It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year..........

And the most tiring, I think. I can't seem to find any energy. Maybe it's just that age thing catching up with me.

We've had a busy week. C and J went to work in Nevada again for 3 days, which meant I had to do all the carpool driving that they usually help with. That really cuts into my homeschool time and everything else time. Thankfully, they were able to complete all they went to do and don't have to go back any time soon. C and I have been doing some Christmas planning and a bit of shopping. We got our present a little early. Last week we went to Costco and got a treadmill. A NordicTrak commercial one. It's really nice and I'm enjoying walking/jogging on it. It gives a good workout.

School has gone well with the girls this week. We started a unit study on the symbols of Christmas, with each girl making her own lapbook. We are also memorizing a passage of scripture to recite on Christmas Eve when we have our Family Home Evening. We will be making puppets to go with it. I asked C to be in charge of putting together some activities and a little lesson about the Dutch St. Nicholas tradition. It traditionally is celebrated on Dec 5/6 so we decided to do it on the 5th. She did a great job, giving them some information about it, copies of word finds, crossword puzzles, coloring pages, having St. Nick leave treats in their shoes in trade for a carrot for his donkey, and the part they enjoyed the most was making St. Nicholas' head out of Perler Beads. She found a pattern for it on the internet. After that, they got really creative and spent the better part of two days just creating and ironing things made from Perler Beads. C even started making her own Nativity set from beads, she currently has the Baby Jesus in the manger and Mary. We will need to get more beads for her to complete them, but I was so happy to see what they came up with. On Friday we had a fun opportunity to go to the TJFA Christmas Roller Skating Party in Orem. There were so many homeschooled kids there. The younger girls had never been roller-skating before, so we had a slow start, but by the time we left, they were doing much better. Mom, on the other hand, was walking out a bit slower and sorer than when she walked in. S and I got tangled up a couple of times, when some of those little kids on scooters would zip in front of us or stop in front of us. She got banged up knees, and I got a sore wrist and ankle. Combine that with the lovely bruise from 'slipping' down the stairs wearing my 'slippers' and I feel like I've been beaten up.

The Court of Honor for J's Eagle Award will be held tomorrow. It's only been about 10 months since he completed his project. It will be good to have an end to it. I have been asked to talk for a few minutes, and I hope I have something to say. As of right now, I don't have a clue.

We got about 4-6 inches of snow today. It's a wintry wonderland out there tonight. I love to watch those big, fat snowflakes drift lazily down. I never saw snow like that when I was growing up. At home, the wind was always howling and the snow was always moving in a horizontal fashion. That lovely white, snow-covered tree look was such an amazing thing to me. To imagine that snow can fall straight down so softly and stay on the branches of a tree.