leading up to January 29

All they say is true: enlist help and things go more smoothly!  Simple things, like Fina's homeschooling dad has been a proper vacuuming of the house on Saturday mornings. It is routine for him now. And I ask for help with laundry and dishes. And Fina is taking a more active role with certain things. Washing sinks and cleaning mirrors (yes, you have to take the time to teach them how to do it properly first, but then it starts to work!), making her bed, laying out her wool clothes to air out when she takes them off when we come in. Even the simplest of things (we live in a two story house and when things need to go upstairs or down, I just leave them on the bottom or top of the stairs. When she walks by, she will transport the objects to the top or bottom. She doesn't need to put the things away, just leave them at the other end for me to sort out the next time I pass by.)  You wouldn't believe what a difference these little jobs make in my day to day!

All this to say that since I have taken on a fairly long list of "new" things to my life routine, I have needed more help. Are you interested in seeing the list of things I've added to my life, all wonderful, soul nourishing, exciting things? This is mother-culture like I have never had before!

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After supper, Fina's homeschooling dad reads to us our Bible readings of the day. Then he reads to us a few pages from his fancy Bibliotheca bible (we are currently in Leviticus) and we draw names to narrate. Then he reads a bunch of pages from Story of A Soul - The Autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux.  (Fina is loving this. The first half of the book is her recounting stories from her childhood and youth and is really quite accessible!)  This takes us probably half an hour. At times, Fina and I will work on our handicrafts while he is reading (like a scene out of life from 100 years ago!) and sometimes we will just sit and listen.

Before going to sleep, I am reading The Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography by Thomas Merton. It reads like a novel, (in that it is easy to read). I am really enjoying it.

In the morning (you may remember that my body is waking me up really early), I reread the Bible readings of yesterday and look the passages up in Logos, and I read any of Charlotte Mason's poetry that may be attached to those verses.

I read portion for the day in The Cloud of Witness.
I am re-reading the Thérèse of Lisieux stuff (I am probably 50 pages behind) in order to re-hear it and add things to my common place book.
I am reading through Charlotte Mason's volume II, Parents and Children, for my monthly online video book club.
Once a week or so, I read a few pages from The Great Recognition, edited by Nicole Handfield. (It must be sold out right now, I can't find it on the Riverbend Press website. I'm nearly sure they will have another print run!),
I'm also slowly reading Anne White's Minds More Awake.

I try to add entries from all of this to my commonplace book as I go.

And, I'm on a few online long term projects.

With my two friends E and L, we started a Manitoba Charlotte Mason Facebook Group. And, as a sub-group (kind of) of this, we have started a Podcast/Book Discussion FB group as well.  I'm managing that group, and listening to the podcast episodes and trying to encourage some discussion there.  We are listening to A Delectable Education podcasts right now, one a week.

And I'm doing some work regarding Charlotte Mason's Saviour of the World volumes of her poetry with Art M.  I helped him create a Charlotte Mason Poetry Readers FB discussion group and am trying to comment there regularly and interact with others.

And I'm working in the Logos app to update all the CM poems that Art and his friends put in there, attached to bible verses. I'm going through all six volumes of her poetry and adding the poem references to the app (and I'm making corrections as I go).  I'm actually making all the corrections to her poetry right now, in the Logos app and in the word documents that have become pdfs on his website.

And I'm working with L, Art's friend, on transcribing CM manuscripts (yes, written in her hand) from digital copies they have. We are working our way through her seventh volume of Saviour of the World that was never published.

This, plus the every day schooling and life things.

It is glorious. It is marvellous. I love it. (At first, I was a bit overwhelmed and exhausted, but I am in the swing of things now!)

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Fina continues to enjoy her skiing! She went skating yesterday at our town's outdoor rink. She has really impressive skills, considering she is self taught and I can't skate for beans!

We are looking forward to the forecasted snowfall in the next day or so. The ski trails are very hard and wrecked up! But she loves it, just the same!

We just re-read our way through these four Margaret Atwood books for kids. I can't recommend them enough. They are so cute, full on alliteration, a tongue twister to read, but so fun!

And we continue to read from Andrew Lang's Orange Fairy Book.  Fina's homeschooling dad is reading through some Paddington Bear novels with her as well.
We have been enjoying watching the birds at our window bird feeder. Fina has been continuing to learn how to cook (we made blueberry pancakes yesterday), reading aloud, doing some origami, working on her fingerknitting handicraft, her wood working, playing lots of Monopoly and more!

Year 1, term 2 exams part 2, January 25

We had a great time at outdoor playgroup yesterday. We were a very small group and Fina was able to ski for a bit with her friends. They also played in the mushy thaw of the frozen creek.

Look at this picture she drew from a YouTube video at artforkidshub. Subject matter aside (she loves MLP!), isn't it lovely?

19 Test for lesson 12 of Math

She did wonderfully. She knows her plus 9, plus 8 and all the doubles very well.

21 parable

She recited the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

17 Who was our painter this term? Describe as well as you can your favourite 

picture from this term's picture study.  Or you can sketch it.

Jacques-Louis David. The painting was “The Coronation of Napoleon and his wife, Josephine.” Josephine was wearing that royal robe, with the special lines on it that Queen’s. And he painted himself into the picture (Jacques-Louis David). There’s kids holding up her dress, pretty girls.  [Mom had to pull her along a bit] A guy on the right, it’s hard to describe. There was a big theatre of these people there. A priest and a Bishop and Pope and, oh please, who knows what else. There were very many holy people. And a guy carrying a cross. Napoleon was going to crown himself, but he didn’t. And then Josephine was kneeling down. The Pope doesn’t seem very happy because he’s crowning his wife.

10 Tell about Laura Secord (Canadian biography)

Laura Secord saved Canada by going to someone’s house (what was his name, someone important, special) the General. She came in and told him. Because when all the soldiers from the other side had came to their house, she had heard, from outside, what they were saying. That they were going to do that so. They decided that they were going to. Because her husband was too weak to go, she said she’d go to the aunt whatever’s house, to see if the could go, but no, they couldn’t. So the daughter went with her. And then they went, but the daughter got too tired. And then she meets these Indians at the house, and she’s scared. She goes inside and tells them. 

5 Tell a fable.

“Dogs and Hides”

There’s a dog and they were looking down from the river and they saw hides, that the guy, the shoemaker, who put out the cow hides and put them in the deep end because he knew no one could get them there. And then, they thought “wow, we should eat these hides and make a fine meal out of them.” So, they decided to try, but the water was too deep. So, they decided they were going to drink the water. They got so full that they died. They couldn’t move anymore. And then it spilled all over their mouth.

7 Tell about Inchcape rock.

Sailors kept bumping into the rocks, so that the Abbot. He saw them crashing on to the shore. So he went out on a little boat and put the bell on. And when he did that, then he went back. The bell would ring when there was waves coming. So they would know that the rocks were coming. And then a pirate ship came and then they took away the bell but then they went back. And they went again and then, he bumped into the rock and the shipped cracked. They said “The kind abbot knew about stuff, so he put this rock here on purpose. Now we’re going to die anyways, so.”

6 Tell the story of Grace Darling. - changed to Arthur and the Round Table.

Arthur was there at a big feast. All the poor people went to the very bottom and everyone went at the top, the important people. Then people were fussing over the table, then Merlin said “why don’t you make a big round table, with no ends, so that even the poor people sit at that table.” [tangent. It is useless for mom to try to tease things out. I really shouldn’t anyway. And my efforts are getting her to say it was his knights and ruling the land fairly etc got me nowhere. It serves me right!]

11 Find Lake Michigan on a map. (Fina also wanted to find Italy and Lake Superior)

9 Tell about Picciola or Antonio Canova.

Picciola

There was a guy who is in jail, but he wasn’t supposed to be in jail. It was a mistake. He was mistaken for someone else. He finds a plant. One of the guards saw it and almost stepped on it and “no, don’t do that.” And the guard says “I wasn’t going to step on that little flower.” There was so much rain and storm and he didn’t want it to die. So then he wanted to move the rocks, but he couldn’t, because only the King could do that. The queen let him go, because “if he was caring so much for a little flower, let’s let him go.” Then he went with Picciola every where that he went.

1 Tell one story about David, from the Bible.

I don’t remember anything about David. David was the youngest son and he was supposed to be anointed by God, but then all the stronger ones, so terrible and whatever, but Jesse said, “No, I have one more son. But he must not be the one. He’s the shepherd.” Then God said to whoever was going to anoint him “this is the one. Even though those other guys look very good, but they’re not a good ruler on the inside. He is. He might not be nice on the outside, but he is in the inside. 

14 Tell me what you remember about the woodpeckers from The Burgess Bird 

Book.

This is like pulling teeth. She does not connect with the Burgess Bird Book. Which is so strange!

There was Downy the woodpecker and then the other guy is as fast as him, but doesn’t drum as fast as him. [She proceeded to imitate the drumming of the woodpecker, for like a minute!] They really drum hard and they peck peck peck peck peck peck. Sometimes they eat other birds’ eggs. Were there babies in them? Why? That’s not very nice!

16 Who was our composer this term? Describe one of his compositions.

Schubert. Wasn’t it Franz Schubert? The trout Quintet and Unfinished Symphony. [She hummed the tune of something (I think it was the first movement of the Unfinished Symphony, but I can’t be sure!  We have a lot of work to do with composer study. She doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe anything.)

24 Sing your favorite hymn from this term

She sang “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

18 Father or friend should select a passage for student to read aloud.

I had her read a few pages from “Little Tuppens” from the Treadwell Primer.

She did well.

4 Write all the lower case and upper case letters

8 Tell about Gregory and the pretty children.

I forgot this question, somehow.

25 make French toast (on the last day as our treat!)

Around Christmas 2016

We haven't done much formal schooling around Christmas time, but we have done quite a lot of learning.

We have done a lot of reading lately.  We finished reading The Pink Fairy Book and have started on the Orange Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Fina LOVES these stories! We read The Ox-Cart Man (again, we had read it years ago). We also read Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. I highly recommend this one. It is very fun for winter!
Fina has been reading aloud to us (or to her ponies) frequently. Fina finished reading Tony's Birds aloud. Reading a few pages at a time, she got through it. I enjoy Millicent Selsam's early reader books very much.

We did chapter 15 and the Christmas section of our catechism book.

We are getting in A LOT of outdoor play time.  Here are a few snapshots.

She may be a bit dramatic.

snowshoeing in our yard

prairie girl mountaineering (on our parking lot snow pile, with a long skipping rope)

We have got to get her proper skis. These are plastic thrift store skis and they don't do much.

Fina has been enjoying watching this beed feeder. They tend to come for breakfast!

Fina has done a lot of watercolour painting and other art projects. She has been drawing, doing handicrafts, wrapping gifts for Christmas, listening to "Zecchino D'Oro" Christmas music, playing board games, just playing with this and that, and so much more.

We have been reading the Bible after dinner every night for a long while, but we are trying to be more intentional about it. Fina's homeschooling dad backed this version of the bible on Kickstarter a few years ago and it finally made it to print.  He has been reading to us from this Bibliotheca bible every evening since just before Christmas when it arrived and we have even been drawing names to narrate it. Fina enjoys listening to it and she continues to surprise me with her narrations. We started from the beginning and are still in Genesis. Biblioteca is interesting in that it doesn't have chapter and verse markings. And the 5 volumes are "proper" books, printed on nice non-wood paper, with sewed folios and cloth bound cover.

Fina has been wanting to cook and she made French Toast on Christmas morning. It was delicious (it was my first time ever making French toast. Who knows why I waited so long to try it!)

We also made our first tire-sur-la-neige (maple syrup on snow). Fun as always.

Here is the tiny art she did the week before Christmas that she wouldn't let me see. It was part of our Christmas present from her. For dad, she painted a little pig. For me she painted these lovely birds from Tony's Birds. My paper is just a couple of inches tall. She used a fancy thin marker and watercolours.

She got this mini knitting loom for Christmas and is working on knitting a tiny scarf for a pony on it!

My sister-in-law bought Fina all 5 Holling C Holling books for Christmas. Isn't it wonderful when people ask you what to get? I had given her a wishlist on Indigo.ca with all 5 books, telling her to choose a few (enough to get free shipping since we live 2500kms away from each other!) and she so generously purchased all 5! We are all set now for a good, long while!

I sort of pride myself in getting as much as I can used or free online, but the Holling books have eluded me at every used book sale over the last year and a half.  I have been signing out Paddle over and over again from the library. I am thrilled to have my own copy (of all of them)!

MOTHER CULTURE

My friend E, L and I have started a Manitoba Charlotte Mason group on Facebook and are hosting our first event, a gathering / mini-seminar in January. It is going to be great!

I have been waking up VERY early over the last few months, and on the advice of my good friend L, I am embracing it. Rather than uselessly spending my time on Facebook etc., I have decided to do some very focused reading (away from the distractions of other humans being awake in our house!). This is what I started doing in the mornings since just after Christmas:

• reading the readings of the day

• looking up said readings in Charlotte Mason's poetic writings based on the Bible, The Saviour of the World using the Logos app and Art M's linking them to their verses as explained here. (Art blogs at Charlotte Mason Poetry. I met him at the l'HaRMaS retreat and have been following his work since then. He is a busy man with a love of delving deeper into Charlotte Mason's writings.)

• reading the day's poetic verses and Bible verses in Edith Gells The Cloud of Witness.  Riverbend Press has put out a lovely reprint of it, but I'm currently using this free one online. Fina's homeschooling dad has ordered an old one for me as a late Christmas present from Abebooks.  I'm using Art M's calendar to follow along.  They have a facebook page set up for the Riverbend Press reprit here, and there you can find the link to the calendar.

• Fina's homeschooling dad and I have decided to read some writings of the doctors of the Church. (I'm not sure what took me so long to come to something like this. It isn't like I don't enjoy this type of reading. I just haven't been intentional about it. There was a lot of twaddle in my last few decades.) 

I would like to read Catherine of Siena's major treatise The Dialogue of Divine Providence and he is reading Thérèse de Lisieux's The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Two of the four women doctors of the Church.  The translations (from Italian and French respectively) that I have linked to above seem to be the best critical editions in English. 

I actually started reading Thérèse de Lisieux's work today and I'm hoping to read Catherine's as well. Both at the same time. We shall see!  I am also toying with the idea of simultaneously reading Catherine in Italian. This critical edition by Giuliana Cavallini (on whose work my English translation is from) is available online for some unknown reason (it is from the 1995) at the Italian website for "Centro Studi Cateriniani." 

Tonight, Fina's homeschooling dad thought to start Thérèse's autobiography aloud. Fina loved it and asked for him to read more. The beginning at least is written in a very conversational style, recounting stories of her childhood memories and was certainly understandable by Fina. What a life we have! 

• reading Charlotte Mason's works. I am currently reading volume II, Parents and Children. Both Fina's homeschooling dad and I are taking part in the Idyll Challenge, reading the 6 volumes over two years and each joining in a monthly video conference with a group of women (and he, with a group of men) to discuss the readings. We joined it in their fifth month. Art M had the idea to start it for men, and right away a sister group was started.  I am so thankful I was invited to take part it in this challenge when I was at the L'HaRMaS retreat in Ontario in the fall.

• other reading. I just am finishing up Megan Hoyt's A Touch of the Infinite: Studies in Music Appreciation with Charlotte Mason.  I had the pleasure of meeting her at l'HaRMaS as well.  A lovely woman and a wonderful book! I highly recommend it.  She talks of things practical, theoretical and philosophical. Her writing style is lovely.  I am following many trails she has put me on to see how I can improve our music studies. (She also wrote this lovely picture book which I bought at l'HaRMaS, Hildegard's Gift. Fina and I have enjoyed it and read through it a few times. The illustrations are wonderful and Fina has been inspired to imitate the drawing style.) I'm not sure what I will move on to next. Possibly Anne White's Minds More Awake: The Vision of Charlotte Mason which I have as an ebook. I also met Anne at l'HaRMaS. She is the sole Canadian on the AO advisory.

• typing. Amblesideonline has a section of their forum dedicated to transcribing various Charlotte Mason or Charlotte Mason related works that are within the public domain so that they can be compiled and edited etc. I have done a few paragraphs of typing. I don't mind typing, when I have the time. And I feel like I'm giving something back to this wonderful CM world.

• common place journal entries. All of the above items are fair game. I have made more entries in just these past three days than I had made in the last long while!

All this I have done this week, in the stillness, quiet, calm and dark hours of the early morning, to the light of a candle, with a nice cup of tea, sometimes a breakfast-y snack, sitting on the couch, just savouring and enjoying the new day that God has given me.

To those of you who know my daughter, she is pretty "present" when she is awake. Yes, she will play on her own, but one knows she is here when she is here! I love her and I love interacting with her, and with Fina's homeschooling dad. But these quiet times are such a blessing to me. I feel so much better starting my day in this way.

I have tried to read in the past, but it is difficult with the distractions around me. Others can tune them out, but I can't really. So this is working wonderfully for me. I hope to be able to keep it up! I already can see the fruits.

I am planning to start our schooling back in earnest next week. Three weeks off is quite a nice break!

January 21, co-op meeting #2

We were finally able to have our second co-op meeting. It was a great day!

It is so wonderful to have other moms and kids join in with us. We have a lot to learn from eachother. And I am so happy Fina gets a chance to hear other kids narrate and recite. Without siblings, it is hard. She gets a bit of that "listen to someone else and learn" experience through co-op. And I am so thankful for that.

Fina did a great job with her recitation. She recited Oberon's speech and Puck's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream. She did a great job with the picture study. She was much less stressed out. And she realizes that she does see a lot and has a lot to share.

more finger knitting

Her narration portions of A Midsummer Night's Dream were very well done as well. I was proud of her. She is able to keep up with the "big boys" and I think it must give her great satisfaction.

She enjoyed the nature study. She did a great job with her dry brush of an oak twig, an oak leaf and an acorn. She was a bit disappointed with her colours, but I will try to give her a chance to try something out again. This needs more practice than what I am currently giving her. She enjoys it. I really ought to do it!

Oak twig, leaf and acorn

We enjoyed a nice time outside as well.

And she ate her applesauce after supper.

Thanks for following our day!

Leading up to January 21

On Monday, Fina spent some time preparing her Shakespeare play of a Midsummer Night's Dream. She has costumes all ready. She wants to be Hermia, her friend K to by Helena, dad to be Lysander and I'm to be Peter Quince. She still needs a Demetrius, a Puck, a Bottom etc. But she is having a hard time convincing any of her other friends to be a part of it! She asked T, and he said "I can be a part of the audience!" She was not impressed. She is thinking of using stuffies for the rest!

Here she is in her Hermia costume.

On Tuesday, we had our outdoor playgroup. The kids had so much fun. It was cold, but sunny and not at all windy down in the creek and in the forest where we were playing. Fina and her little friend S got "lost" for a while, and they were all quite pleased. S's older brother T and his two friends E and N (all in the 8 and under club) got "lost" looking for Fina and S. N said it was "the best day ever!"  So there you go! They wandered all over and climbed up a steep cliff many times, making an avalanche on their way down.

Don't they look like little rodents in a cross-section of snow?

After being out for about 4 hours with the outdoor playgroup, Fina went out to play directly with her friend K. They played from 4-6pm. It was pitch black by then and the girls love playing in the dark, with their fancy Ikea reflective vests.

All in all, Fina had 6 hours of outdoor play. On a day when we hit a high of minus 14 degrees celsius at 4pm (which is certainly warmer than usual for this time of year here!), I'd say that is a personal best for us. For those of you wanting to keep track of our 1000-hours-outside challenge, which we started on November 1, Fina is at 154 hours outside.  For obvious reasons, December, January and February are our slowest months. I'm sure we can reach our goal by the end of October!

All I can say is that she certainly slept well that night!!!

On Wednesday, we had some friends over for a visit. Little A is 3 years old and gives Fina lots of practice at being kind and considerate to little ones (she has some work to do in that area!). They played nicely with their 18-inch dolls and lots of other things.

Fina also got out to play for three hours with her little friend K. They even wandered into K's neighbour's yard. I love living in a small town where a couple of 5 and 6 year olds can play outside for hours!

Fina pulled her all the way to the far end of the park.

Yes, the filled the sled up with snow and then proceeded to pull it up a fairly large hill!

We continue to read the Bible at supper (most nights), and we are moving along in our current free read, The Red Fairy Book. Fina continues to recite her four Shakespeare passages. Soon, we will start the next one.

On Thursday, Fina woke up at 6am (oh my, again!) and after breakfast, she wanted to cut some apples for applesauce. We watched a video on kids with knives from http://kidscookrealfood.com/ together and then I set her to it. (The video is free every once in a while. The promotion is now over, but will come again.) She was ok. Not the ideal conditions I would have chosen to embark upon such a journey, but still.

If you ever want to know anything about technique, take a pic and you'll be able to analyze things a bit better. Not the best knife technique, but still! She did it and no cuts! Applesauce is cooking away in the slow cooker!

Leading up to December 25

On Tuesday morning, we read The Tempest for Kids by Lois Burdett in the "Shakespeare can be fun" series. We had picked it up years ago at the St Vital Centre Used Book Sale in Winnipeg. Burdett is (was) an elementary school teacher in Stratford, Ontario. She retells the story in rhyming couplets. The pages are filled with drawings and comments by her students. It is very cute. I'm on the look out for other Shakespeare plays by her. A fun addition to our Nesbitt retelling. She sat spellbound through the nearly 60 minutes it took me to read it to her.

We are almost finished reading Pinocchio. Two more chapters to go.  Fina is really enjoying it. So am I. (Terrible, that I had never read the original. Though we are Italian, and have heard many of these stories from my mom. We never read it. Though I feel like we did a watch a live-action movie in Italian. I'll have to ask my mom about it!)

We also read through a short book of poetry we had gotten from the library. The old standards are all in there.

Fina and dad are continuing to make their way through The Chronicles of Narnia again.

Fina finger-knitted herself a little snake, giving him sticker eyes. Very cute.

On Tuesday afternoon, we  had our outdoor playgroup. And, drum roll please, we FINALLY got into the forest. Fina was thrilled to the highest heights! (She had asked for "getting into the forest" as a Christmas gift. The creek was finally frozen. See my December 22 post!)

She is smiling so hard her face looks like it is going to explode!!!

A magical land indeed. Fina is the one on the left.

Another mom and I went down to see if the creek was frozen. When we had assessed that it was, we came back to the group (they were sledding on the hill) and I called to the kids that it was frozen. Fina and her gang just ran over and jumped down the bank of the creek and ran right into the forest all on their own, before any of us moms had a chance to gather our stuff and go in there. It was so nice to see and hear them from this side of the creek, running and laughing and throwing themselves into it.  What a moment of pure joy and bliss!  We will be heading there again today I'm sure.

After supper on Tuesday, Fina and I went for an hour jaunt through town. I have no pics to show, but there was this lovely, fluffy, giant-flakes type of snow. It wasn't windy, so the flakes were floating and swirling down gently. It was like being in a movie. Just lovely. We stopped by the town Nativity scene twice. Fina had to clear the snow from baby Jesus' face.

On Wednesday morning at 7:40, Fina is outside in the dark with a flashlight looking for my loaf pan that she had put out on Tuesday night for catching snow for tire sur la neige. She can't find it, it has been buried in the new snow!

(It is now Saturday morning, and we have yet to find that loaf pan. Oh my...)

Dad read the last two chapters of Pinocchio to Fina. I had to read them myself, as I had read the entire book with her. It was a great ending.

Thursday was Christmas eve. We had a busy day in the city. As you might recall, Fina was chosen to be the lion in the nativity scene at our church. We left before 9 for rehearsal at 10. Church was at 4. Fina was a great lion and the whole thing was excellent!

Here she is, hiding, waiting to be called out to the nativity scene (rehearsal - though she hid herself very well during the actual presentation!).  During the homily (when this living nativity scene took place) our pastor brought the lion out last and made the point that with Jesus, even the most ferocious animal will be tamed and the lion will be friends with the lamb.

These pics are all during the rehearsal. We will hopefully get some pics of the actual presentation. The archive ministry photographers / videographers were out in full force.

We went to Ikea in between rehearsal and Christmas eve mass for lunch. We also picked up a few gifts for ourselves there.  When we came home, Fina set up and decorated our tree and we opened our presents.

Yes, that is a very sparsely decorated tree. 

I suspect she will continue to add to it over the Christmas season!

Here are their IKEA clocks (so Fina can use it to tell time!) 

and the 4-in-1 wooden board game set we bought there for dad.

Friday was Christmas day. We read "The Christmas Kitten" in James Herriot's Treasury for Children. That chapter isn't scheduled in the AO list. Many people read it at Christmas. It was cute. We made pizzelle, coloured and regular.

I made ricotta pies, with the secret Greco recipe, and with my homemade ricotta.

And I finished up the manicotti (my mom's recipe) for our Christmas meal.  We had a surprise visit from our friends who took Fina to the park to play for a little while, which was great.

Fina also played the piano for a bit, asking dad to transcribe what she was playing. Which he diligently did (well, -ish. He transcribed something!) It was quite the thing. Here is a little video clip of it, to add to your festive cheer. The funniest thing is that after she would play her phrase, she would then hum it, in her Fina-fashion. Just hilarious! And this is the typical Fina "I love to look at myself in the reflection of our uber-shiny piano" look!

What do you think? Our little composer in the making!!!

We spent the rest of the day playing games, including Ludo and Checkers from dad's new 4-in-1 wooden game set. We also played Disney Monopoly. It was the best monopoly game Fina has accomplished.

A blessed Christmas season to you, my faithful blog readers!