A peek into this holly jolly, magical week of living in our home.
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 531+ hours (of 1000)
zilch for me, but the kids and Brandon got out. Brandon has been so incredible taking on the farm animals' needs solely since I'm pregnant (and ahem, I also hate the cold). The water needs changed twice daily because it freezes and the goats need hay/straw daily and the eggs need gathered daily (or we have exploding frozen eggs in the nesting boxes) so it's actually a huge job for one person to do. Gemma is the best helper with the farmette (bless that girl's generous, giving heart Dear Lord, Amen). Grey will help reluctantly but the water buckets are still awkward and heavy for them to carry - so the duty falls on B. He is such a amazing chicken and goat Daddy (thank you B. I am so grateful for your strong shoulders and cold weather tolerance, among much more, but specifically in this case - those traits).
Reading The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson which I borrowed from my student Cheyenne (thank you!) Jandy Nelson is the author of my #2 favorite book of all time- I'll Give you the Sun
Smiling at Marco who was trapped in our toy crocodile's mouth, wrote a message on the bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker, rode our train on Polar Express day, and took a Barbie for a drive in the Barbie convertible.
Asking Alexa to play on repeat "Holiday favorites" to play nonstop in the background of normal everyday activities.
Laughing at Grey's horrified expression when he listened to Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer. It was just playing in the kitchen and no one was really paying attention and suddenly in the second verse Grey looked up at me shocked and said, "Wait! Grandma dies in this song?!" and then I was like..."um, I guess it does sound like that, huh?" I don't even bat an eye when I hear that song because I feel like it was popular when I was kid (I have a weird distinct memory of it playing while I was at a party with my grandfather at a kids' Christmas party hosted by the legion where we got popcorn balls- so random what sticks in your head). And anyway, Grey had never heard it because the song isn't part of the normal Amazon holiday playlist we have on, but we switched it up (maybe "Alexa, play Country Christmas music"..?) and Grey was so confused. HAHAHhah. With new ears on it, it is actually a pretty terrible storyline for a Christmas song.
Hosting our annual Polar Express party with our friends Charlie and Sophia (and my college roommate and bestie Kate). The kids played outside in the snow for a long time while Kate and I got to catch up. Then we had pizza and salad and mugs of hot cocoa while we watched Polar Express. The only way to close out a night with our besties was to do a few Just Dance videos.
Not wrapping a thing yet (gulp)
Waiting on final deliveries yet (gulp) although tracking says that everything should arrive by Christmas eve. Fingers crossed!
Finishing zoom school until the new year with the kids. Grey spent the last two and a half days at the high school with Loni and Ivan (thank you!!) while the girls were here finishing up zoom school before break. They did a lot of fun holiday projects and Rusty worked through some holiday themed free preschool printables I found online. Red mostly worked on eating far too many cookies and crawling all over the house in search of other things to put into his mouth.
Teaching from home for two and half days before the holiday. Our high school went virtual again due to positive cases, so I was able to teach from home. All levels took a cultural approach to Spanish learning this week for the holiday. Spanish 1 learned about Nochebuena and Las Posadas including a Read Aloud of 'Twas Nochebuena. Spanish 2 learned about Spain's La Lotería and Spanish 3 worked hard on finishing up their La Llorona short stories including feedback and edits from me. Spanish 4 listened to a SuperHolly video about Christmas in USA and México. Everybody participated in a Música Mania tournament with Spanish Christmas songs/videos too. And we learned about Las 12 Uvas de Noche Vieja in Spain.
Making chuck roast with potatoes and carrots in the instapot, KFC copycat bowls. We eat pizza, hot cocoa and too much Bedford Candies popcorn on Polar Express night. The kids and I baked Christmas sugar cookies from my grandma's recipe (with boiled icing!) and everyone had faces full of flour and bellies full of raw dough (hah). I whipped up a cinnamon swirl bundt cake for Brandon's work holiday meal day.
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