November 29, 2010 11:02 a.m.

….. it is Christmas time again.  How did we get here again so quickly?
Wasn’t it just summer?
There are no flies lighting upon Chips and Sweet Girl when it comes to getting the house decorated for Christmas.  Only the lighting of hundreds of small multi-colored bulbs!
It all begins in the garage, where Self-Reliant Man lets down many boxes, bins, and bags.

Our Christmas tree, a plastic one (yes) is in its 16th Christmas this year.  It is large, nine feet tall, and to distribute its weight in the attic, we long ago began the habit of sorting its branches by alphabet letter in several trash bags that get reused year after year after year.

Then begins the process of decorating the tree (after Self-Reliant Man and I artfully place the lights). 

It is interesting how I remember exactly who gave me ornaments that we received 25-35 years ago, but I cannot seem to remember where we got ornaments within the last five years.  For example, this ornament was given to me 33 years ago by a frequent reader of this blog in New Hampshire.  Do you remember giving me this?  It still looks like new, by the way!





And of course, our sweet lab, Beau, is wondering to himself why we do this every year just when the weather starts getting cooler.

The job is mostly done inside the house, except for a few things.

And Chips is seeing to it that adequate outdoor lighting is being installed.  Pictures will be posted later.
If you are interested, I have written in this post tips for using your digital camera to take pictures of Christmas lights.   Have fun with this!

January 3, 2010 9:58 p.m.

The party's over! Tomorrow we begin our routine lifestyles again. Homeschool lessons begin tomorrow. Little Son will start Fifth Grade, lesson one. Baby Girl will continue Second Grade from lesson eight (or just about the beginning of Second Grade).

The down time between Christmas and this first day of school always provides an opportunity for me to gather up some of the loose ends in my life. This includes, but is not limited to:

• decluttering the house
• straightening and organizing shelves, closets, and cabinets
• filing away or purging loose papers
• clearing off the horizontal surfaces of the home (primary the kitchen counters!!)
• mailing off letters and packages that have been sitting around for a while
• removing old toys that the children no longer want or need, and setting up space for their new gifts
  
• setting up binders for filing the children's new school year papers
• thinking about my daily schedule and ways to improve it
• visiting friends I don't see often enough
  
• identifying books I want to read, Bible reading and devotional habits I want to improve, and goals I want to be mindful of for my family

I feel pretty good about my efforts on the above bullet list, and I am now fully ready to begin on the new school year. Over the past month, I was lulled into believing that I have time to accomplish certain things, but by the end of this coming week, reality will hit me again and I will realize how much time is running past me in my daily life. But that's okay, because now I can see it coming and will not be surprised when it does. When it happens, I will try this year to exercise more self-discipline and less screen time. I realize that it is the screen time I still allow in my daily life that prevents me from staying on top of other important family and home responsibilities. So, expect to hear from me only on odd days. Even days, I have the day off -- no email and no online (except for Calvert requirements or emergency needs).

And here is a Bible verse that I read this weekend that is my prayer for 2010 for myself and my family, as well as all the believers who I love and care about, including my bloggy friends. I pray that..

December 26, 2009 9:45 p.m.
Well I cannot remember when we have had a happier, more satisfying Christmas season (and day). In fact, all of us, particularly the children, fell into bed at the end of the day full of contentment and happiness.

Our Christmas Eve featured a candlelight service, "lessons and carols" at church, where the children sang "Gloria Christus Natus Est" like angels. I did not take any photos at church so you will have to take on faith that it was lovely.

Once home, we had eggnog and snacks.













Candy canes, cookies and letters were left out for Santa Claus. Little Son left a small light on for him, and advised him to turn it off when before leaving.








Then the children were nestled all snug in their beds.




Around 7:00 a.m. there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.




Impatient children were kneeling by the chimney, with care. Could it be that the stockings were bulging?













To our shock and amazement, Baby Girl discovered an elf hiding under the sofa.















After opening and spreading stocking stuffers all over the hearth,










a hearty breakfast was enjoyed, French toast for all.












At first the family room looked pretty good.
Neat enough to take a photo of the children in front of the tree.














But four hours later, the room looked....oh.... just a little bit different!













This was the year that Baby Girl and Little Son both did their own Christmas shopping, for their parents, and for each other. And they used their own hard earned cash to pay for the items (at least part of the cost). In this way, Self-Reliant Man received a special type of shaver and a hiking pole, I received a battery-operated foot massager and a violet shirt, Little Son received a water bottle and some Matchbox cars, and Baby Girl received a battery-operated hamster in a ball.

Thanks to the Eezy-Bake oven, we now have a baker in our home.












Also, thanks to Viv-tar, we have a new digital photographer. Watch out world!















During the mid-afternoon, we dressed up and got in the car for a one hour drive to the town of Celebration. A Spanish - Cuban restaurant, named Col*mbia, has a long standing tradition of serving up a great Christmas dinner.





The entire family enjoyed the traditional "American" Christmas dinner of Baked Virginia Ham, except myself -- I chose the traditional Cuban Christmas dinner of "Lechon Asado" (marinated roast pork) served with mojo (sauce), yuca (root) , moros y cristianos (rice and beans) and platanos moduros (plantains). Sooo good!!



After dinner, we decided to walk around the town of Celebration to see the sights.

Floridians are great braggers about not having any snow in the winter, but give some of them a chance to pretend, and they will seize it. Here is one form of Florida snow dished out on Mark*t Street in Celebration.




Sheesh.... pathetic!








Dusk arrived as we were walking the streets of Celebration. There are many beautiful and quaint style homes here, and many were decorated (although not as many as I expected). Here are just a few..




































All of the homes in Celebration are less than 10-15 years old. Celebration was developed by the Mouse House Company in the early 1990s. The homes are quite expensive for their size. Sadly, we noticed as we walked around that there were some homes that had been abandoned by their owners; others were already for sale. The recession has definitely affected this community.






After night arrived, we enjoyed another Florida "snowfall" on Market Street.










Christmas Day ended with us back home, having a relaxing evening, until the children finally announced that they were ready for sleep.

A good year, a happy Christmas, and a healthy, happy family.

God Blessed us, everyone!


UPDATE: Self-Reliant Man presented me with yet another present today... after a day's hard work, he demonstrated to me that he has repaired our garage door opener, at a cost of under $30. I am very happy about this, as our opener had been broken for so long that I forgot we ever had one. Way to go, Self-Reliant Man!

December 23, 2009 4:13 p.m.

December 19, 2009 11:40 p.m.

Now I hinted at something in the last post that I will expand upon here. Those of you who visit the Mouse House and stay in a hotel are really missing something by not camping. The Mouse House Campground can be a vacation all by itself, even if you don't set foot inside the theme parks. This campground also attracts a very interesting subculture of people, especially around Christmastime, our favorite time to visit the Mouse House. There are many campers (especially RVers, as in "snowbird" types who head to our state for all the winter months) that go all out when it comes to decorating their campsites for Christmas and Hanukkah. just click on any picture to see it up close and in detail.

These folks reserve their sites months in advance, and stay for several weeks at a time.


They do have a lot of fun. It is a sort of .. retirement hobby of theirs.


I have never witnessed anything like this at any campground except this one.


You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it for yourself.


That's why I am showing you here.


And it is a lot of fun just walking around, day or night, checking out their decorations.


Even their golf carts are decorated to the max.


How about that kind of camping?
What fun!!!

December 19, 2009 (11:11 p.m.)

I am so sorry to those of you who faithfully check my blog, but I have not had a block of time to write a post about last week's campin' trip at the Mouse House Campground. The weeks has been so filled with Christmassy things to do! But I figured for now that the best thing to do was to tell it all with pictures. So here goes. In the interest of time, and of reader interest, this post is gonna be light on words and heavy on photos.

When we went campin' we did some........

waitin' (for the bus, often)
huggin' (and smilin')
observin'
beachcombin'
listenin'
viewin'
snapshootin'
snowin' (or at least bein' snowed on)
fishin'
hotel trottin' (ain't the Gr*nd Fl*ridian purdy?)
boomin'
Christmas decoratin' (a feeble effort, I know)
and explorin': (other campers' Christmas decorations -- see next post)