Merry Christmas!!!

This is one of the pictures that didn't make the final cut in the Halldorson Christmas card but it's still cute! This year Will was still agreeable to wear something matching with Zanna (which I'm thrilled about) so I went with it. Aren't they cute?!!!!

A Halldorson tradition - an IKEA Christmas tree. $20 and you get a $20 coupon to spend in the New Year. What a deal!Some families go to a tree farm, freeze their buns off, God bless them, for the sake of the "experience", have some hot chocolate and cut down a tree. We pile in the car and go to IKEA and have it over and done with in 15min. I love it! After last years tree falling over fiasco we were a bit more sensitive to that problem this year. We made sure that the trunk was nice and straight. We bought a new tree stand (new and improved - Canadian made!). Bottom line - it's a piece of $40 plastic crap. Wayne still had to reinforce it with plastic ties but it seems to be holding up. We hope.

In November we took a little getaway to Syracuse (my favourite place to get my American shopping fix). I bought some presents, we ate at Olive Garden, wandered up and down the aisles of Target (gosh, I love that place). We stayed at a hotel with a pool and the kids had a blast. We got together with the Gumm family - they came to our hotel to swim and we had some pizza. Addie and Zanna got to play together - it's so sweet! I would have posted a picture of them but as a general rule I don't post pictures of other peoples kids no matter how cute they are! Anyway, it was great to get out of Dodge if only for 2 nights!

We had a lovely American Thanksgiving. We had some more of our Chinese friends over who had never had a traditional meal like this - it was great! Will presented his lapbook to the group explaining the history of the holiday and how it came about.

Now we're in the full swing of the Christmas season. We've got lots of snow (again) and my garden flag that says "Jesus is the Reason" has been buried (again). This year with Zanna just a bit older it's been great to be able to send the kids outside and they will play together making snowmen, or snowforts or whatever. They'll spend an hour playing outside and it's LOVELY!

Zanna was invited to a birthday party last weekend for a little Chinese girl that lives around the corner. I wish I would have brought my camera because soon after our arrival the girls were taken upstairs to change into dress up princess dresses that they wore for the remainder of the party. They were all adorable! Zanna was in heaven. They beaded their own necklaces, made bracelets,ate cake - she talked about it all week! The girl's mother and I had a chance to chat too and in the course of our conversation she shared with me that she is from a Chinese family line that is allowed to have as many children as they wish because they are Muslim. I had the privilege of sharing with her the good news of Jesus and that He is God. Of course, she did not understand this but never the less heard the message. Please keep this women in your prayers!

We are looking forward to Christmas in Wisconsin (or rather, the day after Christmas as we'll be driving on Christmas!). Lord-willing, my family will be all together - so exciting! Merry Christmas!!!!

Trick or Treat

Good golly - what a picture this is! In case you can't tell by looking, Will is Indian Jones, Zanna is some sort of fairy with wings (she called herself a butterfly) and my dear husband is a monk. I never thought in a million years he'd dress up. We bought it because it was so cheap and thought maybe he could use it for Reformation or something. Well, ten years and he still surprised me! Ha! They look great anyway and they had a great time.

To fill in the rest of the month of October (now that we're halfway through November), we had a lovely Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving that is because in this house we celebrate both. Now to be honest, I usually think of Canadian Thanksgiving as the "trial run" to the real Thanksgiving. I do appreciate it being in October when the fall colors are at their peak and often the weather is nice enough to take a walk after our big meal. But growing up with a November Thanksgiving with the Pilgrim thing and the official kickoff to the Christmas season, it's been difficult. Until last year. This is the second year now that I've gone all out for Cn. Thanksgiving and the Am. one has been in the way - let's get on with Christmas already. Perhaps I'm becoming Canadianized (is that a word?). So this year we had turkey and all the trimmings and invited some of our CHinese friends over for a traditional North American feast. I had hoped it was something they hadn't experienced before and I was pleased to find out for the most part that this was the case. Our friend Rebecca said that their Chinese friends had done a Chinese version of one - can you imagine what that would be like? Maybe our version of Chinese food - a poor comparison! Well anyway, they "gobbled" everything up and the big hit was the green bean casserole. Too funny!!

I still find it difficult when Am Thanksgiving rolls around - I want to celebrate it and I know my family is celebrating it and I want it to be a big deal. I turn on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, take the day off of school, etc and make the big meal. But it's weird when no one else is making a big deal of it too. I don't want my kids to miss out on this tradition. I want them to "get it". So this year we're preparing a bit ahead of time for it and will do a unit study on it next week. Will's reading the Magic tree house book "Thanksgiving on Thursday" and will do a book report on it.

I went and did something crazy this month just to keep things interesting, I suppose. I got Invisaligns for my teeth. This is the alternative to braces. I've always been annoyed with my crooked teeth and now I'm out to fix it. So I've got these clear inserts over my teeth I change weekly and the idea is no one can tell. However, I can't eat or drink anything other than water with them in and I've got to keep them in for 22hours a day. This leaves me a precious 2 hours each day to stuff myself! Actually, I'm drinking way more water than I usually do and if I'm really lucky I'll loose a few pounds and have straight teeth. What a deal!

October update

We've had another busy month! We went with some other homeschoolers to the butterfly exhibit at a local university and the kids had a blast. It wasn't as awesome as the one we went to in Rochester but this was lovely too.

The butterfly shown with Will really took a liking to him and sat on his hand for quite some time. People were going up to Will like he was a display and taking his picture with the butterfly.

Of course October includes a trip to the pumpkin patch. We picked out our pumpkins as well as took a hay ride through the pumpkin patch. I'm ashamed to admit we ran out of time for a fall nature walk on one of the lovely trails around our community. It just never happened - not that we weren't doing other things but it's disappointing anyway. It has been a beautiful fall - that is until it snowed 6 cm the other day. Yes, that's right. It's like it never left. Actually, it's warmed up since then and the snow's practically gone now. The paper claimed it's a "false winter". Whatever.

In other news, Will participated in his first Karate tournament and won a pretty cool 3rd place trophy. He had a good time and Zanna and I cheered him on!

The kids and I did manage to make leaf cookies this year. I cut out the shapes and the kids have a blast decorating them with sprinkles and stuff. They were yummy too!!

I've tried this month to tap into my creative juices and did a few fun things - I took a mixed media art class at a local art store and made 2 wall decorations for Christmas I'm looking forward to putting up. I've also done another "year in the life" scrapbook workshop - 2 nights, layouts per month done for me, tools, stamps, ink, etc provided and I leave with a scrapbook I just need to journal and put in a picture. Pretty slick, looks great, documents memories through the year. Works for me!!

I will have to do the Halloween update in the next one - I'm running out of time now.

Fall Fun!!

I think this is precious - she set this all up herself. A tea party with her dollies!!! Too cute!
Last Spring, Will started karate. He took the summer off due to our busy schedule but he resumed in September and recently earned his yellow belt! It was very exciting!!
Apple picking!! One of my favorite fall things to do! Speaking of fall, I love fall. Not just "I really enjoy this season" but I may just be obsessed. Like other times of the year, I decorate my house for fall. But as I hauled up 6 boxes of fall decorations from the basement this year, I realize I may have an issue. I can't even walk into Michaels this time of year because I don't need any more fall things but I just can't resist. I love the colors so much - they are so relaxing to me. And the smells - cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc put me into a heavenly blissful state of mind. I love apples, pumpkins and scarecrows. If I could keep mums alive I would love them too. I love my fall dishes and the acorn shaped salt and pepper shaker. I know - I have a problem!! I love Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving (can you have too much turkey? I don't think so), I love celebrating Reformation and all things German. I still detest Halloween but I do like (not love) jackolanterns (pumpkin faces). I love nature walks - the fond memories of my family's growing up and the new memories my family now makes. I love taking the extra time to thank Jesus for all our many blessings and recognizing everything comes from Him!!Happy Fall!!

Halldorson Happenings

When I was growing up it was a tradition during the summer months that each of us kids would have one night that we would pick a menu we wanted and make it (with Mom's help), set the table and put out any decorations we wanted. Then we'd get our picture taken before everyone dug in. So that's what Will did - he chose to make bean and cheese enchiladas, salad and apple slices. He had a great time and we will do this again for sure!
Will's first day of grade 3. Normally we've done our work at in the kitchen but this year we are starting our day upstairs in the playroom. We do our Bible lesson first followed by spelling and handwriting. Then we go downstairs and do the rest - math, history, science, etc at the kitchen table and my favorite - read aloud snuggling on the family sofa.
We took our 3rd annual (maybe 4, I can't remember) trip to Upper Canada Village with the Homeschool group. It was a beautiful day and I brought a picnic lunch to eat before we headed home.

Fun Pictures

Here is Zanna's version of potty training.
This was taken on our morning at Valleyview Animal Farm. The kids enjoyed riding the train through the corn, playing in the sand and petting the animals.

Zanna enjoys her corn on the cob!

End of summer - Labour Day

Our summer ended as it has for the third year now - at the WELS North Atlantic Districts Labour Day Retreat in the Berkshire Mountains of Mass. The weather was perfect and we were able to do a lot of things out of doors this year. Will had a friend from our church along this year and the two of them had a blast playing tennis, swimming in the outdoor heated pool, beach volleyball and the children's Sunday school classes they offered. Will slept in the cabin with his friend, friend's mom and one other gal from church. It was weird not having him with us. We saw him every now and then to make sure he was OK. It's funny how independent he's getting!
Zanna and I had fun in the swimming pool and she was getting brave enough to jump off the side of the pool into my arms and to be fully dunked under water. The rest of us have no natural ability to survive in the water so she may have a fighting chance. Ha!

The weekend was spent catching up with friends from around the district, attending the different Bible studies offered to choose from and just getting out of town!! We stayed an extra night on the way back in Syracuse and did some back to school shopping, etc. Then we hit the ground running!

With as relaxing and fun as the first half of our summer was, the last half was the opposite. It's been an unusually stressful time for our family and I'm not altogether sure why - just one of those seasons of life I suppose - and I keep waiting for things to return to "normal" but normal is a bit different now. First of all, Wayne has a vicar for the year (very last minute!) and while this helps him get way more done in less time, it's also more work. Will started grade 3 and his work load (also mine as his teacher!) is heavier. We switched curriculums and it takes some time to get used to it and plan for the proper amount of time to get things accomplished. Our activities start over the next few weeks so this is good in that it will give us some time to work out our mornings before the afternoons kick in with activities.

As for the update on Zanna's pottytraining - boy, oh boy, is she a smart cookie. She's realized that if she goes on the potty, she gets M&M's. So.......................she'll tinkle a little into the potty and demand her candy. After she receives her reward she goes back and tinkles a bit more and demands more candy. This has gone up to 6 times before! This does not mean, unfortunately, that she's trained and we're done. She only does this when she feels like it. Or, if she didn't eat very well for a meal and still wanted dessert but didn't get it. So then she falls back on the "Then I'll just go potty a few times and get dessert anyway".

That's about all for now!!!!