Tales from Happy Land: December Part 1

I got busy and forgot to write yesterday. But here I am!

December is so busy! On Tuesday Jill had activity days, Michael had two fillings replaced at the dentist, Jill and Timmy had piano lessons, and Joshua and Benji had Festival of Carols. It was nuts!

I've been teaching my students some songs, and we're going to have a little concert at the Relief Society building next Thursday, the 19th. I'm kind of excited and kind of nervous.. And Timmy and Bubby won't even try to sing, the stinkers. They like to try to get out of school things all the time.

I helped my students make macaroni wreaths with their pictures in the middle. They turned out cute, but they were pretty messy. We had macaroni everywhere.

I finally cooked that turkey on Wednesday. We had mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing with it. The turkey was dry. The stuffing was overcooked, but it was good. :)

I can hear the rain outside. It's so nice!

We only have this week and next week left of school. I think we get two weeks of winter break before starting again. So Michael only has two weeks left of public school. He's excited.

Benji had rehearsal for The Messiah and marched in the light parade in Safford on his birthday. Papa took Benji to the light parade and got stuck there and had to wait until the end of the parade. But he got some videos. The Thatcher kids are always so happy to see him. It's fun.

They brought home fried chicken and fries on the way home from the parade. Benji made his own cake - a red velvet letter B with blue cream cheese frosting. He got really frustrated because it was falling all apart as he tried to frost it. I put it in the freezer and he frosted it later. The frosting was full of crumbs, but it was B shaped and delicious, so that's ok. He got an controller to use with a computer and a little cordless drill. Those were his two favorites. We also found a bunch of Batman stuff for him. There was a cape and mask set for someone like Henry's age. And Batman stamps and the Batman pencil box. It was fun watching him open things. We ordered the next part of Adam West Batman, but it won't get here until this week, so I guess we won't tell him and will just keep it for Christmas.

Lately Bubby has discovered the virtues of a hot bath. He asks for one all the time. Also, he thinks what Papa does at work is take a hot bath. 😅

I turned in the

Dang it. I lost my train of thought.

We got Michael paperwork in for college and got him in classes and got them paid for. It'll be excited for sure. He's going to need a lot of practicing, going straight into chamber orchestra. I hope he loves it. I think he'd love being a music major. Now we just need to get Benji done with GED. He and Joshua still both need driver's licenses. To tell the truth, Benji's a lot more ready than Joshua. 😬 And Joshua really wants to get his before Benji. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, I feel like this letter is long and boring. 😅 I'll put some pictures in and send it.

These kiddos were laying together watching something and eating apples. :)

Lately I feel like the gap is starting to close between Timmy and Bubby and the DeSpain boys a little. Timmy and Bubby like to stay apart from the class a lot. But this particular day Bubby wanted to play prodigy, a math wizard game, with them. It was cute how they were all scrunched together on the couch. Timmy has been obsessed with Scratch, and Luke DeSpain will come and sit by him with his Chromebook and do it too. Bubby demonstrated Scratch to us a bit for show and tell one day. I was surprised how easily he did it. He made a little Pong game right there. Whenever something didn't go right he just added another bit of code in the chain and then it worked. Kids these days!

Benji got a He-Man shirt and was quite pleased.

There's the macaroni wreaths mess. After they dried the kids painted them green, and then we waited for them to dry again before adding a picture and a ribbon to hang it. Well wrap them and the kids can give them to their parents for Christmas.

And there's Benji at the parade.

Love you so much!

Love, Mommy

Jill making an ornament at the library

The library actually took this picture, and they posted it on their Facebook page. It's the only close-up they had. All the other pictures were groups.

Mama took this picture of us at our ward party.

We made Starry Night. This is mine. It's not nearly as good as the original, but it gave me a deeper appreciation for van Gogh's work. All those little lines!

Macaroni wreaths

We painted them green and then stuck a photo in the hole and used ribbon to make a hanger on it.

Nature study

This time I just let them run. I think that was the last time we did nature study outside for a couple of months because it was cold.

Henry

The girls walking around on the border of the football field

Emmett, Luke, and Bubby playing Scratch

Vincent

Super secret presents!

New computer chairs

The funny thing is, Benji didn't even really notice this.

Eating apples

Controller

I don't know if you can tell, but Benji likes Batman.

This was actually before the birthday party at the light parade.

Henry grabbed my hand during church and wrote all over it.

Rainy day

Hey, my boy!! It was fun talking to you today!

I think that the yuck has taken over the house. Timmy and Papa haven't eaten all day, and I'm not feeling great right now. We'll see how if goes tomorrow. If Timmy's still sick we'll have to keep him upstairs for school. Hopefully nobody else gets it!

It should be a fun week of school. Sort of. We still have to get work done, and I'm hoping I can get anyone to pay attention. Maybe if I'm not grouchy we can talk about why we even do school. And life/school year goals. Still, that may be beyond my kindergarteners and one of my first graders. 🤔

Michael had a choir concert on Monday. The middle school choir is big! They have a full choir for each of like 6 school hours. I guess that's where they put everyone who doesn't choose another elective. Each class had a song that they stood and sang that was accompanied by a student, and they also did a song that they danced too. And they sang with the class that was dancing in front of them because they were too quiet. Papa really doesn't like this kind of thing, but for what it was, I thought it was pretty great. You can see Michael with his choir on that picture. He has a tan vest and a red bow tie on the top riser.

The next day Michael had his last public school orchestra concert. I think he's sad to leave that orchestra. They're a good group of kids.

Earlier that day Benji took the driving test and passed on his first try! I was so stressed out about that test. That driving test lady makes me nervous. I didn't want to have to come back. Thank heavens he was ready! I'm sorry I took you to take it before you were ready. :/

Benji's a good careful driver. He's enjoyed driving places by himself and picking Michael up from school. Now we just need Grandma and Grandpa Badger to come and take Joshua driving every day. ;)

We got Michael's paperwork in and paid for his classes. I think Benji's have been dropped because the payment deadline passed and he doesn't have his GED yet or FAFSA done. I did get his paperwork turned in so now he can schedule the GED. Hopefully he can get those tests done this week!

So Monday it was rainy all day. The next morning when I went to the gym it was really foggy! It wasn't great for driving, but it was beautiful anyway.

My students made sock snowmen this week. That was fun, but very messy.

Michael met with the Bishop today so he can be ordained a Teacher in January. :)

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday night. Grandma and Grandpa Badger had just come into town that day and had been setting up things at their rental house. They met us at our ward party, so that was fun. :) It was Mexican food. Tacos, enchiladas, beans, and churros! Henry was asleep and Papa didn't want to go, so they stayed home. The kiddos weren't interested at all in seeing Santa, so none of them got whatever he was giving out.

Papa hired a lady to come and clean for us for a few hours on Saturday. She got the big bathroom really clean. And then Timmy threw up on it. 😅

I forgot to say - i found a good deal on a good Complete Shakespeare. I was excited to get it! It's big and beautiful.

There's a picture of Bubby and Henry using Bub's Chromebook. They really weren't supposed to, but they were so cute there by the Christmas tree. So I took a picture and walked away.

There's a picture of your Badger grandparents with Benji and Michael at the ward party. You cans also see Jill and Timmy singing with the primary, and Benji and Michael singing with the Priesthood. Joshua decided not to sing because it wouldn't benefit him, he says. I think he .missed the point. Oh well.

There's a picture of Jill gluing an ornament at the family craft night at the library. The library took that picture and posted it on their page on Facebook. They had lots of pictures, but I think Jill's was the only one of just one person. ;)

And there's Benji playing the horn that he made with my school kids. That was fun. :)

Love you so much! I'm so excited that your package made it! Have a great week!

Love, Mama