Study Hall

It's "Shoeville" once again. Right before Christmas break Miss 16 had a large group study session for an AP History midterm. They all crammed into her bedroom and crammed. Fortunately the kids in an AP History class also are the kids who want to study. I hear the test was very difficult. But I'm sure they all did well. Still, look at all those shoes... and the smell! Ew!

Merry Christmas!

It's only about 2-3 inches high. The faces are very primitive. It's hand carved, from Jeruselam. Merry Christmas, everyone! May your holidays be filled with all the joy your heart can handle.

Wrap It Up

About the first week of December I set up our big table in the basement as a wrap station. That way when I get a chance I can run down and get a few gifts wrapped at a time. I set out all the essentials: wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, tape, labels, scissors, extra boxes, packing material, etc. It works well for me, but ineveitably it is still set up the day before Christmas because 3 weeks IS NOT enough time for my husband and son to get their gifts wrapped. Yup, Mr 20 is still wrapping today, and he's only doing it now because I said I'm taking the wrap station down this afternoon. Otherwise, since he got home at 2:30 a.m., he'd still be sound asleep in bed. Nothing like a little motivation.

Baubles

Too Big

She's grown so. Miss 11, the last one Hubby had to lift up to put the angel on the tree. The past few years, the older two were almost always away from the house when it was Angel time. Miss 11 got to do the honors for many years in a row, the lucky girl. Last year we laughed as Hubby tried hard and begged me to hurry with the camera while he held her up to the tree. This year we all knew there was no way he could hold her up for Angel duty. She's grown several inches and is over a hundred pounds of solid muscle. Putting her in his arms and holding her up and out over the tree was something his back would not appreciate. Goodness but was she proud to step up on a chair and do it herself. Hubby and I hid our tears.

Tweet!

Out my kitchen window I have a couple of bird feeders and a bird bath with a small heater in it. It's so cold here in the winter that typically all I see is snow, and blowing snow, and the smoke from people's chimney's. Also near my kitchen window is my sink, I spend a lot of time doing dishes at the sink. I needed something to look at, thus the bird feeders. The birds give me a piece of life to look at while I let my hands turn into prunes. We've had all kinds of birds at our feeders, spring and fall provide a glimpse of very unsual birds stopping by while they are migrating.

Five years ago one of Hallmark's new ornaments was a bird, and each year a new one has been released. The quality is wonderful on these ornaments. They are a heavy weight and painted really well. I ask for the bird ornament every year for my birthday and since typically the ornaments at Hallmark are out by July, a September birthday works well. Plus, it gives someone a really easy birthday gift idea.

Excuse the bad photo skills in this collage as I needed to take these pictures against the window in the daylight, and the camera really didn't want to behave. I love the uniqueness of these particular ornaments. They hang right over my kitchen sink where I can see them (everyone all together now) as I do the dishes.

Do You See What I See?

This tree sits in my bay window in my bedroom. I love seeing Christmas trees in people's front windows, unfortunately if I put our full sized tree in front of our north facing window, it looks as though we are living in Alaska and not seeing the light of day for months at a time. Instead I have had to settle for putting this one in the bedroom. Last year I had red lights on it, it looked fantastic with red lights. This year we changed our outdoor lighting scheme, so when I put the red lights on, it just didn't work any more. Darn it! But the white lights still lookd good. The frosted twigs around it show nicely through the window as well, it's a very wintery scene. I've got red and silver ornaments on the tree and another strand of lights in the red bowl beside the tree. It's not perfect, but it is romantic.