The Big Huge Chrissy Tree

Alex loves the "big huge Chrissy tree" which is the cedar tree in our front yard. We have lights on it and every evening we have to go pay homage to it. It usually involves running laps between the Chrissy tree and the driveway. I think he's trying to keep me fit.
We (I use the term "we" loosely) got the fireplace in over the weekend! The boys managed to roast marshmallows. We have no sheetrock but have already had a few fires in the fireplace!

Cecilia and Karen graciously sent me a pair of Parkview legwarmers.

They're orange and blue and say "go panthers" all over

them. Here is Aaron modeling them for me. They fit him perfectly like tights and for the viewing audience I even made him put on a pair of underwear! Seriously, are legwarmers back in?

Christmas vacation is upon us

The kids had Christmas festivities this week. Julia's class had a "grown-up party" where they dressed up in their best, had to use their manners, and had to mingle to some extent. It was very cute. All the kids looked great all dressed up. This is Julia and her best friend Sarah. Julia picked out this dress especially for this occasion.
You can see Julia and Aaron posing beautifully for me after they got home from school.

The Christmas program was on Thursday. It was....well, long. It involved 8 grades (1-6 + Kand pre K), the school band and the school chorus. Each grade sings at somewhere between 1 to 4 songs, the chorus sang like a zillion, and the beginning band did several, too. They also read "The Cajun night before Christmas, and had several raffle/door prize breaks mixed in there. Normally I can sneak out but the 3rd grade was LAST so I was stuck trying to entertain a tasmanian devil for almost two hours. I kinda wanted to chew my leg off to get out of there. Oh yes, I forgot, the air conditioning was also broken in the gym and it was 85 out and raining. This created quite the steam-bath effect. I think they should split it up and perhaps have a separate event for the band and chorus. Most people seem thrilled with it but I think they're faking.

I need to add, once again, how much I love BOTH of Julia's teachers. They are so nice, enthusiastic, fun, and it seems they actually enjoy teaching and love the kids. Both of the hosted the whole program and they were just so lovely.

Oh, and Catfish discovered a new spot to sleep. Like it? In case you can't tell it's a piece of plywood propped on a chair on one side. Cozy, yes?

Snow!

Wednesday night we had a prediction of a "wintery mix" which no one actually believed, including the weathermen, until we woke up Thursday to see snow pouring down.

The kids were thrilled. Aaron asks every day when he will get to see snow and he finally got to see it. Of course he was done with it in about 10 minutes but he DID get to see it.

Julia built a snowman in the first few minutes, still in her nightgown (at least she went in for her jacket).

They measured 5.5 inches in Livingston so I guess we

had about that much. It was a lovely fluffy snow but sticky enough for snowballs and snowmen.

The live oaks and the orange tree didn't see the humor in the situation. We kept having to go knock the snow off of them so they wouldn't break. We lost a couple more wax myrtles and a pine tree that had managed to survive the hurricane but just weren't expecting a heavy sticky snow!
Alex had a great time loading his bulldozer with snow and dumping it with the dumptruck. I think he liked it better than the other two. I kept having to drag him in to warm up.
The kids missed two more days of school due to power outages. Our power was out for a day and a half but we are pretty well set up with the generator. I'm sure they will have to make up the days somewhere.

I was abducted by aliens so I was unable to update my blog for awhile there.

Here are a couple of Thanksgiving break pictures.
Here we have my sister and my mother on the annual Thanksgiving walk, the kids at Elachee nature center (near Gainesville), and Jenny and the boys on the moon.

The mysterious pile of leaves in the road is actually Alex being engulfed as Dave threw a big pile of leaves at him. I thought that was a pretty funny picture.
Then we have Dave performing the "changing of the lightbulbs" ceremony at my parent's house. This, obviously, involves a huge ladder and lots of swearing.

Finally, we have a picture of two very cooperative Children in front of the Christmas tree. You'll notice that the one uncooperative child does not appear in the photo. I think he was on his back on the floor in front of them having a fit in classic two-year-old style.

Today is a rain day so the project is to work on framing the walls on the back porch in preparation of our new 400 sq ft. living room! This will increase our living space by almost 1/3! A very exciting prospect.