Christmas Tour

Thanks to tons of help from the boys, who put up the trees, lights and many other things, our Christmas decorations are up! They started before breakfast on Friday morning!

So for all of you who won't get to see our house this Christmas :o( , here is the grand tour...

working on lights first thing Friday morning

decorations on Friday night

this is a Lego manger scene the boys made to go with their Lego Christmas tree

Zack put up the Christmas village

Happy Thanksgiving

As usual, Thanksgiving at my sister's house was lots of fun! Both our family and Greg's family comes, so there is never a shortage of people or good food. But this year, the piece de resistance was the turkey. The 40 pound beast took 10 days to thaw (including some time in Amy's bathtub, because it was too big for the sink), filled her entire oven, tasted really yummy, and will provide several families with turkey leftovers for days! You may be wondering where we got this gigantic bird. My brother and his wife raised it in their yard for about 6 months. They had a picture of him at Thanksgiving and hopefully I will post it soon. He really was a beautiful bird!

the 40 pound bird

eating dinner

But the best part of Thanksgiving was being with family and remembering all the things that God has blessed us with.

going through the Black Friday ads
(even though we weren't going shopping)

Zack and Ada

Will and Charlie playing the train game

Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. 1 Chronicles 16:8

Christmas Baking

The Christmas baking is done. I know it seems early, but we do it every year the week before Thanksgiving. Cookies freeze well and that way I don't have to do any last-minute baking during the busy holiday season.

They turned out well this year. The boys were a lot of help.

Worship Band

Today the boys played guitar for worship at church. We have been practicing for a long time in the basement and they had gotten so good at it that I figured it was time to play somewhere more public. I know it was what God wanted them to do because when I brought it up there was no arguing or complaining. PTL

They did a great job and we were really proud of them! Grandpa and Grandma even got to come and watch them.

Now we need to start practicing Christmas music.

Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon

As an end-of-the-term celebration for my co-op Lord of the Rings class, I hosted an all-day movie marathon. We went from 10 am to 10 pm and watched all 11 hours 23 minutes of Tolkien.

Stewart as an orc

the girls had to take a picture of me eating my lunch

15 kids came to test their fanaticism. I was especially proud of the 3 girls who were able to survive and enjoy the almost all-male Middle Earth fest.

We had a great time! But we spent a LOT more time talking (VERY LOUDLY) about the movie and whatever other odd things they could think of (thank goodness for subtitles), eating (they inhaled everything put on the snack table), and fighting over the couch seats than they did actually watching the movie. And the few short intermissions were spent, doing what else but, watching movies on the computer. Like music videos the boys made with friends, how to do decapitation effects your self, or just goofy stuff on God Tube.

one of the most popular seats of the day

intermission

While everyone had a good time, they were all ready to go home when their parents arrived to pick them up. :o)

Man In The Moon

Chris got the telescope out last night to look at the moon. It was a perfect night to do it! He even hooked our camera up to it, and got some great shots!