Figuring Life Out - One Thousand Gifts

This short video comes from an author, Ann Voscamp, who is a lot like me (Canadian, homeschooling mom) but has an incredible gift with words! Her blog is at A Holy Experience, and I have been enjoying reading it for a while. The video isn't to do with being Canadian, or homeschooling, but it is a great challenge to live our lives fully, and I would encourage you to take the 4 minutes (and 20 seconds!) and have a look!

Happy New Year!

Our New Year's tradition is to gather with a group of friends at one of our friend's houses. They always host an all-night New Year's Eve house party. As more and more children join the group, the tone of the evening has changed. This year, we had a "Wii" room and a food room.


Just a few of the offerings in the dining room! There was a whole other table too!)



Some serious action was going on with the Wii.

This was the first year the children (as a group) stayed up to see the New Year in - we gathered around the TV and watched the New York Times Square famous ball drop. Our guys have heard about watching "the ball drop" and they were all very excited to be able to stay up and see it!


Just waiting for the count-down!

The children were packed off to bed shortly after - all on the floor of an upstairs bedroom.

We had some pretty sleepy children to greet the first morning of 2011!

Grandma's Nativities

Over Christmas, we visited Grandma and Grandpa. We really enjoyed looking at Grandma's collection of Nativity scenes. Some of them are hanging on the tree, like the Nativity in a walnut shell (above) from Germany, and some are in a special Christmas display in a cabinet.




Here's just a few of our favourites:


Tim is holding a scene carved into a pair of hands:

More favourites:

I had a peaceful time with the children, looking at Grandma's nativity sets, before we opened presents together. Well, a mostly peaceful time!

A Merry Christmas to You All

We've been having a lovely Christmas this year. We've had good times with family, with friends, with our church, and here is a picture from the Waterloo family gathering. Hope you all have been enjoying a break from the normal routines, and have had some meaningful reflections on the birth of Christ, our Saviour.

Jubal Class Photos

We had our Christmas concert for Jubal Cottage School last week. Jubal is a local homeschooling group focusing on the arts, and I direct the Junior and Senior choirs. All of our children are involved this year. Before the concert we stood the children up on the platform and took some "class photos" - here they are!


The Jubal student body is in this picture as the combined choir.



Junior Drama



Senior Drama


Senior Bell Choir



Senior Choir



Junior 1 Bell Choir



Junior 2 Bell Choir



Junior Choir

Our concert went very well! We had a lot of fun, and are already looking forward to the next semester!

In Which We Hunt the Christmas Tree

We like to cut our own locally grown Christmas tree from a Christmas tree farm. This year I came along, which was the first time for several years. David said it was easier when there weren't six people giving their opinions on which tree would be best! However, we did find a tree, and have a good time.


Off to the hunt!


This tree still has a few years to grow!


We like this one!

Daddy gets cutting!

Timber!

Carrying the tree back to the van.

David has loaded up plenty of canoes on top, so a tree is no big deal!

The tree gets tied down for its ride home!

Maybe I'll get some pictures up soon of how the tree looks indoors and decorated!

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright...

Emmi was invited to a dress-up birthday party this fall. She chose to be a tiger! Daddy had the brilliant idea of using electrical tape on her orange clothes, to give her stripes. I bought the first eyeliner I have purchased since high school, to give her a nose and whiskers. I also bought an orange t-shirt at Goodwill, and Emmi used the serger to make a tail. We had some ears on a hair band from another costume, and she was ready to skulk in the shadows of the jungle.



Don't be frightened! This tiger can be quite friendly too!