Weeks 13 & 14 Christmas

Tablet before it cools.

Christmas Eve and the day before were spent cooking large amounts of food, making a Scottish desert called Tablet, and having the girls make their own butter as part of our Little House unit study. They didn't much like the taste of the homemade butter, but they enjoyed jumping around and shaking the jars until the heavy whipping cream turned into butter before their very eyes! My tablet didn't turn out exactly as my grandmother's used to and so I'll have to play with the recipe a bit until I get it right. It tastes right but it's too runny and more like a caramel instead of a fudge. We were supposed to have guests over for supper on Christmas Eve, but they were ill and so they stayed home. So this year we had two Christmas meals! One on Christmas Eve: stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and tablet for desert. The other was made on Christmas Day by Grandma: ham, lasagna, mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, rolls, veggies, and more! Not to mention the pies and cookies for desert!

Butter, and buttermilk, in the
bottom of a jar!

Christmas Day we all woke up early and found that Santa had arrived to give gifts that were waiting for us under the tree! The campers and grand-campers had a blast opening their gifts. Then we all got dressed for church and drove two vehicles (eight people do not fit into any of our current vehicles) down to Grandma and Papa's area to go to church with Grandma and hear Papa sing. We then spent the rest of the day helping get supper ready and visiting with each other. It was a wonderful day and we spent a lot of quality time with family that we don't see as often as we wish. One of the Aunt's was there along with her husband and her children (the cousins) so it was a full house of sixteen people, most of whom were children ages 17 and younger. Lots of love and happiness abounded.

The rest of Christmas week literally went by in a blur. Not much time was spent outside due to freezing cold temperatures and even more cold wind chill factors. Many electronics (including a few new ones) were used during the week. Toys were played with. Baby toy explosions happened to where you can certainly tell when walking into the house that there are babies in the home. So, in short we had a lot of fun!

Sunday, New Year's Eve, we had a quiet supper at home and then let the older kids stay up to watch the ball drop on TV from New York. SweetPea woke up shortly before the ball dropped so she got to see it as well and Little Man was already awake. I'm sure that they didn't really understand why everyone was so excited but they sure did smile a lot for sleepy little babes. 

On Monday we had probably the most chill day of them all during our break. Video games were played, naps were taken (by myself and Daddy included), books were read, and a bit of laundry was done. We had roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy along with some green beans for supper. All of the campers and grand-campers went to bed early ... and that had been Daddy's and mine plan as well, but we ended up going to bed closer to midnight.

Tuesday we started the day off with several errands being ran to take care of some things with health insurance and other important things. Both SweetPea and Little Man weren't feeling well, so we called the doctor and got an appointment for that afternoon. Poor Little Man was puking up just about as much formula as he was drinking, both had fevers, and SweetPea was not her sweet little normal self. Both babies had a stomach virus, which is probably what Peanut is suffering from as well without the vomiting ... and Daddy isn't feeling too well either. 

Wednesday through Saturday were literally spent dealing with running errands and taking care of sick babies/children/campers. Being that it's a virus there's really nothing we can do but let it run it's course. Thankfully it didn't seem to spread through the whole household and stopped with the four people affected by earlier in the week. So much laundry was done this week that I think my washer and dryer never stopped even over night. And most suppers were fend for yourself all week long as all of the adults in the house were busy dealing with the campers and grand-campers that didn't feel well.

We start back to our lessons on the 9th (Tuesday) of January. We're having a three or four day week depending on how it goes because we'll be going shopping with Noni on the 11th. ECJ turns 16 on the 8th! (Where has all the time gone?!?!?!) Here's to a great year in 2018!!! 

*I had over two hundred pictures from Christmas Eve until January 6th! I chose just a couple to share in this post because the mayhem of opening gifts I'm sure happened at every house, and there were several pictures of sick babies cuddled up with well people over the course of the week... No outdoor pictures this week because with the wind chill factors we've been well into the negatives most of the week!*

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Joined up for Homeschool Highlights this week!