Vacation...

I have absolutely LOVED this vacation. We've visited family and friends, played, watched movies, made special treats, cleaned, and had a great time as a family. The only think we haven't done that I'd like to is play in the snow and build a snowman. The days we were home were too cold to be outside and the days we were gone were beautiful. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. I'll post pics later from out Christmases. What have you enjoyed doing over the vacation?

School Christmas Gifts...

At Christmas time each year it is customary to make a gift for parents. In the past we've made ornaments and picture frames. The items that I've used to make the ornaments you can no longer from from Oriental Trading. I know, I know... I thought you could get anything from that place also, but no. The frames that we've made in the past are kind of cheesy. So this year, my partner teacher and I found these really neat frames that are black. When students scratched away a design on them the background is all different colors. I thought this was a lot cooler than the other frames, but no. They are even cheesier. (Is that even a word?) So right before Christmas we were scrounging around trying to find something to do that was easy enough for students to make, cheap enough because I'm not made of money, and something that would not drive me CRAZY in the making process. I decided - candy! What is better at Christmas time than some homemade candy and snacks. We divided our classes into smaller groups. We've got pretzel dipper groups, pretzel wrapper groups, ribbon cutter groups, puppy chow making groups, puppy chow bagging groups, and pass out candy groups. I tried to think of a group for everything so I didn't have 12 people trying to make each thing. The kids are excited. The pretzels turned out great. I only burnt the chocolate in the microwave twice - smelly!! Today we are going to wrap them and make the puppy chow. Wish us luck. I've already taken extra headache meds to get me through.

Christmas is a Coming...

I feel like I way behind for this Holiday Season. I've had the decorations and trees up since right before Thanksgiving, I wrapped all the gifts right after Thanksgiving, but I still feel lost. I have made Christmas cookies, but no icing yet. I've addressed all the cards, but don't have stamps to mail them. We haven't written out letter to Santa yet either. This week is busier than I even imagined at work and we have to make our parent gifts. So much to do, so little time.

Awana Program Funny...

Sunday night my niece and nephew (Hayden and Claudia) were in the Awana program at the Lancaster Christian Church. Lydia was really excited to see Claudia on stage. Hayden was a tree and she didn't recognize him. She also was excited to see Aunt DeeDee playing the piano and kept calling out her name. The two funniest moments were when she realized there was a Christmas tree with lights on it. She yelled that there was a tree and wanted to go tough the lights. A little later she saw Dram-a and Papa sitting in a pew across the church and hollered that out to me. A few people down from them was a lady and a baby. Lydia goes, "Look mommy! Baby Jesus and her mommy!". It was so cute!!

Lydia's Little Funnies...

I know one day I'll forget all of the cute things that Lydia says so I figured I'd write them in a place where I'll (hopefully) always have them and share them with you.

• She called her pacifier her "firefire".
• When you ask her if she wants something that she doesn't want, she says "NO, don't want it".
• She always have to sleep with her "bankit".
• When they dogs are barking she yells at them to stop.
• If they are excited and barking at Gail, she yells that them that that is her daddy.
• She'd eat applesauce for every meal if I'd let her.
• Her names for people: Darla - DeeDee, Claudia - Claudiaudia, Grandma Jerri - Dama, Grandpa Stanley - Papa, Grandma Mary - Mimmy. There are many others.
• She loves to talk on the phone to people and will just walk off with the phone talking away.
• She loves to go check the cows with daddy and seeing the baby camel (Thunder - Funder).
• When she wants to you carry her around she'll stand with her arms up and say "Hold you, hold you".
• She likes to be in the bathroom with you while you are taking a shower or going to the bathroom. Now that she can open the doors it's a little awkward.

I'll have to add more to the list later because it's a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy.

Update...

Things around our household are looking much better than a few weeks ago. Lydia's ring worm spots are practically all gone. You can still kind of see 2 of them, but much better than the 11 we did have. Her hair is also growing back in her bald spot. Gail's job is still going fine. They are expecting them to be back to 5 days a week by the first of the year. He has been working only 4 days since last spring or before. He's picked up several car jobs to work on also. He just worked on some one's transmission this week. Another guy is to be bringing two vehicles this weekend for him to put new brakes on. If anyone needs cheap car repair, give us a call. My job is good. I still get stressed out at time, feel like crawling under my desk for a good cry, and pulling my hair out. However, problems are slowly getting better. I'm looking forward to Christmas break like a kid on Christmas Eve. At home all the decorations are up, gifts are wrapped and under the tree, and I'm managing to keep up on most of the house work. If the wood stove weren't so darn dirty I'd been really good. When I figure all the money it saves us and how warm our house is, I feel much better about sweeping and moping the mess almost daily. On a random side note, I want to start a Christmas Eve tradition for our family. I want to do things like the living nativity, CE services, and other things that we can turn into tradition. What are the things that you do with your families for the traditions?