Christmas Break

It seems like I'm only blogging on holidays anymore . . . We've been having an absolutely lovely Christmas break.  Luke got home really early, on Dec. 4, early enough to go Christmas caroling at the VA hospital with us and the chapel/OCF Bible study group.

 Nathan came home the next Tuesday, and after that, we basically went on break from school, at least for the little kids.  The older kids just kept doing math and grammar a little longer, and Caleb finished his last exam that Friday.

 The next week the girls and I made a zillion chocolates.  We made caramels in the square dark chocolate molds, and we made a creamy filling, which we divided and flavored half maple and half raspberry for the bells.  The milk chocolate bells were maple, and the dark chocolate ones were raspberry.  But we ended up having some shells, because we were too ambitious in our mold-painting, so we needed more filling, but I didn't have enough fondant sugar to make more.  I decided to make ganache and use that as a truffle filling. It worked really well--but then we had too much ganache left, so I needed more shells . . . but I had no desire to keep painting more molds.  So I ended up filling the bell molds like I do when I make peanut butter cups (which we did not do this year)--squirting in melted chocolate, dropping a rolled ball of ganache in, and then squirting more chocolate to cover.  The result is not as smooth as when I paint the molds separately, but it surely is a lot less work.

 On Wednesday, Dec. 19, Bob took the afternoon off, and we went skating!  He had won some tickets at a work silent auction.  Nathan was the only one who didn't go.  This rink allows you to rent a little plastic frame for beginner skaters, so we did that for Verity, and by the end, she was doing great!  Maybe she will really get the hang of it if we go more than once a year, lol.  We really missed the annual skating party with our VA co-op.

 Saturday was a wonderful day!  It started out with me meeting 2 of my closest friends from high school, Amy and Julie, for breakfast.  We spent 3 hours catching up and laughing, and I'm sure we could have spent at least 3 more!  The waitress had to come back at least 3 times before we could even stop talking long enough to look at the menu enough to order, lol.

Next, we had a very special promotion party!  My cousin and his family had driven up late Friday night, and we were able to have his pin-on ceremony to lt. col. at my parents' house Saturday afternoon!  Bob and my dad both put on their uniforms again (I didn't think we'd be unpacking THAT box anytime soon, lol), which was really special, and Bob administered the oath to my cousin. My dad had commissioned my cousin originally, so it was special for us all to be together for this promotion.  It was neat to think that Nathan will be commissioning in a year and a half as well, continuing our long Air Force history!

 After the ceremony, we had pizza to celebrate.  This table right here was where the action was!  All sorts of witty repartee ("My name is Chandelier!"  "My name is Ice Crust!") and hilarious banter (at least, they cracked themselves up!).  Verity held her own with the 3 boys, lol.

 My cousin's wife Sarah helped all the girls do their nails with Christmas Color Street strips, which they loved.  Even Verity got her nails done--such tiny strips!

 This was the first time my kids had met my cousin's 2 boys.  This is a picture of the "second cousins".  They all got along very well, and we hope it will not be this long before we can visit together again!

 Monday (Christmas Eve) the 2 boy cousins came over to our house!  They had a very busy day:  they played with toys, Anna took all the younger kids plus Luna on a walk to the playground, Anna and Grace got everyone set up with wax paper stations to make Christmas cut-out cookies, we ate homemade mac and cheese for lunch, and then they decorated the cookies.  Whew!

 Everyone came back to our house for a spaghetti dinner before the candlelight service.  We were able to seat 21 people!

 Our annual picture at the front of the chapel after the candelight service.  We were just missing my brother and his family!

 Christmas morning we woke up to snow flurries and a bit of snow on the ground!  It wasn't much, and it didn't stick around long, but it definitely made for great Christmas ambiance.

 We hung the stockings on our downstairs mantle.  It's longer than the one in our house in VA, which is good, because we got a stocking for Luna too.  Maybe next year I'll actually buy a stocking holder for her--at least we know it will fit!

 We have no room for our regular 9 ft. tree, or even a smaller tree, in this house.  But a few weeks ago, Jonathan and I were in Sams, and we saw this cute 4 1/2 ft. tree at Sams on sale because it was mid-way through December, so we bought it.  We had it in our dining room (you can see it in the picture of us eating spaghetti), but Christmas Eve, Nathan moved it to our school room table, and we put the presents under the table.  LOL!  It only has a few token ornaments on it, but it was better than nothing.

We had a really small Christmas.  Part of that was because I just couldn't get my act together (I still haven't even sent out our Christmas cards, even though I have them!), but also, we just really can't fit much else into this house of ours.  

 After we finished our presents, we went over to my parents' house and exchanged presents there.  Verity was so happy with this Christmas Minnie Mouse from Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim, and new Minnie Mouse panties from my parents!

The boys got some nice sweaters from them too.  There were also lego sets, books, ornaments, and lots of other fun things!

Then we had a delicious dinner for 23 people, including both ham and turkey, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, my mom's squash casserole, green beans with almonds, cran-apple-pear sauce, my mom's orange jello salad, and a green salad.  We were all stuffed!  I was ready to never cook again after all the making of it, lol.

 Then we had our usual birthday party for Jesus, going through Scriptures about the promise of a savior, the place where he would come, how it all happened, and his preeminence.  Doing that allowed us to make some room for dessert!  We had a chocolate birthday cake (of course!), chocolate pecan pie, two chocolate pies, a pumpkin pie, and lots of cookies.

Then we played games--2 rounds of Telestrations, which we played for the first time at our friends' house in Patch Barracks on our Germany trip (just as hilarious this time!), and Codenames, a new game Nathan and Luke gave to the girls.  It was a bit hard to explain, but very fun to play.  I liked it because it was a thinking game, but not a classic strategy game (which I'm terrible at and don't enjoy at all, lol).  It was so much fun!

For some reason, Anna decided to wear this dirndl in the morning.  After we opened presents, she was going to go up to change, but I told her to leave it on, because I knew my mom would love seeing her in it.  The dress used to be my mom's--she bought it when she and my dad were stationed in Germany before I was born.  Then I wore it in junior high and high school to Halloween parties, and especially for international nights at White Sulphur Springs.  Now Anna is wearing it, which is pretty fun and special.

All too soon, Christmas was over.  People had to go back to work the next day, my cousin and his family needed to leave early the next day to drive back, and the kids were getting very overtired and overstimulated.  It was really such a very special Christmas time, capping off a wonderful Christmas break.