December 29, 2011 9:34 p.m.

We have had the best Christmas time this year.  Nothing especially stands out, except that we have really enjoyed all our time together.  Self-Reliant Man is off from work for twelve days in a row, and it has been such a blessing to me.  We have really enjoyed our time together so far.  As I look back, I am reminded of many details of the past weeks.

Such as… our tree topper!  In past years, it has been a struggle getting our tree topper to stand up straight and look good.  So I put on a temporary tree topper while I looked around for a new one.  I called it our redneck tree topper.  What do you think?

Finally I got out and found a nice white angel tree topper in Gralween’s.  See?

I thought it was okay, but my family secretly thought it was a little bit too frou-frou for our style of Christmas tree.  But they didn’t have to worry about it long, because a long time friend showed up at our door one day with a package.

The package contained this:

She and her husband felt sorry for us when they saw the red solo cup, and decided to part with an old tree topper of their own.  So this one is the winner.  After all, gifts (in this case, tree toppers) from long time friends are the best, are they not?

One other way that our children have been passing the time is by playing and singing hymns out of our church hymnal.  These times give me big smiles and lots of joy!

Chips talked about how nice it would be to have a Christmas train around our Christmas tree.   He proceeded to get out his grandfather’s old Lionel and converted it into a Christmas train.  What do you think of that?

And Sweet Girl got together some old Christmas village decorations and made a simple littl village on our window seat.  I think she started a new tradition here. 

On Christmas Eve, my neighbor brought over her elderly and frail mother to hear Chips and Sweet Girl put on a short violin concert.  You see, her mother is the surviving widow of the man whose violin Chips has been playing for the past year.  So she not only appreciated our children’s performance, but she also loved hearing that old violin getting played.   She couldn’t speak very much, but the smile spoke volumes!  It is great when you can minister to others right in your own home.

Sweet Girl prepared a simple dessert to make our Christmas Eve evening extra special.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there!

And mom in her kerchief, more or less, wrapped gifts outside in the breezeway after they went to bed.  You can only do this in Florida when you have a Christmas as mild as we had!

And here is the tree all ready for Christmas morning to come.  Christmas Eve truly remains my very favorite night of all.  It is so magical!

Here are the children showing some of their favorite presents..

In between, I have been getting some much needed Spring cleaning finished.  After all, once homeschool begins again, I will be hard pressed to find time to get any of that sort of thing done.  My home is sparkling!  And you know what?   A scrub brush on your hands and knees really gets the job done much better than any mop.

In the evenings we have eaten popcorn and watched Christmas videos.  Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol, and The Polar Express (at this writing). 

And to top it all off, we enjoyed a family bicycle ride yesterday on a truly beautiful day.  It was really a happy time. 

These are truly good, wonderful, and precious days.  Happy days.  Cherished days.  Just being healthy, just being all together.  Days I look forward to all year long.

December 29, 2011  8:56 p.m.

2011 has been a year of losses for several people that we know this year.  First there was Miss Kitty, 63 years old, a faithful servant of God who served, for years,  some of the youngest members of our church, as Tender Care Sunday School teacher.  Now her husband, a widower, sits in the pew without her.  Then there is Joseph, age 8, finally losing a nearly six year long war with leukemia.  He leaves behind his mother and older brothers.  Weeks later, there is Dorothy, my own mother-in-law, age 67, in an untimely death due to choking.  She is survived by her sister, her son, daughter-in-law (that’s me) and two grandchildren who miss her a lot.  Next is our Uncle Kenny, also age 67, a gentleman who lived with Parkinson’s for a long time.  His wife faced her first Christmas without him this year.  And most recently, Denise, age 46, who has had cancer three times.  Her husband and eight children celebrate the Savior’s birth a week after her passing, without her.

Chips mentioned this past week that there are many people we know this year who are spending Christmas without a loved one, which is sad. 

“But”, he added, “they [the deceased] are celebrating their first Christmas with the Person that Christmas is all about.”

Well, this is true.  Hard on the families and friends.  Our loss, but their gain.  For to all of them, to live was Christ, and to die has been gain.

December 22, 2011 5:19 p.m.

We did it.  We made the maiden voyage in our motorhome.  Well, at least it was the maiden voyage for us.  It has already been through two previous owners.  We took our house on wheels to Fort Wilderness and took dozens of pictures.  We haven’t been to Fort Wilderness in two years and I forgot how much fun we have there.  No, we never did go into any of the Walt Disney theme parks, but we did enjoy many other features of the Walt Disney World property.  It is super there during the Christmas season.  The decorations are beautiful.

Here is Self-Reliant Man trying his best to get used to driving the “Bird”.

Before we had gone too many miles, the children were very comfortably settled.  Or as they called it, “riding in style”.

Entering Disney property as viewed from the Copilot’s seat (that’s my seat!)

First snack.

First meal in the motorhome.

First pee pee.  (Of course that was Chips – LOL).

First evening.

First DVD viewing (late on a rainy night)

Here is a glance of the lobby inside the Grand Floridian Hotel.  We love to go here and listen to the musicians perform.

You can see them across the way.

Chips decorated our campsite for Christmas, but our decorations were modest in comparison with some of the other campers.  Every year, we are startled at the efforts that campers go to in decorating their sites.

For example..

.. there was the model of Walt Disney World..

… there was the fifth wheel that has everything…

… truly everything and more …

… and Santa Claus, himself, had his campsite just across from us.  What are the chances?  His lights were even synchronized to music.

Keep in mind, these are campsites, people!

Here are a few select snapshots from the rest of our activities that week.

11 p.m. dessert at Beaches and Cream (WDW Beach Club Resort).  Amazing how many kids were there on a supposed school night.  Either they were all homeschoolers or parents actually pull their kids out of school to visit Disney World – horrors!

We rode our bicycles to the Wilderness Lodge Hotel.  It’s tree is so tall that I couldn’t get it all in the picture, even from the top floor.

Self-Reliant Man and Chips didn’t want to climb the stairs with Sweet Girl and me.  So I snapped their picture from up above.

We always visit the horses at Fort Wilderness.  Disney employs several people at the horse stalls, and they were all very busy.

What a sweet surprise!  Sweet Girl ran into two of her friends at the horse barn.  They were out with their mom for a field trip at lesser known spots on Disney property.  You can cover a lot of ground just using the busses, boats, and monorail.

Movie night at the campground.  We got to see Toy Story, but first Dale had to hug Sweet Girl. . . . .

. . . .  and light the campfire for everybody.

Marshmallow roasting (and scorching).

And, in memory of our 2010 vacation trip, here is Disney’s own version of Old Faithful Geyser.  Taken behind Wilderness Lodge.

In summary, if you are going camping, Fort Wilderness is one good place to go.  Even if it rains (which it did, on and off, for the first two days we were there) there is plenty to see and do while keeping out of the rain.  Maybe we won’t wait an entire year before going back!

December 22, 2011  4:37 p.m.

I am late in reporting this, but two weeks ago, Chips recently completed the Calvert Sixth Grade course.  He was happy to see it go, and as a result I symbolically packed up his books and immediately set out the books for Seventh Grade.  Fresh start, you know?

Above are the sixth grade books set out to be packed up in a box.  Is anybody out there interested in purchasing the non-consumables for sixth grade?

And here are all the books for Calvert Seventh Grade.  I am amazed again at how much material will be covered in the coming year.  Sixth grade covered a lot of ground, and seventh appears to be just as comprehensive. 

I have to say that Chips is not excited about his next year like Sweet Girl is.  We have had some attitude issues this year.  But come January 3rd, we are poised to jump in, and to take longer than 12 months, if we need to, to complete seventh grade.  After all, Chips is running eight months ahead of schedule (ahead of his same age peers), so he has some slack to enjoy this year.  Although I am convinced that Calvert provides a top notch education, we are thinking about doing something different for eighth grade.

Looking back on the year, it was the tests that amazed me the most.  To think that my children were able to complete the Calvert tests in Third and Sixth grade, and to get decent scores, still amazes me.  I took some photos of each of their tests.  First I placed the pages on the table and photographed them.  Then I turned the pages over and photographed the backs.  So they will appear out of order, but just glance at the contents of the test.  Not for the faint of heart.  (You can view an enlarged version of each photo by clicking on the photo).  Note the white paper with the handwritten letter from her Calvert teacher.

Here is Sweet Girl’s final Third Grade test for the year:

front

back

front

back.

Chips just sent in his test to the teacher, and we have not yet received it back.  His test was very long.  We always take three days to complete a Chips test.  It would take up too many photos, so here is a sampling.

Happy “Summer” break to all of us.  The weather being what it is here in Florida (82 degrees at this writing, and I refuse to turn on the a/c on the first day of winter!) it really does feel like summer break.  Next post will share what we did with the first week of our December summer break.

Whew!  I feel like we are preparing for Christmas in Australia!