Fabulous First Day of Christmas Break

Today is Malachi's first full day of Christmas break.  It was oh so lovely to not have the mad morning rush out the door.  I do have to say it was quite humorous because right after breakfast Malachi rushed upstairs to get dressed, teeth brushed, and actually had his shoes, coat and gloves on. I found him sitting by the front door waiting for us to drive him to school.  He forgot that he was on break!

He was quite prepared, though, because the rest of us got ready to go outside and enjoy the first snowfall of the year (we had the slightest bit of dusting a few weeks ago, but this actually covered some of the ground and cars.)  I pointed the snow out to Samara and she said, "Yeah! It's my birthday!".  She always assumes that if there's something special going on then it MUST be her birthday ;-) 

All of us enjoyed playing in the snow for about 20 minutes (George attacked the snow as shown in a picture below.)  We came inside and enjoyed hot chocolate with marshmallows (or "coffee" as Samara calls it) and warming up by the fire.  George is quite exhausted from running outside.  What a wonderful way to start our break!

Merry Christmas, Mrs. O!

This is my first year to add a teacher to the list of people to shop for Christmas gifts.  I wanted something maybe a little different, home-made. Something Malachi could help with. I got inspiration from Pinterest (should check out that website if you haven't already!).  I bought a natural wood shadow box, wooden cross, wooden letters, and a piece of purple scrap book paper at Hobby Lobby.  I painted the box while Malachi painted the cross and letters.  Once it was dry I glued that paper, letters and cross to the box.  Malachi insisted on making a Christmas card for her along with a "K-State" card.  Here is the end result which he brought to school today to give to Mrs. O:

 

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

'Tis the Season

Wowza, it's been a long time since I posted. So sorry!  We've been crazy, busy around here.  Shopping for Christmas, decorating for Christmas, Christmas program at church and Malachi's Christmas program at school.  Christmas is definitely in the air!!!

This year I've been more laid back about the gifts we're giving.  No stress about if I couldn't find what I initially thought about giving someone; no stress about needing to get all the gifts wrapped (I did just purchase the wrapping paper last night. I'm guessing I'll dedicate an evening and bang that out.) I was one of the crazies that went Black Friday shopping with a dear friend.  We started at 9pm and I walked into my house at 7am.  Was it worth it?  Oh YEAH.  I was fortunate to find amazing deals on items that was already on the wish lists of both our families.

Shh...don't tell the boys, but they are both getting a Nintendo DS lite.  It was funny because I thought about that gift for them, but James actually brought it up that he thought we should give it to them. Then, Malachi began talking about getting a DS for Christmas. Great minds thinking alike ;-)

The problem was, though, that they are super expensive x 2.  We decided that buying "pre-owned" DS' was both economical and practical.  Remember, these are boys aged 4 and 5 (well almost 5 and 6).  Would they be gentle with the system? Would they take care of them? We don't know, but if we bought used, I mean, "pre-owned", and they broke it, we wouldn't be out so much money.  So we began researching deals on Amazon and Ebay. They were still expensive! I was beginning to think that maybe we were going to have to find something else for their gift. But, James really came through for them. He found 1 DS on Craigslist and posted on one of his "computer-nerds-unite" forums that he was interested in buying a DS for a certain price.  A reader saw his post and agreed to the price!!! He actually sent the system to us and said that we could pay him after we looked the DS over to make sure it was ok. Who does that anymore?!?  What a blessing!  I'm super excited to see them open up this gift.

Now Samara's gift is ah-maz-ing!  OOOOH, I am already thinking about her response.  Her sweet cousin, Sofia, has a 3-story dollhouse from KidKraft. Any time she is at her house, she will spend hours playing with the house.  We decided that this was her year to get the traditional "girlie" gift of a dollhouse!  My parents found this house at Costco for much cheaper than on amazon.com or in other stores.  Now, come Christmas Eve night, I may not be quite as thrilled as I am assembling this (yes, James, I'm going to try to put it together myself).  Here is a picture of it:
 
 Needless to say, she's going to be thrilled!

 There are a few other gifts that I'm super excited about giving, but those gifts are to people who read this blog so I'll share after Christmas ;-)

Hope your Christmas season is going great!