St. Nicholas Day Pictures

This year I neglected to take my traditional St. Nicholas day pictures on the 6th, so these are actually from the 7th (shh... it's a secret!) It was a bit of a challenge to get Kwamai to pose seriously, but on the bright side he certainly has lost all inhibition about showing his lack of front teeth!

Verified Today

Toothpaste gets crayon marks off walls.

St. Francis Xavier Feast Day Party

Today we threw a little nearly-spontaneous party (planned only a couple days in advance) to celebrate today's feast day. Because St. Francis Xavier had been a missionary to Japan, it seemed a good reason to have a Japanese-themed party. So I invited two families from one of the homeschool lists I belong to. One family lives just in the next town, and the other is from Pittsburgh. I was getting a bit nervous as I started adding the numbers and realized I was looking at having 13 children over! But as it turned out, the nearby family had double booked themselves and could only stay to "meet and greet". But we had a nice time munching some tasty (and some new) foods. I did make a pizza just to be on the safe side for everyone as well! The family has three boys, ages 8, 6 and 3 whom Kwamai kept entertained with Legos and commando-fights and general boy mayhem. The two girls, ages 5 and 15 months, kept Felicity busy. The baby really just kept her mom busy, to tell the truth. But Felicity actually spoke to the mother several times, and this goes on record as being the first time she has ever spoken to an adult she has just met. (So many people will be jealous! She still doesn't talk to lots of adults she sees regularly!) When I first heard Felicity answer that she was 3 years old, I almost didn't believe it was her voice!

So, a good time was had by all meeting new friends. We might travel to Pittsburgh in a few weeks to see a living Nativity in their neighborhood.