Went Grocery shopping for Christmas Ugh

I went grocery shopping for Christmas this morning on my way home from work.  Ugh.  Boy am I glad this only happens once a year.  I really should be buying things alittle along the way.  Funny thing is I did buy several things along the way.  We will be having seven at our house this year.  I know that doesn't sound like many but two of them are developmentally disabled and need help.  My hubby is also thinking of seeing if he can bring someone home from the local rescue mission.  Did I mention I work Chrismas eve and will have to do most of the cooking before or remotely (have daughters put what I have already prepared into oven). but I love Christmas and wouldn't have it any other way.

Just a few things to keep the kids busy until the big day.  Here is a set of Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer dominos.  And if your kids like Legos Here you can build online. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Muppets- Carols of the Bells

9 days till Christmas Oh My!!

I woke up to the fact that there are only 9 days till Christmas.  I do basically have all my Christmas shopping done but there were so many things I was hoping to get done that ,well, just didn't get around to it. 

Next week we are going to have what we call Christmas school.  We can count it as school but it is usually just doing home ec things around the house.  Baking and cleaning and crafting with some Christmas History thrown in. 

A few things that I found in my travels around the web today.

Relax and sit back and use this pdf of the Velveteen Rabbit to spend some quality time with your family and just sit around and listen.

  Familyfun.com  Has several cute ornaments to print out and asssemble.  Here is a penguin and you can find several more at the site.

Hillbilly Housewife is having a virtual  cookie exchange.  Here is the link for that.  While you are there check out the rest of her site.  She has alot of good ideas and recipes.

Head on over the We are That Family blog and see how Kristen made easy monogram ornaments.  Here is the link.  

Silent Monks sing Hallelujah Chorus

It's that time of year

I think I am coming down with my first cold of the year.  I have watery eyes and that tickly feeling in my nose that I need to sneeze but of course I don't.  Ugh. 
Any way I may not have to share my car after next week.  Faith got all the paper work into the insurance company yesterday so hopefully she will have a car by next week.  I don't use my car much but it really is nice to be able to go somewhere if I have the urge to or need .

Tangle.com is offering some free things and contests from now till Christmas. 

About.com has a list of fun things to do for Christmas.

This link will take you to a site that has some cute Disney crafts.  Guess what craft we will be doing?

Currclick.com free product this week is a Lving books Christmas Helper

Kaboose.com has some ideas for cute ball ornaments.

My Hubby is in colorado and Sent me these pictures of the scenery in the Mountains. 

Then he sent me this

Not sure how long that snowman will be around. 

Hope everyone has a great day.

some Christmas crafts

Here are just some links to som Christmas crafts.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. 

Here are the instructions for making cute little Snowmen ornaments.  I love snowmen so anything snowmen i really like.  I forsee a trip to the craft store in the future for my duaghter and myself.

Here's another cute snowman.  I can see him sitting on our mantle.

At this site you will find a whole list of different Christmas crafts.

This site has a cute snowflake ornament.

This is what happened at my House last night

We were innocently decorating for Christmas and I was taking a video of the girls putting up the tree and decorating when this happened



This is my eldest daughter and she is totally sober and no drugs or soda.  The outfit is compliments of a Dirty Santa Gift from a year or two ago.

What a beautiful day!!

I woke up this morning to the sun shining bright here in Pennsylvania.  It is still cold but not  quite as cold as yesterday.

First and foremost I would ask everyone to pray for Beth Moore of Living Proof Ministries. Seems that she has been dealing with some health issues and had surgery on Monday and has been having a rough time of it.  I have really enjoyed Beth's ministry.

I have several links today for some Christmas crafts.  Here you can learn to make some cute marshmallow snowmen (I am a sucker for snowmen)

This site tells you how to make Chocolate playdough.

I remember making sparkly pinecones when I was a little girl.  Here is a how to make these.

Here is a link to make a a Christmas tree from craft sticks.

Christmascookie.com has recipes for 540 cookies and counting.  You should be able to find something that interests you.

FaveCraft.com has several cute craft ideas. Claypot Snowman, Candy Cane Santa,Free e-book of easy crafts,gifts in a jar, and Holiday home

I would encourage to look around each of these sites and comment on the blogs especially.  who knows you may find a new favorite.

Believe

Baby It's Cold Outside

Here in Pa it is 25 degrees and the wind is blowing a bit.  But it is nothing compared to what my hubby had to endure during and after the blizzard. 

This is a picture of him trying to stay warm in the below zero wind chill.  He will not make it home probably till next weekend as the storm put him behind several days.  Glad he was able to get a motel room and the lady at the motel made homemade chili for him and the other guests.

Now onto the goodies I have for today.

Here is instructions on how to make interesting ornaments out of straws and a styrofoam ball.  Here is a picture 

This is a site that show you how to make a really neat paper snowflake.

Here is a pdf on how to make easy gingerbread houses.

Grinch coloring pages are are at the this link.

You can practice your math skills here with a Christmas twist.

Make your own wacky Christmas Tale here.

Here you will find a pdf of a bunch of Christmas worksheets.

Here is another pdf worksheet to match up Merry Christmas with the country.

This is a cute idea to keep your children writing all the year through.

The FDIC offers a free cd that can be used for Economic lessons.  You can find it here.

The following are several links that you can use with A Christmas Carol, most of them deal with Victorian age.  Here is a page on different things in the story.
This is more indepth about the Victorian era. This page has victorian crafts just becareful not to click the Google ads.  Here is an online quiz about A Christmas Carol ( I got 100%).

Last but not least is the page from Easyfunschooling for Christmas and Winter activites and units which can be found here.

 Dig in and enjoy.

Christmas Shoes

It's not officially the Christmas season until I hear this song.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I listened to a free downlaoad of this story from Audible.com.  See my review here.

Lots of goodies were in my email today

so I am going to share with you.

Here you can make virtual snowflakes. Of course if you were caugth in the blizzard you don't need the virtual kind.

I have several things from Hewit Packard site for Christmas decorating and crafting.  Here you can get Christmas labels.  Here you can get printable ornaments, and Here are the instructions for a pretty teardrop ornament and Here are the templates.

This is a pdf of a project for Scrooge running for mayor.  I think I am going to use this as a final project for Hannah when she is finished with A Christmas Carol.

This is a cute craft project for turning a paint brush into a cute Santa.  We have never done Santa but I do like the Santa projects.

And last but not least here is craft project to make angels out of coffeee filters. 

New Book Reviews

Please see my book review blog A room without books is empty  for reviews of the following books.  
Gideon's Gift by Karen Kingsbury

Maggie's Miracle by Karen Kingsbury

Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti
Cooking Up Murder by Miranda Bliss
The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard

Straight no Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas