Christmas Day 2016

Merry Christmas!!  What an exciting/eventful few days it has been!  Nannie drove to our house in a snowstorm in the evening on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas Day with us.  Gabe backed out of the garage later on Christmas Eve (to deal with some santa things) and backed directly into my mom's car... We eventually laughed about it;)

Santa came during the night, but before everyone got up the power went out (I am pretty sure my mom wished she hadn't come at this point;))... So, we made the most of it.  The first pictures are only light because of the camera flash and our lantern.  Thankfully it was sunny out so after everyone checked out the Santa gifts we moved to the front room where we almost passed out from the heat.  Noah and Audrey both asked Santa for an ice cream/hot dog cart, James an ant farm and Ben wanted a ninja turtle. This one is still a mystery because Ben has never seen the show or really knows what they are, but he insisted on this one named Leonardo because we have been studying Leonardo DaVinci in school... I guess that is a win;)

After some gifts we pulled out the propane camping stove and cooked eggs, bacon and hash browns.   Thanks to our solar panels we do have the ability to plug small things into the current electricity being produced.  We were able to make hot cocoa and toast in the basement.  The pigs enjoyed some leftover (stale) sugar cookies and couldn't have been happier.  Overall, an fairly memorable Christmas to be sure!  Merry Christmas!                                      

Christmas Eve 2016

A few days ago Ben lost his first tooth.  He had been wiggling it a lot, so I asked him if he wanted me to try and pull it out.  He said yes, so I went upstairs to get a gauze pad. When I came back down stairs this is what I saw.  He reached in and just yanked it out all by himself! I felt a little disappointed that he robbed me of being able to pull out a tooth, but I was mostly proud that he wasn't afraid to do it himself;)

We have enough snow for sledding this week.  Last year, the day before Christmas the kids also had the sleds out, but they weren't wearing coats and were trying to sled on the grass!

Gabe had to work part of the day on Christmas Eve, but made it home in time to make some soups and practice to sing in the choir with the boys at the Christmas Eve church service.  For the first year, Audrey was finally old enough to participate in setting the treats out for Santa and opening the Christmas Eve gift.  In years past she has been a complete mess needing to go right to bed after church, but she is growing up to handle it better now:)

Christmas Preparations Part 2

More Christmas!! We held our annual family Christmas party complete with more cookies to decorate and a visit from Santa.  We love seeing all of our friends come together for this.  This year there was a significant snow storm the night before and morning of the party, but, like all good Mainers, it didn't stop anyone from coming out and joining us.  It did make parking a bit interesting and we got the snow removal done minutes before the party started, but we all had fun just the same:)  

The day after our party was the annual Children's Christmas Pageant Sunday at our church.  I am sure I have stressed this point before, but we love our church.  Every year it seems that one of our children decide they want to do something quirky as part of the pageant and every year, no one bats an eye.  This year James played Joseph (he now holds the distinction of the only kid to play both Mary and Joseph in different years) and Noah was a narrator.  The pageant took on a bit different part of the birth story to include King Harrod, played by Ben.  Ben has a history of claiming he wants to be part of the pageant, but backs out at the last minute.  This year he practiced his part, both being very angry and his death scene, and did such a great job! Audrey refused to wear any costumes offered in the weeks leading up to the pageant. The day before she agreed to be a lamb. That morning she refused to be a lamb, but still wanted to be part of the pageant.  The only thing I got her to agree to was the unicorn costume... this year the story of the birth of Jesus included a unicorn;)

Winter Sports Return!

This week we got, what I hope will be, lasting snow and ice thick enough to skate on!  To make sure we took full advantage we had a day of skating AND the first ski trip to Sugarloaf.  Everyone's skating and skiing was a bit rusty, but it felt exciting to be back on the ice and the mountain.

The pigs don't seem to be phased by the snow one bit.  They do plenty of running in their pen (as evidenced by the snow they pack down) and are currently enjoying the food scraps from our house and the hospital cafeteria.  They seem to love it and are growing well! It continues to be so cool to see how smart they are in interacting with us.  It will be interesting when they go to slaughter, but we will just keep telling ourselves that it will be worth it to "know our meat" and what it ate... I think;)

Christmas Preparations- Part 1

The Christmas season has gotten off to a fast and furious start around here!  We brought our tree home after the Chester Greenwood parade (Gabe talked me down from a bigger tree;)).  We have been looking at it for a few days waiting for Gabe to have another day off to help us decorate it... then we got impatient and decided we could do it ourselves.  I made sure to review with the kids what to do in the case of an emergency (likely me falling off the ladder) before we started.  I could hear my dad the entire time gently encouraging me to make safe choices when using a ladder.  We got the lights, decorations AND the star on and felt quite accomplished by the end.  Some of us put in more work than others...

Tonight we attended our first (of many) holiday parties where the kids got to jump in a bouncy house and eat all of the sugar cookies/frosting and candy canes they wanted:)

Beginning of December Activities

For art this week we are taking on paper mache.  I am sure this will be a project that lasts for a few weeks.  It was really fun working with this medium and watching the kids problem solve to create the shapes they wanted.  Noah is working on an octopus, James an owl, and Audrey is making some kind of cat ball.  Ben had no interest in making anything that involved him touching the glue.  So, he helped me make a few volcanoes and was happy to do some painting instead;)  

This past Saturday was Chester Greenwood Day in Farmington to celebrate the inventor of the earmuffs.  The kids were excited to be in the parade, but realized quickly that if you are in the parade you can't watch the parade;) The hospital staff was walking in the parade and somehow Gabe and the boys got to carry the banner in the front.  It was chilly, but not as cold as past years. 

Lastly, this week the Academy Hill School had their annual holiday concert.  Noah has been working very hard as part of the 4th grade orchestra playing the violin.  They all did a great job!