Catch Up...

A friend of mine recently had a “Catch Up” post on her blog, so I thought I would follow suit. Where have we been? What have we been doing?

Well, we’ve been at home, most of the time. And apart from the usual repetitive business, we’ve been getting ready for Christmas! Lets see. On Friday, my mom (Mima) and my Aunt (the one that gave us the super cool sled) came over to make cookies. Aunt Chris has a huge collection of cookie cutters that are super fun. She has a car, an aardvark, an itty-bitty piglet, a teapot, a hammer, a loooong necked goose, a moth, some funky birds, a trout and many many more that I can’t remember. Not only does she have a fantastic collection of cookie cutters, but she made me feel not alone in this world: she forgot to bring the cookie dough that she had made the night before! She felt pretty awful, as I would have, but the kids could have cared less. Abigail and Phinehas pulled out the paper and colored pencils and while I mixed up a couple batches of dough, Chris, Mima and the kids traced the cookie cutters and made fun pictures. Then we made the cookies, and even burned a batch (since I, again, forgot to set the timer – the birds got those). That was fun.

In the afternoon while the kids were sleeping and the Carpenter became I.T. support for some friends of ours, I went sledding. There was barely a sugar dusting of snow, but it was more than enough for ‘Snow Skimmer’ (I also thought to name the sled ‘Buttercup’ but ‘Snow Skimmer’ sounds more adventurous). After a couple runs down the hill I had a fabulously frightening idea: I should tramp into the woods and go down the logging road that follows the BIG hill behind our house! So off I went, with much fear and trepidation. I had visions of myself splattering into tall trees or being launched into the crisp air – finally flying – only to rapidly meet my demise as the ground came up to meet me. But, I pressed on. To get to the bottom of the logging road you have to follow a short path that the Carpenter bushwhacked earlier this summer. It goes through a lovely stand of black raspberry bushes that we frequented in sunny weather; now it is a tangle of thorny brambles, just waiting for the wayward sledder! This little path takes a slight turn to the right as it connects to the logging road, which has a gentle incline for a short way. It then rapidly rises until it crests ‘Heart Attack Hill’ far off in the distance (‘Heart Attack Hill’ is what the local hunters call the hill behind our house, since it is so steep). Where the gentle incline meets the beginning of the rapid rise there was a long tree laying across the path. “Ahhh! A way of escape from my folly!” said one part of me. The other part, the part with long, stubborn mule ears, let go of the sled and in a heroic effort, moved the tree to the side. I then went up the hill. I went up a very short way. A very, very short way. But it was enough for me! I settled on my sled and skimmed down the snowy hill weaving around the trees that were trying to grab me. At the bottom, where the logging road meets the bushwhacked path, I chickened out and put on my ‘breaks.’ I probably could have made the turn, but the vision of me splattering on trees prevailed over all stubborn daring. Very pleased with myself, I stomped out of the woods and went for another run down the hill that ends in the road before going inside to my lovely family.

That was Friday.

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On Saturday we went shopping. I won’t go into the tedious details of this venture, but I did want to mention that the Carpenter is exceedingly amazing: Since the Temple of Materialism and Unfair Commerce (aka WalMart) was swarming like an anthill, I went in all by myself. Andrew took all four children to Wegmans. They wandered around, finding the Ritz crackers and Nabisco Chocolate Wafers and playing with the live lobsters for and hour and a half. Yes. I was trapped in brain-sucking Wally-World for 1 ½ hours, and that was WITH a list! (I am certain that they lay out their store in such a manner that everything is in obscure places requiring you to walk throughout the ENTIRE store more than once while vainly trying to find what is on your list. That is when MOST people abandon their lists and pick up things they didn’t know they needed.) I managed to escape with almost everything I intended to get (they just don’t have warm fuzzy socks for kids!) and I still had a few brain-cells that hadn’t succumbed to the electromagnetic waves and the glare of the fluorescent lights. Anyway, I’ve never been so happy to go to Wegmans!

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On Sunday, we went to a Christmas Party with Andrew’s mom’s side of the family. It was very nice to visit with people we hadn’t seen in ages. The children had a good time playing with the children from other growing families.

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Now, we are counting down til Christmas! Our house is quaintly decorated with candles and greenery, white paper snowflakes and snowmen (and a worm that Phin made out of a bunch of white circles), and a big ol’ kid-colored poster filled with different details surrounding Jesus’ birthday. Abbi has been wrapping the various little homemade gifts that she has been working on. Phinehas keeps drawing picture for his Papa… and then cutting them up with the scissors; I need to help him finish one of these ‘projects’. I am trying to keep the house looking somewhat quaint and clean while finishing up the last bits of baking, and I need to work on making Jesus’ birthday cake (Abbi’s idea) – we all are certain that He would love an ice cream cake, and none of us object!

Enjoy Jesus’ Birthday, everyone!