My recipe is a little different, but similar. We like this one because it has no nuts. 2 sticks butter 3/4 c. light brown sugar saltines (about a sleeve and a half) 2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips Preheat oven to 400. Line a 10x15 cookie sheet (with sides) with foil. Place a single layer of saltines over the foil. Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan. Bring to a boil, and boil, stirring constantly, for three minutes. Pour butter mixture evenly over saltines. Bake for 5 minutes. Let stand for a minute or two, then sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over pan, spreading as they melt. Cool completely, then crack into pieces. Refrigerate until serving.

Beer.

Soup is one of my favorite things to make! I have lots of favorites, but I'll try to narrow it down to just a few. :) Cream of Broccoli Southwestern Turkey Loaded Baked Potato Chili

I love it when people notice my son's progress and comment on it! I'm not sure how I would feel if someone used the words "getting better," though. I would understand the spirit in which it was said, but I think it would also make me a little sad, because I would start thinking about how he won't ever totally "get over" having autism. I may just be overly sensitive about the wording, though!

Before DH started working from home, I always took all of them with me. Now, I split them by gender...I'd rather not have to make four separate trips for well-child visits, but two is OK! Of course, if DH is out of town, all bets are off. And I never intentionally schedule appointments when he's traveling, so if I do have to go to the doctor when he's gone, it's almost always because someone is sick. Talk about fun!

I just read about this! I'm pretty excited. DD likes her Legos, but she's super excited about the new girly ones...especially the Pet Patrol, which comes with a bunny. :) I'm sure she'll keep playing with "regular" Legos, too, (and by regular, I mean Star Wars), but I think it's nice to have some other options, and with such pretty colors. OK, maybe I want a set, too!

Not exactly a weekly wrap-up, since we've been doing Christmas school, but i did put up a summary of ornaments we've made this year, and a few years previous.

We haven't yet, but every time we pass a car with the antlers/nose combo, the children beg us to get a set for our car...and I kind of want them, too! DH thinks they're too corny, though, so we probably won't spend the money on it...

I hate it, too! It's too white or something... I don't hate change, although I do take a long time to get used to it. But I've been using the new gmail long enough to know that it's not a matter of getting used to it...I flat out despise it!

I've never played Ticket to Ride with teens, but it's our go-to-game when we actually have other adults over. (I think Days of Wonder should be paying us a commission for all the people we've gotten to buy the game, and then in turn also buy the game for family members!) Maybe it's just our group, but I don't find it simplistic at all...we're pretty cut throat! Especially DH, but I digress... Another fun game is Mystery of the Abbey. Think Clue, but more difficult, and very thematic. We really enjoy that one with a group, (again, all adults). Days of Wonder in general has great games...all of the editions of Ticket to Ride, plus their other big adventure games. Love them all!

DH and I each have one...well, I gave mine to DD, but I still play on it sometimes. I don't think it's immature, although, smartphones do seem to be the way the game technology is going. It's way cheaper to buy games for a phone than to buy a DS game!

Classical music. My dad believed that it must be listened to loud. Like, shaking the walls of the house, you could hear it on the front lawn when all the doors and windows were closed LOUD. I thought I hated the music, but as it turns out, what I really hated was the volume. I love classical music now, just at a more reasonable decibel level!

Since we're studying American history with Adventures in My Father's World, I decided that we'd take a look at Christmas throughout American history this year. It's been really interesting, (even for me!), to see how Christmas has changed here over the centuries, but I have to admit, finding crafts has been more challenging than in the past when we've done Christmas Around the World! When I was putting together a list of all the Christmas books we have to choose from, I couldn't believe how many we have, and how suitable they are for learning about Christmas in America!

Do I have to pick just one? Our family's favorite is S'mores Pie--They want that one every holiday, plus, you know, any day ending in "y!" ;) I'm partial to anything made with a liqueur, especially if there's chocolate involved somehow. I make this chocolate torte for guests a lot, because it seems fancy, and I always get great reviews, (and requests for the recipe!). Basically, I like chocolate-heavy desserts...although, I wouldn't turn down a nice piece (or three!) of carrot cake, either!

I've still been blogging daily, but less and less of it is about traditional schoolwork. I've shared about our Christmas school, (mostly what we're reading), and about a lot of Christmas field trips/activities, and I'm working on a few posts about the different Christmas crafts we've done over the years...but my usual blog posts? Not so much. Then again, it's fun to have something different to write about once in a while! :)

I ordered one the last time it was on sale like this, and I love it! It makes me feel like a "real" teacher when I sit down to laminate something! :) I haven't used it a lot, yet, but it came in very handy at Thanksgiving, when I wanted to protect the woven construction paper placements we made in school. And we're also using it to laminate some jointed, paper Nutcracker ornaments we're making for Christmas. Oh, and it's also good for laminating Bingo cards, so you can just mark them with a dry erase marker, and use them over and over! I was also thinking of making bookmarks with the children, for them to give as gifts to their Sunday School teachers. Seriously, it's very useful, and fun to have around!

Isn't it awful? I've been struggling with my sciatic off and on since my first pregnancy. My doctor said he could prescribe physical therapy for me, and that might help, but who has time for that? So I never went. Try ice (not heat, even though it may feel good initially!), and stretching helps, too. And, as painful as it is, I've found that it gets even worse if I rest too much, so exercise is helpful, too. Hope you feel better!

I think Santa should just be placed with religion on the "do not talk about in school" list. I have a son with autism, and he's the only one of my children to go to public school, because he can receive services there that I just can't provide. We've never done Santa with our children, and I have been increasingly glad about that as this son has gotten older, because fantasy and reality are so easily confused to him. That being said, I've always told my children not to ruin it for anyone else, not to talk about it all, so they don't spoil anybody's Christmas fun. On the other hand, I can count on my son's public school to shove Santa down his throat for three weeks straight, which is starting to confuse him, because everyone there says Santa is real. Why is some other child's right to believe in Santa more important than our desire not to confuse him further? It makes me crazy every year, and it's getting worse every year. So I wish they just wouldn't bring it up at all...then everybody could be happier!

Ticket to Ride? A few of the boards, (Nordic Countries comes to mind, especially at this time of year!), are specifically designed to be played by only 2-3 people. That's a favorite of ours.

I blog daily, but not always about homeschool stuff. I do have a few upcoming blog entries about our "Christmas School" adventures, though--I always look forward to sharing about that!

I love this book: http://www.amazon.com/Celebrate-Christmas-Around-World-Stevens/dp/155734485X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322671558&sr=8-3 I've used parts of it for the last three years, and still haven't done everything!

If it's any consolation, the truffles and crackers, if they're similar to the ones I make, are super easy! I bake a lot of stuff, but I rotate from year to year what I make. This year, I'm thinking almond thumbprints, chocolate candy cane crunch cookies, spritz cookies, gingerbread men, maybe mint fudge, and the aforementioned truffles and crackers. Oh, and cake balls, because Pillsbury has peppermint frosting this year! Or maybe they always have, but I've certainly never seen it before. I can't wait to try it out! In the past, I've also made chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, and Mexican wedding cakes. I used to try to do all of them every year, but it just got to be too much! So now we vote--but I get extra votes, since I'm the baker! :)

CPH also recently rolled out a new religion curriculum called "One in Christ" that looks promising. I'm particularly interested in the fifth grade set, which includes a series of biographies on four Lutheran "heroes of the faith." The Lutheran Education book has been on my wish list since before it came out. Education has always been so important to our church--it makes me very sad to see so many LCMS schools struggling now. We had a *very* classical school in our general area, and it ended up closing. The mission school around here, on the other hand, is thriving, so there's hope for the future!

I had to vote other. My natural inclination is to call it soda, but my husband's inclination to call it pop has rubbed off on me, so I call it both, depending on my mood, and who I'm talking to.

This is one of our family's favorite games! Our older two children ask to play it all the time. I like it because it's cooperative. It's fun to work together in a game for a change, instead of competing, (of course, I usually lose competitive games, so I may be biased!). It gives younger children a chance to participate, too, even if they don't really "get" the game. It's also easy to learn. We've played when grandparents were visiting, and it didn't take a whole lot of explanation to figure it out. The same goes for the aforementioned children--it's pretty easy for them to get the hang of it. It's also fun because the game is different every time you play. The island is set up differently every time, and the characters are different, as well. It's a different experience from a set board game. Hope that helps!