Christmas Vacation, Anyone?

It is the Monday before Christmas, and we are still "doing" school! Not that we are behind schedule...on the contrary, we started second semester in early December. With baby Nathaniel coming to stay with us in April we are focused on being done with the school year by then.
We've been baking up a storm of Christmas treats! The proof is in the messy kitchen:
Mark made a pan of fudge practically by himself:
We made 12 dozen of these peppermint shortbread cookies to give out:
Maya dipped all 144 of them in powdered sugar:
Sunday the children at church performed a few Christmas songs. Here is Maya, front and center of the 7-to-12-year-olds: Here is a short clip of one of their songs:


Then the 2-to-5-year-olds joined them on stage. Here's Mark in his little suit and tie:
Here's big Mark. He was teaching in the 3 and 4 year old class so he got to take a very special roll in the program...keeping the 3 and 4 year olds from acting up!
See the little cutie on the first row with a red sweater and glasses? Her name is Gracie and she is very fond of Marky. See him here checking her out...they are special friends! Here's a clip of one of Mark's songs:


Here's a quick clip of the whole group:
What a great group of kids!!

More Christmasy Stuff

On Saturday we had a cookie party with some friends from church. The Cains and the McNultys joined us for dinner and then the kids decorated Christmas cookies. Everyone had fun just hanging out. On Sunday we went to Nana and Papa's house and the kids helped to decorate their tree.

Snow Play

We woke up Sunday morning to a light sprinkling of snow, and by the time we returned from church there was enough for the kids to play in. The kids were able to scrape enough snow up from the deck to build a few snow people: By Monday morning there was even more snow. The kids built another snowman... ...discovered a new feline friend to play with... ...and had a trampoline snowball fight: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Fall Leaves

On Saturday afternoon we raked the leaves from the back yard.
Just in the nick of time, because it snowed Sunday morning (pics of that next time!). There were bunches and bunches and bunches of leaves. The kids had fun and worked hard. We did some trimming too. With the four of us working it only took about an hour and a half. So, how many leaves were there? 16 leaf bags full!! Where did all the leaves come from?!! We have only small trees in our yard...but the neighbors around us have several massive sycamores and oaks. Look at that clean yard!Once we were done, the kids warmed up with hot cocoa and popcorn.