Signing Time

For the last two or three years that I have been reading mommy blogs I have occasionally read posts about how great the Signing Time DVDs are. I looked at their website, but the cost was too much for me, so I would forget about it until I read the next Signing Time praise post.

Last week I was at the library and I noticed that they had several Signing Time DVDs there. I don't know why it never occurred to me to look there, but I didn't. I checked out the first one for the children, hoping that it would capture Happy Boy's attention.

Not only did it capture Happy Boy's attention, but it also caught Reeda's. This is the first time that she has EVER been interested in watching any type of film and she loves it. I have been extremely impressed with her development in the short time that we have had the DVD from the library. She now has a slightly larger vocabulary, but the main improvement is that words that she said before are significantly more enunciated than before she watched Signing Time. I am excited to see how much of an improvement she has once she watches more of the series.

Hello Again

Wow, I've been gone a long time. I have been somewhat operating in a fog and have been almost completely out of it since I got back from vacation. It didn't help that our trip home was far worse than our trip there (I won't bore you with the details) and we suffered its effects for days, and then Happy Boy got croup.

Back to the here and now. We have been having some pretty inclement weather for this part of the country. My husband's school canceled classes two days in a row. I don't think that has happened before and I am not complaining. ;) We ended up having what people here call an ice storm, but what my husband says is "practically nothing."

Yesterday morning Happy Boy looked out the window and noticed our landing covered with ice and... hail? sleet? I don't know what it was. He said excitedly, "I see winter!" It is pretty sad that in the middle of January he has no idea that we are in winter. How could he when the month's high was 80? Every time we read a book about snow he says, "I like snow." Unfortunately for him, he has only experienced snow once in his life and was too young to remember it.

Have a great night!

Merry Christmas!

May all of you have a wonderful, holy, happy twelve days of Christmas (or what's left of it).

Our Christmas began with intense disappointment. We arrived at the airport on Christmas Eve, only to be told that they had already given our seats to standby passengers. We would have to come back on Christmas Day before seven a.m. to get on the standby list.

We attended Christmas Eve Mass with heavy hearts. I felt badly that this was supposed to be such a joyous occasion, but we were all so sad. We came home, ate Subway sandwiches and watched Wall*E, which we had received as a Christmas present in the mail that day. Since there was the potential of us spending the entire day at the airport waiting to get on a flight, I made muffins for us to eat for breakfast and corn dog muffins to each for lunch. Luckily all the ingredients were right on hand for me.

We arrived at the airport at six-thirty and checked in as standby passengers. I can't tell you how many prayers I said that we would get on the first flight of the day. Finally after everyone had boarded we were told that there were two seats on the plane. Happy Boy and I went ahead and boarded and my husband stayed behind with Reeda since her name was on his ticket as an infant. As were were about to get on the plane, Happy Boy noticed that my husband hadn't come, and said, "Papa! Where's Papa?" and started running back to get him. It hurt so much to tell him that Papa had to stay behind and wasn't going to be able to come with us. As we were finding our seats, I saw my husband come into the place after all, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

We ended up arriving at our destination about nineteen hours later than if we were able to get on our original flight. My mom had Christmas dinner all ready for us, and we opened stockings and presents on the second day of Christmas.

(Right now my husband and I are at a coffee shop while my mother watches the children. I am on our computer and my husband is using my mom's. A man looked over at us and at the man on a computer at the next table. He said to his wife, "What did people do before there were computers?" She replied, "I don't know. Watched TV, I guess." My husband said, "They did, indeed!")

Well, Okay Then

Me: Don't touch the Christmas tree.

Him: I wasn't. I was just touching the lights.

Change of Weather

After writing yesterday that the high was almost 80, I thought I would mention that this morning when I woke up it was only 27. The high is supposed to be 33. I am always amazed at how drastically the weather can change here. I have never seen anything like it anywhere else. A couple of years ago in January it was almost ninety, and two days later the temperature was in the twenties and we were having an ice storm.

Gaudete! An Advent Update

I can't believe that this is the third Sunday in Advent. Our Advent has been somewhat rocky this year. We have had two Jesse Tree ornaments broken (one of which was not fixable), two or three Advent calender pieces lost, the Advent calender taken down because it was being misused, one nativity piece lost, and so many nativity pieces used like baseball bats that it was finally taken away. Our tree has been up for ten days, but we still don't have any ornaments on it.

However, there have been many joys this Advent as well. Reeda now recognizes both the infant and adult images of Jesus which is a development I wasn't expecting for a while. Happy Boy is very excited any time we pass a nativity scene and points out each of the people or animals in it. Both of them sing the chorus to The Little Drummer Boy and Happy Boy knows most of the words.

Today we went to one of the two churches that I know if the diocese which has the communicants kneel. We have only been there two other times, but it is always a very reverent service. It is amazing how much a difference there is between a beautiful church and good hymns and what we normally experience during the nearby parish Masses.

When Mass was over we went to a nearby Christmas light event. Even though it was daylight, they were still having a lot of activities and things to see. The biggest draw for us though was free admission to the aquarium. The children had a blast looking at everything and fell asleep on the way home.

The temperature was pushing eighty so it was pretty warm walking around looking at everything, but that didn't seem to register for some people. I saw a couple families who were wearing hats, mittens and coats (and one of them was even down). I don't know what they were thinking dressed like that with such warm weather.

Preparations

Like many of you, I have started making preparations for Advent and Christmas. I enjoy making lists for things like this, but so far only have mental lists. I really enjoy the process of finding presents for my family, deciding how to celebrate the liturgical aspect of Advent, planning what foods to eat, and similar seasonal things. Things will be a little different this year because we will be out of town for Christmas, but that won't change most things.

Here is a list of things that need to be done that I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure it is not complete, but it will at least contain all the big stuff.

• Buy Christmas cards
• Address Christmas cards
• Write Christmas cards
• Buy the children's presents
• Buy my husband's presents
• Find out to whom we are giving on my husband's side
• Buy or make presents for those people
• Buy presents for my family members
• Wrap said presents
• Make photo albums for our parents of the grandchildren
• Find Christmas ornaments for the children
• Put up tree, wreath and other decorations
• Dig out the various Advent prayers and novenas we say
• Unpack Christmas books
• Do some Christmas Mosaic projects with Happy Boy
• Decided on appropriate Advent liturgical studies and celebrations
• Decided on which kinds of cookies and/or candy to make
• Buy Kool Aid
• Dye with Kool Aid the white playsilks my brother-in-law bought the children
• Make or buy appropriate foods for an airplane

It turns out to be a long list, but a lot of this will be pretty easy. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish most of this before Advent begins. I am really looking forward to doing with Happy Boy some of the preschool appropriate books from the Christmas Mosaic. Dyeing the playsilks sounds somewhat involved, but at the same time not difficult.

Are you doing anything different or interesting to prepare?