It December???

This was our beautiful fall tree last Wednesday, November 30...before the 50-80 mile winds attacked it.

I am still in denial - it can't be December already...can it? It is hard to believe! But I guess since the boys got out their advent chocolate candy calendars, the holidays are getting closer.

Last Wednesday, I had a rare day off and enjoyed a nice 7.5 mile jog. The trees around the neighborhood were filled with colorful leaves, the sun was shinning a nice 50-60 degree temperature, the sky was blue and the grass green. In most places in the US, this wouldn't be a typical "winter" day but for here it is pretty standard this time of the year. HOWEVER, that was Wednesday...

Since then, the Santa Anna winds have been howling anywhere between 50-80 or 90 miles an hour. All of those beautiful crimson, orange and yellow leaves are no longer on the trees - they are on the ground and in my garage (we forgot to close the garage door the other night and the darn leaves found there way in there). Nevertheless, the temps still hover around the mid-50s and the sun it shiny bright - so I can't complain!

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Ok...you all know the saying: "what goes around, comes around"? Well, I lived it on Thursday evening/Friday morning.

You remember those big school projects you would get and the due date would be a few weeks to a month out. The ones that would take some work and the teacher gave you all the time in the world to do it. So much time, in fact, that there wasn't any reason to start right away. The kind of projects you would set aside for the first week, then take the time to plan for the second week and then the night before the due date you and one of your parents, who would be very angry & have a sneer on their face, would stay up all night to complete it together. Well...

Matthew, my younger son, received a project a week before the Thanksgiving break that wasn't due until Friday, December 2. Decided that he wouldn't start it until the break, because he know that he would have a lot of time to research, write and draw since both DH and I would be at the stores working. Thanksgiving break comes...he works on the cover of the project and then writes down the outline of what he will research.. He develops the plan that he will work on 3 pages a day...the project is an ABC book of Ancient China...and therefore be able to get the project done during the T-giving break and not have to worry about it the week it is due (which is always a good idea because of all the other homework he has which he juggles with hockey practices).

Well...every day I would get home from the stores and was greeted by Matthew, who was still in his pjs playing a computer game. I would ask, "did you work on your project?" and he would respond, "no, not today, I will put some work into it tomorrow. I have a new strategy, starting tomorrow I will do 4 letters a day and will still be done before the end of the break." The next day - new strategy 5 letters a day...and the next was 6 letters a day.

Bottomline and to shorten the story...Thursday evening DH and I were up with Matthew "helping" him to get the project done. Working on the last 13 letters...we finished the project at 2:30am.

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We have a lot of hockey this weekend...surprised? Matthew has a couple of league games today, both kids have practice tomorrow morning and Sunday evening Robert will be playing his first high school hockey game. High school hockey is new here in California - all the hockey is played representing a club. Robert's team is made up of 10-12 kids with various of hockey playing levels. It should be fun to watch and exciting for him to show off his hockey skills to all his schoolmates who know of his passion for hockey, but have never seen him play.

Well...I don't want to bore you any more. I am hoping to have some status photos of Family Sampler soon. Keep your fingers crossed!

Until next time...remember,

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa