December Madness...

Been a crazy busy month...started out with 5-6 inches of snow which turned into ice and cause the kids to have 3 "snow"days and then three-days of 2 hour delayed starts.  Apparently Oregon doesn't put salt on the roads or anything...and snow plows...nope, not needed in this part of the state. 

Whoops...I guess every couple of decades a storm hits that dumps snow that doesn't melt in a few hours. But fear not, the recent immigrants from Extreme Northern California were prepared - snow boots and a snow shovel.  Brian shoveled our driveway (it's steep) and  the street in front of our house (only non-icy part of the whole street for about a week) and then he and Joshua moved across the street and shoveled our neighbors' driveway (luckily it is flat). Joshua had to use a regular shovel since we only have one snow shovel, but he did well.

Little Brother got Big Brother :)
 

The kids were thrilled to have some snow because everyone has told us that it doesn't really snow much here and they were disappointed (that foot and a half that we had last Christmas spoiled them). So they played out in it for a little while, threw some snowballs and made some snow angels. Then it was time for hot chocolate for the younger two while Joshua moved on to work with Brian as mentioned above.

This was the day after the snow...while we sat home and watched the snow fall the day before (because they'd cancelled school before it had started to snow...we were wondering if it was really going to happen or not) the kids decorated some styrofoam cones and made Christmas trees. Grace had started hers the day before and worked on it for a couple of hours. Then after school, Nathaniel had gotten in on the fun...so now, with not much else to do (and being quiet so Dad could sleep), Joshua decided to make one too. It was an idea I'd seen on Pinterest, but we took it to a whole new level. The Pinterest idea was to stick felt on felt.  That's for babies!  I pulled out sequins and beads and ribbon and little pearls and a ton of straight pins and they went to town (even getting into my craft supplies they WEREN'T supposed to be messing with) and of course, chopped up felt into confetti (that was Grace) and there were a few (thousand) spilled sequins (Grace again...and that wasn't an accident).  But they had fun and made some cute decorations.

 

 

Joshua's Christmas Concert got postponed (so did our Ward Party...and then that got cancelled...anyway...) a couple of days. Brian had to work so I videoed it on the camera. I almost posted those, but didn't want anyone to get motion sick from them...it was a little difficult with a 4 year old trying to climb in my lap while hanging on one arm and a 7 year old deciding he was going to rest his head on my other shoulder. Oh well, Brian could at least hear them. He is one of 13 trumpets in the 6th grade band of 61 musicians.  Quite a change from the last couple of years. He is loving band and playing the trumpet and is getting quite good. Grandma and Grandpa got him a trumpet book of John Williams movie themes (Star Wars, Superman and Harry Potter)...he's pretty excited to try that out.

 

 

They were the first band to play...followed by the 7th and then the 8th grade band, three orchestras and three choirs...first concert I've ever been to where people will get up and leave once their child was done instead of stay for the entire thing...odd...we stayed all the way through even though it was a school night and we didn't get home until almost nine...plus it was still very icy and cold.

Joshua and his friend Spencer from church both play trumpet...

 





 

The weekend after the snow was the Craft Fair in Ft Jones that I was doing with my mom...so the boys missed another day of school for that...but they survived. They got to go see their former teachers at Etna Elem. and that was something they both looked forward to. Spent some time at Grandma and Grandpa's visiting and doing crafts (Nathaniel's thing lately) while I finished up ornaments for the craft fair. We stayed at Grandma Darlene's house this time and enjoyed that time with her.

At the parade...the boys ditched her to go be with friends

Listening to Great Grandma read her a story

Still some snow left from the storm the previous week...their schools did not close however and they got as much snow as we had...

Santa still comes in on a fire truck...just like he did when I was a kid

 

We should call it our Four Generations of Crafters because both my grandmas had stuff there as well as my mom (most of it was her work), myself and the boys had made some little clothespin ornaments.
I remember my mom and grandma doing this same craft fair (though it was in a different building back then) when I was a kid and going to the parade with my grandpa and then going to my grandparents' house to wait until the fair was over.
This time I was at the craft fair and my kids spent most of the day at grandma's.
It was fun to do this with my mom and see friends that we've missed the past few months since we moved.

 Earlier in this week, I'd hosted the main course portion of the Relief Society annual Progressive Dinner. It was kind of fun to get ready for that - first time we've ever lived in a house where we'd have room for something like that. Even with the ice and snow (kids hadn't had school that day), a lot of sisters still came. They were all amazed at how well-behaved the kids were (ha, ha, ha) because they didn't see or hear them....that's because they were watching a Christmas movie upstairs in our room...so of course they were silent :)

 

The week after the craft fair I figured would be my catch up and get stuff done for Christmas week. I got my parents' and grandmas' gifts done and wrapped - as my parents arrived to pick them up on their way back south from Eugene.

The next day was my baking day.

Grace helped me make oreo truffles (which none were given away since I didn't get anything else made - but they've been well appreciated by Brian and the kids)

 

And, per Joshua's request, I made 16 (actually 21 small and one large) little loaves of Egg Nog Bread for him to give to his teachers and other people at school.

That was 4 batches I think...

 I also made mounds candy centers, and they're still in the 'frig waiting to get dipped. Because while doing this my ear started to hurt...and by evening, I was not feeling well. So the goodie trays that I'd envisioned making and delivering to visiting teaching and home teaching families...yeah, didn't happen. Maybe for New Year's...

I did manage to go to Nathaniel's class Christmas party on the last day before break...we'd had a busy week with him and school. Tuesday had been our meeting with the speech therapist to set up his IEP for that - yay! And his parent teacher conference...once he got healthy this fall, the boy took off! Math concepts at a 3rd grade level and reading at a 4th grade level. Now he just needs to memorize those dang math facts. I think that's the worst part of 2nd grade...Joshua hated it too.  On Wednesday, as I'm madly trying to bake cookies for one grandma and make caramel corn for another (and I'd wanted to do those darn oreo truffles that day to give some to my mom), I get a phone call from the office at Nathaniel's school wondering if I've forgotten the holiday lunch? No, I hadn't, and I'd told Nathaniel I wasn't going to go that morning. Several times. And honestly, I didn't want to pay five dollars to eat school food. So then Nathaniel got on the phone and he was practically in tears. Later, talking to his teacher, he'd told her he just wanted to call and see if he was supposed to eat home lunch (um, yes, he was since I'd sent one) or the school holiday lunch. In the end I decided that Grace and I would go over. I talked to the secretary again and asked what time the 2nd grade lunch was. She told me it started in two minutes. Lovely. Both Grace and I are still in our pajamas. So we made a mad dash upstairs to get dressed and made it to the school in about fifteen minutes. The food was pretty good - though I don't think Nathaniel ate much and I hadn't wasted the money on Grace because I knew she wouldn't touch mashed potatoes or turkey and gravy.
Anyway, back to his party. I was feeling pretty miserable that day, and Brian had promised him he would go and figured I'd better go too.
We go there shortly after it had started and they'd already played one game and were started on the second one. After a couple of games they got their goodies and were able to build snowmen...Grace had fun with that too. I hadn't been asked to bring anything and in fact, we hadn't even known there was a party until Wednesday, but I'll be bringing something to the Valentine's Day one - already been asked :)

 

I think she stuffed the whole thing in at once...