Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The first Sunday in December, I make the whole family dress in our Christmas clothes. Really, all the work you put in to trying to "match" everyone up should be enjoyed more than one day. Nothing fancy this year, but the kids seemed to really like their clothes. Nothing itchy or scratchy, just simple cotton sweaters and shirts.
Humboldt, our tiny village, is "famous" for having the largest Christmas tree display in all of Iowa. Over 200 trees are decorated and displayed at the Methodist church. It is neat. Paige and Claire are in front of the Girl Scout tree. All of the Humboldt Girl Scouts, Brownies, and Daisies decorated this tree with hand made ornaments. Some of the trees are in memory of a loved one. Most are from organizations in town -- churches, chamber of commerce, businesses. Such creative ideas. Our favorite was the 1st Avenue Chiropractic trees -- one was laying down and the other was massaging its back.
Also -- can you believe this is two minutes from our house? This man puts up the hugest display of lights I've ever seen in real life. I've seen such things on HGTV, but this is insane. The display covers 3/4 of an acre and includes a carousel, ferris wheel, huge nativity, Santa in a plane. The kids kept saying, "We should do this. Don't you think we could do this?" Brant was all for it, but Mommy McScrooge was giving it the nix all the way home.

Quiet Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so very quiet here. We watched the whole parade in our pajamas, only breaking for doughnuts and chocolate milk. Thne we ate a late lunch and played Rock Band the rest of the day. The kids loved missing school, and it was nice enought to play outside in the afternoon. Really a great and thankful day.

Top things we were thankful for:
Brant - healthy, happy family
Christine - that I got to be a wife and mom
Claire - family and no school
Paige - family and we have a dog
Ava - sisters and Ike
Ike - food, oh, and family

Busy revving up for the holidays now. The tree is up, the cards are ordered, and 1/2 the presents are under way. We're scaling back a bit this year on all things. My husband becomes a manic Clark Griswald and I turn scroogey. We're trying to meld a middle ground and embark on new traditions this year. It's a fun, new adventure in Iowa this year.

Illinois Indians

This week in our little homeschool preschool, we studied the Indian portion of Thanksgiving. Not such a good picture -- my Native American girl kept hopping. Native Americans are really big in Iowa. Half the towns are named for one tribe or another. (We only live 1/2 hour from Pocahontas.) I guess if you go roam the fields after they have been tilled, you are likely to find an arrow head. I've noticed quiet a few older men combing the fields on my walking route. It's just too chilly to walk around slowly. Brom and I prefer a quick pace to keep the blood flowing on the 20 degree mornings.

This week we head back to Illinois for Thanksgiving -- two days Hamby, two days Leeper. We're all jazzed to see family and eat good food. A bonus for Brant is hunting season. Whoppee! Oh, please let us get another deer to mount on the wall. Just what I want for Christmas. (Please, note the smattering of sarcasm). I'm sure my husband feels the same way about my crafty crap, but mine is pretty and lacks blood. Deer hunting is just something I didn't grow up with. Daughter of a farmer, I ate pig and cow and sometimes chicken. Ah, I guess I should embrace the hunting, for I do so love the hunter. My son already has his camo bibs and flame orange thermal layed out for his suitcase. My future in deer season and pheasant season seems set for many years to come.

First Snow in Iowa

So, my phone has been hopping with calls wondering about the weather. Lots of Illinois folks wondering how much. Even a rub-it-in call from Marco Island, Florida under the pretense of needing a recipe (yeah, right : ). )Yes, Iowa got snow. Not tons of snow, but enough to send my kids into a flurry of Santa prep work. There were letters to write, cookies to bake, cleaning up their rooms so he wouldn't trip. It was all too funny! They haven't really grasped that concept of time yet. We still have to do the "sleeps" method. It's four sleeps til this, two sleeps til that. Right now it is seven sleeps until we see grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It is also fourteen sleeps until High School Musical 3 comes to our tiny, $3-a-ticket theater.

The first picture show our backyard and the beginning of the flurries. It snowed like that from around 5:30 in the morning until bedtime. It never stopped all day. The second pictures shows about all that it accumulated to. Just enough for good tracks and footprints. Brom loved it and tracked up the whole yard chasing chipmunks (managed to catch and gulp on whole -- yuck).

Can't wait to see what winter is going to throw at us. I'm definitely guessing Bing's "White Christmas" will be our theme song.

Big Catch for Brom

The dog was sooooo proud of himself the other day. He caught a present, which he then deposited right at my feet. Yeck! He played with that snake for over an hour, until it finally bit him. These are the snakes that we had all over our yard when we first moved in. Their population has gone down a bit after the endless hours of snake hunting. These are the things that should be on realtor reports -- big yard with high snake population.

Grotto Pictures

I had tried to post these pictures before, but newbie flub-ups prevented it. These are from The Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. Tiny town with this "structure that spans about 1 block. It is beyond anything I've ever seen. We've been three times now. It's free (good will offering sort of deal). One priest designed and built the majority of this; handing over the last bit to a younger priest in his old age.

The first statue is Michael slaying Lucifer. So cool. I had been telling my kids that when they were scared to call on angels to protect them. I think they kept imagining soft, fluffy angels. This statue put into perspective God's warriors. It's my favorite statue at the Grotto.

It's hard to tell by the pics, but this is all created from rocks and shells (except the marble statues). He built all this by hand. Even the ceilings are encrusted.

I get a little lost in some of the Catholicism of it -- stations of the cross and such, but still it is an awesome spot. If ever you are in West Bend : First, come see us, we're only a half hour away. Second, definitely visit the Grotto.

Happy Birthday Paige and Claire!

The kids are at the fun age of Halloween. They still love the cute costumes (and still share their candy : ) ). The girls went as Alvin and the Chipmunks. I think each choose the chipmunk that best fits their peronality: Paige, inquisitive Simon, Claire, munchable Theodore, and Ava, sassy Alvin.
Isaak choose to be Indiana Jones, as did every boy in the free world. However, he was super cute as he hummed the theme song from house to house, flicking his whip at the Chipmunks. The kids were beat after a few houses. Our new neighborhood is awesome, in that the houses are spread out, but this makes for a LONG trick-or-treat route. We didn't make quite the haul we used too, but still have the huge tupperware bowl filled to the brim with treats
Claire and Paige had pretty good birthday, beautiful weather. Turning 8 came and went in flurry of nachos and brownies (their choice -- but I think it was a good one). They had lots of presents. New "fur" coats and snow boots. (I think we'll need these in Iowa). Not as many toys this year. *sniff* *sniff* They are growing up. They didn't even really desire toys this year, but I threw in some Polly Pockets and small toys to keep my dreams alive.



Favorite gift of all --- The $2 toe socks from Ike and Ava. Aren't kids funny?