Merry Christmas!

Well 2014 is drawing to a close and we're mostly recovered from Christmas. This year the kids got an entire two weeks off from school so it feels like we've been on "vacation" forever. Amy in particular I think had a great Christmas – she got the crossbow she wanted (and in the process, let me know that she doesn't believe in Santa any more) and I think her favorite gift was some scrap fabric that her Grandma Lois gave her. She took a short sewing class a few days before Christmas and is very interested in sewing. This past Sunday she and Lois put together a little quilt pillow which we were to close up and finish...but then the dog then partially pulled the stuffing out of it. It may need more repair than I'm capable of! She got a million pads of drawing paper and lots of new pens and pencils. I know the kids get way too much stuff for holidays, it's hard to tone it down. Today we're six days past Christmas and some of their gifts are completely untouched still.

Reed really didn't ask for much for Christmas – he got everything he asked for for his birthday, and couldn't come up with more ideas of things he wanted for Christmas. Tough situation. He asked for this ANKI race track thing where you control the car with your iTouch...and he played with it that day and maybe one other time and I won't be surprised if it doesn't come out of the box again. The really big gift of the year for him came from a big group of family (Sharps/Borcherdings, Poppy, Conners, Kippers and Stevie/Nikki) since it was so expensive...the Simpsons Lego house. It's so cool! He's been working on it for a few days and still isn't finished. Unfortunately he hit a roadblock not being able to find a certain piece (one we have tons of if he'd search the gigantic box of random Legos that we have) and gave up for now. Stick-to-it-iveness is something our boy perhaps needs to work on.

All in all a great holiday. Lots of family time, we stayed too busy probably but it's hard not to. Hopefully lots of great memories made.

GeoBee

Imagine my surprise to read today's daily announcements for Lunsford, which they do over the loudspeaker at school and then post online...

December 19th
The semi-final round of the Lunsford Geography Bee is complete and the field has been narrowed down. Classroom winners took a written test and the top scorers get to move on to the school bee in January.
This year's geography bee finalists are:

• From 6th Grade: Ashwin U, Reed L, Ankit K, Nathan L, Tejarsh S, and Justin A

• From 7th Grade: Paul J, Nicolas C, and Alexandra H

• From 8th Grade: Gabriel Y, Nikhil P, and Arnav K

Well I guess we have a GeoBee coming up! Way to go, Reed-o!

Amy, her ponies, and drawing

This is a drawing Amy did that we are turning into her 2014 ornament.
Can't wait for it to arrive!

Amy loves My Little Pony. Really loves it. LOVES. IT. Loves the show, the movies, the characters, the soundtracks. She is currently in an "obsessed" phase, I'd say - she talks about it a LOT. But, I think sometimes she's a little embarrassed to still like them, since other girls tell her it's "for babies." So she semi-secretly continues her fascination with MLP (she calls it "MLP" now), sharing it with people who she feels safe to share it with. Lately she draws them incessantly, including the "Equestria Girls" version where the ponies are sort of people...some kind of pony/person hybrid, I don't know, it's really confusing.

Another one of her MLP masterpieces.

Amy has always been a prolific artist, ever since she was first old enough to draw. She could go through reams of paper in a heartbeat, and in fact right now we have stacks and stacks of her artwork on the new bookcase in the kids' art room/computer area. I have to confess to sometimes culling the pile when she's not paying attention (the term 'hoarder' comes to mind).

Her drawing gets better and better. And this isn't even counting what she draws on the computer, which is terrific too. Drawing is a calming activity for her, I'm glad she has that outlet and I hope she always keeps it up.

A drawing Amy did as part of an after-school art class recently.
They were assigned to draw a shipping boat - beautiful!