Gingerbread Houses

I am not an artsy, craftsy person, and that coupled with my aversion to messes means that things like making gingerbread houses are not exactly my cup of tea. Some years the kids have made them at a public library which is a wonderful solution for me because they are not made in my house. The library usually has them use graham crackers attached to small milk cartons, which is also the easier way to go because you know your structure isn't going to collapse. Some years I have purchased gingerbread kits after Christmas. Usually I've waited until they are marked down somewhere between 75-90% at CVS. I had a doctor appointment in Lewisburg on Friday morning, and we stopped at Walmart on our way there so that Ian could exchange a duplicate Lego set he received. I hadn't shopped the Christmas clearance the last couple of years, but this year I was hoping to get some wrapping paper (check), gingerbread house kits (check), and some new Christmas socks for myself (nope). The kits were only marked down 50%, but I decided to just go ahead and let

the kids each pick out a kit. Because they won't be spending as much time with cousins as they typically do this Christmas, I was wanting to do other things to make this Christmas break special for them. Oliver picked out a train, Ian picked out a Mario castle, and they selected a Peanuts themed house for Nadia who was reading in the van while we were in Walmart. The only thing we had on our schedule on Saturday was basketball practices for Ian and Nadia from 9-11am; at one point they said they wanted to build their gingerbread houses on Saturday, but they ended up deciding to wait. We had been invited to a Christmas party at Paul's aunt's house that was being held on Saturday afternoon, but Paul had declined the invitation due to his schedule at work. Considering Oliver had a fever on Saturday, it was for the best that Oliver stayed home that day.

On Sunday Paul stayed home with Oliver when Ian, Nadia, and I went to church. We almost always are there for both services, but we only went to the 10:45 service this past Sunday.

We were home the rest of the day. Oliver had a fever on Friday and Saturday, but thankfully the past two days he has been fever free. Dad and Margie had given us a gift card to Bonanza. On Mondays the buffet costs $1.99 for kids so I was thinking of going there for dinner today, but then I realized at 3pm Oliver hadn't yet eaten his breakfast OR his lunch. His appetite hasn't returned. It seemed like the wrong day to take him to a buffet. Nadia was very disappointed. I made fish sticks and macaroni and cheese for Oliver and Nadia and chicken Caesar wraps for Ian (favorite foods for each of them) to try and ease the disappointment over postponing our trip to Bonanza.

The gingerbread houses were a bit stressful at times. One of the panels of Nadia's roof broke into quite a few pieces, and we were having trouble getting Ian's castle walls to stay standing, but we succeeded in the end. Whew. I hope next year it works out to attend the event at the library! Thankfully thus far none of us have come down with Oliver's bug, and hopefully none of the Towfighis have caught Joshua's bug.

Ian was very surprised to learn that we weren't doing schoolwork today. The local Christian school has off this entire week. Our local school district will be returning to school on Thursday, which is what we're planning to do in part because we are taking a day off next week to go skiing. Truth be told I still squeeze a little bit of learning in here and there. This is why counting days for homeschooling is so random to me. I'm not counting any of these days but I've been working with Ian and Nadia on some spelling words that have been problematic for them the past few months, Ian and Nadia have still been reading in their chapter books almost every day, we watched two 13 minute dvds on magnets and levers (the third one that we'll watch tomorrow will be on pulleys), they've written some thank you notes, and I've read them picture books about Babe Ruth, Andrew Carnegie, and the Depression. Oliver (with help) completed a 300 piece jigsaw puzzle that he received as a Christmas gift. Today we finished the book A Long Way from Chicago, and tomorrow we'll start the sequel, A Year Down Yonder. Even though they technically a 12 day Christmas break, it doesn't mean I gave their brains a twelve day break!