Thanksgiving at Our Home

Now that Thanksgiving is over, Jonathan is all about Christmas music and Christmas lights and decorations. He would have none of it before November 22nd. Tonight he's got Classic Holiday Radio playing on my computer and is showing Harrison how to make paper snowflakes. Anyway, the Christmas music is making it hard for me to think, but I don't want to turn off the music so as to encourage a holiday spirit in our home and children.

Anyways........

Mimi & Papa and John & Kristy came to our home for Thanksgiving, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

I really thought Harrison had his hair combed that morning.

Oh. Sister wrestled him around. I'll blame messy hair on that.

We decided last minute to have some of the kids share a little something with the family. Mimi remembers memorizing Shakespeare and shares some "Life is but a shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more." And Papa gives us a good chunk of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." 

And so Harrison gave us the Old Testament Books of the Bible which has been his memorization lately.

And Phoebe gave us some of Hamlet's Soliloquy "To Be or Not To Be."

And Jonathan has been practicing Minuet 3 from Bach, so he could share it with everyone. 

Liz pointed out that she'd been knitting all day, and so that was her talent contribution.

Then Mimi wanted us all to go around and talk about what we were grateful for. There were some really neat moments shared by everyone, but especially Papa and Uncle John (two that I would not necessarily expect touching moments from). It's a good tradition that I want to continue. I need to work on being more open with my gratitude. I tend to stick to surface; the larger the crowd, the more surface. I appreciate it when others open the way for peeling away veneer. 

John's wife Kristy. 

She's a lot of fun to hang out with. Very easy to talk to. Fun to shop with. We went to Cibolo Friday evening, and we ate Harmon's BBQ, had chocolate cake and conversation at Emily's Coffee Shoppe, and did some shopping at The Mill Boutique. 

We had a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal, but I got no pictures of it. Picture a Norman Rockwell painting of a holiday family meal. Then move all the food to the countertop and fit 10 people on 9 chairs around an 8-person table. It's beautiful!

Here are a few extra pictures from the camera roll:

Liz ready for a homeschool dance with her friend Adelyn and her family. She looks like a Disney princess!

Harrison bundled up in the garage for the few days of cold weather we had the past weeks. The garage is an extra room for us ~ our schoolroom, storage, hang-out place for kids, art room.... 

Lively times. 

Harrison again snuggled up on a cold day. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2018!

The Candy Holiday

.... In which we don't get all that much candy.

A sunrise at our home last week. 

Harrison will ask every once in a while, "Can we go outside and see the sunrise?"

These brothers are so silly. 

Jonathan is such a good brother to H. He gets annoyed with him sometimes, especially while he's playing video games, but he spends a lot of time with Harrison and teaches him things and lets H follow him around. 

Harrison the diver and neighbor "Rey."

Phoebe the cowgirl.

Only Phoebe and Harrison went trick-or-treating this year.  The older two had youth group. So we didn't have all that much candy this year. And when the whole family feels like the candy sacks belong to everyone, the candy is gone pretty fast. And that makes mom happy!

This house always does something worth doing for Halloween. 

He was an Army man. So cool.

We have one more week of school to complete our first trimester. Thanksgiving comes after that. Timely. I love finishing that first trimester before the holidays. 

It's cold outside, the roads and stores are busy, Christmas music is playing in certain shopping centers. So it's Christmas, right? I'm going to enjoy the festive feels, even if it does start too early.