Ornament Party

Ornament Party
It's time once again for my annual ornament party!  Here's how the day went.... 

Drive the kids to SVS (the school they attend part time) and find a "designated parent".  Parents are required to be on campus with their children unless you find someone to sub for you.  Drop Miriam off for a play date.  Home to clean up.  The house is silent, it's just Jacob (in his room) and me.  I realize that most stay-at-home moms with children the ages of mine live this life every day.  I'm certain they don't appreciate it like I did.

                                        Here's the island after the morning routine. 
                                                      Time to dig out. 

Put on my new Christmas apron courtesy of Crafty Maiden and blast the Christmas music.  I actually got to enjoy some music! With the kids gone, the music does not have to compete with their noise.  On a whim, check amazon and shout for joy that Transiberian Orchestra has released my favorite song from their concert,  Carmina Burana.  Turn it up, loud, get chills and tear up listening to it, it's that good!  Crack open a new 25 pound box of chocolate chips for the yummy caramel chocolate bars I'm making for dessert. 

                     (The box says to use by 6/2012, that will not be a problem!) 

Finally get around to making my sample ornament.  I got the idea after searching blogland.  Google how to make a floral bow, try to and fail, google again, try again, google again, this time succeed, sort of!

Whip up scarves for the kid's Santa picture on Friday.  Fleece scarves = easy as can be!  The girls each have the same fun ball fringe on the bottom.  I made each of the boys' have a different fringy fleece finish. 

Lunch, leftover homemade chicken curry.  Even better the day after!  Suddenly realize that I have only an hour left until I have to start transporting children around.  Once that starts, I won't have any time to do things before the party starts.  In that time I need to clean the horribly dirty kitchen floor (apparently the kids never notice when they spill something), clean the bathroom, vacuum up little bits off the carpet from decorating the house, make a second dessert, raspberry cheesecake bars (a must!) and make the sandwich rolls.  Yikes, I'll never get it all done!  Jacob volunteers to help.  He makes the bread dough while I coach him and clean.

We get it done.  The house is clean, the food is ready, I have time to brush my hair and put on my eyeliner in the car while waiting for kids to get buckled up.  I get to listen to Carmina Burana one more time before my first guest, Janice, arrives.  We have a fun time visiting, eating, and crafting. 

the island was messy again, but this time with fun party stuff

the girls got in on some crafting too

necklaces and two different ornaments

our fun table

a whole lot of crafting going on

Janice's ornament

Viv's ornament

Sharon's ornament

Lisa's ornament

Sheri's ornament

my ornament

I even got to re-use the trellis Dode built me for Crafty Maiden.  We put our partially completed and finished ornaments on it.  We started earlier than usual this year, getting going around 4:30.  That made for a nice earlier evening as we were done with everything by 8:30.  It's so nice to have Sharon back with us.  And, in what I think was a first, she completes every ornament and is the first finished.  Way to go! With a quick clean up of toys and plates, the house looked as good after the party as it did before the party.  Success!

A successful fix and another problem
The septic repair man came out and fixed our problem!  When he pumped the tank, he found that some diaper wipes had been flushed down the toilet and had gotten stuck in our septic pump.  Nothing could get past them so the water was flooding out the top of the pump tank all over the lawn.  We're up and running (underground) again!  Elizabeth found the process fascinating and sat at the window with a clipboard documenting everything the man did and illustrating some of the steps (she had 22, many said "Squirt with water, filter water out"). 

That night, Dode and I were out delivering newspapers.  We'd just finished up and were driving back to the church to pick up Isaac from scouts when the familiar noise of the serpentine belt breaking was heard under the hood.  Dode quickly pulled over and turned off the car and although we lost the belt, this time it didn't get wound up in the timing belt and disable us.  We were able to get home on battery power.  Now Dode has to figure out why the van keeps eating the belt, and then fix it.  Until then, I'm driving the big rig around.  It feels funny to be in the big van with just myself or one child.  Usually it's reserved for trips when I've got everyone.  It's kind of lonely in there with just me.  But as a bonus, I can listen to the radio (the little van doesn't have one) and the heater works really great.