Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with the new Christmas tree
Happy first Friday in December, y’all! How has your week been? As you may know, we take off from Thanksgiving to New Year’s so it’s been good here. In normal crazy Southern weather style, we’ve had mild with temps in the mid to upper sixties most of the week. You know, as compared to a week or so ago when the outside dog had to camp out in the garage with a heater for the better part of a week because it was so cold.
I’m not complaining, though. That week’s weather has been my idea of fall in the South. I don’t think it should get cold until the actual first day of winter.
We had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving followed by a day of Black Friday shopping. That’s really just a chance for my mom, my sister, and I to hang out. We didn’t get out early and there weren’t any particular deals that we were hoping for, so it wasn’t the crazy, frantic kind of shopping that the words Black Friday bring to mind.
I did find a nice, pre-lit Christmas tree while I was out. We’ve been thinking of getting a new tree with LED lights for the last couple of years since our other tree was 20+ years old and starting to look a little shabby. After we got home from shopping, Brian, my brother-in-law, and I went back out to get it – just a quick Lowe’s run since we were supposed to have Thanksgiving dinner with my dad and step-mom around 5:00.
I had texted to let them know that we might be a few minutes late – not typically a big deal since they rarely start on time – and told them to go ahead and start without us if they needed to.
It was all good. We were at Lowe’s and had the tree loaded before 5:00. We’d have only been 15 minutes late, at the most – if the car had started. But no. My battery was dead. My dad had to come jump the battery off and follow us to the auto parts store because the car was still acting a little iffy. It took the guy at the auto parts store forever to change the battery.
We wound up being an hour and a half late to dinner. Sigh.
As for the tree, though, we were thrilled – especially Brian. It took all of 10 minutes to assemble it, as opposed to the 4 hours it usually takes to assemble the old tree and lights. We decorated it the next night and Josh and Megan were in rare form – they wanted me to take pictures of them in front of the new tree, Josh with his guitar and Megan in various gymnastics poses.
Speaking of gymnastics, it looks as though Megan is going to have her first competition in February. The emotions she’s feeling seem to be equal parts excitement and nervousness. It should be fun, though.
I would try to make it sound like we’ve been all productive and educational this week, but, well, there’s been lots of staying up late and sleeping in – for the kids, anyway. I have adjusted my wake time by a little less than an hour, trying to be up by 8:00, and I’ve been working on catching up blogging things.
On Wednesday, I recorded a podcast interview with a blog friend. I was really pretty nervous about it, even though it wasn’t live, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I’ll let you know once it’s available for you to hear. I think it’s going to be sometime in January.
We also went to see Big Hero 6 again. That is such a good movie. Have you seen it? The following is a clip of my absolute favorite part of the movie and the thing that Megan and I have been going around doing since the first time we saw the movie:
Did you see that I’m offering a free eBook to subscribers? Be sure to click the link to check it out if you missed it. I also have a giveaway going where you can win a $50 gift card to shop for a great art kid for your kids. It ends next Wednesday, so be sure to enter!
On the weight-loss front (you know, where I said I’d be updating, but keep forgetting?), it’s been a good week. I’ve walked/run three days this week, guilt-tripped by Megan who has started building up her running time. She walk/runs for about an hour every day and is doing great building her endurance. Both she and Josh are wanting to eat healthier, so that encourages me to do better.
Our eating habits have been better this week after a little too much feasting last week. I haven’t weighed in awhile, but right now my focus is on my eating habits and my activity level.
Finally, before I go, I was alerted this week to something y’all might be interested in. We sponsor a child through Compassion International – and, as an aside, have just started sponsoring a child in Honduras through another organization.
We’re really excited about the opportunity because we have some mission teams who go to Honduras from our church several times a year, so we can actually send her gifts with them and get updates from people who will see her in person. We could even meet her ourselves if we ever decide to go with one of the teams. Brianna is wanting to go, so she may get to meet the little girl at some point.
Anyway, back to the Compassion thing. The folks at Compassion offer a free kids’ magazine that is designed to help kids understand what life is like in developing countries. Compassion Explorer magazine puts a face on poverty in an age-appropriate and engaging way, and will help inspire kids to make a difference for others. If that sounds like something your family would enjoy, be sure to sign up. It’s free!
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
I love the photo of Josh and Megan playing around, it’s always lovely to see siblings getting on well!
Thanks for the magazine link, Kris! What a great idea to help our privileged children “get it”.
Love the photos with the new tree – but I have to point out that I see zero felines in this week’s pics 🙂
I thought about you when I was posting pictures. I’ll try to do better next week. 🙂
Your tree is beautiful, you pics look like so much fun! Thanks for hosting the weekly wrap-up!
We bought a pre-lit tree from Big Lots last year and it’s SO MUCH EASIER! Love the pics of the kids being goofy. 🙂
A Thanksgiving-Christmas break sounds so nice right now. We did the same last year and I loved it but couldn’t work it into the schedule this year.
Your kids look like they had a great time putting up the tree. Reminds me of my brothers and I growing up.
Thanks for the magazine link – that’s something that would be great for my daughter. Enjoy your break!
Nothing quite like a good pre-lit tree, it looks fabulous!
Sorry about the dead battery. I know how frustrating that can be! Your tree looks lovely and it looks like the kids had a great time decorating it! Have a great Christmas break!
We sponsor a child in Rwanda via Compassion, however, I had never heard of the magazine! I’m going to checking that out. 🙂
Our weather here has been nice as well. Not like Winter really at all. Your tree looks great 🙂