This Boy of Mine

This boy of mine has the audacity to keep getting bigger.  He is now nine years old.  That means we are half-way done raising him.  That is a truly scary thought.  How is it possible to make sure he knows what he needs before leaving home?  How can I prepare him for the world?  How can I teach him without nagging or lecturing?  Sigh.  Back to the birthday fun.

 

Ethan loves books.  He received the Percy Jackson series from us and lots of other books from his aunts and uncles.  He is constantly telling me what books to read and then I read them.  And I enjoy them.  I never thought I would be taking book recommendations from a nine year old.

 

He has been asking for an analog watch for over a year now and we finally found him one.  Rest assured the time is now reported every eight minutes or so.

Not pictured, but truly loved, is a compound bow his aunt got him.  He hasn't had a chance to shoot it yet as it is too cold to haul him out to the archery range.  Sometimes it's tough being a city kid.  What I wouldn't give to let him shoot out in a pasture or something.

Christmas Countdown

Putting up the tree: three weeks to go.

The ornaments are no longer so evenly spaced.  They are all clumped on the top third.  It's a good look.

The kids had to check the blog to see who's turn it was to put the angel on.  Libby also realized she was wearing the same shirt as last year.

Making gingerbread houses: two weeks to go.

Libby was kind enough to take pictures of the finished houses as I got distracted.  I didn't manage a single picture of the decorating process.

Everyone down with the flu: one week to go.

Hanging the stockings: just 12 more hours.

 And now all the children are tucked in their beds, ready for Christmas morning.

I'm a Princess!

Work Christmas Party/Winter Garden Aglow

Friday we shed the homeless look and and went to Michael's work party. 

 

I had a white Christmas tree growing up.  It never, ever looked this good.  I always wondered what possessed my mother to buy a white tree.  I guess she had visions of a tree that looked like this.  Alas, she had seven kids that may or may not have used the branches for sword fights in the warmer months.

Look at that.  A picture with the whole family and all the kids are even looking at the camera and not making weird faces.  Now if only Michael wasn't squinting.

Then we went next door to Winter Garden Aglow.  It was magical.  Or it could have been, but we have kids.  Instead there was a constant refrain of "I'm cold!" - um, you might want to put your hat and gloves back on.  Then, "Can we come back when it's light?" - that sort of defeats the purpose.  "I'm tired, I want to go to bed." - Arggg!

The view from above.  Don't we look happy.

We did see Santa's reindeer Prancer.  That was exciting.  Sam kept pointing and proclaiming, "It's a moose!"  We also learned that all Santa's reindeer are female, as the males lose their antlers in the fall.  (Insert comment about women doing all the work and men getting all the credit here)

We also saw Santa!  Of all my children Ethan was the only one willing to sit with Santa.  So glad I waited in line 10 minutes so Sam could sit on Santa's lap and proceed to scream at the top of his lungs and the girls could refuse to go within 15 feet of the man.  Santa is terrifying!

We finished the evening with hot chocolate and cider.  The kids were more than happy to crawl into their warm beds when we got home.  Maybe we should drag them out in the cold more often.

What I'm Thankful For

I'm thankful for the end of November.  Michael finally got rid of this thing

and went back to this:

Yay for the end of Movember!