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Christmas At Our House

As many of you know we recently moved to Florida from Arizona, so you would think the lack of "Winter Wonderland" weather during the holidays would be normal for us by now. But for me, it's not.

As I watch the weather reports for the north eastern states I can't help but be a little bit jealous of those who get snow and that deafening silence late at night after a snowfall. Not so jealous of the lack of power, but I actually miss driving in the snow, oh so carefully. I miss shoveling snow - but only a little bit. I'm a Marylander by birth and experienced several snowy Christmastimes that were warmed by a fire in the basement of our home. It really was sweet.

So now that we are in Florida, preparing for yet another move (see previous posts here and here and here for why we are moving AGAIN...) we are also preparing to celebrate Christmas and Amanda's birthday. Amanda's birthday party is this Saturday - Beach Theme... yes, only in Florida and perhaps even Arizona and California can you get away with this just days before Christmas.

So for those who are interested, here's a little peek into our home at this crazy time of year.

This would be our Christmas tree - notice the lack of ornaments at the bottom? This is the tell-tale sign that our little WMD is busy at work. All of the ornaments are inching their way up the tree, screaming in terror at the sight of Hayden.



This is an ornament we learned to make in Enrichment!


This is an ornament we taught the YW to make. It's super easy!



Our Nativity...

Our Advent House thingy...

and our Stockings hung on the entertainment center with care...


Next years decor will be fan-tabulous in our new home. I have GRAND ideas! Grand, I say!

Teaching our Children

The New First Grade:Too Much Too Soon

This article says it all. I just wish I knew what I could do about it. I'm afraid that I will turn into "That" mother. You know the one I'm talking about. She's got her nose into everything, playing devils advocate, questioning authority, advocating for her children at all costs, asking the questions that everyone wants to ask but is too timid to. Hmm...it doesn't sound so horrible after all.

whaa?...2 posts in 1 day?

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Holiday Bake-fest?

I'm quickly realizing that I am not a normal mom. In fact, perhaps I am a bit lazy. As a talk to friends and read blogs I find that nearly every mom has had a baking marathon in the name of celebrating Christmas. I didn't grow up with this - if I did, I don't remember. I've always admired the idea of baked a dozen different sugary treats and passing them out to friends and neighbors. But quite honestly, I'd be impressed with myself if I was able to pull off baking two different dessert items in a week.

I actually bought a 25 lb. bag of flour at Sam's Club last month in anticipation of my 1st Annual Bake Fest. I had grand ideas of all the wonderful treats I would make. Cookies, brownies and cinnamon rolls being my limited repertoire, I thought it was time I delved into unchartered territory and make some traditional Christmas treats.

But alas, the energy is gone. I'm lucky my tree is still standing and we are only 3 days behind in our advent calendar activities. I did however manage to make a total of 5 homemade ornaments with Amanda.

I'm still in a bit of denial about our move and have only managed to fill 2 garbage bags with stuff I don't feel like moving. We did manage to get rid of 3 large items in a curbside giveaway. But I've yet to pack one box. The thought makes me nauseous. I really hate moving.

Soundtrack of My Life

I've been meaning to make a playlist for this blog for a while so here it is!
Thank you Kristy, for inspiring me to "get up offa dat thang" and take a stroll down my musical memory lane! Some of the songs on my list are old favorites, while a few are ones that I have found recently that spoke to me. There were a few songs that I wanted to include but couldn't find, including Sarah McLachlan's "Ice Cream," and Tori Amos' "Twinkle". But if you click their links you can see performances of the songs on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Say whaa ??

I received a note from the principal at Amanda's school today. It seems that Amanda's teacher resigned effective last Friday.

Poor Amanda... she still to this day tells me how she wishes we still lived in Arizona because she misses her Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Easton. I'm afraid all Amanda's teachers will be measured next to Mrs. Easton and none will ever really compare. She was beginning to "bond" with her new teacher but now she has a substitute whom she absolutely loathes. I've never known Amanda to be so unhappy with another adult as she is with this substitute teacher....except me - she's been pretty irritated with me.

So now she'll get a new teacher (hopefully?) and finish out the school year. Next year she will be going to yet ANOTHER school because we are moving into another district. If she (we) survive all this change, we'll be super heroes!

Life just gets more interesting every day...

Because everyone else is doing it!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1222104802

YIPPEE!

We found a new place to live! It's super new and cool and uhh...wait...
3 STORIES HIGH!
What were we thinking? I'm taking donations for super sturdy child gates for the stairs. On the upside, my otherwise muscle-less legs will soon look like this!



How hot is THAT?!??
I know...you're all jealous, I know...
If you too would like ripp'n hot legs like these, come on over and help us move in!