Merry Christmas from the TreeHouse!

hustle bustle

Today we are still hustle bustling about getting ready for CHRISTMAS! It is ONLY 2 more "go to sleeps" until Christmas morning!

This morning we wrapped a few more presents... we are nearly finished with all that! We worked on some sugar cookie dough that I hope to roll out and bake tonight - decorating them tomorrow morning. Then, this afternoon we popped over to the store to pick up the few ingredients to make these easy yummy treats that the TreeKids helped make over at Jessica's house last week.

Pops has taken the big treekids to the library to return books and possibly check out another couple. They are also stopping at the post office to drop our Christmas letter into the mail... all 200 of them! Yes, we are behind - if you are expecting one... don't think we deleted you. The mail will get it to you next week - if they don't lose them!!

While Bump is still napping, I am off to the sewing machine... I have to make the bottom green part of four more stockings and then sew them to their tops and I will be done!!

Hopefully you are experiencing a more peaceful advent than this! We have had enough slow and contemplative days that now we are in hustle mode!!

Hello, Friends!

So... Pops' knee seems to be doing better. The swelling is going down (it WAS the size of one of those sort of cute personal sized watermelons - cute as a melon... not so much as a knee) and he is limping around. Ice is good. Tylenol is better. Ted hose are ... attractive? Yea - takin' all that a little far. Things are trying to move ahead in a normal fashion!

I have been bustling about. I bought some fabric back in 2008 to sew some matching stockings for our family. I didn't get it done that year. I didn't get them done LAST year. I am working on getting them done for THIS year! Do I think I will finish? I hope so!!

I am tired of the arguing over whose turn it is to use which stockings... we have a blue stocking, a red stocking (both of those two stockings Pops and I used when we were first married), a purple stocking (a gift from a beloved friend), a stocking with bear that has my name appliqued on it (from my childhood), a cheapy red stocking (purchased for Pops to use when Blossom was born so that there were enough to go around) and a cheapy reindeer stocking (purchased last year for a dollar for Bump once I knew that there was no chance I would get those stockings made). So... the girls both want the purple one and then they don't and then they do ... I need to have 6 that look exactly the same - with some initials on them. SO - that is what I am humming away on my machine to sew before the end of the week. I am in assembly line mode... cut all pieces, sew 6 loops, sew 6 cuffs etc... rushing rushing rushing!!

Not the best photo... but it'll work for now - I am in a hurry! The computer is being crowded out by the sewing machine! Off to finish the other 5 stockings!

Greetings from...

insanity central!

So... here's a quick run down since I last found time to type.

Wed, Dec 8 - Entire loft decluttered and rearranged with the help of Geemah (an ALL. Day. Project.)

Thurs, Dec 9 - Went on a really fun field trip with the kids to a one room schoolhouse where we had 1800s school for the whole morning

Fri, Dec 10 - online Christmas shopping with slow slow slow dsl internet, supper out with Geemah and the fam before she headed to the big city for her early morning flight

Sat, Dec 11 - Pops and the big kids went steelhead fishing all morning while I slept in with Bump then had some fun playing without interruption! After lunch, we piled in and went out for the great Grizwold Christmas Tree hunt... we found one that the treekids cut down. It is a nice 7.5 ft tree - but had a rather skinny trunk. After we got it home and in a bucket of water, we headed out for a small town chili feed and a trucker lighted parade (pictures to come on most of this stuff).

Sun, Dec 12 - Church in the morning, house and tree decorating in the late afternoon and evening

Mon, Dec 13 - Dentist appts for Pops and the big kids, finishing up Christmas shopping for Bump and I, fun at the park while the rain stopped with a big bucket of KFC with 4 missing pieces of chicken. Hmmmmm.

Tues, Dec 14 - Girls and I baked cookies for their Little Flowers cookie swap and made gifts for each of them to take for the homemade gift/ornament exchange. SHOOT - forgot to take pictures of that. Crossing fingers that Jessica will!!

Wed, Dec 15 - Ran some errands and took the big kids to Jessica's house for a few days. There is a Little Flowers meeting Thursday so they'll be there for that while I am busy playing "nurse." Headed up to the bigger city with Bump to pick up Pops from the airport.

Thurs, Dec 16 (today) - sitting in a hotel getting ready to take Pops to the orthopedic doctors so that they can do some fancy surgery to fix his knee which has a torn lateral meniscus, a high school football injury. Wishing I would have remembered to bring my camera or at least the memory card and card reader. With this fancy fast internet service, I could upload all of my pictures for the next MONTH in the time that I normally upload for one day. Grrrrr. Oh, well. We plan to head home after the surgery and set him up with some DVR watching the National Finals Rodeo... we know it is over. We haven't finished watching it, so don't go and ruin it for us! We've heard it was REALLY good. Tomorrow, we'll get the big kids back from all of their fun with Jessica and her family. What a kind and generous offer to keep the treekids while we deal with knee stuff! She is such a sweetheart... but, if you know her from her blog, already - you would already assume so!! :)

Please keep Pops in your prayers as he has surgery today and as he recovers throughout these next few days or weeks!

My Daybook, Entry #50

FOR TODAY
Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010...

Outside my window... 52 degrees, drizzly and DARK! IT is 10 pm and I am just getting to sit down at my computer for the first time for more than a quick pass by for important emails that may have dropped in from outer space.

I am thinking... happy thoughts.

• This is my 50th "daybook" - that is a LOT of doing the same kind of thing, for me!!!
• I see lots and lots and lots of carpet in my loft space tonight!
• I love the weather in Oregon... even the wet, chilly, winters!!

I am thankful for... a mom who is helping me reorganize and in a sense "stage" my home for our upcoming house listing (crossing fingers!) and four lovely children who were able to busy themselves very well today while we made big changes!

From the learning rooms... Yippppeeeee! Newly reorganized learning room as of today! We will again be using our loft space for school. Things are being accomplished, albeit slowly with Geemah here (she's too fun to want to sit still and get school work accomplished!). Tomorrow is a "no school" day. Thursday is a field trip!!

From the kitchen...

Tues: Spaghetti

Wed: Chicken something

Thurs: Hamburgers

Fri: Out at our local Mexican place?? It might be the very last time Geemah gets to eat there...

Sat: Breakfast

Sun: Roast

Mon: BBQ Sandwiches

I am creating... order and organization. and some St. Nicholas day cupcakes with Blossom, yesterday - YUM! They were super cute and SUPER tasty! I'll try to post pictures later. Pops has my "card reader" for getting all the pictures off my camera, though!

I am going... just a little loopy with several late nights with my mom! It has been fun, though! She went to bed early, tonight and where am I??? Sitting at the computer catching up!

I am reading... Still working on A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina and The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley.

I am hoping... To check EVERYTHING off of my "to do" list before Christmas! (it is a long to do list, so I should probably do more than HOPE!!)

I am hearing... the soothing sounds of the ocean. Don't get too excited... it is a white noise machine!! Everyone else is snug as a bug in a rug.

Around the house... Tidy Living Room: check! Tidy Dining Area: check! Tidy Storage Closets: check!! Tidy Craft Closet: check! Tidy and Reorganized Loft: CHECK!!! Relatively Tidy Kids' Rooms: check! Need to work on Master Suite, a bit in the laundry room, and the counters in the kitchen!! YIPPEEE! AND the laundry is mostly caught up!

One of my favorite things... newly rearranged furniture. I always like a fresh look in a room!

A few plans for the rest of the week... trip to the big town tomorrow, again on Thursday for a field trip, all spare at home time will be working on my monster to do list with my mom! She is definitely helping get things in order in some areas of the house! She leaves this weekend... she'll sleep lots at home. I will do more over the weekend before Pops heads out to Denver. Working on house stuff as well as trying to get all of my Christmas shopping completed!

A picture thought I am sharing... "Beautifying" Almost exactly 2 years ago... Boy, how time has flown! (Ages: Branch 5.5 yrs, Blossom 3.5 yrs!)

To read more daybooks or to join in the fun, head over to Peggy's.

Lights!!

Today is the First day of Hanukkah... The Festival of Lights! While our family is not Jewish, a very dear friend of mine (and my baby catcher here in Oregon!) IS! So, I like to take the opportunity to talk with the treekids a little bit about this holiday. NOW, I do NOT proclaim to know a whole lot about Jewish celebrations. But, I think that it is fun for the treekids to get to know a little bit about the history of the Jewish holiday!

So, I was playing around last night online at Amazon and found this FREE MP3 Download! It is a fun, snappy tune about Hanukkah! Let's just say that Blossom couldn't hear it enough times and was singing along! So, if you want a fun LITTLE way to talk about Hanukkah with your kids... this is a fun one! (I'm not sure why Orin Hatch's picture is the cover for this song, a nice little menorah would have been nice, but what do I know!? He apparently wrote the song, did NOT perform it, but hey, it's FREE and cute! I promise that an older Mormon U.S. Senator will not be singing this song celebrating a Jewish holiday!!)

Last year, we crafted a flame-less menorah for our friend. It looked a little like this - with all the painting "outside the lines" that children do!

photo credit: Family Fun

They had fun and were looking forward to crafting something fun for this year... We tried something with toothpicks! They had fun painting - after I used the hot glue gun. They were all afraid of burning them selves on such a small craft! (I think I have taught them well to respect the hot glue gun!! I have burned myself far too many times to count and they apparently don't want to add to the tallies!)

photo credit: Good Housekeeping

We'll be off to the big town today to run a few errands and to hit the library's book auction for children. We plan to purchase a few delicious looking jelly or cream filled donuts to place on a blue plate and stick our sparkly Stars-of-David into before dropping them off at her office and giving her a great big Happy Hanukkah Hug!! SHE will most definitely be missed when we move... somewhere, sometime. (No, we still do not know where or when!)

As for us, we will do our own small festival of lights... I don't think that this will count in ANY way for the Jewish celebration! But, on our way home, we plan to drive through our little town to see all of the beautiful (and even the tacky) blinking lights!! Nothing like a shot of commercialism tied to a beautiful holiday!!

Wordless Wednesday - 1st Birthday Cake

"Lethal Peppermint Chocolate Cake"