Thankful Tuesday

1. Friday evening and Saturday morning Nadia and Ian had choir rehearsals at church. I am very thankful the church has an indoor play land as Oliver spent about 4 1/2 hours playing in there between those two rehearsals. Their rehearsal ended at 6:55 on Friday night, which was perfect timing for the kids and I to attend a Christmas service they were having at 7pm at church. We only stayed for the first 45 minutes of the service, but the kids did very well (even Oliver).

2. Saturday morning we enjoyed a yummy breakfast put on by our local fire department. Ian discovered he likes bacon. Go figure. He and Nadia always tell me they don't like bacon when I put bacon in anything. We returned a couple of hours later (after the choir rehearsal) for a quick photo with Santa. They don't mind meeting Santa, but what they really wanted was the large stocking filled with candy they knew he would give each of them. And by candy I mean FULL sized candy bars not little tiny pieces of candy. Nadia and Ian didn't surprise me with their answers as to "what they want for

Christmas" but Oliver did. He told Santa he wanted a Mickey Mouse toothbrush. I imagine not many kids ask for a toothbrush for Christmas, ha ha! We did buy him a Mickey Mouse umbrella. Hopefully that will please him.

3. I have enjoyed eating pasta e fagioli at Oliver Garden many times over the past 25 years, but I have never tried to make it before. I made some last week, and it won't be the last time I do so. YUM! The recipe called for V8 juice. I don't believe I've ever purchased it before, but it was yummy in the soup!

4. The kids had fun decorating Christmas cookies on Friday. Nadia put the most time and energy into this than she ever has before. She viewed each of her cookies as an individual masterpiece. It took her a LONG time to decorate a few cookies, but we weren't in a rush. Ian would have been happy to just decorate two cookies, but I insisted he do more than

that. I will say Oliver did a great job of not dumping too much on any one cookie, which is a challenge for a three year old! I like making one batch of cookies a week, but I admit I'm getting a bit weary of it right now, but we delivered three plates of cookies on Wednesday night, four plates of cookies on Friday night, and five plates of cookies on Sunday morning to AWANA leaders, Sunday School teachers, children's choir directors, etc. It was just a small way of saying thanks for all they do throughout the year. On Saturday I made Paul some white chocolate macadamia nut cookies since I knew many of the ones I had made lately are not exactly his favorites.

5. Paul's dad came up on Sunday to see the kids' Christmas program. They did it at both the 9:00 and 10:45 services of church that morning. He then came over to our house for a few hours because it was his 74th birthday! I made him a cherry swirl cake because I know he loves cherries. I was pleased that Nadia did a much better job remembering to SMILE when singing in the program.

6. Because Nadia and Ian were meeting their choir early on Sunday morning, Oliver was the only child of mine sitting in the sanctuary while I was rehearsing with the adult choir at 8:20; usually the three of them sit together. I was very impressed with Oliver's behavior as he stayed seated while I was on the platform. Way to go!

7. On Sunday evening Paul took the kids to a birthday party for Jesus at our former church. The kids really enjoyed the snacks, crafts, games, balloons, animals to pet, etc. It was Oliver's very first time riding a real horse. I wish I had seen it, but I was at home watching my football game, and thankfully Pittsburgh WON. It was a big win against a team with a better record than us and kept our winning streak going (necessary for us to secure our spot in the playoffs).

8. Yesterday Nadia rode down with Paul when he went to work at the plant because Grandma had asked to have a day just with Nadia to go shopping and have lunch. What fun for Nadia! This also meant that Oliver and Ian played together more than usual.

9. Netflix sent me an email last week saying they were giving us a free month of their dvd service. We had a free month last April and hadn't used it since so I was surprised they offered us another free month, but we are happy to take advantage of their offer again!

10. Ian is making progress with his dribbling skills, and he is so excited about basketball. Even though we declared Friday to be our last day of school this year, yesterday I did spelling and reading with Ian in the morning, and in the afternoon we did basketball and painting (so it seems like that counts as art, PE, spelling, and reading). He was telling me all that "Coach Tom" has been teaching him in basketball. Tonight he has his third practice. Sometimes Paul will spell something as way of communicating to me without the kids knowing what we are saying, but that strategy only works with Oliver these days. A couple of days ago Paul spelled out the word "larger," and Ian immediately told him that he spelled "larger" = a disadvantage of kids learning to spell! Ha ha!

11. Paul submitted his grades for the fall semester yesterday (being a procrastinator he waited until the last possible day even though his only final exam was given seven days earlier). Now he truly is on break from Bucknell and can just focus on Kennedy Concrete.