I LOVE Christmas season!

Is there anything better on a cold day than being snuggled under a blanket with a warm cup of hot chocolate in your new flannel Christmas pajamas, being lazy and watching TV?

T minus 7 working days until I am off for 2 weeks!!! The first weekend of our vacation we are going to Taos, NM to SKI. Well, some of us will be doing more skiing than others. Others of us will be doing the lazy routine as described above in a resort instead of on her own couch, plus a little spa pampering! The best part about that is that we are going with my parents and brother in their van. Yeah! I love road trips, but road trips with your family are even better! I haven't taken a family vacation (with my own family) since I was 17!!

Then we will be in Tulsa with Ben's family, telling the same old stories, laughing and gorging ourselves on his mom's great cooking. The kids will be running around, playing with each other, (sigh) I LOVE Christmas!!

I love this time of year in the schools, too. I am doing my best to recapture the excitement of the season in my home with my own small group, but it is so neat to walk the halls in a real school and see all the seasonal things the kids have been working on. You can see how excited the kids are for the class Christmas parties and their long break. I miss being in a public school during this time of year.

But we have fun things in store next week (see my last blog), and we have been doing fun things this week, too. We have been learning about Hanukkah (and Kwanzaa starting tomorrow). Today we read a fun book and then made latkes, which are potato pancakes. At first the kids were all determined that they wouldn't like them, but I told them they had to try at least one bite, and then if they didn't like it, they could throw the rest away. I think all but 2 ate every bit. We even tried it with the traditional applesauce and sour cream, and they ate that, too! hahaha, it just further proves what I tell them all the time: We don't eat yucky food at Mrs. Colleen's house! Everything is good if you'll just give it a chance. ;) They have started telling each other that when one of them is complaining about not liking something I am serving for snack. Kids are so fun!

Update: A. has been in the hospital since before Thanksgiving with a low white blood cell count and then an infection in her central line where her food goes into her stomach. She'll be back tomorrow and Friday, then she'll have to go through another week of chemo. Her mom thought the last one was the end, but then found out she had one more round. After her chemo, they'll test everything again, and hopefully, starting the new year, she'll have a clean bill of health!