Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Skipped School in Favor of Holiday Fun

With the holidays approaching we have decided to scale back on our schoolwork (or even skip it entirely if need be) so we don't miss out on any of the seasonal fun.  This was one of those weeks where we put fun ahead of our schooling and I'm so glad we did!  We had a wonderful time and you know what??  My kids still learned just plenty!



Friday I declared a day off from school and we met up with some friends for a brisk winter hike.  Temps were in the upper 20's and low 30's and the sun was shining. We ended up hiking for over 2 hours and shedding our hats, gloves, even unzipping our coats.  Aside from a bit of mud and lots of watery spots on the trail we had a wonderful time.  We dropped Ian off at work on our way home and we picked up some sandwiches from Subway then the younger boys and I settled down to watch Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.  It was late afternoon by then and we looked outside to see a dusting of snow.


One of the streams we crossed 

Ian went to work on Saturday morning and spent the day planing and stacking boards.  The younger two boys turned over our first advent activity idea and made cookies together.  They settled on chocolate mint chocolate chip cookies and they were yummy!  I spent most of my morning working on another handmade Christmas gift and my afternoon reading a light and cheery Christmas book Merry and Bright.





Ian headed off to work first thing on Sunday morning with his grandfather.  The younger boys spent the day at home with me.  I worked on wrapping gifts and watched another favorite Christmas movie: The Holiday.  My husband brought Ian home around lunch and stopped at Subway to get sandwiches for us all.  After lunch we played a rousing game of Christmas themed Scattergories (using these free printables).


We had plans to meet up with friends Monday afternoon at a local cinema to see The Grinch so we had a shortened day of school. The boys each worked on just a couple of subjects and Alec found an old art kit he wanted to use again.  After lunch we headed out for the movies.  We really enjoyed  the movie so much.  I am not normally a Grinch fan but this was a great and funny retelling of the story.





Alec had karate on Tuesday and once again all three boys finished up ALL their schoolwork before we left.  This left our whole afternoon for lots of fun.  We made a log cabin "gingerbread" house (details on the blog tomorrow!).  The younger boys tried out some glass etching and Evan just could not get over how easy it was.  I think I need to look around for some more etching ideas for them.  Ian, Evan and I took a nice long walk in the sun and all three boys worked long and hard on a new family holiday puzzle.  We somehow managed to clean Ian's turtle tank and put up our new garland on the stairs and balcony too.  I was wiped out by the end of the day but so glad we accomplished so much!








Wednesday morning we skipped our school work entirely and headed out to the Yankee Candle Flagship store for lots of holiday fun (a fun post dedicated just to this trip will be up on the blog soon!).  My boys have been talking about this trip for a month and I just could not put it off a moment longer.  We went by ourselves this year and made sure we saw every single thing!  I may have purchased more than I planned on... but I'm not complaining.  On the way home we stopped for lunch at Red Robin and popped into the nearby Barnes and Noble.  I swear Alec and I heard angels singing as we walked in... it was two whole floors!!  If we had been alone together we could have spent HOURS looking around!




Just look at all those BOOKS! 


I had to get to the grocery store on Thursday so we, once again, had a light day of schoolwork planned.  The boys and I did work on finishing up the family puzzle Ian started earlier in the week and we were dismayed to find that three pieces were missing!  I hate when there are missing puzzle pieces to a brand new puzzle.  Hopefully they'll turn up.  We also worked on making some homemade marshmallows.  The boys pitched in to vacuum the whole upstairs and each did an hour of exercise.  We had one of our new candles going most of the day and the house smells amazing!






How was your week?

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Comments

  1. Looks like such an amazing and fun week! So many fun things to do this time of year. We are taking off for the month so that we can enjoy some fun as well!

    Thanks for linking up @LiveLifeWell!

    Blessings,

    Amy

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! There are so many fun things to do this time of year. We're taking off every day we need to and I'm not worrying about it at all. :)

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  2. I love your puzzle. I might grab a Winter/Christmas themed one when I go out this afternoon. We are expecting a whopper of a snow storm and the news is saying major power outages are likely. What a fantastic week all the way around!
    Blessings, Dawn

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    Replies
    1. Oh boy; I do not like power outages at all but at least with a puzzle you'll have something to do.

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  3. I love this! I was just thinking about how this next week I am going to start scaling back on our school and incorporating more holiday fun activities. I want the kids to really enjoy and remember this time of year.

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    Replies
    1. This is the first year we didn't plan to take the whole month off (I mean we always did schoolwork but we themed it around the holidays). With the kids being older they aren't as interested in all the holiday things like baking and crafting but I definitely wanted to make sure we still have as much fun as we can while still being mindful of the time my oldest needs to finish up his high school work "on time".

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  4. This looks like a fun week! I bet Yankee candle store smelled amazing! I like Debbie Macomber books too. Thanks for sharing with us at #LiveLifeWell.

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    Replies
    1. It really does! I can't spend lots of time in the scent rooms since they tend to mingle and give me a headache after a bit but there are so many amazing scents!

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