We're still alive . . .

I'm sure you have all been wondering if in fact we all did succumb to whatever was wrong this weekend, but in fact, we all recovered perfectly well, LOL. We've just been insanely busy with the holiday season, and that has shown up as "no blogging".

I ordered a ton of chocolate from an online place, and that arrived early this week. So Wednesday and Thursday we spent making peanut butter cups, more peppermint bark, and more butter toffee. I always think it won't happen, but every time it does--after spending a day in the kitchen dealing with chocolate, I truly have no desire for it. Of course, that only lasts a night or so, LOL.

Friday morning we had our co-op ice skating party. This is always eagerly anticipated by all the boys, and Nathan was able to go as well. Last year the kids and I were in Ohio for it, except for Nathan, who was back here helping Bob and my dad get our house ready to sell so we could PCS to Guam . . . ah, what a difference a year makes! The year before that, Caleb got a lovely goose egg almost as soon as he set foot on the ice. Thankfully, we had no such incidents on Friday! Everyone had a great time, even Anna, who got to ice skate for the very first time! Christine watched Grace and Faith for me, and I drove her boys. She let Anna borrow a pair of strap-on double blades. Those were amazing! Anna was so confident in them! She steadily plugged away, around and around the rink. At first the boys took her, and then several of the girls who are a little bit older were around her like a bunch of mother hens! She had a ball. Christine, Bob, and our Polish friend Ania all said they learned how to skate with those same kind of double runners. They are such a good idea!

Friday afternoon I baked a bunch of Andes mint cookies for a cookie exchange this afternoon with some ladies from church. The exchange was a lot of fun. It was a smaller group of ladies--only 6 of us--but sometimes smaller groups are nice because you can really get to know people more deeply like that! I took home a bunch of cookies, and now there are only about 10 left. They were all delicious, and we have a bunch of eager samplers here at home!

This morning we had a workday at our church with our little junior high co-op families. We were only there for a little over 2 hours, but we really got a lot done! The menfolk all worked outside for the most part, cleaning up leaves and stuff like that. We ladies worked inside deep-cleaning the baathrooms and kitchen, as well as the nursery, and Christine and Theresa bagged a ton of bags for the food pantry Christmas service, which is going to be tomorrow. The younger boys eventually came inside and helped us wipe down baseboards and walls. After we were done, we went out for pizza with the McCs. Our 2 families demolished 4 16-inch pizzas! There was none left over!

So now you have an idea of why I haven't had time to blog at all! Next week promises to be busy as well, but then things should settle down the week before Christmas.