It's Beginning to look a lot Like Christmas and other such nonsense in our house

The air has gotten colder and the snow has begun to fall. None that is sticking though. It is weird living where we live and not having snow at Christmas time. This has been the trend the past five or six years. The snow has stayed away until after Christmas. It is weird and doesn't seem like it should be happening. However, it is. I really should be taking my camera with me for my morning walks with the dog. This morning we had a heavy frost which left trees with white branches and the you could see the smoke coming out of the chimney's from the houses I passed by. The river I photograph often looked beautiful this morning as well. The ice as flowing down the river like we aren't really having any cold weather at all.

School is moving along. The kids really enjoy using the Easy Peasy curriculum. I enjoy it as well. The high schoolers are using the Georgia Academy through Easy Peasy which enables them to pick and choose subjects that they wouldn't normally have the chance to take in our local public school. I like this because it gives them a chance to search areas they may be interested in persuing for a career. It will eventually give them a step up if they do choose to persue something in that field. As a mom who wants everything for her kids, I think this is the best way that we can go.

We finally put the Christmas tree up on Friday. The kids enjoyed decorating and putting on the lights. They put the tree together as well while I sat with the puppy watching them. It was really nice to watch them put together and decorate the tree without any bickering. It's nice when they do stuff together and not argue over stuff. Lately that doesn't happen much. I treasure those moments because I know that graduation for the oldest is coming in only a couple years. The middle is a freshman this year and the youngest in 8th grade. So graduation for all three is around 5 years away. That kind of makes me sad because I enjoy having my kids home. I am excited though because I am ready for them to make that next step into their lives as high schoolers and college goers.

Our puppy Si is growing up fast. She currently has gone through three harnesses. The last one broke because she got it filty and I washed it in the washer. But she is about the size of a small lab right now. At 5 months I know she's not done growng yet. This means that she is going to be a really big dog. She is getting fixed in a few weeks. I am kind of happy about that because it is the day before Christmas Eve and it will give us an excuse not to have to go anywhere for a long period of time. I am sad because I wanted to get one litter of puppies out of her before we did it. However, it is probably a good idea to get her fixed without having any puppies. We are still having biting issues with her. When she gets really excited, she'll grab your arm. We are trying to break it and most of the time it works but sometimes it just doesn't work.

With the holidays brings about holiday baking. I am hoping to get in that spirit this year. I would love to try my hand at potato candy, peanut butter balls, and chocolate covered cherries. Plus we have to make sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. We have two birthdays coming up too and that means cake and a sleepover for one I'm sure. Lets just hope this all works out good with the old cook stove. I am excited to make our Christmas dinner this year. I think we may try to cook some ham in the cook stove. It should be fun.

Our new to us wood cook stove is working wonderfully. There are a few mornings when I get frustrated with it because it takes too long to get going and I don't get coffee until ten in the morning but once it gets going, it warms up the downstairs wonderfully and makes it very comfortable for us. It cooks wonderfully too. My favorite thing to make on it is chili. We've begun having chili nights on Monday. Those have proved to be the perfect night mostly because it has been cold and snowy like today. I've loved cooking turkey and chicken and lasagna in the cook oven too. It is amazing how different in a better way, food tastes when you make it with wood. It is amazing.

As I watch the snow fly outside, I am reminded that there is housework to be done. So off I go to do that.