1. The Underwater Bubble Show on Tuesday night was excellent. The tickets were free, but people got in line up to 2 hours before the show started to make sure they got a ticket. The tickets were distributed in 18 minutes, which meant that many people were turned away. The show was outstanding, but I wouldn't have been willing to stand in line for that long with my kids to get tickets. Thankfully, a woman in our homeschool group had made arrangements to pick up 65 tickets earlier in the day, and so we only showed up 30 minutes before the show started and got 4 tickets from her without waiting in any lines. The show of course included a lot of bubbles and lasers, but it included a wide variety of other things (although not any talking) such as a sand artist, ballet, acrobatics, etc. We were amazed as one man got his entire body into a small box. I think my favorite part was when three people were doing amazing things inside giant slinky costumes.
2. I'm thankful for appliances that make life easier such as a dish washer, microwave, refrigerator, etc. In particular I am thankful for our new refrigerator because it also comes with an ice maker and water dispenser and also for our dryer because I bought it 20 years ago and it's still doing it's thing. The washer I bought 20 years ago was replaced a few years ago, but the dryer is still doing fine. I know we'll have to replace it at some point, but it's wonderful that it's lasted this long as appliances don't seem to last very long these days. Appliances have more bells and whistles than they did 30 years ago, but honestly their "life expectancy" seems to have gone down over the last few decades.
3. The library program Nadia was in yesterday was outstanding. The librarians put a LOT of time and effort planning it and getting all the materials organized. I'm grateful that community organizations provide programs for homeschoolers. As you can see from the pictures a red headed eight year old boy (Chase) was her partner.
4. The African Children's Choir concert last night was also excellent. I think the kids enjoyed the Watoto one a little more in part because last night the choir sang some of the songs in an African language and also their English was a little harder for the kids to understand, but it was an excellent program and included a wider variety of things such as Christmas carols at the end and all of the kids drumming on drums. Many of the songs were acapella (or only with drums) and only kids were singing whereas with the Watoto Choir some adults sang with them. Even though it meant me missing choir rehearsal and the kids missing AWANA, I am glad we went. It's not often to be able to interact with people whose home is in a far away place like Uganda. Each child introduced him or herself and said what he/she hopes to be when he/she grows up. The three most popular responses were doctor, nurse, and pilot. Ian was tickled that one of the children's name was Ian. He was amazed that their might be kids in Africa who have the same name as he does. All of the kids were between 8-10 years old.
5. I am very thankful for wish lists as it makes Christmas and birthday shopping for nieces, nephews, etc. so much easier. I'm also thankful for being able to shop online as it beats taking three kids to the mall any day of the week.
6. Ian has been trying to read half of a Magic Tree House book each day (in other words read two books in four days). I am thrilled with the fact that he is now reading above and beyond the amount I require him to read each day. Wahoo!! I hope this continues. Nadia already had been reading more than I required for quite a while, but she has also taken off recently and has been trying to read at least one book a day. She's mostly been reading books by Ron Roy or from the Clementine series.
7. I got a haircut today, and the kids were well behaved while they waited for me. Yay! I get my haircut four times a year. The salon is less than 10 minutes from our house.
8. Although it was very emotionally difficult to get out the Christmas decorations (because of losing my mom), now that they are up I don't find it difficult to look at them.
9. The kids were up past their bedtime on Tuesday night as we didn't get home until almost 9:30 pm. Thankfully the boys slept in until 7:30! Usually Nadia is the only one who sleeps that late.
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