And now...to Christmas!

It takes a lot of mental effort for me not to make Thanksgiving just a stepping stone to Christmas. But now that it's over (and I hope everyone had a good one), we can move on to "the most wonderful time of the year". We listened to Christmas music on the way home from Ukiah on Friday. No, we didn't put up our tree this weekend. We bought one from the Cub Scouts and they won't be arriving until next weekend. We almost didn't buy a tree at all this year, but Josh wanted to support the troop and the trees are arriving too late for his office Christmas party. So we bought one for our home. At least Josh will have some Christmas cheer while he's home alone for 10 days. I do feel guilty about that. But he can come up whenever he wants, right?

Last week Hannah had no school so we just played. It was interesting to see what she chose to do when her time was her own. She practiced the piano without complaint. She read "Eldest". She and Brynne created a "Disneyland" themed carnival out of paper in the family room. It's sized for the little people toys. It includes Splash Mountain, a Fishing for Toys station, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and several other stops for the adventurous plastic toy. :-) They rode bikes, climbed the huge tree in our backyard (apparently the apple tree is no longer challenging enough). And just thoroughly enjoyed a week off.

For Family Home Evening we made treats and delivered them to some of the families in our ward. I thought we'd do Thanksgiving treats since we won't be here to do Christmas ones. We have such great people in our ward. In two hours we whipped up three kinds of cookies, made dinner, ate dinner, and hit the road. I still can't believe we did all that cooking in such a short time span!

Brynne is learning how to make pancakes right now. She made them for us all by herself the other morning. She did a good job and they tasted good. I'm thinking that something was off - maybe a measurement - but I can't place it. So next time I'll have to watch her. She sure loves to cook.

Logan spent the first part of the week driving me crazy until I happened to notice what was happening. Josh was home more, Hannah was home, and it occurred to me - the poor boy has three parents instead of one this week! He was getting nagged to death. I mentioned it to Josh and we took a little extra time with him over Thanksgiving that seemed to make a difference in his attitude. Can you imagine having Dad tell you to do something. Then Mom tells you. Then Hannah tells you. Then they each remind you at least once! How frustrating! Not too mention Brynne - she doesn't do it as much but I hear it every once in awhile. It's giving me a new perspective on how my siblings may have felt about my well-intentioned "helping" as a child.

Kenna is learning new things. She regularly makes the sign for "more" when she wants food of any sort. At the grocery store yesterday she was "moreing" everything I put in the cart and nearly had a fit when I started to put a box of cereal in behind her. I let her hold it and she was quite content. She really wanted the fruit, but of course that had to wait until I got home.

She's learning to mimic blowing kisses...so sweet!

She hasn't attempted to walk at all, but her balance is pretty good so I think it's just a matter of working up her courage. Just like when she learned to pull herself up and down. It took a long time for her to feel confident that she could do it - and then she did just fine. Those first steps may not be too far off.

That's about it for our weekly round-up. We have one full week of school this week. The following week will be a lighter load as we get ready for our trip. We've got loads of books to read and return to the library before we leave, so that will be our main focus.