Pray Tell

Pray tell, why is it that we go to bed at 3:30 am after Midnight Mass and social hour, and the bulk of the children are up at the same usual time? Now, if you are awake, do the simple math to imagine what it is to have 12 children in which most make gifts for each other, plus gifts from us, grandparents, relatives. How many presents do you think we have under and around the tree?  (!!!!!)

A Most Blessed Christmas to All

A most blessed Christmas to you and your families and a happy & peaceful New Year!

Happy Birthday Bilbo

 Happy 8th Birthday, Bilbo!

 Birthday dinner with mom & dad at Journey.

 March of the animals

 I was out with Marigold when suddenly she said, "OH! I know how we get to Heaven! We climb up those clouds!"

 Sorting choir music.

 Organized choir music.

 Winter Band Concert with the homeschoolers. 

It was GREAT!

 Count down to Midnight Mass!

 Calling mommy... on a magnifying glass toy.... of course!

 The head fell off of one of our outdoor manger set's king.  Aragorn was gluing it back together when Kili came in with an over-sized band-aid to fix it.

 Now this is a family sized box of candy. When my 2 oldest boys saw it, they said it was just the right size for themselves.  Mega-family size box, teenage boy size box... pretty much synonymous!

Twas the night before Christmas all were stirring about...

The Nutcracker Suite

Our children's choir, and a couple other girls, went on an outing to the Nutcracker Suite courtesy of our generous choir director/organist extraordinaire.

 It was a fantastic program in amazing seats right up near the front!  It was great!

 Afterwards we were going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and had a 1-1/2 to 2 hour wait. Yikes! So we wandered around the mall.

 Love it! Want it!

 We stood out just a little in all our velvets, tams and necklaces.

 The only choir member interested in getting on a scale :D

 Because we are a choir, why would anyone question why the children and director jumped right in with the mall choristers?

 Dinner was absolutely delicious!

 The chicken madiera was so very, very good!

 How cute, french fries in a cup!

 I had a few bites of the lemon-raspberry cheesecake.

OH. YUM! It is nice to have food to take home!

Hunting and Advent

Kili ready for battle.

 Hunter troupe

 Bird troupe. How many can you count?

 Remember colorforms? THE BEST!

 Cutting up the heart.

 Frodo's first deer!

 A 10 point buck!

 Galadriel & the giant Costco Nutcracker

 Frodo's buck has seen better days.

 Cousin A's first deer, too!

 New bull calf

 Friend's adorable grandbaby

 Peg people party

 3 D Jesse Tree makings

 Bethlehem was set up at the beginning of Advent, each day 2 children each put up a person.

 Advent

 Etsy Fig & Thimble is my favorite shop.  These are their priest and 2 altar boys pegs.

 At our homeschooling craft fair, one of the teachers was selling these lovely vestments for the family altar.  They are really lovely!

 Pegs, pegs and more pegs

 These are my nativity pegs as a little Advent gift for the children

 Mod Podge drying

 All good things take effort

 Making sausage

 Stockings were hung without much care in hopes that St. Nicholas' Day would soon be there, and not include coal.

 This year we even made our attempt as stuffing sausage skins. In case you ever want to try this, read the instructions on the bag 'o casings, they should be washed first, goes lickety split that way .

 PIE God baby is getting big!

 This little piggie when this way, this little piggy went that way, all little piggies went wah-wah-wah, all the way back home.

 Life is tiring at 2.

 92nd Nativity pageant at the Capitol.

 YES! At our Capitol!

 It was really beautiful, as usual.  Afterwards we went with cousins to grandma's for pizza.

For the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we attended the Bishop's Traditional Latin Mass with the x-long cape. It was really magnificent. It's nice to see the Bishop honored in such a way.

 School, school, school, school, school and more school

 Prize for the most outdoor Christmas items in one yard.

 We were invited to our neighbor's Christmas party at PlayN and had a great time.

 We don't do Insanity Claus, but the littles were excited about it anyway.  Who wouldn't be excited about a big fat hairy man dressed in red and white?

 2 winners at our homeschooling spelling bee (notice neither of them are mine!!) However, one is our nephew/cousin (the one on the right). Great job boys! Cousin will be representing on the next level.

 The end.