No Television or Video Games Today

My kids are actually, usually, pretty good about not watching too much tv or playing too much of video games... and some of the video games are for learning. Liam plays on code.org which teaches young children to code. David (being a programmer) checked it out and agreed it does teach kids the basics around coding. It's pretty neat. Violet sometimes plays ABC mouse that has learning games. They both play on RAZ kids (account is through their school) which teaches reading and comprehension skills.

I'm the one who has trouble keeping the television off, or staying off of games on my computer or phone. I just don't want them to start developing those habits. The past few days we have been busy preparing for guests to come over for Christmas, so they have been watching lots of Christmas movies or shows and playing lots of Wii. I notice that too much of those things tends to make for grumpy children.

This morning I woke up wanting do have a day without tv or games. Liam and Violet wake up earlier than we do... in fact we stayed in bed until we heard Drake wake up around 9 o'clock. I had not yet said anything about no tv or games today... but I noticed they didn't turn the tv on that morning... they were playing with some legos instead. That was encouraging. When I told them, they were really excited that we would keep those things off today. Kind of funny how that works... at least with young children. In fact, Drake turns off the tv nearly every time it is turned on anyway.

Liam was sure to say anytime I got near my phone "remember mom, no video games today".

So instead we played board games together, built things, I cleaned the kitchen while they tried to make their own board game. Grandpa Delaney got Liam a microscope for Christmas so we found dead bugs in the window sills to look at under the microscope. They played outside and raked leaves to jump in since Fall is starting to hit us now that it is Winter... lol.

It's been a great day. I don't know if I have the strength to do that every day, but it would be nice to shoot for one week of no tv or video games...

More on the Ornament Exchange.

Okay. My friend Lisa wrote a better blog about the ornament exchange/dinner than I did... so feel free to take a look ;) The Random Details.

Ornament Exchange Party!

*Thank goodness for Lisa for taking pictures of the cake and dinner while it was happening*

Last night I held my first ever ornament exchange/dinner party! I kept it small and all but one lady was able to go because she was out of town. There were six of us there total. For the dinner menu I made asparagus soup, chicken soup, and chicken squares. Holly brought some cream cheese with candied jalapenos and crackers. For dessert I made a sort of "strawberry shortcake" but with strawberries, pomegranate seeds and cherries.

First we had dinner and dessert while we chatted. Next I moved everyone into the kitchen to make a terrarium ornament with live plants... hopefully they all live and we all remember to water them occasionally. After Christmas they are to be hung in the window and hopefully last throughout the year. Afterwards we exchanged ornaments... I didn't get a picture of the ornament that I made... but I think I posted it about three years ago... because that's when I had made it and how long I've been waiting to host an ornament exchange. Lastly we moved into the living room for more girl talk. I hope everyone had a lovely time, I know that I did!

*Kileen and Lisa are missing from this picture, Kileen was off feeding her little baby girl. Lisa is taking the picture.*
There is me front left, Andrea front right, Vicki back left, and Holly back right.

My strawberry, cherry, pomegranate seed, shortcake

Terrarium Ornaments. Plants are Baby Tears (though the tag says Angel baby tears... but when I looked it up it said just baby tears) or Helxine soleirolii, and some moss

The ornament booty. Holly's is the penguin, Lisa brought the lovely jeweled ornament, Kileen's is the cinnamon santa stick ornament (throwback to our mom, she had made these one year for an ornament exchange), Andrea brought the star ornament.