Our Christmas Week

I hope you had a lovely Christmas!  With no school at our house, our week was a little different, but still a nice week.  Just in case you have Christmas money or gift cards to spend, there are affiliate links in this post.

I was looking for a certain glue in the sewing room and came across these sparkly jingle bells.  I threaded them onto silk cord for the girls to wear as necklaces.

When I called Hannah and Katie to give the necklaces to them, Jack mock pouted and said, "Where's mine???"  So I made him one with a gold bell and red silk cord.

I've had fun dressing the girls in Christmas clothes this month.

Even though we're not "doing school" this week, my students each spent some time on the computer, either with xtramath.com or with Reading Kingdom.

Katie loves the I Can Pound set from Fundanoodle.

It's nice to have the teens around the house more.  Eli asked for a blank canvas for the first time in ages and started a new painting.  Brianna is playing a piano/music app on my iPad here.

It's not a great picture, but it was a fun moment.  I wanted us to watch something together on Netflix, thinking a Christmas movie.  Jack picked Arthur instead.  He's in my chair, with Katie on his lap.  Sam came in and said, "Arthur!  I want to watch!"

Our Christmas Eve was Tuesday, since Daddy worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  So we passed out new jammies Tuesday evening.  

As they patiently wait for the "go ahead" to open them.

Next morning, it was time for stockings!

Favorites included books, Leap Pad games, and candy.

This year, Sam asked for lots of books by JRR Tolkien.

She's making the face on purpose, she actually likes the shirt.  There were 3 Grumpy Kitty shirts opened at our house this week.

Jack has entered the "hides from camera" phase of life.  He scored 3 Lego shirts this year!

After stockings, we had our traditional cinnamon rolls and orange juice breakfast, then it was back to the front room for presents.

Sam is the champion of Rock'em Sock'em Robots.

And Jack is very pleased with his new catapult!

At one point, I looked in on Hannah and Katie and found them glued to their Leap Pad screens, enjoying their new games.  (I love how new games can bring an old toy to life!)

For years, I've seen all the neat blog posts about light tables for preschoolers.  I finally decided to use my Amazon money to get something to create the same effect for Miss Katie.  We've been having fun putting different things on it.

Luke was having a screaming fit so I took him into the dark front room to see if I could distract him with the tree lights.  After he settled down, I snapped some pictures with my phone.

Sam enjoys some spiced cider in his new morphing Batman mug.

Sam had wrestling practice most of the week, and even had a dual one night.  His team took 3rd place!

This coming week, Brianna will be off to winter camp with her friends.  Sam will still have wrestling, and we'll probably polish off all the Christmas goodies around here and play with lots of new toys.  Today, the teens walked to Game Stop because they had Christmas money burning a hole in their pockets.  But the house is very quiet now, as 3 of them are locked away with their little Nintendos.

Two more Christmas posts coming, Christmas at Zach's House, and "Gingerbread" Houses, but there's so many pictures in this post, I decided to break it up a bit.

This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!

Our Last School Week of 2015

Yippee, we're about to start Christmas break!

This was our pile of books for one day this week.  (Which doesn't count the books in Jack and Hannah's individual piles, namely math, handwriting, and English.)  We've checked off everything we're going to do on Week 15 of our curriculum, which I'm very pleased about.

I got out the Fundanoodle I Can Pound set for Katie this week.

Great fine motor and spacial awareness practice!  The set has been revamped with even more pounding pages, plus a carrying tote.

Jack and Hannah blended colors to paint animals this week.

I'm hoping we'll do a couple of art projects over the break, but I'm giving myself grace if it doesn't happen.

Katie's cutting skills are coming along nicely.

When I was cleaning the shelves, I found an old scissor practice book that had been Sam's when he was a little guy.  She has been working through it and I'm happy that it's finally being used up!

Katie has progressed enough in math that she's not just tracing or circling numbers, but is now expected to write them on her own.  Well, we've been working a lot on letters in handwriting, but not numbers.  So this week, she started the Fundanoodle I Can Write Numbers book, to learn how to form her numbers correctly.

Our Home Art Studio DVD project for this week was hue and shade.

Hannah's painting was all done in purple with black or white added, and Jack's was all done in yellow with black or white added.  There are also some finishing touches in Sharpie.

We're up to O!  Katie has been working in this ABC coloring book since November.  I'm guessing she'll finish by Valentine's Day.  Anybody want to hear her cute little voice saying the alphabet?

Video of Katie saying her ABCs

You can't see the legs and faces on these, but they're centipedes.  We learned about centipedes and millipedes about a month ago.  Last week, I used cardstock to make red & green gift tags, and I used a 1" hole punch to punch holes in the tags so I could string ribbon through them.  So, I had all these festive cardstock circles left over.  I pondered making some sort of ornament, but finally settled on simple centipedes instead.

This one is for the Lukey fans.  We celebrated Paul's birthday this week.

I got a free kit to make Air Heads Crafts with, and Brianna and I had a great time creating all sorts of things!

A little blue monster,

a snowman with a scarf,

a gumball machine,

and the cute Instagram icon that Bri thought up!

I hope you're enjoying the season and that you have some special moments with your loved ones this coming week.  Merry Christmas!

This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!

Adoption and Christmas

Many children thrive on routine, especially adopted kids.  Holidays, while fun, can be a time of chaos, with many interruptions to the normal routine.  This can be stressful to the whole family, and it's tempting to let a gray cloud loom from Thanksgiving to New Year's.

But holidays can also be a time to practice intentional inclusiveness.

We have several nativity sets, but our Chinese nativity is especially precious to me because it says to my girls, "We blend our traditions with your birth culture.  You matter.  Chinese faces have value."

Once children are old enough to really grasp the Biblical Christmas story, adopted kids may have another component to their difficulty with the holiday.  Everybody is celebrating a mom having a baby.  Moms have babies.  Most moms keep their babies.  Why couldn't my mom keep me?

When I first started adding adoption related or China related ornaments to our family Christmas tree, I wondered, "Am I pushing it?  Should I just let Christmas be about Christmas?"  But then I realized, for many kids, they're already thinking about their adoption.  Let's create an atmosphere where it's acceptable for them to do that.

Hannah and Katie really got into decorating the tree this year with all their special ornaments.  I know, the day will come when I'll see an ornament that's just perfect for one of them that has nothing to do with adoption.  And that's okay.

Adoption doesn't define them.  Being Chinese doesn't define them.

My girls will grow up remembering new pajamas every Christmas Eve.  They'll remember cinnamon rolls and orange juice for breakfast every year after stockings on Christmas Day.

And hopefully, they'll remember feeling accepted and loved for who they are.  Multi-faceted, precious, Chinese American, adopted, funny, smart, beautiful, talented girls.  In a big, crazy family.

We have another special tradition that we keep every year involving a nativity set, as well.  My hope is that as our flock of animals grows and grows, it will be a visible reminder to all my children that Christmas is a time of giving to others.  In honor of the greatest Gift ever given.


This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!