Twas the Night Before Christmas...

...and everyone is at church or work, so I'm updating my blog before they all get home.

Every fourth Sunday Jessica and I have nursery duty at church. I'd really expected it to be much more crowded on Christmas Sunday, but thankfully it was calm. Our biggest crier learned to walk, and that means he moved up to the next room. We have crawlers.

Jessica had to work until 6:00. I watched Taken 2 while I waited for her to get off.  We came home and made butter beer. Basically it's a cream soda (or root beer butterscotch float)

1 quart vanilla ice cream 
1/4 cup butterscotch syrup 
32 oz root beer 

Place 4 (16-ounce) glasses in freezer and chill for at least 20 minutes

Mix ice cream, butterscotch and soda in a blender until combined. (We added a little vanilla extract and also doubled the recipe)

Divide between the frosted glasses

I did not get pictures of every one because some people drank them before I got pictures.

Then we all watched Polar Express.

We had orange frosted rolls and cinnamon rolls too.

Then we watched Scrooge, the musical, from 1970. We didn't know what to expect, but everyone really liked it.

Rick's parents sent money for Christmas so we decided to go to Genghis Grill rather than buy presents. Sometimes shared experiences are the best presents.

We had fun choosing vegetables, meats, spices and sauce. We were very good at packing our bowls way out the top : )

A worker was helping her and tried to send her to have hers cooked when the bowl was barely half full. Yeah, right. Not for what you pay!

I don't really like pepperoni but added it to the top to prove I could get more on it.

We took the bowls up for the food to be cooked. Some of the kids noticed you could add eggs and picked up raw eggs to be cooked with theirs.

That's mine he's just adding.

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Cassel

Tonight we will see what is in the stockings and the kids will hand out the gifts they've bought (after we watch the Nativity story). Then tomorrow (Christmas), we will open the rest. So now I am just waiting for everyone to get home.  

Smoothies and Movies

Vacation has begun! I took the twins out for tacos for lunch yesterday. Then Tyler, Jessica , Jasmine and I went to check out the stuff downtown. We decided against staying and went to see Rise of the Guardian instead.

Teacher gifts

Putting out reindeer food.

Kiara isn't sure she wants to wear her sweater.

Yep, I know you've heard too much about my new blender already. But I have to show what we did today. Instead of making all the smoothies together, each person chose a yogurt flavor, a type of juice, a fruit and added half a banana. I had strawberry shortcake yogurt, 1/2 c apple juice, 1/2 banana and almost a cup of strawberries. I actually don't like yogurt, but it's not bad mixed with the other stuff. We also add flax seeds and wheat germ.

Jessica had strawberry shortcake yogurt, 1/2 c guava/pineapple juice, 1/2 banana and 1/2 c blueberries.

Rick had blueberry yogurt, 1/2 c apple juice, 1/2 banana, 1/2 c blackberries

Adam had key lime yogurt, 1/2 c orange juice, 1/2 banana, 1/2 c strawberries

Jasmine had raspberry yogurt, 1/2 c apple juice, 1/2 banana,  1/2 blueberries

Tyler had lemon meringue pie yogurt, 1/2 c orange juice,  1/2 banana,  and a mixture or blackberries, blue berries, and mixed fruit that had strawberries, peaches, grapes and melons

Kayla had banana cream pie, 1/2 c orange juice, 1/2 banana, 1/2 c strawberries

I bought everyone new cups this week at Walmart for .87. Kayla has Disney Princess, Kaleb has Batman,  Jasmine and Adam both have Spiderman, Rick has Avengers, Tyler has Green Lantern and Jessica has Brave. I don't have one. I will survive.

Kaleb had key lime yogurt, 1/2 c apple juice, 1/2 banana, 1/2 c peaches

I have a few ideas to try over vacation that include cranberry concentrate and grape concentrate. I wonder if I can add Mountain Dew just to liven them up?

Today we are watching movies--Santa Paws 1 and the Christmas Story (which was recommended by a couple of you). Jessica and Adam are at work. Jessica has almost 40 hours this next week. Adam doesn't have his schedule yet.

Tomorrow Jessica and I have nursery duty. Later we are watching Polar Express and making Butter Beer instead of hot chocolate.

Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Basketball, Cowboys and Shakes

Jasmine had her second game. It was crazy intense. Her coach got a technical foul for  loudly disagreeing with a call. The refs were doing their best to call fairly for each team.

We played a fairly rough, competitive inter city team.

Loving the new blender. Made strawberry shakes.

No Tyler, the blender is NOT your personal cup.

There's a Salvage Santa here who takes used toys and bike and fixes them up, then distributes them to the needy. We had two large black trash bags full of board games in good condition, toys and like new stuffed animals.

We also sent two girls' bikes and a trike.

Jasmine had a western Christmas party at church. Back forever ago,  we were living in SD and when my mom visited, we went to a western breakfast.  My mom made this kind of shirt for me, Rick, Ashley, Tyler and Jessica. This is my mom's full outfit that Jasmine is wearing.

 Here were are. Aren't Tyler and Jessica little?

Here's my mom wearing the same outfit Jasmine is wearing.

Pumpkin pudding with whipped cream.

Jasmine with friends at the youth group party.

Jasmine with her youth leader. We love him.

Adam getting ready for his work Christmas party. He wore a red South Pole thermal shirt over this.

Jasmine had her annual orthopedic appointment in Pensacola Thursday, so she had to be out the door early.

This is Jasmine's right foot and an x-ray of it taken today. The white band on the big toe is arthritis.

The scar by the joined little toe is where the surgeon moved those toes over from the side of her foot.

The first two surgeons were just going to cut them off, saying she would be able to walk without them.

Really? Is that what you'd do if it was YOUR daughter? (My question to them.) I got labeled as hard to deal with due to my "stubbornness is accepting care for my foster child." Really? Because I didn't want them to just hack off the toes without trying to move them?

Well, I'm thankful that the second doctor at the second hospital (children's hospital in Augusta, GA) was willing not only to work with me but to try and move the toes. And he succeeded.

I think I'm going to show this photo to each future coach she has just so we don't have the problem we had with the basketball coach not believing her when she said she had pain in her foot. We did not get an answer about why she has ankle pain when she runs. They did a full length x-ray and her left leg is 1.69 cm shorter than the right.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before vacation!!! Yay. There are activities downtown in the "historic section" tomorrow night, and I hope at least some of the kids will be going. If it pours rain like it did today, no one will be going! In that case, we'll make popcorn and watch Christmas movies. We've only had time to watch two short ones so far. What movies have you watched this week?