December Week 5

We returned home on Monday and began putting our Christmas gifts to use.  Annie and Mollie Grace put together Annie's panda playground.  Mollie Grace created a couple of Rainbow Loom bracelets and baked mini muffin bundt cakes for breakfast Tuesday.  We hung Annie's new curtains and put her new comforter on her bed.  I tried out my laminator and wore a new outfit.  There are no pictures of Ben wearing his new hoodie and soccer jerseys, sleeping under his comforter, or making smoothies with his blender but he's been enjoying his Christmas gifts too.  

Christmas Visits

John hunted Saturday morning.  After he came out of the woods, we headed to Jackson where we had lunch outside with Nana, Grandaddy, Fran, MV, and Janey.  We got to open our gifts from them.  After lunch and gifts, we headed to Jena where we had supper, opened another round of gifts, and watched innumerable Hallmark Christmas movies.  Sunday afternoon we met Cara, Aubrey, and Ella Kate at MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman's house where we ate gumbo and popped fireworks. It was odd without everyone there but we managed to shoot 120 bottle rockets, 36 Roman candles, and probably 60 sparklers.  We were all happy to spend time with PawPaw and MawMaw after both had been so sick recently.

Christmas Day

 Santa brought gifts to our house this year.  The girls chose to sleep upstairs in the playroom and guest room so they would not accidentally see what Santa brought if they went to the bathroom.  I think Annie woke up really early.  She had put together a few puzzles before John and I were awake and ready to open gifts. Since it was just us and we had plenty of time we took turns opening one gift at a time.  We had pancakes for breakfast and ham and sweet potato casserole for lunch.  After lunch, we drove to the hunting camp and spent the night in our old trailer. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was different this year.  We did not travel and visit family before the holiday.  The girls baked and decorated the Happy Birthday, Jesus cake.  The kids made chocolate covered pretzels to leave out for Santa.  I cooked turkey and dressing.  We worshipped with our church's candlelight Christmas Eve service via YouTube.  We played Family Feud.  Ben placed the last ornament on our 2020 Jesse Tree after reading the Christmas story.

December Week 4

On the Sunday that began the fourth week of December, I heard a terrible crash from the school room while I was working on lunch.  The cat had jumped on the edge of the cardboard holding the puzzle that we had been working on since Thanksgiving.  With only a few pieces left to complete, the puzzle catapulted off the table and went flying.  We eased the big chunks back together and picked up the leftover pieces scattered around the school room.  Monday morning Ben and Annie completed the puzzle and there was only one piece missing.  I started searching around on the floor and FOUND that one piece we had overlooked!  On the 21st, Jupiter and Saturn aligned to make "the Christmas star."  We got out our telescope and looked at the moon with our neighbor friends.  At 45 minutes after sunset we looked southwest and found the brightest star in the sky.  We were able to see one of the planets up close through our telescope.  It was very cool!  Annie's doll Luciana joined us while we were out with the telescope.  On Wednesday night Mollie Grace baked an apple pie by herself.  It was an exciting week.  I'll post pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day seperately.

December Week 3

During the third week of December, our family was asked to light the Advent candle at the early church service (mask required).  We wrote a letter to Santa Claus this year rather than seeing him in person because he was behind plexiglass if you visited him at Bass Pro Shop/Cabellas.  You could see him but not sit in his lap.  That just felt weird so we opted for a letter instead.  Ben has been working on his science fair project during the school break.  We took these pictures for the board that he has to create.