Christmas 2009

Well - our Christmas celebrations are officially over! It was a crazy, busy enjoyable time with lots of people we love!


Faith was a reader in our
Christmas pagent!

















All the kids at Mass were able to join Father on the altar.




We had a fun time celebrating on Christmas Eve at my dad's house.























































Then Christmas Day at our house!


































































Apparently my house is set up perfectly for a game of chase.





Then some of my friends from high school came over with their kids and we hung out and had lunch.


























It's been a busy few days - I'm looking forward for a little quiet time before going back to school in January!

Third Grade Projects

So far third grade has been the year of school projects.


We have the "Sense of Wonder" project.


And the "Planet Project."


Plus the "Traditions" project.

Faith is such a procrastinator combined with perfectionism that we usually end up about ready to kill each other by the time we are done. Daddy got to do the space project - that's his thing - and they had an even harder time working together than she and I did. And I keep hearing that she's just like me and that's why we have a hard time????

Twelve Days of Christmas

The Christmas onslaught is upon me. Having officially started Christmas break at 11:15 yesterday with a trip to the dentist (Faith and I need to floss more), we are being embraced by the frantic preparations at our house.

I will be hosting the Christmas Day gathering for the first time because of my mom's move into a condo. This means that I should be: cleaning, wrapping presents, organizing all the piles of junk around my house, cleaning, writing thank-you notes to my students, double checking that all my shopping is done, cleaning...

Instead I have been: reading, watching Nanny McPhee, ignoring the grading I still need to do, thinking about report cards, ignoring the grocery shopping I need to do, buying things on E-bay that I desperately hope will be here by Thursday, surfing all the blogs and websites I haven't had time to look at in the past few weeks, tweaking the layout of this blog, and best of all...

REPEATEDLY listening to my daughter sing the following

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

She has a lovely singing voice, but heaven help us all by the twelfth day, Jan. 6th!

THE card Christmas 2009

The text (for those without a magnifying glass!)

No training wheels
First Communion
First plane ride (to Buffalo, NY)
Halloween Ladybug Fairy
Soccer defense star

Seasons Greetings to you and yours
with love from
Julie, Dan and Faith

Christmas 2009

Visits to Santa then and now...

This was Faith at age 3 on her visit to Santa. She asked for a doll and a real puppy.

This is Faith age 8 on her visit to Santa. She asked for a Nintendo DS, an American Girl doll, a Wii, and a real puppy.

My how she has grown!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I got out to see my Gma and Gpa's place today. They are looking really settled it and it seems just the right size - the little bit extra of computer/office space really does make a difference.

My mom and stepdad's move went smoothly - turns out that one of the movers used to work with me back in the early 1990's at McDonalds. He said he recognized me because of my laugh and my smile - I was kind of hoping it was because I was still so skinny and twentyish looking but no such luck!

I've been ignoring my grading and working on Christmas cards today. Ended up having to order more since I underestimated how many I would need - too bad I didn't figure that out earlier as I would have got in on some big online savings!

Yesterday I went out to the Scholastic Books Warehouse Sale. Got some great deals - almost everything is 50% off cover price - St. Nick and Santa finished filling their baskets! Then I took Faith over to see my mom's new place - she approves - and on to do our shopping for the Giving Tree at church. I let Faith pick the recipients this year - you can read who is receiving the gift and what they would like (8 year old girl, clothes size 10) on an ornament ahead of time. We bought for an 8 year old girl and a 3 year old girl and I sure hope they both like pink clothing since everything Faith picked out was pink!

Gearing up for the last two weeks of school before Christmas break - things always get a little crazy with schedule changes for school programs or special Masses and possible SNOW DAYS but we will make it though! Dont know if I'll enjoy having a snow day for the extra time at home and not having to drive in the chaos or just be annoyed that I have to replan everything I had figured out for the next two weeks!