It Warms My Heart!

I don't know how it got to be December, but here we are. We are easing our way into the holiday season. Thanks to our church's Advent making event last week, we do have an Advent wreath (or, as Ed fondly calls it, The Giant Shrub on the Table). Last night we watched A Christmas Story ("You'll shoot your eye out"), and Elf is on its way, so that part of Tradition is being maintained. This Sunday is the Community Christmas Concert , which is one of my very favorite traditions, and the kids are once again participating in our church's pageant, and their practice starts this Sunday as well. (Travis was requested to play Joseph, and the director later asked if Katie could be a shepherd. Quite a come-down from Mary, but I guess it is all part of the Circle of Life. I can only assume that they could not find any little boys willing to be Joseph.)

But, holiday things aside, what really warms my heart is this....

This week my daddy has been coming over in the afternoons and helping Travis with his physics! This was actually part of my homeschooling plan from the beginning, but we've finally reached the point where the math is difficult enough to baffle me and interest my dad. Travis is still not exactly what you'd call diligent, but he values my dad's good opinion and has been giving it some effort. And I'm getting better at it too (I've gotten to enjoy doing the sine, cosine, and tangent thingies!), which is a miracle!

And the cats...

So snugglesome!

 And then, of course, there are these goofy kids. They make me crazy sometimes, but I'm pretty fond of them!
I thought maybe I'd get a picture for our Christmas card tonight, but they were a little too silly!

And I meant to post a picture of Katie's carrot cake a week or so ago, but I forgot. 

She did the frosting, and I did the baking. Pretty, isn't it? I thought she did a nice job with the carrots. My brain was in Tahiti when I made the cake (from a mix), and I forgot to add anything interesting to it -- no chocolate or nuts or coconut -- so it was very dull, but Ed ate it up happily anyway. He's such a good fellow.