December 13

It was an unfortunate but necessary requirement that I sleep in this morning after my adventures yesterday. The gain in positive health benefits may have been lost in the stress caused by not really catching up with my day.

We did manage to sit down for school and learn about Christmas in 19th century America -- both in pioneer settings and in New York City. Oranges, peppermint sticks, and little candies played a large part in 19th century children's Christmases.

We left at noon for the library and made our way afterward to Writing Class and the biannual Author's Tea -- each student took a turn reading one of their pieces of writing while the rest of us ate snacks and drank tea. The Tea always ends with a hilarious mad libs rendition.

I left James for his science class and the younger kids and I went to drop something off at a friend's house and stayed long enough for a cup of tea and a good "catch-up." Braving the windy cold, we drove straight to Aldi followed by Meijer to get the week's groceries. We pulled in the driveway close to 5 p.m. and the kids started the job of unloading the car. The most tedious part of food shopping is putting all the food away at home when you thought you'd finished all the work. Groceries away, dessert made, dinner on the table and then we were out the door to the dessert get-together for our Small Group Bible Study.

And now it's time to sit down and figure out just what to get the kids for Christmas. It's a little late (both on the clock and on the calendar) but we better get this settled soon so we'll have something here in time for Christmas!