There is not much story about this picture. It just made me laugh when I found it as I was cleaning up breakfast after the kids left for school. Hello?

Anyhow, this week was the week of Mariah’s birthday! She turned ten years old and entered double-digits. Holy Cow!

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik’s for a family party as usual. My kids love that! Grandma and Grandpa always make a special meal and decorate with balloons and, of course, we have cake! We had great fun watching Mariah open her presents.

And after many efforts to light and then more efforts to blow out the candles, our party was complete!

What a beautiful girl, huh? She sure is getting grown up!

We had more basketball practices this week and music lessons. Bethany, Benjamin, and I have a sweet time together when everyone else is gone to school or work. Already Bethany tries to involve Ben in her play. The other day, Ben took a long morning nap. When he woke up, Beth exclaimed with glee, “Ben! You’re back!” Now that Kevin is working closer to home, he’s been able to come home for lunch a couple of times. The first time, Beth ran into the kitchen before me and said, “Dad! You’re home!” Then I walked in and she pointed to me and said, “This is my friend, Mommy!” What an introduction, huh? This week when Dad came for lunch, she greeted her dad with great enthusiasm again and Kevin asked, “How are you?” To Beth, this must have sounded like, “Who are you?” Because she bowed to her father and said, “I Princess Bethany!” She is so funny!

I’ve also been trying to work on Christmas every spare moment I get. I just don’t get a lot of spare moments!

To get us firmly in the Christmas spirit, Savannah had her Christmas Choral concert on Friday. She was simply radiant. That young woman sure loves to sing!

She sang and danced and she was even chosen to recite a special poem for the performance. She did fabulous. It was so fun to watch her! I will include some videos at the end of the blog if you are interested in getting a feel for the night!

On Saturday, Mariah had her “Big Ten” birthday party. We always try to do something extra special for the tenth birthday party. There were just two friends that Mariah wanted to hang out with on her special day, so we partied it up, together. First, we went to see Tangled, the new Disney movie about Rapunzel, in 3D! It was so exciting!

Great movie, by the way! I really liked it! (So did the girls!)

After the show, we went to the Brick Oven for pizza and ice cream and to open presents!

It was a fabulous ladies day out! Mariah and her friends had a great time! And so did I!

Back on the home front, Kevin had started putting lights up, but changed focus when Jim came over to help him with the temperamental outlets in our bedroom. Savannah saw the ladder and recognized an opportunity . . .

Sarah saw Savannah and the ladder and also recognized an opportunity . . .

I also saw an opportunity and ran for my camera!

I was back inside for several minutes before I realized that although Sarah had come back inside the house, she had not put the ladder back up. That sweet little girl has a definite sneaky streak!

Today (Sunday) we finally decorated our Christmas tree. Kevin bought it Friday night, but we just did not have time to decorate it until today. We’ve been kind of redecorating and moving furniture around. After a month of checking the classifieds almost daily, I found what I wanted for the right price and got my Christmas early. We bought a round table and four chairs for our front room so we can play games, do puzzles, complete homework, or hold study groups (wishful thinking!). It is going to be great!!!!!! I love it. Thank you, Santa!

Anyway, we had great fun decorating the Christmas tree! Our back room is still in a bit of disarray, but it is getting there!

We love Christmas!!!! Happy Holidays!

Savannah is front row, fourth from the left: