Catching Up...

Well, I am finally caught up on housework and getting the house re-organized for the New Year, back to school and extracurricular activities and saying good bye to Christmas stuff!

We took the tree down yesterday after sleeping in most of the morning!  But...it was just so nice to be able to lounge around the last few days.  My youngest daughter had some kind of body ache thingy on Wednesday and had to miss a playdate for which she was pretty upset but....I was kind of relieved as I really didn't feel like going out in the snow.....because....yes! It actually snowed  for a bit on Wednesday.  Her achy body felt better by Wednesday at dinner time so we are thinking she was just overtired.  We made her go to bed earlier than she has all week.  It will be interesting to see how everyone does tomorrow for getting up for church and then on Monday for back to school/work!

But...lots of things have been completed around our house.....including our half bathroom makeover! (I'll have some pics for that in a few days).  For now:  here are some things that took place the week of Christmas and this past week.......

ENJOY!

This is Claire on the day she turned 11!  I cannot believe my baby is 11 years old. She really wanted a "grown up" purse so she chose this discontinued Vera Bradley pattern from an awesome online website that sells the bags for dirt cheap!  It arrived just in time for her birthday as I waited a tad bit too long to order it and kind of forgot that the holiday rush was on!  But...it all turned out great because.....she was happy as you can tell by her smile!

My daughters the week before Christmas.

Claire and Courtney

Actually, I think this was taken just after they decorated the tree on Dec 4.

Here is Claire with her younger cousin, Emma, who is turning 7 in March.  Emma's mom is my youngest sister (Jill). She and her husband Mike and the girls (she also has an 18 mo.old named Mady) live near Lake George up in the southern part of the Adirondacks.  They just bought a house and we spent part of Christmas afternoon and early evening with them.  Emma and Claire decorated the gingerbread house. They had lots of fun doing that and then put on a talent show for us with several dolls, all set to music!  It is a blessing to see cousins playing together.

Here is my husband and my oldest, Courtney,

 playing a math scrabble game that she received from us for Christmas.

This game is from MindWare and is geared for the child who is gifted in math.

It is called Equate. I do not get this game. I am soooo not a math person!

She and her dad had a blast playing this one afternoon this past week.

It is good to see a dad playing games the "old fashioned" way with his daughters.

I was proud of him for not being on some electronic gadget all week!

He also played TWO games of Clue with Claire and I on New Year's Eve 

while Courtney was at a friend's party.

I think this was one of my favorite things about this Christmas break from school:

just relaxing and playing board games with the girls.

We really needed this slower pace to our lives.

And.... the big news around our house?  

See this world famous  monument?

Guess where we are going?????

Yup....my husband received a bonus from his boss and we are going to Paris, France!!!!!

My oldest daughter and I have always wanted to go. In fact, I have wanted to go to Paris since I was a young girl...I am French on my dad's side of the family and I took 4 years of French in high school and loved it.  My oldest is in her 4th year and plans on taking the 5th year for her senior year next year.  She is REALLY into the language.  My youngest just took 6 weeks of it at her school, too and my husband took it in high school.  So.....it's where we are headed.  It was supposed to be a trip for just the 2 of us.  A friend of mine offered to take my daughters while we were gone but.....I really didn't know if those details would work out since she said her family also travels during the time we are thinking of going.  And I needed more concrete plans so.....we started discussing it and decided that if his bonus was big enough, all 4 of us would travel.  So of course one of my xmas gifts was the book about Paris that you can see on my bookshelf, sidebar here.  We are all very excited and planning to see many wonderful things.  We have already chosen 4 major things to see and we already have our airline tickets and hotel arrangements.  We will be within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower!!

And so....hope you enjoyed these highlights of happenings around our house.....

I still plan on writing about what I have learned about friendships, spending quality time as a married couple, etc. These are all topics that I will be touching on here at Gold in the Clouds this winter....God has been showing me many things through my Bible time and personal study.  We serve an amazing God...He cares about each and every detail of our lives......

 oh...funny story...my husband surprised me with a new microwave for xmas. Yes, I am the wife who actually LIKES getting a new appliance once in awhile....as long as it isn't the only gift! lol..and..it wasn't! The funny thing is: he totally surprised me as I didn't find out about this until xmas a.m. when I walked down to the kitchen to brew coffee and said..."oh, something looks different"  It was the new stainless steel microwave that I had admired one day in a local store.  It is a little bit smaller than our old one and bigger than the one I had admired...but...it's new...the old one was rusting out and I LOVE the fact that most of the controls are the same......so...yes...sometimes it is nice to get those practical kitchen gifts...as well as a fancy trip!  That's it for around our house.....

how about you?  did you  receive a special gift this year? what favorite memories of your family would you like to share?  leave me a comment!