I Made A Necklace All By Myself!!

Helena is so proud of this little necklace that she made. She strung all the beads onto the wire and I just tied off the ends for her.

Learning About Fish

On our recent trip to NJ/PA to visit family we went to an aquarium. Helena loved seeing all the various fish swimming around, spent time talking to them and I think especially liked petting the sharks - once she got brave enough. To me, this is homeschooling: life and learning all mixed together and indistinguishable.

I'm Learning All About Art

This weekend we brought Helena to the Philadelpha Museum of Art while visiting with family. How fun it was for her to see some of the actual real life paintings that she's familiar with from some of her books.

Reading the Christmas Story

In Which More Little House People Arrive...

and get acquainted and in which the mysterious package under the tree that says "To Ma and Pa from Mommy and Daddy" which has been eating at Helena's curiousity for a few days finally gets to be opened.

Charlotte

A day or so before Christmas, I read to Helena a Little House Christmas story in which Laura gets a ragdoll and names it Charlotte. "If I get a new dolly for Christmas I am going to name her Charlotte" Helena declared.

Helena liked Charlotte, but I got nowhere near the reaction Daddy did with his house despite the hours upon hours of labor I put into her trying to figure out with my limited sewing skills what in the world I was doing lol. For some reason Helena has to "get used to" new dolls as she tells me. Now she and Charlotte play together a lot, but she was a bit unsure about her for some reason at first. Silly girl! She was never unsure about the one in the store that cost $120 that I copied in making this one!

Many thanks to Grammy for helping me do the head, embroidering the face and re-attaching the neck. There would be no Charlotte without you! :) She owes her "life" to you!

Oh, the picture of Daddy is him trying to be enthusiastic over Charlotte for me since Helena really wasn't lol ! The little goof!

More Stocking Stuffers

Not only a candy cane, but a maple candy Santa, a honey stick and a little piece of dark chocolate. Now the funny thing is that most of the Santa and candy cane are still not eaten and the honey stick hasn't been opened either .

I love the picture of Helena and Daddy applying their new lip balms! Haha! Helena's face has been shiny ever since :)

Helena's Favorite Christmas Gift

Whatever could that mysterious thing covered in playsilks beneath the tree be??? Helena gasped with excitement. "It's a dollhouse! Thank you Daddy! I've been wanting one of those for *years*!!" she declared as she ran to hug him. She knew Daddy was making her something, but she had no idea what. This was definitely her favorite present!! She's played with it endlessly along with the barn he made her last year. Sometimes the family all sleep in the loft in the barn because the house is too full of the little accessories all spread out.

Each of the Little House dolls she's given a different voice and it's so fun to hear and watch her play with them! Ma will say "Laura, go help your Pa in the barn now" to which she'll reply "Aw, ma, can't I help you here in the house?"
"If you want to" says Ma and then Laura asks "Can I go upstairs and wake up Baby Carrie".
"Only if she wants to get up" says Ma, at which Laura "climbs" up practically shouting "Baby Carrie! Do you want to get up now?"

Helena is "frilled" that she can make the Ma doll hold Baby Carrie and that the bucket fits under her wooden cow so she can sit Pa next to it to "milk". Then Laura brings the milk to Ma to churn into butter. So cute!!

Miscellaneous Christmas

Here's a better shot of the Nativity - or "activity" as Helena likes to call it. Grammy says it was the most important "Activity" in the world, so it's a fitting description!

I just love the dog begging for more presents - haha!

And Helena got her first taste of a candy cane this year, but being as I am, it had to be an organic one with no artificial flavors or colors. :)

Stockings

Stockings have been a family tradition mommy's whole life. They are always homemade (except for Starbuck's) and filled with miscellaneous little goodies often of a practical nature such as lip balm, small toys, nice scented soap and always, always, always a new toothbrush! Daddy kept laughing at our toothbrush tradition in our early years together til the whole family ganged up and bought him packages of cheap toothbrushes. I think some got donated, but i still have a few fresh ones laying around for cleaning.

I made Helena's stocking for her and yes, it did come out a bit bigger than I had intended. It's never filled!

Helena had to get the doggie started on his stocking before venturing into hers. I love that's she's so unselfish! Yes, Starbuck does know how to open presents, discarding the paper. It's quite funny. So much so that we had to stop Helena from letting the dog open her presents (tho later she wanted to open one of his.)

The little Raggedy Ann I found in an antique shop for $5. It's the same pattern my mom used to make our Raggedys when I and my sisters were little. Helena just loves the little one from the pattern and the only little one in our family belongs at Grammy's house. She's "frilled" as she'd put it, to have one of her own now!

The Nativity

Here's Helena coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. The first matter of importance to her was seeing if Mary and Joseph had arrived in Bethlehem and if Baby Jesus had been born. She was delighted to look up and see the angels and the star too!! My mommy heart was warmed that she was more interested in the spiritual meaning of Christmas than even in all those presents under the tree!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition includes a nice "snacky" meal (this year it was homemade spinach dip, chips, homemade bacon cheese quesadillas, and homemade chex mix). Then we each get to open one small gift, after which we attend a candlelight Christmas Eve church service. Helena's gift was a little "Laura" doll as in Laura from Little House on the Prairie. For Christmas she got the rest of the family and a dollhouse that Daddy made her along with a package of "pioneer" accessories like a butter churn, washboard, bags of flour and sugar, baskets and more. I love the picture of her gazing into the advent candles, all excited that 4 of them are lit and the next day would be Christmas and time to light the tree as well!