Tidying Up the Blog...

As you can see, the Lit Study/Narnia tab/page is gone! Don't worry though... I simply moved it to a post format, and have a new gadget in my sidebar called "My Book Lists", with some of my favorites directly linked. Check them out!

And I'm adding new page content! Exciting, huh? Probably more so for me than you! I will admit, I am still, deep down inside, totally torn between a more "classical" education mode (with planned history, science, etc.) and this. Grrrrr.....

So, besides all the planning, what have we been up to?

Reading Christmas stories - we read about the legend of Saint Nicholas, and another fun St. Nicholas story to go with it, we read gingerbread stories (like Gingerbread Baby), The Quiltmaker's Gift (not technically about Christmas, but definitely about giving!), and a few others that escape my mind at the moment. I have more lined up too. Funny side note: last year we read The Twenty Four Days Before Christmas for the first, and so far only, time. This morning, on our way out the door, The Girl spied it, and excitedly gave her brother an entire run-down of the book! Ah, the powers of narration! And we're really enjoying A Christmas Carol as an audio book narrated by Jim Dale--good stuff!

Watching Christmas movies - So far we've watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Scrooged. Still to come: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the old cartoon version with Boris Karloff, thank you very much); various versions of A Christmas Carol (kids like the Jim Carrey one, I like Alistair Sim and/or Patrick Stewart); A Christmas Story; The Santa Clause; A Miracle on 34th Street (again, the old version); and so forth and so on.

And the kids decorated gingerbread houses (kits from Trader Joe's--sorry the pictures are a little dark... I'm still learning to use my iPhone!)....

Hard at work...

Waiting for the frosting "glue" to dry a little

The Girl's completed masterpiece!

And here is The Boy's work!

Which has a sad and gruesome tale behind it... hard to see in these pictures, but unfortunately, the sugar-paste daughter met with a tragic accident, when a sheet of (sugar) ice sliced her head off. She's just behind the tree here, and you can mainly see the yellowish slab of ice that led to her demise. Her head is lying at her feet. What a terrible start to the holiday season for this family!

Tonight is my last class for the semester. I have to present my final paper, and then I am done! I'm down to my last half stack of papers to grade as well, and will be taking a two and a half week vacation from work, starting next week. I am so ready and looking forward to the time off! Don't worry though, I have plenty to keep me busy...

More house cleaning (M says "It's fine for company" but I'm not satisfied with "fine")
Drying persimmon slices (so yummy dried!), and poaching the last load of quince
Making various flavors of fudge
Finishing the calendars we're gifting to everyone
Gingerbread cookie baking and decorating!
Christmas stories and movies
Going to see The Hobbit!!!

And I will be hitting the big

Although this is supposed to be one of the milestones that I'd rather not hit, I'm actually fine with it. I hit that middle-aged panic point at 35, a number that really bothered me for some reason. I guess I'm so much happier overall at 39, that 40 doesn't seem like it'll be too bad!

Have a good week!