Breakfast

This morning when breakfast was finished cooking and the plates were fixed I called for the boys to come to the kitchen. Okay, I have to admit, what I said was, "Girley men, come here. Your breakfast is ready!" Benjamin and Nathaniel came promptly to get their plates. Samuel just sat in the living room on the love seat. When I asked why he did not come get his plate he responded, "I thought you were just talking to Benjamin." Guess we know how he feels about his older brother.

My Family's Creativity

I know you might be getting bored with my Jesse Tree posts. Bear with me, ok. I am really getting impressed with my family's ornaments. We read about Noah. For our ornament tonight we did not use a pattern or template. Just handed everyone some paper, popsicle sticks, and paint. Here are the results:


No two of them look the same.

Benjamin's favorite part of the story is the rainbow. He gets scared of rain very easily, so maybe the rainbow comforts him.


Samuel painted his black because Noah spread pitch over the ark. So he said the real ark should be "pitch dark".


Nathaniel made this, then made another ark that is three-dimensional.


This was mine. Yes, I know it is not the most Biblically accurate model ever made, but I was going for cuteness.


This is Mark's. I am so impressed. He has never really been the sit around and make things type of guy, but he has been really putting forth some effort for the tree. Check this out-it is 3-D, and he went more for accuracy than cuteness.


Samuel striking a pose by the tree.

OK, So Here's What Really Happened........

Like I said in my last post, which I posted yesterday morning, we always put out our Christmas decorations on the day after Thanksgiving. I also said that we were going to use our ginormous Christmas Tree as our Jesse Tree. Well, I did have good intentions. Things just did not happen that way. We had a few errands that needed doing yesterday. While out on our errands, in Birmingham, we decided to go to Gadsden. (Keep in mind that neither of those cities are very close to home) We ended up not getting home until very late. We got some good deals on books at a thrift store and found that the Gadsden Mall has a Books A Million. So the day was not a total bust. So, we put our stuff up today. After getting the tree up, the boys started looking through the ornaments. They would say, "Remember when I made this one?" or "Look, here's me as a Care Bear in a box!" or something that let us see that not putting up our Christmas ornaments was not going to work. So here is our Christmas tree:


We had to make a trip to Wal-Mart today (which was insane, more on that later) so we looked at trees for a small, cheap one. Bingo, 6ft Wesley Pine. (although I am not convinced that it is 6ft-I feel tall next to it in all my 5ft 2in glory.)

The reason going to Wal-Mart today was insane is this: Today was the biggest day of the year for many people in Alabama. The Iron Bowl. The day that Auburn and Alabama play each other in football. Almost everyone in Wal-Mart was showing their team colors. The place was packed with people getting their last-minute things for their Iron Bowl parties. And there was us getting a tree, coats, and paint. Our family always gets strange looks whenever we show "school spirit". You see, we are a house divided. 3 Bama fans verses 2 Auburn fans. For the past 6 years Benjamin and I have had bragging rights. Our team has won. (That would be Auburn in case you do not know) Our team has kind of stunk this year. So we knew going in that it might be bad. We had no idea that it would be 36 to zero bad. Poor Tommy Tuberville. As head coach of Auburn his job has been talked about this season. Never mind that he has been a winning coach every other season that he has been there. This year has been rough, so there are people shouting "Fire him!". Anyway, here are the guys enjoying some peanuts during the game:

How funny to see Benjamin not matching the rest of the crew ;}

So, after the game we finally got to start on our Jesse Tree. Mark read the story of creation to everyone and then the real fun began. We created ornaments out of salt dough.

Nathaniel made the earth, geographically correct, of course


Mark made a man (I am still in shock that he made an ornament. He is not usually the crafty kind of guy)


I made the earth, sun, and moon as seen from space


Benjamin made the sun (with sun spots and prominences)


Samuel made the earth ( I am not sure why the red lines. He said that it was supposed to be the equator and Hawaii. Maybe it is red because it's hot there?)


Altogether side by side

The Day After

Ahh.... it's THAT day again. The day after Thanksgiving. AKA Black Friday. Whatever thankfulness might have been offered to God yesterday has, for many people, been replaced with greed and a sense of "how can I get the best deal for myself while making sure sure I get exactly what I want". I went day after shopping a few times. NEVER again. People act like if they are not the ones to get the last nose hair trimmer there will never be another one in the world again. Crazy, I tell you.

Our tradition over the last several years is to do Christmas decorating the day after. We stay home, eat turkey leftovers, maybe watch Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer or something. One year I had the bright idea to make cookies. Not a good idea on the same day that we are decorating. Two big messes in one day is just toooooo much.

We are starting a new tradition this year. (well, new for us anyway) It is called a Jesse Tree. We are starting today with making new ornaments, each one representing a specific point from the Bible. Along with our ornament making we are going to have a Bible reading to explain why we are making what we are that day. Most people for a Jesse Tree use a small table-top tree, or a fabric banner, or a pole with branches. When I was first running this idea by Mark, I thought I had done a fairly good idea of describing what a Jesse Tree is. When I go the part of saying i did not what I would use as our "tree" he said "What do you mean? We've got a tree?" So then I had to go back and explain that the "Tree" is more of a vine, like a pole or something. So he has been making fun of me since then saying I want to do away with our tree and put up a Festivus Pole. (for those who are not familiar with Festivus, this is for you)

So we have had a good laugh. We are going to put up our "real Christmas tree" (which is made of plastic so that it is non-allergy producing) Even Mark is going to make an ornament each day. He is not usually the crafty type, but he is looking forward to this. Today we are talking about God creating the world. So we are going to create ornaments out of salt dough. Our tree is going to be very special this year.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We go to spend some time with family members the night before. Thanksgiving Day we stayed home. My kids (especially the younger two) acted like kids out of some dysfunctional family movie for most of the day. By the time supper rolled around, however, they were like perfect little sweethearts again. My guys are very ego-stroking people to cook for. "Mom, you make the best dressing ever. This turkey is delicious! Hon, your dressing gets better every year. MMMMMMmmmmmmm, mom, you're the BEST cook EVER!" He-he, even though I cooked turkey, I had a kitchen full of hams ;}

Snipers on the Loose

I have been a little slow in getting pictures posted of what we have been up to.

Secret Service Benj protecting George Washington. (he really wanted to draw President Benjamin I Gilliland, but we did not have any brown chalk)


Close-up of Georgie Boy


Secret Service Sam. He did not get the whole concept of secret service people not smiling.


I wish this pictured showed the one tooth he drew better. It was very important to Samuel that he drew Washington's one tooth.


Secret Service Nat protecting JFK. The reason that his favorite pres is JFK is because of how supportive he was to the space program.


He was not happy about his *masterpiece* being ruined. (granted he worked hard and made it looked good)


Ruh-roh Rhaggy!!! Sniper on the loose!!! (or schnapper as Samuel calls it)


Looks like the two Washingtons are well protected, but JFK is facing a Dallas repeat.

The camera batteries started dying, so I do not have pictures of Sniper 1 (aka Mark) getting attacked by Sniper 2 (me). (of course that is what he gets for being the super-nice guy who gives his wife the better of the two water guns )

Geeked out fun

Here are the pictures I promised earlier:


Benjamin dancing to a goofy song about the sun (the sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace, where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees...)


Watching the sun burn holes in leaves


Samuel's holey leaf


Benjamin was too impatient to use a green leaf. (Actually, he was pretty impatient on this. I did most of it.)


Good thing it didn't burn all the way through his LEG!!


What it looks like from the back side of the leaf


Nathaniel's leaf


Looking studly in their 3-D glasses


By the movie sign


My guys under the Saturn V. Samuel did not like the sun being in his face.


Mark made fun of me for laying on the sidewalk, but I thought looking up the rocket was neat.


I TOUCHED A ROCKET!!!!


Me too. Would you put me down now??


Saturn I (far left), Mercury Redstone (far right) Not sure about the two in between. (Nathaniel had to tell the two I do have labeled)


Base of the Saturn V


Middle of the Saturn V


Top of the Saturn V


A-12 SR-71 Blackbird (Thanks to Nathaniel again for the name)


Blackbird's missile


The boys standing in front of Blackie's missile, just to show how BIG this thing is


Stopping to smell the flowers


Welcome to the US Space and Rocket Center-Home of Space Camp


By the monument of Miss Baker- the first American animal to fly into space and return alive


See what I mean


Miss Baker gets a five-feet tall monument and her hubby Big George just gets a stone on the ground.


Mark and the boys at the Purple Heart Monument


Closer up of the monument.

We did not pay for a museum pass, because my undiagnosed ADD family (me being the main one) gets bored trying to do a movie and museum. We just wanted to see Fly Me To the Moon before they stop playing it. I was surprised to see that there were so many things available for us to see free.