Good News

Several things have happened so far today, and it's barely afternoon!  First of all, we woke up to a bit of snow, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed:

Mostly, Lydia scooped snow with a sand shovel and the boys made snowballs to throw.  It wasn't much snow, but they still had a good time.  Then things got a bit crazy.

 

We were supposed to call the vet if Katie's eye wasn't better by today, so Nathaniel did.  It does look better than it did, but not all better, so he called to see if we had to bring her in.  He mentioned that her eye is still red (which it has been since the incident), and the vet freaked us out.  He said red is bad, and acted like she might die if we didn't get her looked at right away.  So Nathaniel called and talked to the vet optometrist, and they could get her in, but only if we left RIGHT NOW.  So I hauled three kids and a dog into the car and set off.  The vet there was very nice, and he explained that the red is, in fact, good.  Her eye is healing, and it's actually doing quite well.  The vet that did the surgery did a great job, too.  She has to have her medicine 3 times a day for about a month, but that's about it.  Relief!  Now we don't have to run back right after Christmas to have her checked again, either.

 

Also today, I finished the doll's dress:

I made the doll as a custom order, but I hadn't finished the dress yet.  Now she's done, too, and turned out quite nicely.

 

Now I just need to clean the house, do laundry, and figure out what's for dinner....

Pictures!

Katie in the cone.  The cone is gone now, as are the buttons, but I never did post the picture here.  Her eye has actually looked pretty bad since yesterday, so I'm running her by the vet this morning just to be sure everything is ok.  Or at least, I'm hoping it's ok.

Malachi and Santa at school 
Lydia was too scared to sit on Santa's lap, or to even talk to him.

Lydia at the church Christmas program.  She sang 3 songs with the other preschoolers and kindergarteners.  It was cute.

 This is the boys' play.  I didn't get good photos, really, but Nathaniel took some, too, so maybe his are better.  The kids did a really good job.  Both Elijah and Malachi remembered their lines, so that was a relief!

Elijah is a camel salesman.  Malachi is the camel lot owner's son, and he was thrilled to hear people laugh at his part.  He told me he was glad he had the funny part.  Elijah also had a big paragraph at the end, and he got it all!

Chalk Mats

My chalk mats were featured in this article:

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Toys for Traveling with Toddlers: As Christmas nears, many of you may be preparing for travel. As if that's not taxing enough, many of you will have little ones with you! Her...

Peppermint Fudge

I like this blog, girlichef.  I've tried making several of her recipes, everything from homemade chorizo (which was excellent) to dessert.  This latest dessert is wonderful: peppermint fudge.  The link is here: http://www.girlichef.com/2012/12/PeppermintFudge.html   You must go make some.  It is incredible!  I made a test batch yesterday, to see if I thought it should go into the family rotation this year.  I have to get teacher gifts out early next week, and so I thought if this was ok, I'd add some to the teacher gifts.  It's way more than ok.  It's really fabulous.  I guess those of you that have Christmas with me don't have to make some, because I'm making another batch to bring for Christmas, as soon as I buy more white chocolate!  I was careful to only eat a little bit, because it's basically all sugar and you know I can't just eat sugar anymore, but I managed to enjoy some and not raise my blood sugar, so that was a double bonus.  I've always enjoyed just melting white chocolate and mixing in candy cane bits, but this is a bit more special and will look really nice in a gift basket or cookie tray.

Kids' Theology Lesson

Malachi has been home sick, so he and Lydia have had more time together.  I was cooking yesterday when I overheard their conversation in the living room.  Lydia had been playing with her treasure box, and she asked Malachi, "What is the greatest treasure?"
Malachi replied, "I don't know."  There was a long pause while they both pondered this, then Malachi said, "I know!  Jesus!"

Lydia said, "But you can't go find Jesus."

Malachi: "No, but you can go where he was born, on the other side of the world."

Lydia: "He was born on Bethleham."

Malachi: "Yes, and Bethleham is on the other side of the world."

Then they were both happy and repeated, "Jesus is the greatest treasure."  Then they went on playing.  Those two are so cute together.  You just never know what they'll say next.

O, Christmas Tree

Well, last night we got the Christmas tree up.  It and the nativity are the only things we've got out so far, but we do plan on getting everything else in place over the next few days.

On our tree:
It lists to the right.  It has tons of ornaments on the bottom and few on the top.  It is packed with memories.  It's perfect.

On our nativity:
It was my Aunt Bess's manger scene.  I even keep the bigger basket she puts baby Jesus in.  The nativity originally came from Uncle Jim (her big brother), as a gift to Aunt Bess years ago.  He bought it in Mexico.  I loved looking at it as a child when we'd go to her apartment on Christmas Day evening.  It sat on her bookshelf in the living room.  Now it sits on my mantle, above the living room fireplace.