Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Enter the Holiday Spirit

Homeschool: I guess it doesn't come as much of a surprise that school kind of moved to the back-burner this week.  On Monday I had errands to run during the day, and on Tuesday I went to pick up Harrison in the afternoon, so those both wound up as half-days of school.  That means no Science or Social Studies.  On Wednesday we were home all day and did get a Science lesson in - but had to put the experiment we wanted to start on hold until I can find suitable plant life.  Late November isn't the best time of year to find small mint plants or something along that line - go figure.   And I'm not sure I want to sacrifice a nice Christmas cactus or miniature Norfolk pine, although to be honest - plants don't live long here anyway.  I am hopeless when it comes to houseplants, and even should they survive my neglect, the kitten would chew them to bits.  I'll keep looking, I'm sure I'll find a couple of little plants that will work and not cost much - I just need to stop at the right kind of store!  We did finish off another science experiment though - last week we sacrificed a perfectly good banana to science, cutting it into three pieces and introducing bakers yeast to it (for the bacteria).  Then each of the three pieces was sealed in a ziploc bag and we have been comparing the rate of decomposition under different conditions - cold and dark, warm and dark, and warm and light.  Now I think everyone understands why I ask them to put leftovers in the fridge right away.  8-/  Here's the yucky evidence:





In Other News:  My big errand on Monday was a drive to Hershey to pick up tickets for the hockey game we're going to this weekend.  I took Kennady with me for company, so we had to pay a visit to Hershey's Chocolate World for the 'tour' and purchase some 'supplies' there.  We spent a bit of time drooling over admiring the holiday house made entirely out of Hershey candies.







 Started Christmas decorating on Thursday, and this year's biggest challenge will be keeping the kitten out of the Christmas tree.  We put the tree up after dinner on Thursday, but didn't put any ornaments on it, and the cat has been up in that tree every time he gets a chance.  I'm not too sure how we're going to deal with that and not have a bunch of broken ornaments!

On the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, my husband's hockey buddies rent the ice rink for a big pick-up game, and following that, we celebrate Thanksgiving in the parking lot with a tailgate style potluck dinner.  It even has a name now, and I think this was the 6th Annual Gobble-in-the-Lot.  There is plenty of food and it's one of the few times I get a chance to meet with the other hockey wives.  Would be nice to get to know them better, but when to do that...  The other fun thing about Gobble-in-the-Lot is the award ceremony.  The first year the guys did this someone made a turkey out of crumpled tinfoil and awarded it to the game MVP, so that has become a tradition.  The previous year's winner makes the presentation of the Tin Foil Turkey to the MVP as chosen by the panel of all previous winners of the honor.  It's amazing the stuff these crazy canuck ex-pats come up with.

Harrison had most of the week off school, so he was able to work at the greenhouse this week.  Making a start on paying that student loan!

And we started making plans for Christmas - we will be going to Ontario to celebrate with my in-laws again this year.

Friday evening we went on a family outing - a park about an hour away with a Christmas light display.  The boys weren't enthused at first, but in the end everyone had a good time.  I didn't get great pictures, but here are a few that came out okay.







There was some discussion over whether this was just a generic sea monster, the Loch Ness monster, Puff the Magic Dragon...



In the conservatory/greenhouse, there was a train garden.  We also stopped to admire these huge flowers which open only at night, and smell heavenly.  I have no idea what kind they are, and don't want to do the research right now! ;-)



I would love to have lights like these - they are inside plastic roses.  I preferred the red ones, but the white ones provided a better picture.



On My Bookshelf:

The Prophet by Francine Rivers

Feed Your Family on $12 a Day by Rhonda Barfield

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aiden

Reviewed The Constant Princess at Kym's Bookcase.

Parting Shot:



Visit CanadaGirl for other wrap-ups!