A Marathon Post I Only Expect My Kids to Read...

My sledding partner and brotha, Ben

I've sent my family to the Christmas sing-a-long and stayed home to blog.  It seems keeping a family history is a good excuse to play hookie.  And boy am I overdue for an update!

Niece, Jenna, visiting from Cali and Mom

Thanksgiving was amazing.  It always is.  I get to spend it with the people that make my heart leap for joy (major understatement...seriously, my parents and family are Heaven!).  I get nervous because I want the house to be clean and food delicious (hard for me getting both accomplished at the same time), but once you start licking the bowls, have cute eager helpers, and the table is setit really is exciting and fun.  We always decorate  the rims of the glasses with colored sugar and bust up at everyone's tongues stretching into their wine glasses to lick it all off.  It reminds me of goat tongues or giraffes or something.  But my family (and my Dad especially!) are really silly like that.  We got clobbered with snow and I couldn't wait to get out sledding, so after dinner I drove over to a big ravine, hiked some hills, and felt like a kid again! 
Russ dominated the T-day ping pong tourney and has been affectionately nicknamed "Super Jock" by my Dad.  VERY fitting...he's good at everything he does.  I've even had people tell me that their husbands come home and brag about Russ.  You name the sport...he's really good.  Finesse and power.  Yes, that's my man.

Perhaps my most proud mothering moment ever came last month when Sarah was nominated by her teachers to be Student of the Trimester.  Then the kids had to vote to elect the winner out of the 15 nominees.  To be considered the kids had to show respect, responsibility, and caring (the character traits of the last few months).  And out of the 200 6th graders, Sarah and another girl won the Student of the Trimester Award.  She is just absolutely beautiful in every possible way.  And a ton of fun.  My sidekick.  I picture a lifetime of love and friendship with this girl.

The BEST BEST BEST most exciting news ever was my kids' report cards!!!!  Sarah, my super organized competitive perfectionist responsible (and silly) hard worker got straight A's and A pluses...no surprise.  And Chad got all A's and B's!  We rejoiced and jumped up and down and danced.  And they got paid some big bucks.  Chad got a poor mid term report, so for him to pull his grades up took a lot effort at home with parental tutoring, early morning help from teachers, and a change in his behavior.  I couldn't have been more proud!

Sarah got her ears pierced with her friend Paige after waiting her whole life for this moment.

Russ' parents' visit flew by.  We felt very honored that they chose to spend their money and time to come visit us.  They smothered the kids with love, affection, and gifts.  The gifts kept coming and coming.  It was like Marry Poppin's bag of tricks.

Russ' Dad is the original Super Jock! 

No visitors can escape my house without a program!  It's Christmas after all.

Chad's first time skating...and he managed to hold hands on the ice with several different girls!  His favorite thing lately is to tell girls how beautiful they are.  They tell me all the time how it absolutely makes their day.

Now...I'm trying to figure out if I'm baking Christmas goodies for neighbors or not.  I really do hate the process, but I love my neighbors!  And we already have 10 dozen goodies on our counters from friends...so maybe they'd really like some spinach or something.