Christmas Light Walk

January 3, 2016 - This afternoon we met with friends for some post-Christmas cheer by visiting the Anheuser-Busch Christmas Light Walk at the brewery.

That is quite the wreath!

He's bundled up and ready to hit the walk.

Th first beer sampling station is dead ahead!

lagers, ales, hot chocolate, cider, limearitas  and strawberitas

Gotham City in the Christmas time... if you've ever wondered what that'd look like.

"City sidewalks" lit by the glow of these decorated trees.

Warm Friends, Hot Cider, and Cookie Decorating

December 18, 2015 - A few photos from what was officially a "Cookie Decorating Party."

Luminaries - southwestern decorations you rarely see in the Midwest

Up on the housetop...

Is that a star from the East?

Or Josiah holding a flashlight?

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

...but the fire is so delightful.

It was impossible to feel cold with hot cider, warm friends, a roaring fire, and heated card games of "Bluff" and "Nertz."

Isaiah 40:3

We all sang some carols around the piano.

Because the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing aloud for all to hear.

Decorated cookies

The extent of my decorating consisted of spreading the icing like butter on the cookie and immediately eating it. #minimalistdesign

Operator!

"10 circles in a picture" (behind)

"chestnuts roasting over an open fire"

"what light through yonder window breaks" 

- turned into 'something' and "about a thousand toothpicks"

As the fire was slowly dying

my dears were still goodbying...

...and planking...

...and sharing stories and 'random facts.'

Thanks for having us all over!

Christmas Morning

December 25, 2013 - You've got to get up! You've got to get up! It's Christmas Morning!

We have a tradition of getting a photo every Christmas morning, before we go into the living room and see the tree and the gifts. 

Our Christmas mornings have certainly changed over years – one of which being that this morning we were already showered and dressed.

Someone’s still trying to wake up

Pillaging the stockings

(This was our first year with a real mantle over the fireplace, so we were able to hang our stockings the legitimate way)

Lydia was disappointed she didn’t have a stockings.

She just doesn’t own any socks.

Checking out the big throw Noah was giving Ben

What a great gift for this ENFP!

Lydia was obviously very excited about her new bath towels

Note her Christmas sweater.

We always make a mess

I have no idea what he’s spinning in his hand

Benjamin’s off to test out his new wet suit in the creek.

Yes, it’s late-December, but that would never stop him!

Snow!

Circassian Circle-Christmas Ball 2012

This simple, but always popular -well, maybe not ALWAYS popular (see 3:25)- dance was setup in three large circles.

Hundreds of dancers gathered on a winter evening in Saint Louis, Missouri at Saint Xaviers Cathedral for the 19th Annual Christian Home Educators Fellowship Christmas Ball. The dances were called by Jeremy Suermann and filming and editing is the work of J. Andrew Wong.

Winter is finally here!

   We just got back from the wonderful Men’s Advance last weekend… and again…details to follow.

Ice on the Trees

    The effects of the winter storm this morning don’t seem to be severe, but Kate’s still going to stay home since more of the storm is on its way.  Yesterday we did get some freezing rain on all of the branches (above) and when I took pictures last night there was a lot more ice on the trees. (below)

   This morning we got just enough snow to barely cover the ground and it looks like we’re getting some sleet right now.

   The real threat of this storm was that the ice would weigh too much for the power lines and we’d have a lot of power outages.  As of now, Ameren hasn’t reported any outages yet.

Jan 19 More Slick Roads…

…which calls for another car ride video.

We’ve been getting a ton of snow this year, it’s been great-except for the added hazards of driving.

In this video Mom teaches us (or mainly me) a couple things about driving in snowy weather.

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Dec 15

This week we’ve been doing some mostly online Christmas shopping, but Glenn has been tackling a few things and trim has continued to be laid.  We’ve also “found” our kitchen counters and have tried picking up a little bit and doing laundry.

  The snow is still snow on the ground and we got some freezing rain tonight…but that’s not a problem when you’ve got some warm hot chocolate (I suppose that is oxy-moronic) or a warm hot-cappuccino whichever the case may be.

  Just a quick plug for Cabela’s…

  Lydia’s also been able to survive the cold despite the fact that she can have neither lick up a warm hot chocolate or a hot cappuccino…yup, she’s cuddled in an electric blanket…

 

Carpentry       &        Electrical

Yesterday, the chandelier in our kitchen suddenly went out after Benjamin hit his head against it.  We’ve tried replacing light bulbs, etc, but it still won’t come on.  We’ve also had a bad light switch that requires some wiggling and babying for the light to come one, so we replaced that light switch.  It ends up that we needed to put in a different kind of switch than the one we installed and the light won’t come on at all now.

  So pretty much yesterday we just sat around in the dark and wondered why none of our fixes were fixing.

 

As this year draws to a close (gasp! time flies!) I’ve been working on a time lime of stuff that happened in 2010; certainly a year like no other I’ve ever had. However, I think that being able to see what we have been through this year in a visual way helps us understand why we feel tired, strained and busy.  When Mom saw what I had gotten done so far she said, “That’s what my brain looks like.”  If any of you have seen the scene in “Bubble Trouble” that shows Mrs. Moore’s thoughts-that’s nothing to what my Mom was thinking just a few months ago.

  

I know you won’t be able to read the text in those boxes, so here a few examples of what the boxes may say, “28th-Chemo Treatment,” “3rd-Benjamin Catches a Beaver,” “6th-We Visit Inyart Family",” “13th Appointment w/Dr. Gillam 2pm, Lab Tests 3pm” etc. Obviously there are a lot of other things that we’ve forgotten and also the day-to-day items like having nurses coming in and out of the house, trying to run to the grocery store and make a meal, trying to keep caught up on laundry, taking care of proj…

In the picture above you’re seeing less than the first 6 month’s worth and it certainly got busier in the summer and fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took a few photos the other night while taking Lydia to go potty, and, of course, she has on a sweater.  However, usually she also has a coat on when she goes outside.

Well, a merry day to you all and to all a good night!