More NWT - Dec. 29

Here are the people photos of our NWT adventure and those from 2005. That was the year Owen and I met and the last time we were at NorthWest Trek.

Northwest Trek - Dec 29

Last Christmas I bought a NWT basket for Owen that included 4 admission tickets, and $50 gift card, a coffee mug, stuffed moose, and a NWT ornament. We needed to use the admission tickets before the end of the year so today was the day. It's been raining all week but we got lucky with the weather and it didn't start pouring until we were at the end of our stay in the gift shop. It wasn't too crowded and we saw quite a variety of animals on the tram tour. We ate lunch in the cafe then went to use up our gift card. Fortunately, all the merchandise was 75% off so we spent a long time trying to find enough to use up the $50. We came home with two heavy jackets, three fleece jackets, a fleece vest, a book, earrings, and many little trinkets. Owen spent $2 out of pocket for the two bags full of NWT stuff! Pretty amazing.

Christmas Morning - Dec. 25

We had a very nice Christmas morning. After opening up our stockings and Santa gifts, Nicholas went over to Heather's for a bit, then we opened up our gifts to each other. Here are a bunch of pictures. The last huge present was a family gift of a 300 CD holder/player. Topaz and Zoey joined in the fun.

Christmas Eve - Dec. 24

Owen's family came up for festivities. We had Papa Murphy's pizza, my mandarin orange salad, delicious fruit salad and wonderful pecan pull-aparts (my favorite!). Nicholas had to work and Alexa couldn't make it. I had been to urgent care in the morning and was able to get antibiotics for an ear infection. I was sure glad that they and the pharmacy were open today.





























Everyone enjoyed the get together...and these are my new slippers. :)

A Bookish Survey - Dec. 15

A librarian blogger invited others to paricipate in a book survey posting. If you'd like to participate, feel free to answer the questions in the comments or on your own blog, please do!

The book I’m currently reading: He Who Fears the Wolf by Karen Fossum





















The last book I finished: Lousy, Rotten, Stinkin’ Grapes by Barry Moser (to my class…they loved it!) and The Miles Between by Mary Pearson for myself.













The next book I want to read: Tithe by Holly Black (although it’s one of 406 to read on my Shelfari)







The last book I bought: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer















The last book I was given: A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

Matthew's Going to State! - Dec. 10

Matthew entered the PTA's Reflection contest with two photography projects. Both were selected to go to the state level. The PTA person there said that the photography judge was very impressed with his work. Yea, Matthew!

The theme this year was "Diversity means..."

For this one, he linked it "diversity" saying that he looks at things from a different perspective and uses his imagination...or something like that.

He took this one in my classroom at the beginning of the year when he was doing a project on hands. He cropped it for this project.

We Have Lights! - Dec. 6

The boys have been working on getting the lights up. Nicholas has made many trips to the store to get just the right things to make the lights work. This is the first year we have had lights on the upper part of the house. They both gave me a heart attack seeing them up on the STEEP roof.

Volunteering - Dec. 3

Matthew volunteered at the UP Christmas Tree Lighting taking Santa photos with Key Club. He did this last year, too. The president of the UP Kiwanis asked if I was Matthew's mom since I was taking his picture. He told me how much he appreciates the time Matthew and Nicholas give to volunteering and what good workers they are and how proud he is of them. It almost made me cry!

Happy Birthday to Papa - Dec. 2

Papa's birthday is today. We had a great dinner at Lieu's and they gave us some lychee fruit for dessert in honor of his birthday...too bad he doesn't like it.

The red dirt "Older Than Dirt" shirt came from Sedona and I found a Dean Koontz book about his dogs that I thought Papa would enjoy.