We've been cleaning...

Isn't that what you do when you have a day off? The boys played with their Christmas loot, and the King and I cleaned our bedroom. He hasn't had any real free time since September, when his seminary semester started. Since then, we've been putting assorted items that needed to be inaccessible for the kids into various nooks and crannies of our bedroom. It had gotten completely out of control.

So, we cleaned it. We are brainstorming new furniture arrangements that will give us both a crib in our room (necessary until at least next Christmas) and access to the bookshelves that are currently blocked by the crib. But first, we had to deal with piles of paper that needed filing (need new bill-paying and filing system here), bits of paper that needed trashing, stray toys and socks, clean laundry, and other assorted junk. We threw away one large and two small garbage bags.

I need to tackle the linen closet and my closet - and he needs to tackle his closet. He has books to deal with, and I need to deal with a plethora of baby and kid clothes (could probably cut the collection by half). We have stuff that just needs to go away (like the three game systems that we have and don't use because we don't have a TV).

And the garage. Oh, the garage.

I think the nesting for this pregnancy has officially begun. I have a serious need for a Clean Sweep.

Merry Christmas from the Bookworms!

And God bless us, every one!

Merry Christmas Adam!

(Because it's the day before Christmas Eve - HT to Tonya, who has amused me with that every single year for the past nine years.)

The fruits of our labor:

Seven loaves of Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
Nine loaves and three mini-loaves of Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
and four loaves and three mini-loaves of Strawberry Bread

Most of which will be given away to family members in the next forty-eight hours.

There were a couple of Pumpkin Cranberry Uglies. That was fine with us because there are extras. So, we'll be eating the Uglies for Christmas Eve and Christmas breakfast. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

And, in case you are curious, YES, it is quite tasty. Look at the damage my boys and UncaBilly did to an extra loaf of Banana Chocolate Chip at snacktime.

UncaBilly brought the best Christmas present.

Here's UncaBilly. He's here for two whole weeks and my little Bookworms are so excited!

He brought quite a treat. They've gotten 6-8 inches of snow in Boulder this week. So UncaBilly and Stasia came with a truckbed full of SNOW! (Real snow. Colorado snow. Not that icy stuff we get here in Oklahoma.) And how did they thank him?
Boy style - with a face full of snow. They had a snowball fight in my mom's driveway. What a Christmas present! They are the only boys in our area of Oklahoma who got to have a snowball fight yesterday.

And where was #4? He was staying warm inside the house and flirting with Stasia.

Making Memories with Mimi

Mimi took the King and #2 ice skating at a little outdoor rink last week. They had a lovely time.


#3 tried it, but he was just not quite ready.

Bookworm#2’s Twelve Days of Christmas (composed by himself)

On the first day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
a giant broccoli tree.
On the second day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
two asparagus...
On the third day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
three steamed potatoes...
On the fourth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me !
four orange carrots...
On the fifth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
a big bowl of mac and cheese....
On the sixth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
six chicken nuggets, ...
On the seventh day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
seven schoolhouse cookies, ...
On the eighth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
eight big yam rolls, ...
On the ninth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
nine peeled apples, ...
On the tenth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
ten green beans, ...
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
eleven ice cream bars
On the tweflth day of Christmas, my grandma fed to me
twelve pumpkin pies...

Guess who we had lunch with!

We made a quick trip to Muskogee yesterday to visit my extremely ill grandmother and her roommate, my great-aunt Virgie - her sister. We stopped at a McDonalds on the way home and were surprised to be greeted by Ronald himself. We really enjoyed watching him answer the drive-thru window. People were shocked to have Ronald hand them their food. It made an otherwise difficult trip much easier. The picture is courtesy of the King's iPhone, so it isn't the greatest, but at least we got one.