A Holiday Week

 Well I had thought I would do a handmade Christmas post yesterday (even though I officially ended the series last week) but it didn't end up happening. We were working on this instead:

-Getting our Christmas letters and pictures out in the mail. I am sure these will be late for quite a few of our friends but oh well. I had run into trouble trying to get pictures, I ordered 60 and they sent me one- and thankfully we have more than one friend so that wasn't going to work, and then I was so busy I almost decided not to send a letter at all but then I had a little more time and found a good deal on pictures so we decided to put one together after all. We worked hard yesterday morning and got about all of them out the door before the mail man arrived around noon.

 It is a fun family project with lots of jobs available. We create our own fancy paper by stamping on it, then they have to be folded. We also use our envelopes made out of calendars so they need labels attached and stamps and then the letter and picture inserted and then they have to be taped closed. As we would get a few done somebody would run them out to the mailbox so that as many as possible would go in that days mail. Most of them we sent with just the typed letter and the picture but to some we spent the time to write personal letters as well.

  We decided to take this whole week off from school (even though the public school around here doesn't get off until Friday) so that we could work on projects and other fun things. We do still have been doing school like activities though with all the letter writing and then we are still doing all our educational reading, we have been concentrating harder on music (as the kids are going to help play for Sunday church service) and lots of sewing and stuff which is also educational.

 Yesterday afternoon we were busy working on various projects. Aaron finished up a rag doll that he was making for Megan (with my help), Jonathan made some leather luggage tags for Ken (with some assistance from me), Mara worked on a book of stories and poems that she has written and Megan had fun making a mess various projects from pipe cleaners and foam sheets. Meanwhile I was working on making some photo books. Looking back I am not quite sure why I chose that activity as it has nothing to do with getting ready for Christmas- so if later in the week I am feeling frazzled (I hope not!) please feel free to remind me that I chose to work on photo books on Tuesday. :-)

Here are some other things that we have worked on lately:

Mara made a bracelet making kit to give to Megan (she has really admired and loved to use one that Mara was given earlier.

 I made little Candy Cane mice to give to my music students.

 This project was inspired by my friend Emily who made some last year.

 I have also been working on some knitting and crocheting- socks for the boys (I learned how to make heels- no thanks to the pattern- and I am rather excited about it!) and slippers for Megan.

The kids have been busily into decorating still. Paper chains being their decoration of choice. They had made some in class at church and Megan (and sometimes the boys) have been busily making them ever since. She made a really long one and started to string it across the dining room at about 2 feet off of the ground. I thought maybe it would work better in a little different spot so I helped her to string it across the hallway ceiling.

Since then she and the boys have busily added many paper decorations (chains, paper lanterns, etc) to the hallway and some in the bedrooms too. It has become a little interesting to navigate but it is certainly festive!

 Anyway- that is some of what has been going on around here. We have also been playing lots of games when Ken is home. We love our family time together and this sort of weather gets us in the mood for games. We are also hoping that we might get more snow- it has been pretty minimal so far this year.

I may not post much more this week- but then again maybe I will a bunch- you never can tell! :-)