Advent Day Twenty Four

Today's ornament:  an angel

This ornament was made by me.  14 years ago in fact.  They were attached to the place cards when Mat and I had our wedding reception.  I made 100's of them.  Our wedding was close to Christmas, so I made these ornaments.  They were fun to make at the time.  We have a few that still hang on our tree each year, so it seemed fitting to put one on our advent tree.

 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:14

Today was a run around with errands day for me.  Nothing exciting.  This afternoon we babysat a neighbor girl.  Finley went to Daisies.  Arlington stayed after school to work on a project with her class.  Busy, busy this last week.  Finley loves daisies.  Our wonderful neighbor is the leader and she does amazing projects with the girls.  Each time she comes home with something great.  I am glad to see her enjoying it so much.

This evening was puppy school.  Scooby did great.  He is the best behaved dog - he really is.  Does he have crazy puppy tendencies?  You bet.  But he listens.  And he is a fast learner.  And he is great with the kids.  He was funny this morning - he likes to come with me when I get Arlington up for school.  Those two have a special bond.  He is always so excited to see her in the morning.  After she left for school, I went to her room to clean up, and Scooby followed me.  He searched everywhere in that room for her.  He couldn't figure out why he couldn't find her.  It was pretty cute.

Tomorrow starts Mat's vacation for Christmas.  It is great having him home.  He is off until January 2nd, so it is a nice long break.  He deserves it.  He is one hardest working person I know.  Never complains.  But he needs a break.

Advent Day Twenty Three

Today's ornament:  a candle

This was another Etsy find.  That is a great place to shop, especially for handmade gifts.  Love it.

"I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12

I also love this verse - especially when it comes to Finley.

Today Mat and I went to a meeting at the school to talk about Cainan.  No worries - it was a scheduled meeting.  When school started, we knew Cainan would need speech therapy, but the school also did many other tests as well just to get a well rounded picture.  They did some psychological testing, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and general education.  I was grateful because - of course - Mat and I have always worried about him.  But after the conference we had with the teacher a few weeks ago, we are very pleased at his progress.

Today's meeting went very well.  There are a few things with working memory they are going to keep an eye on, which made sense (he shows some of the same issues at home), but at this time, they are not interferring with his schooling.  So - he will receive speech therapy once a week just to kind of deal with some expressive language issues he has, and we will keep and eye on him.  They will want to look at him again next year in first grade when the work gets harder, to make sure he is still in a good place.  In the mean time, we will continue to work with him at home and make sure he stays on track.

His teacher is a great fit for him this year, and I hope we get just as lucky next year.  She has a highly structured classroom and that fits him perfectly.  He needs to know what is going on, and then he does great.

Last year at this time, we were getting ready for the Haddam/Killingworth Holiday Telethon to benefit our RDH12 foundation and Finley.  Do you remember that awesome telethon that raised nearly $45,000 for our foundation?  This year they are doing another local family which makes me so happy.  In the past they did larger charities, but I am glad they are doing another local little girl who needs the help.  It was great to see how the kids reacted to Finley and getting to know her - how it changed them.

We got a call from them the other day that we needed to make a little video and talk about how our year has been, how Finley is doing, and how the telethon changed things for our family.  We made a video of me talking about the year we had, but I also did a little filming of Finley that they wanted.  I put them below.  She played Twinkle Twinkle on the piano without any help (which is a new skill!) and she read a few words in her braille book by using her fingers.  So I wanted to share.

Arlington had her last student council meeting today.  She has really enjoyed it.  She is hoping that next semester she can join the drama club.  We shall see........

Advent Day Twenty Two

Today's ornament - a star.

This was an Etsy find.  It is hand carved and then antiqued. 

Today was a down day for us.  No where to run to.  We just stayed at home.  Arlington and I finished the puzzle we have been working on for a few weeks.  She is getting really good at these puzzles.  This one was a hard one - it had a ton of pieces and also a lot of detail.  But she stuck with it and today she put the final piece in.  She doesn't want to take it apart yet - she wants Santa to see her accomplishment.  She has asked for two Harry Potter puzzles for Christmas, so that is probably part of the reason!

 We made gingerbread cookies, watched Polar Express, and just had a fun day.  The kids were tired tonight.  They have so much excitement about the upcoming holidays that they run around all day and crash at night.  They have a full week of school this week, and then they are off until January 2nd.  We are looking forward to the holiday and having a chance to spend it with family.

Advent Day Twenty One

Today's ornament: A brick wall

This one was homemade by us.  We took red and black legos to make this one.  I let Arlington make it how ever she wanted to.

 This one is to represent the wall that was built around Jerusalem.  

"Surely I come quickly: Amen.  Even so, come Lord Jesus."  Revelation 22:20

Today was another beautiful day.  Really - we have been very lucky with the weather this December.  I am sure that just jinxed us.  We have had mostly days with sun and mild weather, and have been able to get outside - especially with Scooby - daily.  It has been great.

Today Arlington and I worked on a fun project for her class.  This year, her teacher is doing "Secret Snowflakes".  They were all assigned another classmate, and they have to make a card for them.  It can be any size, and be completely creative, so it was right up Arlington's ally.  We went out this morning and got the supplies to make the card.  She decided to make it poster board size (folded in half to make a card).  It came out very cute.  She worked all afternoon on it.  Then we had to wrap it like a present and she will take it to school.  She got one of her friends as her Secret Snowflake, so she was very excited.

Tonight we went to a Christmas party and had a great time.  It was adults only, so that made it even better.  The food was fabulous, and it was great to have adult conversation without wondering who was touching the breakable stuff.

Tomorrow is a very rare down day.  Not much going on, and I love it.  A week before Christmas.  Next week at this time, Mat and I will be getting everything ready for Santa's arrival - my favorite night of the year.

Advent Day Twenty

We are almost done with our tour of ornaments.  We will be finishing up before Christmas because apparently the Jessee Advent Tree only goes for 25 days, which means you TECHNICALLY shouldn't start on the first day of advent (as we did), but the first day of December.  We will know better next year.

Moving on.

Today's ornament:  A fiery furnace

This is as close as I could get.  A fireplace.  I like this ornament.  It is from Hallmark.

 This story was about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

"Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee."  Jeremiah 1:8

Today, I learned a valuable lesson.  Never go shopping after 5pm on the weekend before Christmas.  You may not survive to tell the tale.  Or deliver presents to your loved ones.  Which ever you find more important.

The mall was crazy.  Target was crazy.  Why was I out, do you say?  Santa needed to shop for Mat.  Plus - Target was offering a $10 gift card for every $75 you spent.  I was in.  Plus.....we needed groceries so we wouldn't starve.

But holy cow - the whole world was there.  I had to park further away today then I did on Black Friday.  And the store clerks are really over the holiday season at this point.  Especially when the lady in front of me made the girl pull out the weekly flier and search for the 50 cents she was supposed to be saving on her item.  Yepper.  I switched lines.

The mall wasn't much better.  I won't complain because I can be rather patient when I shop.  I know the sales people are doing the best they can, and people don't mean to bump into you 50 million times while they walk by you with their packages.  But did you know that Friday night at the mall is also teenager night?  It has been awhile since I was a teenager.  They were everywhere.  It made me shop faster.

For the love of all that is Christmas, why did I just not stick with Amazon.

Advent Day Nineteen

Today's ornament is the Town of Bethlehem

This ornament is hand carved.  I didn't get it from Etsy, though.  It was from a shop online, but I can't recall it's name.  I thought it was really pretty - I loved the wood carved ornaments.

Doesn't Arlington look thrilled in this picture?  She had just dropped the ornament on the floor and was not happy.  It didn't break - it was fine.  But she has butter fingers.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Today was another busy day.  Let's just say that all of December is busy and leave it at that.  I volunteered in the health office today, which was a lot of fun.  I do miss the kids - to an extent.  I don't miss the fakers.  But I miss the cuties.

Scooby had a vet appointment and got two shots and a very unpleasant procedure I will not talk about on the blog.  Let's just say he might have been violated.  He spent the rest of the day being mad at me.

Cainan had T-ball practice today.  He did pretty well.  I watched him throw the ball using a great technique and hitting the ball off the tee.  He seems to enjoy it, and - of course - has made a little friend in the class.  Cainan has to be the friendliest kid on the planet.  Next to Arlington.  Neither of those kids are choosy about their friends.

After T-ball we had 20 minutes to swallow dinner before leaving for Finley's piano lesson.  This isn't her usual night - this was a make-up lesson.  We won't be back to piano until after the holiday, so I am glad we got the lesson in.  Finley had a very busy day - she has a lot going on now with her Kumon learning classes and her piano practice every day, and school.  But she is holding up like a champ and counted to 50 in the car on the way home for entertainment.

If your family is as messed up in the head as ours, and you have started the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition, you need to read this blog:  http://peopleiwanttopunchinthethroat.blogspot.com/2011/12/over-achieving-elf-on-shelf-mommies.html  It is hilarious.  And apparently, we are not being creative enough with our elf.  I think our elf will throw out half of our kids toys and most of Mat's t-shirt collection for starters if mischief is up his ally.  We will start with that.

Just kidding.

Our elf forgot to move one morning because they elf has problems remembering to move before he goes to bed at night, so Arlington was quite tearful.  I needed to have a chat with the elf to make sure that doesn't happen again.  AND......I needed to put it on my calendar to remind said elf to find a new spot to sit before I got to bed each night to avoid further crying fits first thing in the morning from the small people in this house.  TOO. MUCH. PRESSURE.

This elf will mess your kids up for life.  Especially since Arlington tells it lately that it can't go anywhere other than the first floor of this house and no where near her room.  And of course, Mat's response to this is to take a picture of her sleeping and the elf on her head.  You know - to make sure she needs therapy.

Advent Day Eighteen

Today's ornament: a heart

This heart is made of leather and was weaved together.  It is another treasure from Etsy.  I love it, but it is delicate.

"I will put my law within them, and write it in their hearts." Jeremiah 31:33a

Today we took the kids to see Santa.  It was a half day for the kids, so after they got home, we went to the mall for a Santa visit.  Mat took the day off as well, so that we could all go together.  Even our neighbors and their cute little girls came with us.  It was a fun trip.

The kids all asked Santa for something they didn't mention before which was pretty awesome.  Not.  Gotta love that.  Arlington told me what she was asking for was a secret.  Even better news.  Ah well.  Our rule in our house is you make a list and Santa picks what to get you.  So - there you go.  I will post a picture of them with Santa tomorrow.  It is in the car, and it is cold out there......

After the Santa visit, we went to the movies.  We went to see Arthur Christmas.  The kids loved it, and so did I.  I thought it was really cute.  That is definitely one I want for our Christmas movie collection.  We were home by 6:30 and just had a quick dinner, and now the kids are now tucked in bed.

It was a good day.  Love days like this one.