It’s an invigorating 15 degrees outside this morning but Seth still didn’t understand why I said ZIP UP YOUR COAT loudly (I had already said it in my nice mommy voice 5 times).   He still has to listen to me…… I feel warmer if they run to the bus happy and in zipped up coats.

Good morning!  Maybe 15 degrees isn’t really that cold compared to where you live?   The sunshine is pouring through the windows and I think to myself, “I would rather have it be 15 and sunny than 30 and cloudy.”

The sunshine is pouring through the windows into our new 2018 decorated Christmas tree!  Rich went and picked it out at the fire department with Seth and Sarah on Saturday.

BUT FIRST…..he took his wrestling team an hour away to a school near the coast of Connecticut for some joint practicing, and I was home with Caleb, Seth, and Sarah for a morning of:

Cereal for breakfast and long morning hair.

Door Basketball……

….named such for obvious reasons.  They did break the glass out of a framed photo which was hung to the left of the door (to the pantry).  So I took the other things off the wall.  This is a house for children.  They MUST play.

I popped three pots of popcorn on the stove so we could strand a popcorn chain for the tree.  Seth had a very difficult time with his very short string….but he did it, and ate a lot of the popcorn pile in front of him, too.

Sarah was concerned about the beads.  Would they be thrown away after Christmas?  Would they, Mama?  So I finally told her that after we took the tree down I would put the chain in the sink and sip the beads out with scissors so we could keep them.

Caleb started bringing up the Christmas bins from storage and we found our Christmas books.

Parker took 7 naps.

I read Seth some stories about when he was a baby and he saw his old playpen in the photos and asked if he could bring it upstairs, “I know right where it is” he said.  “Why not,” I replied, “go get it.”  Sarah called it a “play crib” which makes sense.  It’s funny that my older kids are baby experts but my youngest two know practically NOTHING at all about babies.

The play crib turned into a fort for cats and a couple of 8 and 9 year olds.

They put a blanket over the top to keep the cats inside.  Years ago I tried that when I put babies in the playpen but it never worked.  (just kidding)  LOL

We put mittens on our hands and drove to a local school for their craft/book fair.  All we bought was donuts; soft sweet bread like pillows filled with vanilla pudding and frosted in chocolate.

The boys and I sat in the car while Sarah played outside on the playground for another 15 minutes.  She doesn’t seem to feel the cold like we do, which amuses me.

Rich and David got home around 1 and I took this photo of him and the boys watching a video of Ethan wrestling…….they were so cute with their heads all together like that….and then they left to get the tree.

I told Sarah to stand there so she could block the license plate number.  LOL  Rich used Ethan’s truck to get the tree.  I requested a fat fluffy tree this year and he did a great job.

After he trimmed the trunk and got it into the stand we drove downtown to get lights.  Then, finally, we set to work decorating.  It was a nice way to end the day, all together and busy making the tree pretty.

Then they watched a nice movie while I made a batch of my favorite Christmas cookies, without an apron on.

Yum!

On Sunday after church the kids had their football/cheer awards and Seth got the trophy for MVP for his team!  We were so proud of him.

Our cat Walter is LOVING the tree.  And Sarah collects piles of the needles to play in with her little toy animals.

Merry Christmas to kids, cats, dogs, and people everywhere!

“the weary world rejoices”