The tradition here at Nicollet is for each family to host a home game meal for the boyz before the game. Last night it was our turn and both the Varsity and B-squad packed away spaghetti ~bread~chocolate cake & ice cream. The 20 boyz got in some games of pong and Wii before leaving for a VICTORY for both teams! The kids get 2 days off for the New Year then it's back for practice on Friday and Saturday.

Nicollet is hosting a boys holiday tournament and both Varsity and B-squad fell short to New Ulm Cathedral Monday night. The boyz will get another chance tonight Varsity hosting Madelia @ 6:30 and B-squad takes Springfield @8

It's raining, it's pouring...

And us ladies are baking.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, made by Cyan for her tea party with her friend Hannah tomorrow. We put a small layer of tiny chocolate chips on the bottom, then filled the cups half full with devils food cake mix, then added one cherry (from cherry pie filling) in the center of each cupcake. She did the whole thing herself (hense the cake mix). It is an experiment, but wow... they sure smell good.

And here is my brilliant moment in the day. There are 26 letters for this sweet gadget that Grandma sent Logan for Christmas. But I KNEW there would be letters all over my floor all the time if I put them all up. So I decided that I had to only let him have a few. I put his name over the top of the toy base and he has been pulling them down, pressing them into the toy to hear them sing, and putting them back 'where they go' all by himself. They get messed up and dropped, but as long as I put them back he at least tries to put them back above in order. It has been fun to watch him hearing all the letters of his name as well... "L says "l". "A says 'A' and 'a'."

Along with this, we have started singing the ABC song when we brush his teeth. It works well, not only for a timer but as a distraction. He is TERRIBLY impatient with teeth brushing and hair washing. He will put his hand on your hand as you are brushing and say "'top!" Sigh... smart kids are rough sometimes.

One more pheasant hunt... We watched them fly in....picked the Rooster with the longest tail feather........take aim.......bring him back to the truck.

Everyone should look that good in a Christmas bikini........

IF we all could be so happy with a new farmer and long horn steers

Nothing better than a new football jersey......

Who knew a snowmobile ski mask could bring the boys so much joy and yes these boyz double as terrorist at Grandma's house only....

The boyz are wrapping up Christmas this weekend( if the weather holds) they have received too many gifts to list them all! Tanner & Darin got some new snowmobile helmets~ Dalton got an orange ipod and Tabor got his class ring and some new Adidas shoes. A quick stop home to regroup and get the tree down then its off to the farm for some end of the season pheasant hunting.

Snow and ice

This is what happens when it snows, and then it melts a bit, and then you have a snowstorm. You end up with a ice layer. Dangerous for drivers. But very cool for homeschoolers. :)

There were actually two ice layers... one under the snow as well. This is the dangerous one for drivers and the reason that our winter weather becomes so dangerous so fast. Snow chains, tred tires, etc don't really do anything with the amount of slush and then ice that forms under it.

This means we have not been driving... and that means that we have been playing a whole bunch in the snow. ;)

Beautiful... isn't it?

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Footprints in snow

We have had a crazy fun time these last two days being snowed in. And we have learned a bunch as well.

Cat tracks:

Squirrel tracks:

Bird tracks:

And more bird tracks:

Did you notice the difference between the bird footprints? The first ones are 'walkers' (their feet are spread apart like they are walking). The walkers are ground feeders. The second picture is of 'hoppers' (their feet are side by side like they were hopping) and they are the tree feeders. Interesting huh?

We have also brought in two quarts of snow. One to melt measured in the jar to see if the snow takes up the same amount of space as the water the snow will turn into does. The other quart is being saved until we can head to a store with litmas paper. Alex wants to check if it is "acid rain snow".

And for what else we have done since being snowed in... check this out:

Snow Days

Raider Wrestlers

Our next meet is Monday in Mapleton.

Raider B squad team photo

Raiders pull off the sweep tonight against the rival Cleveland Clippers. Jv won in a rout 56 - 26 and the varsity hung on after a big half time lead to win 51 - 38. Basketball has wrapped up the pre-christmas schedule and next game will be the Nicollet Holiday tourney Dec 29th and 30th.

Alex

Alex is on a new plan. After weeks of some pretty serious issues (all on the normal 'hormonal teen stuff' scale, but effecting our lives), Don and I came up with a point system that seems to be working out well. For each job he does above and beyond his daily chores, Alex earns time for his own pursuits... like Gameboy time, X box time, and or movie time. We have separated each job into categories... small jobs earn 3 points (each point in 5 minutes, so 15 minutes) medium jobs are 30 minutes (6 points) and large jobs are 60 minutes (12 points). For each time he mouths back, or doesn't do what we tell him enough times to annoy, we start counting. 1, 2, 3.... etc... that is how many points he looses off of whatever he has earned (being 5 minutes of his own time each). On school days (we don't play games on school days) he can 'bank' points for the weekend, and on the weekend he can keep his points for playing games with friends or whatever.

Yeah. I set up my sons life like a video game. But let me tell you, it is WORKING. I have never had my patio so clean, or my sidewalk shoveled of snow so fast with such a willing worker. He is even going to iron my table napkins.

This plan also comes with learning the safe and easy way of doing chores however... he did clean the patio of ice and snow yesterday with large buckets of hot water. He would fill the bucket up, and take it outside. I was thinking that he was using it for the tougher spots... nope. That is how he did the entire job. Large buckets of hot water poured all over my cement patio. When I told him that the patio would be an ice rink by 5pm he said "but I used HOT water".

Awww... The joy of 12 year olds.

Elliott Boyz have a BIG weekend of wrestling!

Both Tanner and Dalton took 1st place at the Melrose tournament this past Saturday. Tanner had 2 pins. The first pin was less than 15 seconds and the second pin was in 30 seconds. Dalton also had 2 pins and 1 major decision in the 3rd period. They both wrestled on the JV squad and the next meet is December 22ND. Way to Go Guys! We are seeing a huge improvement over last year.

Doesn't he look ready for snow?

Bedecked in one of his sisters boots, Don's hat, and spider pj's... he is ready to go 'bye bye'... but first, he has to have a snack:

Alex's newest project:

He has been making origami for the last week pretty obsessively. It has been neat to watch him start out with the easy stuff, and slowly start to make things like these boxes that he has put all over the Christmas tree to things even more complicated (like a Ty-fighter).

It hasn't gotten over freezing in days now. This last Sunday it was about 22 degrees in the wind... which is where I was standing all day at work. It was bad. But I have since recovered (all but a bit of frost burn on my hand that is bugging me right now) and am ready for the next two days worth of snow. The weather forecast says 4 inches.

Bring it on.

I forgot one!!!

Steve reminded me about one of our favorite family traditions at Christmas....
Has anyone ever heard of aebelskivers? (I thought so) They are Danish pancakes that are basically little balls stuffed with jam, applesauce, cream cheese, whipcream, basically
anything yummy. I'll post a picture of the little darlings and the fun pan you have to use
when you make them. This is our Christmas Eve dinner! Steve's family grew up with this
tradition and it has carried on into ours...that's what I love about these fun traditions.
I'd be happy to share the recipe, but I'm not sure you can find the pan just anywhere..

More basketball........#43 is about to find out what its like to get in front of Tabor on the court! A face full of elbows and Bubba still got the pass off to Fisher for a bucket. Both Raider teams come up short for the night. The kids play again on Saturday night at 6:30 & 8:00p.m.

Raiders get a home opener WIN! Thursday night the boys swept Truman. Tonight we are off to Jaynesville for a 2 day tournament and the B squad will play at 8:00p.m.. Then Saturday we head to Prior Lake for full day of wrestling.

Winter Birthdays

Yesterday Cyan took a trip to a wonderland far away,

for the very special birthday of a certain sweet tinker fairy.

All of our fairy friends were there.

Some that had been stuck with a terrible illness and are gratefully in sweet recovery,

We bestowed gifts upon the beautiful fairy princess as she lounged in her wonderland,

And then shared in a chocolate fountain made by the beautiful fairy queen.

All were covered in chocolate goodness, and were happy.

And this was good.