{Tis the Season!}

 Now that we are all on the other side of COVID and back to normal...whatever "normal" is these days, I figured it was time to do some blogging before I print this out in book form to become our newest favorite reading material. 

Even in the midst of quarantine life, we still managed to get school done every day except one where I could just not function whatsoever.  We gave ourselves grace and made sure to get the core subjects completed...and even did a comprehensive mini unit on the US Government during what has surely been the most complex and confusing election in my lifetime.  Last week, we wrapped up our Government Unit and began Christmas School!  Something we all were looking forward to! Even the eldest was excited to get this unit rolling.  Having all four around the table at the same time all morning is truly the best! 

Our baking day this week consisted of making Gingerbread men.  A friend sent me a link to a gluten free gingerbread recipe and I subbed out substitutes for eggs and butter to make it friendly to all our diets.  It was a family affair! We got cookie cutters in the shapes of an angel, a deer, a snowflake and a tree.  We ran into a little hitch when I couldn't find my rolling pin...so an old tee ball bat sufficed just as well! 

Bear took some photos after he did his portion of the recipe, the girls were all hands on the entire time and Bubba had to help me with the bat.  Overall, it was super fun and our gingerbread turned out amazing!  My husband even warned me the evening prior that he does not like and will definitely not partake in any gingerbread men whatsoever...yet I caught him more than once sneaking some out of the pantry after the kids were in bed! It was truly worth the effort and definitely worth the memories! 

In addition to our baking day, we are daily doing a recitation from Luke 2: 1-20 and singing a carol a week memorizing all three verses of each {last week was "Away In a Manger"}, having a family lesson together and some sort of activity whether it's a random act of kindness, writing cards, watching a Christmas movie together and so much more.  This is exactly what we needed to slow down and enjoy this season! 

I tried my hand at something I'd actually use and hand stitched a little holly leaves on a tea towel.  I had just finished it and hung it up...but don't worry I did pull out the iron to get the wrinkles out! 

Panda took adding that honey very seriously! 

Bear was the photographer and we had just finished the tree the night before so he got one of it for us, too. 

I get a kick out of the girls faces here...they weren't so sure about a bat being used in their fancy cookies!