Taking a break...

We are officially...

We'll start back up Monday, January 3rd. I received all our new coloring and activity books from Amazon, and the kids have thumbed through them with glee - I am thankful I have a scanner so I can make copies of desirable coloring pages for both of them.

Over the past week, we have painted wooden Nutcracker music boxes from the craft store, decorated our tree and house with lights, cleaned all the family areas of the home (bedrooms can wait until the week after Christmas!), read from A Christmas Carol and various Christmas stories - old favorites and a few new - continued with The Saturdays, and started on The Moon of the Winter Bird. We listened to our collection of classic Christmas songs. The kids made and decorated gingerbread cookies with my mom and sister, and in the upcoming week we're going to make little tins of fudge as gifts from the kids. We're enjoying the relaxation, even as we go from activity to activity, since recovering from last week's horrible bout with the flu.

I'm going to use this week to finish getting the house ready for Christmas Eve company, making fudge and other handmade trinkets, and then the week after I plan to get everything ready for a fresh start in homeschooling. We're going to study chemistry (since the kids are getting a really cool-looking chem kit for XMas) and early American history.

Until then, I wish you all...