Goodbye, Winter Break!

Ahhhh! It was nice.  We started "breaking" for the holidays around November 23, which was when we had family arriving from out-of-state for my son's college graduation party--some of whom stayed through  mid-December for my daughter's choir performance at Holiday Pops (a rehearsal cut). And then... well, you know.

But it was a lovely break.
 
We celebrated our first Advent, adding handmade ornaments each night to a tree of branches after a Christmas devotion, and then lighting the candles and reading Christmas stories or watching a Christmas movie.

Aram rode a camel, and had his first official "choir" concert.

We had such a fun and blessed Christmas morning.

Things like this started appearing in the house--such like we haven't seen in 15 years:

Easter dress, by Gymboree, size 0-3 months.

New Year's Eve is always fun around here. We've hosted a party at our house for our friends for about six years now.  This year:  26 kids and 12 adults. Italian buffet potluck. Crazy fun!

That's showing half the people in half the room as we gathered in the kitchen to bless the food.

 
And, something rare in this neck of the woods:  Enough snow with a warm enough temperature for a good sledding day.  The view from my living room window yesterday:

Here's the Youtube of one of the sled runs.

And the week after Christmas, we did the usual sorting out, getting rid, re-organizing everything. We keep it simple any way, so it wasn't too difficult making sure everything had its place--the new toys, clothes, puzzles, games. And we did our "Winter Cleaning."

Today, I pulled down our schoolwork and chore checklists and remade them with some modifications.  This year, since we started school, we've added daily "Memory Work" and "Read Aloud" (Thanks, Sarah).  Here's the tutorial I posted at the beginning  of the school year for these AWESOME magnetic flap schoolwork/chore charts--best we've ever had!)

Ummm, yes, the desk is getting cleaned soon. Worked at it all day to make these charts!

 The chores got a bit of shuffling as we pondered what we had assigned and compared it to how things were actually working.  The kids are giving the new chore charts a trial run right now as I type this.

  God bless your new year!

LOVE.