christmas break, part 1

i should go back and date these for accuracy...but these blog books are for my kids to know who i was...and i'm no longer the mom that blogs in "real time." ;-) ha! and, with a baby here now, i don't know how many minutes i have...so we're doing this in "parts".

we had an AMAZING christmas break. the kids were off for 2 weeks. and they were off for nearly a week BEFORE christmas day - which is rare! i feel like, usually, they get off dec 23 or something. and, BOOM, it's christmas! it was fun to have those days to do "christmas-y" things without trying to cram them into the everyday routine.

sawyer picking his cookie to eat after round 2 of cookie making and decorating. i ate SO many of those things!

we have been working on a basement renovation...and pat had some hours off over the break that allowed us to make some SERIOUS progress! we have no timeline...just work on it when we can...and the kids are helping with (almost) every part. it's been FUN so far!! (pat framed and hung a new door - ROCKSTAR!!)

one of the funnest acts of kindness - taping quarters to vending machines. and the kids insisted we go back the next day to see how many were gone :-)

gingerbread houses! i have a love-hate with these things. with the food issues in our house, it's hard to have these beautiful things sitting around. but we do it and make it work. for about 3 days. then they are IN THE TRASH!

my time is up! stay tuned for part 2...