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.