It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, I thought I would include a few pictures of the decorations around the house and the patio. Above is the tree in the living/family room -taken from the breakfast nook. (Forgive Dan's cap - he is always hanging it on the back of a chair!)

This is the entry way (my mom made the quilt wall hanging for me) ---------------------

And the patio. I don't know if you can tell the changes we have made to the patio since the pictures that I have posted int he past - but we have put a shelf up over in the corner that wasn't there before and added some decorations on it. A clock and some other things, but they are on the wall you can't see. I'll post some other pictures after Christmas when everything gets "back to normal".

Well, the first week after Thanksgiving break is over - now we have two more to go before we get our Christmas break! I can't wait. There is so much I need to do and I just don't seem to have any time at all. Between working all week (I leave for work at 7 in the morning and don't get home until between 4:30 and 5 in the afternoon) and coming home exhausted - to trying to help mom on the weekend (she is STILL unpacking boxes) I just seem to get anything done at home.

Yesterday Dan and I did decided to spend the day together and we went to Orlando and spent the day at Outdoor World Bass Pro Shop looking at boats (Dan's idea) and IKEA looking for inspiration (my idea). Actually, I wanted to look for a new slip cover for the couch that Crystal gave us, but I refuse to pay $150 for something was "just to make do". Guess I'm just too cheap. Anyway, the only thing we bought yesterday other than food was a set of plain white dishes - now I can get rid of the plates we have been using that we had in the 5th wheel. I wanted plain white dishes that I can dress up or down depending on the occasion with salad plates, place mats, and napkins. That was less than $50 and we spent less than $20 on three meals out - we hit a real deal at IKEA - buy one whole meal for $5.69 and get one free and by drinking water it cost us less than $6 for both of us to eat a meal with salad and bread. Not too bad! (Breakfast and dinner were from Mickey D's). We left the house around 10 in the morning and got home about 7:30. Of course, 4 hours of this was travel time - there and back.

Today, I have been trying to get the laundry done after spending the morning at mom's helping her some - we got a lot of thing rearranged in the garage - and I have to admit that she has made a lot of progress in unpacking boxes. Now, she is going to have to start making some decisions on what she is going to keep and what she is going to get rid of. She has brought so much stuff with her it's like trying to put 50 pounds of *hit in a 5 pound bag - if you know what I mean. I look at all the stuff and just shake my head. But, it's her stuff and she is the one that is going to have to make the decisions on what to keep and what to get rid of.

Crystal and Kim are taking one set of good china and Melissa and Justin are taking another set - that should help a little, but there is still so much STUFF! She is saying that she is going to get rid of a lot, but I will believe it when I see it gone. I just want to see her get the house in order so she will fell better about things. Right now, there is so much stuff sitting around and so many boxes that you just feel closed in. But. like I have already said, she has to decide what she is going to do with it all (including all the material and quilting stuff - don't get me started on that!)

I haven't done ANY Christmas shopping. I know what we are getting Crystal and Kim - I don't think that will be a problem. The kids in Lakeland always get cash (that's the way they want it). I think I know what we are getting mom - that just leaves Melissa and Justin and they haven't given us "the list". Until then, I'm not even going to attempt to buy them anything (they might just have cash too and then they can buy what they want, but I hate to do that. I just don't think it's Christmas unless you have something to open on Christmas morning!) You might ask, what about you and Dan. Well, I think I have already told you that we are taking a cruise in January and that is our Christmas present to each other, but we have decided that we will spend $50 each on each other and that's all - no credit cards are allowed! It should be fun, IF I can find the time to shop without Dan with me. We'll see.

Well, that has been pretty much my week - I do have all my lesson plans written for next two weeks and just about all the copies run that I will need. I have a few more things that I need to do to get through until Christmas break. Next week I'm going to start working on the lesson plans for the week AFTER Christmas break - I'm going to try and stay at least a week ahead of where we are. Then I also have to think about what the kids are going to do when I am gone for the week - I have told the Assistant Principal I would like the sub in the room to actually be able to teach so I don't have to leave "filler" work for them. We'll see who they get, but I'm not going to worry about it - if they can't get a "real" teacher for that week, at least I asked.

Well, I think I am going to close for this week. I hope you all have a great week and ---------------

I'll talk to you on Sunday!