Right on Time

I read that the malls were packed with Christmas Eve shoppers, but it turns out we were all alone at the Christmas Tree farm.  I suppose it would be even nicer to get the tree on the afternoon of the 24th, so as not to cut our Advent short, but I fully understand their desire to close at noon on that day.

There was plenty of time to do all the decorations and Christmas baking.  At 7:00 am on Christmas morning, there will be an explosion of sound: Bach's Christmas Oratorio and the pounding of feet as children race to their stockings.  Breakfast this year will be pumpkin bread, sausage, Clementines and orange juice.  After the 9:00 am Mass we will put Baby Jesus in the manger.  And then presents.

It seems like a lot of presents, but we have a lot of people.  I have grown much less concerned about the materialism of Christmas as we have settled into our waiting-for-Christmas-to-celebrate-Christmas routine.  Believe me, the kids notice that everyone else is celebrating Christmas from the end of November while they have to wait.  And they can also tell you that it makes no sense to celebrate before the 25th.  So even if they each have 3 or 4 presents to open, they know that Christmas is about Jesus Christ.  So if everyone in the family wants to give to Christopher, or Daddy wants to give Mommy five presents, that's okay!

A very Blessed Christmas to all!

Aprons!

These are the first of the aprons I ordered from my nephew Thomas.  He is raising money for summer camp by selling homemade aprons.  The one being worn by Stephen is made from his dad's old uniform.  I am pretty sure that he wore this uniform in Afghanistan while engaged in firefights with the Taliban.

Cruel and Unusual?

Perhaps this is the beginning of the end for me, but I don't find spanking as rewarding as I once did.  We have moved into sit-ups as our most regular form of punishment.  (What does being grounded mean to a homeschooler?)  The exercise is good for the kids, and one can easily adjust the number of sit-ups to fit the gravity of the offense.

Tonight there was room inspections and ten sit-ups were awarded for each item not picked up.  The boys earned 70.  (I had Stephen crawl under the double bed to get a stray sock and some bits of paper.)  The girls earned 40.

Laurence and Paula were not required to do any sit-ups.  Not having figured out yet that this is a punishment, they did not want to miss out on the fun.