Three

Took my kiddos to Barnes and Noble today to sing Christmas Carols. 

I loved hearing them sweetly sing about Christ's birth. 

Such a simple yet great ministry opportunity! 

Treated them to some hot chocolate. Check out the result.
We had the 5th grade with us too so thats about 30 hot chocolates.
They loved it!
And I guess even the Starbucks workers were taking pictures of all of the red cups. :) 

Top 5 Christmas Movies

Here is my 

Top 5 Christmas Movie List 

1. White Christmas

2. A Muppet Christmas Carol

3. The Santa Clause

4. Elf

5. Mickey's Christmas Carol

I have to admit though that I have hardly watched any Christmas movies this year. 

I feel like Christmas snuck up on me. And it is almost here!!!

What to do...

As of Friday, I am on Christmas Vacation! I'm a little excited to have some time off of work. Vacation time is one of the perks of being a teacher, for sure.

I was thinking the other day of all the things I'd like to do and get done during my two week vacation, so I thought I'd make a list to help motivate me to get them done. Hopefully I can get some things crossed off the list.

1. Sleep in (woke up at 7:30 today, that is a start!)
2. Read a book for fun
3. Take my car in to get fixed
4. Clean my apartment. I mean really clean! (planning on getting a good start on that today)
5. Get through a few books I need to read for work
6. Get a massage
7. Finish typing out my Grandma's recipes
8. Cook a few of my Grandma's recipes
9. Work on my Christmas quilt (maybe I can finish it sometime this year to use it next year)
10. Organize my Tastefully Simple business
11. Clean out my closet and get rid of a few clothes that I don't wear
12. Read a book at Starbucks (I've missed that in the last few months. It is so relaxing)

Ok, I'm sure the list could go on, but it is only 2 weeks people. :o) I'm so looking forward to the time to relax, get some things done and spend time with my family. The last few weeks have been crazy busy and I've only seen them here and there.

The Life of a Snowman

Well the Lord blessed us with a day of beautiful snow while we were in Wisconsin.

So of course we HAD to build a snowman.

Just the beginning

It's hard to tell, but there is something there.

TADA

But a few days later the snow was melting,

and our snowman was starting to look very sad.

His face fell off!

In the end our snowman had a very sad New Years celebration.

(I think I need to write a children's book about this snowman) :o)

Kind of a White Christmas

Here are some pictures from my family's trip to Wisconsin.

We were there for almost a week, but there was only one day that we had snow.

Just enough for building a snowman. It was fun!

We stayed at my mom's cousin's farm because Grandma's house was too full. Sharon (Mom's cousin) has a dairy farm and Julie and I got to feed a week old calf. It was fun! The house was really cute and my Grandma lived there at one time.

ok well I have more pictures to post, but the internet at home is not fast...at all. I'll have to go to the library and post the rest. We had such a fun time with all of our family in Wisconsin. Please be praying for my Grandpa. Yesterday he had surgery. In the past his surgery recoveries have not gone well. But PRAISE THE LORD this one has gone better. He went home today and seems to be doing well.

Home for Christmas

Well, I survived finals! Praise the Lord!!
It is so nice to be home for a while. I came home a day early and surprised my parents. I drove up to see my house completely decked out in lights. (if you haven't seen them yet you really should, my dad is incredible)