Christmas is Coming the Goose is Getting Fat

 We LOVE these families! 

It's so fun to have friends that when we spend time together, we feel totally at home. All three families we stayed with on this trip have 6 kids too so that makes 12 kids with us- hello instant party! That's what I try to tell myself most days, 6 kids is like a 24/7 party, it's wild and fun, all the time...

 This year as part of creating Christmas magic I bought a fun popcorn machine. I was picturing spending the evenings reading in front of the tree and munching on popcorn. We actually use it every single day. Lunch time, bedtime snack, dessert... We pop it with coconut oil and then drizzle maple syrup over it with some sea salt. It's amazing. Ezra asks for it the most, he calls it Pop pop pop.

 Jane had a fancy shmancy cello concert at the Legislature building. It was neat to go see the lights and listen. It put me in a Christmasy mood.

Jenny and Eli are awesome about coming to our recitals and other things. I wish I could explain how much it means to the kids but you have to be here to understand. My whole family comes whenever they can and that's really been the beauty of living here again.

The Royal Alberta Museum is my favorite fieldtrip still. I love that place. It's an amazing museum. They took a rocks and minerals class for the morning and then we had the rest of the day to explore.

Grammy came with us. She floats in like a fairy godmother and sprinkles love everywhere she goes :)

I loved Ez in his museum-esque suit jacket, taking notes on the pertinent information.

 Scarlet got WAY into the class. She wanted to do it all even though she wasn't officially taking the class.

We took Grammy to see the Nutcracker at the Jubilee. It was so so awesome!

 Charlie had a piano recital and he won second place for most practice sessions- go Charlie! Afterwards, we got to go celebrate Uncle Eli's birthday. I love going over to their house and seeing Jenny in action- she's a homemaking genius. Beautiful tree, and home, delicious cake, happy kids... Tim and I always feel like we learn a lot about life after we hang out with them.

 The kids spend warm afternoons at the rink by our house. It's great for them to get some winter exercise. I'm always amazed that Scarlet stays out with them.

 This is the giant baby.

This is the tiny baby.

This poor baby gets dragged all over town. We LOVE her! A. LOT.

This Girl is Wearing Me Out

Scarlet is so fun these days. She makes me laugh the most of all our kids. Today in the car she climbed into Hazel's infant car seat and said, "I don't know why Hazel is crying all the time, this feels pretty relaxing to me."

Flour and baby oil or canola oil makes really awesome sand.

Scribble pictures with Jane.

What's in the box? 

Pippi Longstocking narration

Scarlet loves to set up her "office" all over the house.

Winter Sensory Bucket

                                                

 Scarlet made sun catchers for everybody for Christmas. 

Scarlet got all dressed up for Janey's cello concert. We did her hair and face paint.

 She loves winter sports.

 Scarlet teaching Ezra his colors with pompoms.

Scarlet worked all alone for a while on her gingerbread house. 

She's always asking me for a "project" as she calls it.

Christmas Eve

Christmas hath a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answring music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Projects

We had a sleepover party in the sunroom. We had a fire and Tim played ukulele for us. I finished some of our science lesson from earlier in the day and we read a few chapters of Little Tree. I love cozy and snug evenings by the fire.

We collect the schleich animals, it's sort of our Lego. Jacob decided to write a letter to the company and he got a really cool letter back. It said they would forward his suggestions "to their product and marketing department to enrich their pool of ideas."

All the way from Germany!

Jane and Grammy and I went on a girly date to the Duchess Bakery. So fancy and so many macaroons.

Jane loves her Prairie Primer. It's a curriculum based on the Little House on the Prairie series. It has lots of fun enrichment activities/field trips. We try to do one a week- the picture above is at the Antique Mall on Whyte which is basically a Costco sized Bargain Barn. She was having a hay day in there- she might possibly be more thrift store happy than I am. She was drooling over the skeleton keys. Another assignment from her Primer was to see a vintage gun collection.

 So we checked that off at the same time. 

She was supposed to have this specific dictionary from 1828 for her Primer lessons too. It's hard to find and cost a million dollars. Apparently no other dictionary compares with the Webster's 1828 dictionary. "It's based upon God's written word, for Noah Webster used the Bible as

 the foundation for his definitions."

It has some really beautiful definitions for words like forgive, mercy, providence etc.

Charlie has all kinds of Cub badges on the go. He's sprouting things, dyeing cloth with cabbages, washing dishes by hand to save the planet, bird watching...

Hazelnut is learning new tricks and I'm not too sure how I feel about all this growing up stuff.

Hazelnut smiles all the time. She also cries if I don't hold her all day- which I do because she's my last baby. Tim scolds me because he thinks I'm training her to be a cry baby. If being a cry baby makes the baby-ness last longer than it's fine with me :)