Weekly Wrap UP -- 12/6/19 Thanksgiving Break Activities

We had a lovely week off and spent time with my Mom who came to visit.  My mom baked all of the  Thanksgiving pies:)  This is the first holiday since my father passed earlier this year and it was a hard time for us all.

The apple pie was eaten before Thanksgiving, my husband loves my Mom's apple pies and just couldn't wait:)

The dog Luna, just loves my Mother and ignores me completely when she is here

probably because my Mom gives her table scraps and too many treats

My Mom even bought Luna a winter coat.  At first she wasn't too  thrilled but now she seems to tolerate the coat being put on especially on cold days.

My computer is getting slow and it was time for an upgrade.  After much discussion my husband decided to build a computer with MarioFan.  We are normally an Apple computer family but since MarioFan is showing signs of wanting to go into some type of computer job we felt he needed to learn more of the windows programming.

My husband bought all the supplies--he has built computers in the past.  Both of them watch you tube videos  to see how to do it.

The two of them spent two days building the computer together

It works!  So now MarioFan's computer will become mine as I prefer Apple computers.  MarioFan is quite excited about this new set up as this computer will have more gaming capabilities:)

 We all went to the art museum in the city where they were holding a Dutch masters exhibit.  They didn't have my favorite dutch painter, Vermeer but they did have most of the others.  Here are a few of my favorites.

This one is painted by one of the few women painters of that era, I forgot to write down the name

They had several Rembrambt's

This one was amazing as you could almost feel  and see the hairs on every animal.  

Since Firedrake is gradating this year, I thought I would go through all of the paper work I have been saving since we started homeschooling 11 years ago and sort though what to keep and what to toss.

Over the years I have kept every grade in an expandable folder.  So I had 11 of them to go through.  

I am so glad my mother was there to help me sort through what to keep and what to toss.  It was fun to look back on all the activities Firedrake has done.  It is amazing what we have covered.

Everything is placed into a single box and I can now throw out the rest of the papers.  I have cleared out one corner of the school room, yay!!!  I still have to go through all the lap books she has done and add them to the box and that will clear out a book shelf.

 I loved looking back and re reading some of her work.  So many memories.  I remember feeling like I wasn't doing all the right things, but looking back I did so much more than just enough.  I had thought to turn it into a book of some sort but I think that I still saved too much.  I may have to have another purge but at a later date.  Or I may just give Firedrake this box and let her decide what she wants to do with it.

Lastly, we decorated the Christmas Tree.  My mother isn't sure if she will put up a tree in her house this year, so I wanted to make sure the tree was up so she could enjoy ours.  She did enjoy looking at the tree with us in the evenings.

Every year I buy a special Christmas ornament for the kids that represents something special to them.  Sometimes the kids pick out their own ornaments if they happen to be with me and we see a Christmas shop.  This year they weren't so I pick out the ornament.  The ornament is always dated and the kids love going though the previous Christmas ornaments they have received.  Their ornaments are the first thing to be hung on the tree every year.  My plan is for when they move out and on their first Christmas I will gift them with their box of Christmas ornaments.

I picked a graduation ornament for Firedrake.  Even though she isn't officially graduating  until June, because she is pretty much on her own with school now that she is enrolled at the local community college.

Mario Fan loves the Cardinals baseball team so I found this ornament for him.  

That was our week in a nutshell.  lots done but centered more on family time.  Now it is back to school for a few weeks before taking time off for Christmas.