Getting Ready for Christmas

Some of the kids started running out of money after buying Christmas gifts for everyone on their lists, so I told them they could earn five cents for each of the oranges they picked off the tree and threw over the back fence. Some explanation - the land back there is ours as well; we weren't tormenting the neighbors (at least not more than usual). And, the oranges never fall off the tree by themselves. We had some of last year's oranges that were ripe in May still on the tree next to this year's which are just turning from green to orange, so it was good to get rid of the old ones while they were still easily distinguished from the new. Rachel made $5 and Heather and Gwen made $2 each.

Sara has been such a huge help while she's been here. One of the things she did was take Rachel to pick up her new glasses so I could work on other stuff at home.

Somehow Stan got a hold of the camera and took a picture of me making my treat plate list and checking it twice.

Michael saw him with it, hollered, "Take picture me!!" and gave his cheesiest smile. And, if you are thinking it looks familiar, yes, that is Michael's Halloween costume, which we let him wear every time it is clean. He loved it so much, we thought, "What the hey," and kept it out for him instead of packing it away.

Sara's big project while she was here was to make a stocking for Michael to match the one Grandma Blanche made for me oh so many years ago and the ones Grandma Buppie and Grandpa Dale made for Stan, Summer, Rachael, Heather, Gwen, and Kelly. The girls wanted to help, so here she is teaching them how to embroider.

Summer and Rachel did the embroidery around the antlers, helped sew on sequins, and sewed the harness onto the stocking.

Heather did the embroidery on the harness and sewed the sequins onto the bells.

They ALMOST finished in time for Santa to come, but the stocking did have to be safety pinned together for the big night.