a little more Christmas

Today I started packing up Christmas stuff.  More and more I get very excited about packing away Christmas stuff earlier.  There are still several things up as we are hosting our Life Group's Christmas party tomorrow - we need a little festivity - but when that is over, it is all coming down.  I love the decorating and all the lights and glitter but shortly after Christmas is over, I'm ready to move on with a house that is a little less full.

The rest of this holiday has been filled with a lot of reading - mostly done by Cade, playing Wii, playing with new toys and a lot of just relaxing and hanging out together.  It has been quite wonderful.  And right now, pause for a squeal of excitement……, it is snowing like crazy!!!!  I am still praying for a blizzard, but I really really really hope it happens during the regular school week instead of now during break or on a weekend.

Cade channeled his inner archeologist the other day and bust into one of his Smithsonian kits.  While many boys I know (thinking of two Californian nephews, in particular!) would basically take a sledgehammer to to the thing, Cade very patiently chiselled away, bit by bit, to unearth the treasures that awaited him.  He used the little brush to brush away dust and rubble.  He donned the provided safety goggles.  He put the block in a pan to keep the debris contained.  He carefully identified each gem that he found.  And he enjoyed it.

He has also blazed through books like nobody's business.  Sort of like how he went through farmer sausage today (that means he ate an awful lot of it - like a ridiculous amount!)  Kind of turning into a voracious reader type guy.  That was part of my goal for this holiday - to work on my probably 50+ want to read book list - but I haven't done much at all!  I think a librarian should get a paid month to stay home and read books, don't you?
I had Mia and Lucy organize my recipe binders today.  Pictures should have been taken as it was rather entertaining.  I put little signs up along the base boards with the different categories "fish", "sides", "cookies" - you get the picture.  And then they sorted them all into those categories.  After all the sorting was done, they put them in clear plastic sleeves and into the binders.  Cade wanted absolutely nothing to do with this job, so he cleaned two bathrooms instead.  Maddy was busy with an ocular migraine that was freaking us out, so she did nothing.

Today Mia started painting in her room and I did a bunch of spackling and touching up.  After the Christmas party I'm going to take on painting the dark grey wall in the living room.  Going white.  Or light grey. Or light blue.  Obviously I haven't decided.  But first it is going primer.

I finally took the photos of this year's ornaments.  I figured I better take them since I wanted to take the tree down!  So here they are:

Maddy ended up with two.  The first is a tricycle.  Now, Maddy already has a tricycle ornament from when she was two or something, but she needed a current one.  Her motto this year has been "third wheeling is a lifestyle".  This is because she constantly finds herself the third wheel with her friends and their boyfriends or want-to-be-boyfriends.  It is kind of hilarious how often it happens.  

The second one I just saw and thought I really should get as well.  It is a sushi roll.  Maddy works at the restaurant "Irori" and a large section of their menu is sushi, so it just fit.

Mia's ornament is the wild patterned elephant ornament that I bought at the Allume conference.  Mia now loves elephants (penguins are passé), purple - which the elephant has, and it is a cozy, cute and crazy animal all which is Mia completely.

Cade's ornament is a moose antler.  Just to be clear - not a real moose antler.  That might just be a little heavy and large for a tree ornament.  Just saying.  It would be awfully cool though.  Wouldn't mind at all getting my hands on one.  Anyway, this goes back to Cade's flock of moosen/meese thing.  And he seems to really like moose.  And he has pyjamas with moose on them.  And we read the book Hatchet where the moose rams the guy Brian into the lake and just about kills him (or maybe it is Brian's Winter, the sequel to Hatchet…).

Lucy's ornament is a "gymnastics girl", as Lucy would say.  No, she does not take gymnastics.  She hasn't even asked to take gymnastics, although she would probably like it.  But she is forever doing cartwheels, handstands, back bendy things and a few other things that look really fancy and gymnasticsy.  It doesn't stop.  Or at least not for long.  And its pretty cute.  And she seems pretty good (although what do I know?).  She is my gymnastics girl.

I'm still wanting to get a snowboarder one for Cade but I haven't found anything yet.  And I still have a list of ones to get for Mia from years past but can never seem to find the right things.  For some reason my ideas for ornaments for her are strangely uncommon.

And that's that.  I think we may be done here.