The Week Before Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, every creature was stirring even the Mastiff!

Ok, got that out of my system lol. To pick up where I left off last week we'll have to start with Friday. We got a late start to the day, which didn't bother us at all. Daddy was taking some chili down to Grandma and Papa and stopping to shop for car insurance along the way ... we'd thought about going with him but decided against it as the cold weather didn't encourage waiting in the truck during the insurance stops. Instead the campers and I stayed home and began our lessons around noon and it only took about two and a half hours to complete. Mind you this was with music playing, dance breaks, and teaching the campers the Hustle! Daddy did manage to find us cheaper car insurance by shopping around, took Grandma and Papa the chili, ran to the store for them, and he got home before the snow really began to fly! I spent my afternoon blogging because I'll be taking about ten days off of the blog for the holiday, with this post being the second to last post of 2016. The campers broke out the electronics after lessons and spent some quiet time playing games by the light of the Christmas tree. The evening was spent relaxing and watching The Grinch on Netflix, all of us sitting on mine and Daddy's bed, with me crocheting preemie hats to donate and thin blue line hats to give to the local police people to keep their heads warm during the winter.


Saturday the temperatures had finally reached just above freezing and the campers went outside for about an hour and fifteen minutes in between snow fall. The girls watched a lot of educational TV this day (with me as they do most Saturday's ... we don't have cable so we watch what we get on antenna or Netflix) and ECJ played on his tablet after shoveling our walk and two of the neighbors sidewalks. I crocheted while Daddy went to his appointment, more preemie hats and some thin blue line hats. We basically relaxed for the majority of the day.

Sunday things were a bit chilly again and so we stayed inside, read books, and watched movies. The campers played their various electronic games and we relaxed as much as possible. When Monday rolled around Daddy and I woke up not feeling so well, both of us had migraines, and Peanut was having a really autistic day which meant it would be tough to do her lessons with her. We decided right then and there that this week we'd cancel our book lessons and just do our online lessons, CNN Student News (they're changing their name in the new year), and Holy Heroes Advent Adventure for the rest of the week. Taking an easy week before we actually do our break time for Christmas. This meant that we spent much of the day relaxing and just hanging out with each other.

Noni and her fiance's
Christmas gifts!

Tuesday Noni came out to visit. We went to a local restaurant for brunch and had a not so great experience. Honestly most of the family spent several hours that night debating on if we had food poisoning or not. BUT, during the rest of Noni's visit the campers played some new to them Nintendo DS games that Noni had picked up at Game Stop. And we all hung out and chit chatted for several hours until Noni had to leave. The weather was a bit nicer this day as well so after Noni left, and before we all started feeling ill, the campers went outside again for awhile. They were given hot chocolate (of course) when they came back inside. Daddy and I spent the time that they were outside hiding the gifts that Noni and Santa dropped off early so that the campers weren't going to be able to find them if they were left unsupervised.

On Wednesday morning we were all feeling better. Which turned into a good thing because the neighbor across the street needed Daddy's help with her car which wasn't running right and so Daddy and ECJ spent most of the afternoon and part of the evening fixing her car (which is fun with flashlights since the sun goes down so early this time of year). The girls played outside for awhile with the neighbor's daughter and then they came in to warm up.  I learned that the neighbor doesn't have much to give her daughter's for Christmas this year as she's hit upon a hard time of things, so I've decided to make both girls and the mom hats because I know I can get that done in time and I have some extra stocking stuffers that I'm going to give her as well.

And so we come to today, Thursday, where I'm finishing up this post and then going to crochet my little fingers to the bone to get these hats done in time and continue to work on my preemie hat goal of 31 this month. The campers are currently playing an educational game and then Peanut is going to tackle Holy Heroes while I fold a load of laundry before crocheting. Next week we're not doing any lessons and won't be back to any type of lessons until around the fourth of January. So from our family to yours: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!

Posts you may have missed this week:
Not a Menu Menu
Winter Playtime

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Linking up this week with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for their Weekly Wrap Up.