Thankful Thursday

1. I love Christmas music!!! On Sunday morning we sang one of my most favorite carols, "The First Noel."

2. We had a great time at the vaudeville show and the "Christmas Post" musical on Saturday. I greatly appreciated that the church provided childcare on Saturday night!

3. Nadia and Ian enjoyed going to Home Depot with Paul on Saturday morning.

4. It was a delight to go Christmas caroling at the nursing home with the kids' choir on Friday night.

5. All of the kids like pulled pork. It's a VERY good thing when we can add one more food to the list, and it was a relief to me as Nadia and Ian weren't too keen on the shepherd's pie or chili I made last week. Of course Oliver asked for seconds of the chili! All three kids loved the cornbread.

6. Nadia had her first basketball practice this evening. We are thankful she can participate in this Upward program again this year!

7. The kids and I are going over to Nikki's house later this morning! I am so thankful that we are starting to form a friendship.

8. I'm thankful for Legos. It's rare for my kids to play with ONE thing for at least four hours a day many days in a row. They tell me they're putting on shows. I love how nicely the two of them are playing together and how creative they are being with those bricks!

9. The kids are having fun finding Blitz every morning. Oliver has been the first one to spot him more than once! Hopefully we won't run out of ideas of where to put him between now and the 24th.

10. Sometimes Nadia buckles Oliver in his car seat, which means I am not buckling any children some days. Big sisters can be a big help!

11. I'm thankful that Crayola invented Color Wonder markers. They are such a blessing for Oliver to use during home schooling. I bought him more Color Wonder coloring pads for Christmas. It's so nice to be able to hand him markers and not worry that he will be coloring his face or the furniture!

12. All my Christmas and birthday shopping was completed a few days ago, except I need to get Paul something else for his birthday (January 3). I am also all caught up with wrapping although a few more things haven't  been delivered to our house yet. Also, the first 30 Christmas cards and letters have been mailed. I'm waiting for the last shipment from Shutterfly to finish that project.

13. I'm still thankful for the library! This week we got a lot of  books, a few Christmas dvds, and several books on CD for Nadia to listen to in her room during Oliver's nap.

14. My parents are planning to arrive at our house this evening, and they'll leave tomorrow afternoon. They came up to celebrate Ian's birthday!

15. Paul's last class for the semester was on Monday! He's giving a final exam next Wednesday. We will see him a little more over the next 5 weeks!

16. Nadia has started filling in the blanks in the notes during the sermons on Sunday morning. Sometimes she guesses at the spelling, and sometimes she looks up at the screen to see how a word is spelled. Sometimes it's hard for her to keep up because she writes more slowly than an adult would, but she is getting better at keeping up (and sometimes I help her get caught up if she gets behind). She has been asking me to teach her cursive, but I said she needs to show me she has really mastered manuscript (she still write some letters backwards) before we can do that although I do briefly show her how to write her name in cursive.

17. My kids all like getting dressed up on Sundays. Oliver was VERY distressed last Sunday that he wasn't wearing a tie. He kept asking for a tie and went to the drawer where I keep them and pulled one out, but none of his ties matched the dress shirt (the green plaid above that he wore with the Christmas sweater vest). I was happy though that he likes wearing a tie!