleaning and in the kitchen, but fun things, too.
Tuesday I had a couple of friends over for lunch, as well as a friend for Jonathan. I love using my "Night Before Christmas" dishes! They come out the day after Thanksgiving and remain in use until Dec. 30. The kids had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches which were reindeer faces (my photo of them didn't turn out at all!).

Wednesday we met a friend at Jump Zone for playtime, pizza and gift exchange. They had been jumping on inflatables about 2 hours when this photo was taken. Talk about sweaty hair!

In the early evening was a karate class, then my older son stopped by to bring and pick up presents before heading to Chicago. Dec. 30th they will be in town for good!

Today has been spent doing last minute grocery shopping for Saturday's guests, baking and making these cute "reindeer noses" for a few special kids. They are eight malted milk balls and a red cherry sour for Rudolph's nose! I may make these for Jonathan's class next year.

 Still lots to do before Saturday! How are your holiday preparations coming along?

Countdown to Christmas

Only one more week! Christmas is almost here! It is sure to be a busy week, but hopefully a fun one, too. I will try to post glimpses of our holiday each day.
Jonathan is out of school until next year. He had his party at school on Friday. The kids decorated their own cookies (I baked 5 dozen sugar cookies Thursday night!), had a snowball fight with tissue paper rolled into balls, had a book exchange and more.

With his teacher

Snowball fight!

Hot potato book exchange

 After Jonathan's basketball game yesterday morning, we stayed home. I cleaned all day, then last night we had our Family Room Camp-Out. The couch in there is a sofa bed, so we pull it out, pile it high with quilts and pillows, order pizza, pop popcorn, watch movies, and play games by the glow of the fireplace and the Christmas lights. This is one of Jonathan's favorite traditions. Then we do this:

Here are a few glimpses of the decorated living room. I love this antique Christmas quilt! It is beautifully quilted and is a true work of art. It comes out to hang on the wall each year. The Santas along the ledge were given to me by my cousin when she pared down her collection.

 More Santas and Christmas books, as well as some greetings of the season on the shelf.

 Pictures of Jonathan with Santa each year, it's fun to see how much he has grown each year.

I hope your week is filled with crazy fun as you prepare for Christmas!

Junior Achievement

I was asked by Jonathan's teacher if I would be willing to volunteer to teach a Junior Achievement class. It is a series of five 1/2 hour classes, designed to teach children about work ethics and money management. I was a little reluctant at first, because they all had to be done by the end of the semester. That meant a time commitment of several hours during this most busy of months! However, I am so glad I did this and I would do it again if asked!
It was a great opportunity to meet Jonathan's classmates and see how they work together. I truly enjoyed the time I spent with them, they are all so bright and so sweet! Our lessons were pretty basic for kindergarten. We learned about bartering (trading eggs from the farm for flour), earning money by making something to sell, identifying coins, the benefits of saving some of our earnings, and working together to accomplish something for a common good. They took their studies quite seriously!

After our last class, they were awarded Certificates of Achievement for a job well done!

I made lots of new friends and am so happy I was able to spend this time with the children.