Wishing you a very sweet and tender Jesusmas

Getting ready for Jesusmas.....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

It's all Joe's fault...

I saw on Facebook this morning that Joe was making Swedish Pancakes.

Well, I'm not Swedish, so I didn't feel that I was qualified to make them.

But, I am half "Puffed", so I went to the family favorite "Puffed Oven Pancake" recipe.

That with some fresh squeezed orange juice, and we've got ourselves breakfast!

(I guess that I should be posting about Christmas things. Just blame Joe.)

Christmas in your mouth, I say!

Egg nog + milk + steam + nutmeg= yum, yum, yum!

(There's some Christmas homeschooling math for you!)

Hoping your season is warm and yummy.

It's A Hard Knock LIfe....

Katie and Ally participated in the play Annie this last Thursday and Friday.

It was put on through the homeschooling school (that sounds funny!) that we are a part of.

And can those homeschoolers sing and dance!!! :)

What are we doing today, the day after the play is over, you might ask?

Cleaning!

(You've got to use those rotten orphans for something productive!)

What we're listening to now....

At least, this is what Katie put on today.

Our cd player had a little accident, so out came the vinyls.

You gotta love Gene Autry!

The Candles are Coming...the Candles are Coming!!!

13 years ago my father-in-law rigged an old trashcan with epoxy on the inside and newspaper on the outside to create a drum for making candles....complete MacGyver style. This "drum" was filled with hot water, and two little water heating elements retained the heat. Wax was broken into pieces, put into the drum with water, and the dipping began. We dipped candles until we could dip no more. And then everything was packed away, and sat in 3 different garages over the course of the last 13 years. Thanks to my sister-in-law from CO, the box was uncovered, dusted off, and the fun began. Only this time, it involved five kiddos!

Wax melting on the stove top.

Cousins carving the wax

Katie chopping wax into smaller chunks.

The dipping bucket.

The wicks with the first dipping of wax.

The Kiddo Production Line...

:Dip: :Cool: :Straighten: :Trim Ends: :Do it again:

Straighteners/Trimmers

Adding color

The finished product.

I think that we've started a new tradition.

At least the kids think so!

A Perfect Sunday Breakfast

Delicious Buttermilk Biscuits. Lemon Curd and Whipped Cream. Honey and Butter.

And these are the hands that made it.

Yum.

Happy Day of Thanks

Thankful for everything that I have been blessed with.

Thankful for family, and sweet friends.

Hoping that your day was full of joy...and yummy Thanksgiving goodies!

Our Final Day in D.C.

"The Smithsonian in just 2 hours?!?!? Impossible. Don't even try!" But we did anyway.

We started at the National Museum of American History....

Then ventured...or rather, RAN... over to the Natural History Museum.

Got to go in the new exhibit where they had over 300 live, yes LIVE, butterflies. So fun.

And then we ventured...or rather, DROVE LIKE AN ANGRY ARMADILLO...to the airport.

At the Panda Express in Houston (deja vu all over again?)...and Ally found this fortune:

You better believe that we will. We are so thankful for all of these amazing experiences.

Oh, so thankful.

This really is the end. Really.

Until the next adventure....................

A whirlwind of a Saturday

I know, I know. Today is not Saturday. It's Monday. But my computer wasn't cooperating. Perhaps the 3 hour time difference finally caught up to it.

But there's just a few more things that I want to share!

Late Friday evening we drove to Stephen's City, VA to visit some dear friends. Saturday morning we drove to Winchester (a lot of times, actually!) and found this FANTASTIC wall.

I heart Patsy Cline.

Scott and I then went to the Old Court House. It served as a hospital and a prison during the war between the states. The actual city of Winchester changed hands

over 70 times during the war. Zoiks!

Our gracious hosts (and hostitas y hostito!)

::gracias por su hospitalidad y su amistad::

We then drove back to D.C. where we saw the awe-inspiring Lincoln Memorial.

Words just cannot describe.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in this very spot and delivered his

"I have a dream" speech.

We finished off the late night tour at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, The Vietnam Memorial, The World War II Memorial, and seeing the Washington Monument. We drove by the White House, but nobody was home, so we went back to the hotel.

A whirlwind, indeed, but just dreamy. Dreamy. Dreamy.

Leaf one for me....

Can one actually fall in love with a leaf? If so, I think that I'm smitten.

And from the looks of it, my girls are smitten, too.