Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone. 
Our first in Oklahoma. 
We were all a bit lonely, missing family and Our People, but we were able to have some friends from Jim's work that we knew from Maryland over for dinner and we made a nice day out of it. 
Presents helped, too.  ;)

I was able to get the Christmas pajamas finished in the nick of time.  I made the mistake of having them try them on before we went to Mass at 9pm.  We had to almost wrestle them to get back into regular clothes.  Benjamin ended up wearing a button down shirt, nice pants, a bow tie and sandals.  I didn't have the energy to ask him to change shoes.  

Benjamin really wanted a "boy doll".  He named his doll "Hamilton". 
Huh.  

Keeping with the name theme...the penguin's first name was "Pecker".  Thankfully, it was changed to "Macaroni". 
Phew.  

The stuffies were a big hit.  

As were the quilts.  The kids were astounded that each of them had one in their favorite color.  What an amazing gift.  

"I got a work shirt!"

Wonder who gets to put together all those Lego sets? 
Jim doesn't mind. 
Not.  At.  All.  

I took advantage of the quiet, mending jeans and finishing a dress for Caroline.  I can't remember the last day I spent in pajamas.  

At Sam's suggestion, as a birthday present to Jesus, we spent an hour at Adoration in the middle of the day.  Benjamin was tired from being up since 5 (!) and curled up in a ball in the back of the chapel, promptly falling asleep.  I had printed out coloring pages of the Joyful Mysteries for the kids to color and, surprisingly, the hour went very quickly.  It was lovely to spend time in prayer and in an packed chapel.  I love me some Eucharistic Adoration. 

We'll start up with school again tomorrow. 
I've already warned the kids to be prepared.  The past 4 weeks have been a struggle of getting into a routine, then being pushed out of it by a holiday.  That's really my fault for choosing to start homeschooling before Thanksgiving.  At this rate, even if we go straight through, without any breaks, we won't be finished with the school year before September.  Not sure why there is that self imposed summer deadline, when in reality, our lives will probably be much easier with summer school. 
Stay Tuned...

Christmas

Oh.  My Goodness. 
It's Christmas. 
Already. 

I'm saying that with the same kind of incredulity used when saying, "I live in Oklahoma."
Let it just sink in. 
Dang. 

We started homeschooling the oldest two kids right before Thanksgiving. 
It has been, and continues to be, an adjustment. 

I'm learning to let some things go and to hold tight to others. 
I learninng that my work is never done. 
I'm learning more about ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia than I never wanted to know. 
I'm learning that homeschooling is wonderful.
And that it freaking sucks, too. 

We've had to hit the re-set button so many times in the past six months. 
The transition has been difficult.  It would be so much worse if we did not have our routines, our Church and each other. 
So that's something. 
Right? 

We took a day off from regular school to take an adventure on Monday. 
Our lovely next door neighbor in Maryland loves The Pioneer Woman.  To the point where, when we told her we were moving out here, her first reply was, "Oh!  You can go to Pawhuska!  Lucky!"
I saw that that Ree Drummond was doing a book signing at The Mercantile and thought that Katie might like a new cookbook autographed by her favorite author. 
Off we went. 
The drive there was about two hours.  One hour directly north and the next directly east. 
The variation in the landscapes were striking. 
After starting out in dense fog, rolling hills and trees;

 we progressed to more traditional prairie scattered with trees, windmills and oil jacks. 

Then we hit Ponca City.  Oil Refineries.  Imagine how New Jersey smells and mix that with manure. 
How fortunate the speed limit was 70. 
Continuing on, it was Prairie. 
Prairie as in driving for 30 miles without seeing a tree or a house. 
Gorgeous. 

We were able to get to Pawhuska and shop at The Mercantile for a bit. 
Pawhuska is really the first small town we've seen in our adventures that is thriving.  The Pioneer Woman has done so much to revitalize her community - we will be heading back to explore Osage Nation.