Yes, I'm still here

The month of December always gets away from me, and this year was no exception.  In addition to the usual insanity of the month, I lost almost an entire week to vertigo.  Life ceases when the world spins wildly with every move you make!

So, anyway...

We spent the first two weeks of December wrapping up school work: finishing up chapters so we wouldn't end mid-chapter or lesson and finishing up two big projects. 

The big kids finished the volcano they were building.  It looked great.  They added Monopoly houses and Life people.  They even had a guy fishing in a lake on the bottom of the mountain.  We erupted the volcano which, unfortunately, took out the fisherman and slid his car along with the flow.  It was great fun.

Mikaela finished her continent.  I think it looks great!  Sam finished all but the ocean.  He ran out of colored pencil and had to wait until replacements arrived.  He'll be picking it back up to finish now that school is back in session.

I also did some Christmas crafts with the littles, which I already shared in a previous post.

We made some ornaments.  The snowmen were really cute.  The swirled colored balls did not work out well at all.  Over time, the paint inside all slid to the bottom leaving a lot of the bulb uncolored/see-through.  I don't know if it was because we used plastic instead of glass bulbs, but it was really disappointing.  We scattered the cinnamon applesauce ornaments throughout the house and cars hoping they'd make everything smell nice. They only affected the scent in the cars, so that was kind of disappointing.

Then I spent a week dizzy.  I ended up taking myself to the doctor on morning when I was steady enough to drive.  Unfortunately, while I was there, I was so tired from lack of sleep that I tried to lay down and sent myself whirling again.  After a shot to stop my vomiting, I had to call my husband to come get us, stranding his car in another city from where we live.  A friend came and spent the next day with my kids because I wasn't sure if I would be functional.  Meclizine got me through the next few days until I finally recovered completely.

Finally, there was the mad rush to finish Christmas shopping and handmade Christmas gifts.  I got everything done, just barely in time.

I spent a lot of my evenings working on this Ood ski mask for Sam.  He loved it.  An ood is an alien from Doctor Who.

My dad visited for a few days and then there was the mad dash to get ready for Sam's birthday party, which went off well with the exception that I forgot to give out party favors.

And now it is time for school again despite the fact that I never got around to finishing grading for December or planning.  We're kind of winging it for now.

How did your December go?