We enjoyed a lovely, quiet, and relaxing Christmas Day followed by a rather chilled out week to finish off the year.
No Christmas t-shirts this year so we settled for a Christmas Day photo taken in their church clothes.
Most of their presents this year were of the flat variety that fits nicely in an envelope...
Munchkin baked his very first cake entirely from scratch... it is a "no fail" recipe given to him by a wonderful lady at church who knows that he loves to cook and bake. We made it lemon flavoured (with zest) this first time around.
Mixing up the lemon icing recipe he searched for online (right photo) while we waited for the cake to cool...
The icing wasn't the right consistency and nearly dripped off the plate, but it tasted nice. Munchkin has decided he wants to try a different icing the next time we bake the cake.
We were super excited when the three tomatoes on our plant ripened fully... they were delicious.
A beautiful sky greeted us Christmas night as we headed out for our tradition of looking at Christmas lights. This year I got smart and checked a website that told us the best places to go.
We were very happy with all the places we found and got home just after midnight.
On Boxing Day Monkey and Munchkin put together a gingerbread house that was generously gifted to us on Christmas Day...
They were very pleased with the final outcome and the taste was nice as well.
Our Christmas picture book read aloud selections for the week. We missed a few days but I opted not to "catch up" by reading extra books. It is just how life goes sometimes... And just a reminder, I'll be doing an exclusive Christmas Picture Book blog post after the 6th of January. So if you are looking out for new Christmas books be sure to catch that post when it is published.
I geeked out and spent some time getting started on my school planning for Monkey and Munchkin for next year. I love having a plan and feeling organised when we start a new school year. I wrote up weekly calendar pages for both boys and also sorted through their grammar and math working out what we'll get started on...
I no longer do this level of planning for Monster. Now that he is in his senior high school years he is responsible for his own work. I check over what he has done at the end of each week, and I generally still plan his writing assignments as well (topic only) but otherwise he plans and works independently now.
As you will remember from earlier posts, hubby and Monster are in the process of putting together a new freshwater fish tank... I spent part of Friday evening clearing everything out of the dining room so that the new six foot tank could be brought in and placed on the stand. With the help of a good friend of ours and some genius planning on my husband's part, the move into the house went off without a hitch.
The fish tank you can see in the above photo is the "temporary" tank that our fish are living in until hubby and Monster get the new tank up and running - then the temporary fish tank and stand will be sold to someone else to enjoy.
The six foot fish tank at home on the stand.
In the process of moving things out of the dining room, I kicked a box, with my bare toe. It hurt, enough for me to exclaim and hop about, but I had work to do so kept working. By bedtime it looked like this, and by Saturday afternoon it was many colours of the rainbow and the bruising had spread the length of the toe. However, I can put proper amounts of weight on it and wear shoes so I'm confident it is not broken.
New Year's Eve day I spent planning and organising again. I now have three weeks of Term One planned for the two boys AND my to-read book lists are re-organised as well. Periodically I go through my long list of books I want to read and check to see how many of them are available at our local library. Since the library has a bad habit of getting rid of books, it is generally a good idea to check about every 6-12 months and update my list accordingly.
I simply don't want to spend the money required to own all the books I want to read, nor do we have storage space for them. I also have NO interest in reading e-books, so this is my system and I'll stick with it for now. IF Jackie French actually does write and publish a sister series to the Matilda Saga, and if she only publishes it as an e-book series, then I will be forced to buy an e-reader.
