Twas the night before Christmas (at our house) and mom was up until I am not telling how late finishing the gifts and wrapping and checking the list....too late for that. We always open gifts at home since ewe travel for the actually holiday. This was the first time we did it first thing in the morning. It was kind of fun. I set a pretty table the night before hoping for one of Todd's great breakfasts. Chef Todd did not disappoint and the children were amazingly patient for me to get out of bed.

Candy before breakfast, please mommy it is Christmas?M and T received little rocking chairs. They used them before they were unwrapped--how do you wrap rocking chairs and a doll bed?

This was the stay up too late to finish gift. A thrifted oxford embroidered with horses.

Earrings for the girl with new holes in her ears. She can take the starter studs out this week.

Machines for the future ME.


A quiet moment on mommy's lap--the pink in the children's isn't the camera it's the dreaded pink eye.

Natalie and her new doll that she has been begging for for months. She promises to be a better mommy to this one than the last which got an unattractive haircut. They are inseparable.For the first time this year everyone got socks and underwear in their stockings. I was amazed at the excitement of some of the children about this. Todd was not spared. He also got a boatload of mini-snickers and some Reese's. I received a much needed new heating pad for my back and some very yummy chocolates that I don't have to share and won't admit to haw many I have left.

After things settled down to a normal Saturday I got a chance to take a walk out in the 10 plus inches of snow we got yesterday. We were fortunate that we didn't have to go out in it and thankful for our neighbor who plows our long driveway

I am really glad we don't live in the barn in the cold.

My outdoor girl--yes her eyes are pink too--walked with me part of the way. The snow was deepest on the west side of the pond, up to my knees, it was not an easy walk around the pond, but my it is pretty. I still love the snow. Our outside cats are fortunately fur balls. They spend a lot of time on the front porch in a box with a deer hide in it. But they eat in the barn and hopefully catch all the mice that might come out from under the snow.

Blogland to paper

I found a place that turned my blog into a PDF file http://http://serv.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html. So my non-Internet friends can see what we've been up to...Unfortunately they also tend to be non-computer friends. Now I need a new color ink cartridge. Todd says if it's in the Christmas budget I can get a new one if not the next semester's school pages will be in black and white.

Off to work on more Christmas organization....

Decorating for Christmas

Even though the atmosphere at Delphi isn't all cheery; we will try to make it a bit cheerier at home. Of course the little ones don't get corporate problems so their enthusiasm was almost too much for Todd and I. We tried to have fun. Maybe we need a little mistletoe.Daniel and Todd "Built the tree" and the children and I decoratedJosie, officially measuring 5 foot and 8 and 3/4 inches, was tall enough to get the angel to stay on top of the treewhile Todd mad a not so traditional snack
Bagels with cream cheese and Jelly and hot chocolate

Snow

After Mom and Chad left and we returned home from church it started snowing--wet heavy snow. It didn't stop until Monday afternoon. The pond

View of driveway from the front porch

View of back drive from back garage door

Monday was the day I planned to start back to the reality of homeschooling and housekeeping. I didn't figure the snow would effect us much, just more reason to stay home. But the lack of electricity did slow us down a bit. The windows kept us in plenty of light until about dinner time. It was a nice quiet evening in front of the fire and a good excuse to get lots of school read-alouds done. Some of the children chose to sleep in front of the fire.

The lack of electricity really didn't phase me much. Life was still better then in the barn: it was warm (it never dropped below 63) and light until the sun went down then we had candles and the stove, all 5 burners, still worked. We weren't prepared for the well not working though. Fortunately I had a couple of jugs of distilled water hiding and then Todd brought home a bunch more. The electricity come back on around 4 am and we spent today trying again to get back to a reality schedule.

As I am writing this the power went out again. We are more prepared (bottled water in the basement) this time, but hopefully this will be short lived as Consumer's Energy fine tunes the repairs already made. Guess it's time to snuggle under the covers and go to sleep.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was extra sweet this year, so much to be thankful for. My mom and Todd's brother and neice were here to help us enjoy.
Josie in the kitchen--we could all do a share without running into each other

The dinner table
T really enjoyed her pie--she looks good in it also.

We only got a 17 pound bird this year, but we didn't have many extra guests to left overs home with. So far we have been enjoying turkey sandwhiches and a couple different kinds of Turkey soup. The pie went fast even though I forgot the sugar in the pumpkin pie.

progress

no pictures--I should take one of the empty boxes--sorry.

The children and I cleaned out almost everything from the living area of the barn and put it in the wash, away or in the trash can (my favorite).

Todd brought over the next set of boxes last night. I figure if I unpack and organize one van load a week the barn will only have things that stay in the barn by new years OK maybe Valentine's Day. Todd also got the school closet and linen closet shelves up for me. So the school things I have found (I expect a surprise sometime) are organized and "away" I even got some baskets of special "school" things organized for M and T--after years of planning to do this I finally did it.

Tonight I went through boxes of pictures and some nick knacks. one box had obviously been a home to a mouse family and had been dripped on so I had to unwrap everything. Of the 5 boxes I unpacked I repacked only one and was able to pitch some things. I still have one box to unpack and sort. It is mostly old family things and I wan tall the children to see what is there and maybe learn some family history. That is a school subject, right?

Tomorrow we have our first purely social guests since we have been in the house. Saturday we have more. I know they will be understanding, but it is motivation to get more put away and clean.

B

We're in

And sort of settled. These are the happy pictures. The sad pictures which I won't take are of what is left in the barn. It looks like we took off in a hurry and left a bunch of stuff.Believe it or not this is a great improvement. Have you ever seen what moved in looks like to an 8 and 10 year old? It is scary.

It's not pretty (yet) but it functions--no more laundry mat! I will have shelves over the washer and dryer. There is a sink behind the door and a laundry chute that empties on to the washer.

Happy Birthday Todd! His present...a living room without boxes.



The final comfort added today--I got the DVD player, VCR and TV hooked up. We can get 4 TV stations, not PBS ;o(, with our bunny ears well at least until February.

Moving day

Moving day arrived and everyone was so excited that we all got up bright and early...some brighter than others.

T's last trip into the house for breakfast.

Todd made breakfast,

Todd's specialty, blueberry pancakes

then the helpers arrived. I was told I could spend the day telling guys where to go...oooohhh it was going to be fun. Well it got overwhelming fast because of how fast they brought the boxes. Thank you to Rod, Tim, Larry, Sarah, and the Chrysler Family

By lunch half the barn's contents made it through my doors. By bedtime enough stuff was in the house that we could go to bed in warm cozy comfort on clean sheets.

Basement in the afternoon

Dad was in charge of getting closets ready so we didn't tax his back too much as last time he was here.

Thanks for everything Dad.