Christmas Countdown

It's hard to believe Christmas is just a few short days away. December seems to have flown by! We have been busy, busy baking, shopping, visiting with friends and family, and just enjoying this wonderful Christmas season.

Sam, Abby, and I finished up our last week of preschool for the year last week. Both kids had parties on Wednesday and game home with brown paper grocery sacks full of fun stuff. Sam made a nativity scene out of a shoe box, which I just love. (If I think about it, I'll post a picture.) It is proudly displayed on the toilet in his bathroom, of all places. I think it was just the only available spot he could find!

Amanda, Christy, and Kaylee (my sis-in-law and nieces) flew in last week as well. We are so excited to have them spend Christmas here. The cousins are getting along fabulously and it is so fun to watch them play together.

Abby and Sam love to sing Christmas carols. Abby's favorite is "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and Sam's has to be "Mr. Grinch", which is also his most favorite movie. He watches it so carefully and even acts out the scenes. It's quite a sight to see.

I am looking forward to our special Christmas Eve Family Home Evening. The kids are acting out the Nativity. This is always one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Sam will be the donkey this year (couln't convince him to be Joseph), Abby is Mary, and my niece, Christy, will be Joseph. Should be cute!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Our favorite time of the year is finally here! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a small group this year - just Mom, Dad, Christy, and the 4 of us. We missed having my brothers and their wives and children with us. Josh is in Iraq. His wife, Amanda and their 2 girls are in Texas. Caleb and his wife Taylee are in West Virginia.
Mike and Dad fried our turkey this year and it was absolutely THE BEST turkey I have ever had! It was so moist and juicy. I couldn't get enough. I volunteered to make the rolls this year - my first time. Homemade rolls are a tradition on in my Mom's family and they are delicious. I hope I did Grandma Jameson proud. I'm looking forward to making them again. We had our other usuals: mashed potatoes, stuffing, mac n' cheese, green beans & corn, cranberries, and new this year a cranberry jell-o salad (for the kids),pumpkin pie and cherry cream cheese cake. And of course, another Jameson family favorite - SLUSH! It's a frozen juice mixture that you have with Sprite and a cherry. Sooo good. I feel like I gained weight just thinking of all that food!
Sam and I started decorating the house yesterday. He is so into Christmas this year! I love to see the excitement in him. He helped me decorate the tree today during the USC/Clemson game (another tradition) and was a good helper. I have to admit his eagerness to help did get on my nerves a bit, but who can get upset with a kid trying to help? Abby woke up from her nap to see the tree decorated and she got a big kick out of it too. The decorating is mostly done. I love having the lights and tree up - it just brings the spirit of Christmas and Christ into our home. This is the most wonderful time of the year.

Pop Tarts & Kisses

To know Sam, is to know that he LOVES Pop Tarts. He pretty much eats one every day for breakfast. I know, I know, they are chock full of sugar, but he loves them and make for easy mornings. Pick your battles, right?
Well, this morning we were out of the kind he likes, so he settled for a cereal bar instead. We bought some of "the brown kind" (brown sugar & cinnamon) at Target today. Anyway, he says to me just now, "Mom, if you let me have a Pop Tart, I'll give you kisses all the time." (How am I supposed to resist that?) So I say to him, "How about you just obey all the time?"
Sam, "Ok, I'll do whatever you want."
If only it were really that simple. Happily I still got a kiss out of the deal, and maybe, just maybe, he will actually do whatever I want.

Soccer

Well, the season has finally come to an end. I have to say Sam came a long way over our little 10 game season. He started off not wanting to play at all. We had to bribe him with a Skittle to go out and just run at the beginning. One game was spent with him chasing a little girl from the opposing team around the field. That started off innocently enough - she just looked like she needed a little encouragement so he just talked to her and then it ended up with a chase and her in tears. Too funny! One game he scored 2 goals and really got into the game. The last 2 games, not quite so much enthusiasm, but he went without complaining and he tried and had fun. That's all I can ask for. Tuesday is the awards dinner when he gets his trophy. He's been asking about that since the first game. He already has a spot picked out for it.

Thankfulness

I made this turkey last year out of styrofoam and yarn. I thought it would be a cute way to help the kids (and us) remember all the things we are thankful for. They have really gotten into it this year and our feathers have multiplied far more since I took this picture a few days ago. It's fun to see what the kids think of. Abby, last night, was thankful for okra - she's a southern girl for sure! Today Sam is thankful for crayons & crafts. He has again, spent the majority of the afternoon at the kitchen table coloring. Today, I am thankful for the wonderful country we live in. For the freedoms we enjoy, and most especially for the men & women currently serving in our military and those who have served in the past. They & their families make a huge sacrifice to serve & protect us and I am truly grateful for them!

My Artist

Back in May, when I quit my job to stay home with Sam & Abby, I had all these plans of working with Sam to learn to write his letters and do educational things with him while Abby napped in the afternoon. Much to my dismay, he would have nothing to do with anything remotely educational no matter how fun I tried to make it. Happily, after a very short time in pre-school that has all changed. He spends a good amount of his free time at the table with crayons and paper. So much so, that I can hardly keep enough paper in the house! I snapped this of him the other day after a few hours of coloring. I've also included a few of his "pieces" he did this past week.

Halloween

Sadly, Halloween has now come & gone. Sam came down with the flu on Thursday evening and was still running a low fever yesterday, so he had to miss out on the trick-or-treating. Luckily, we had trunk-or-treat at church last Saturday & they had dress up day at preschool on Wednesday, so he was able to wear his costume a few times and get some candy. I ended up taking our little Tinkerbell over to the Winsdor Lake building yesterday where she was able to play some games and trick-or-treat with Grandma & Beba's ward. She had a wonderful time and brought home candy to share with Sam. Grandma also sent home goodie bags so all was not lost. I look at it this way, now there is less candy to tempt me with!

Thankfully, he woke up this morning with no fever and has been back to his old bouncy self. I think he has a case of cabin fever, because he was full of energy and bouncing off the walls today. Too bad it was cold & wet out today, or I would have sent him to the back yard to burn off some energy.

Cleaning Out

Last week was spent getting ready for my first ever yard sale. Mike and I celebrated our 10th anniversary back in August and I had begun to realize just how much stuff (junk) we have accumulated over the last 10 years! So I began a major clean out. We ended up making about $300, but still had a lot of stuff left over. Two trips to Goodwill and one to the consignment store pretty much took care of that. It was very therapeutic cleaning out. I feel much lighter now and it feels good! It was a lot of work, but well worth it!

So this is my first official post! I'm still working at getting this looking better. I'm not very technical so this could take some time.
What a busy week it has been. The kids and I are all in preschool at Shandon Baptist Church. I'm a teacher in the baby room and both kids are enrolled, and we go 3 mornings a week. We are all loving it! I'm so pleased that Sam and Abby have adjusted well to the change in routine and both love their classes and are making new friends. Sam is even a little "sweet" on one little girl in his class.
We were able to go to the playground with friends from Church this morning. I enjoyed visiting with the other moms and the kids had a great time playing.