Christmas Eve 2010 - in pictures

Christmas this year found my emotions running amok ... missing my mother, my family in MS, yearning for things to be the same even though they will never be the same again, wanting to make the best of the holiday for my kiddos and alternately wanting to hide in my room and just cry.

We (I) was surprised by a visit from Wes's mother, who flew here from Seattle. I am so glad she got to meet the baby and hang out with us, and with June, who drove up from Oxford (MS) to celebrate with us (and to catch the flu, which was no good! But thanks to Wes's powers of prescription, she was all better within 24 hours!) Wes knew his mother was coming but did not share this information, and she appeared on our doorstep wrapped up like a package with a red plastic bag. The kiddos were thrilled and overjoyed. And so was June. Wes continued to lie and say he had no idea. Land spent great quality time with the kiddos and with Suzie, and she helped nurse June back to health. Too bad their time together was spent with illness. :(

As for me, I was just tormented by my aforementioned emotional meanderings. But I am okay.

Here are some pictures ... just from Christmas Eve. I'll put some from Christmas Day in another post. There was just a lot going on.

Christmas Eve Morning: Homemade snowman pancakes!
June got in on the decorating, too.

Suzie braved the cold ... for a minute.

Harlan is quite the strong man!

I came out periodically to check on things
... then went right back in.
I don't think cold/wet/slippery stuff is fun!

Sophie attacked Harlan with a snowball!

Harlan's counter attack was a little more effective.

Harlan rolled a huge snowball! It was too heavy for Wes to add
to the snowman he was working on, though.

We blew bubbles to see if they would freeze.
It wasn't quite cold enough for that.

I'm not sure what this game was, but they were having fun.

A snow face on the tree!

Lillie was working on a snow fort.

Final measurement of the snowman stack: 12 feet!
Wes named the bottom one Tiny.
Harlan named the other two Cocoa and Weirdo.

Soph, being fabulous, as usual.

June, Lillie, Maggie and Buddy. (Land and June's dogs.)

We made s'mores in the fireplace.
Definitely better with dark chocolate candy bars.

June and Suzie hung out while the kiddos
decorated cookies for "Santa."

Then Granyan showed up at the door!
Wrapped up like a gift!
And we were all so surprised.

Happy reunion! They hadn't seen each other since last January.
Long distance relationships are no fun.

Granyan meets Suzie for the first time!

Then she sat down and emptied her two bags
 -- they were FULL of gifts!

Hugging goodnight, happy to
be together for Christmas 

After big kiddos were in bed, we let Suzie
open her gifts from Granyan.

She was so excited!

Suzie tries on one of her presents
while Buddy gives Granyan some lovin'

Sweet pic.

Tis the season to be jolly?

(People who have - or pretend to have - perfect families just annoy me. I do not want to be one of those people. So here is the real, true story of how I made Christmas cookies with my kiddos today.)

Although we are not traveling this season, I am determined that, in January, my kiddos will not look back and feel like their Christmas break was wasted. Yesterday we didn't do much, except Harlan, who played at his friend Sam's house then had his piano lesson. While he was busy with those things, the girls and I went to the grocery store. Hooray!

Today, (1) the kiddos were fighting and yelling at each other, (2) I'm currently being tormented by an awful cold which makes my throat sore, my ears throb, my nose run, and makes me extremely grumpy, (3) I couldn't sleep very well last night, so that makes me even grumpier. BUT I was determined to spend quality time having FUN today! We made Christmas cookies. Everyone was grumping at everyone else about whose turn it was to dump the next ingredient, whose turn it was to get on the chair to see in the mixer, whose toes (MINE) were getting smashed when people were sliding the chair around ... but we made those cookies!

 Getting ready to start

 Harlan adds the shortening

 Suzie helped, too!

 At least someone was happy!

 Harlan threw a big fit! I don't remember why.

She was a big helper.

The kiddos went to play while the cookies baked. I made the frosting (yum!), then I cooked some tortellini and discovered too late - after a frantic text to Wes - that he had thrown away the one jar of Alfredo sauce we had. It was brand new! What the heck?! So I put pesto sauce on it, which is great for me but made kiddos whine even more. I forced them to eat it, using the cookies as a bribe. They ate it -- but they were not happy about it!

Then we mixed colors into the frosting! Decorating the cookies brought more contention. There was more arguing, about who would get to use the pink frosting first, who was sitting too close to someone else, and who was licking the spoons in the communal frosting cups. Oh, joy!

Harlan, caught in the act

Still helping! (Notice she's wearing different clothes ... I'm leaving that loveliness out of my post...)

Would you like some cookie with your sprinkles?

 

And now they are all in their beds, in the room that they share, NOT sleeping as I told them to do. I hear giggling and scurrying and someone - probably Lillie - saying, "SSHHH!" And maybe I should be mad that they're not napping ... but I'm just glad they're finally getting along.

Update

Oh my, oh my. Lots going on around here ... if you are my facebook friend (which I think all 3 of the people who read this are), then you know most of it.

First, we're expecting another baby! Estimated arrival date: October 18. My two very best friends have October birthdays, so I'm super excited for this! :) (You know who you are!) (Actually I don't think they read this. Oh well.) I'm hoping we'll be able to find out what kind of baby this is on May 18. Then we can finalize our name and start calling him/her something other than "baby in the tummy."

In not-so-great news, my mother's illness is back. Her esophageal cancer has made a horrid return and spread also to her liver and spine. She got some not-great news from the dr on Monday, so we're all dealing with that. Hopefully Harlan and I will be able to make a trip down to visit her next weekend.

Also, Wes is getting ready to take the Step 3 board exam! He has to take it in St. Louis, so he will leave today after church and come home Tuesday night. It is a BIG DEAL, so we're pretty nervous about it. :-\

Speaking of Wes, we're about to celebrate our 10-year anniversary! Wes's mom is driving down later this month to watch the kiddos and pup for a week while we head to Breckenridge, CO. The trip is largely courtesy of my parents, who are providing the condo. We were planning to do some whitewater rafting, but with "baby in the tummy," I'm thinking we probably won't be allowed to do that. We'll hike instead! And sleep late every day! And eat ice cream without having to share! :)

Speaking of Wes's mom, we are very excited to see her, since the last time we saw her was in September! And maybe we will get to see June, too, but we're not sure of that, yet. Everyone is super excited for Granyan's visit!

When Land drives down to watch the kiddos, she will be driving our new car! My dream car, of course, a red 1971 VW bus! WooHoo! I'm so anxious to see the bus, especially after all of the hard work and elbow grease Land has put into renovations and cleaning! :)

Also, my pottery has been selling pretty well! I've been making a steady $70/month at the Marriott for the past 3 months, which is cool, and I've also stayed busy with special orders! :) For now, the pottery is my hobby that pays for itself, and I think that's great for now!

Kiddos are great. Sophie is talking circles around us ... except Lillie, my chatterbox who never stops talking! Harlan is doing well in the boys' gymnastics class and looking forward to starting kindergarten next year. And Lillie's great, too, reading like crazy and learning her math facts and playing outside. She just had her spring concert for school, and she did a great job!

I think that's about all for now. We're dealing with some scary stuff with my mom, but otherwise life is good!

Update: The bad, the good, and my dream car!!

So, February kicked my tail. Mom was in and out of the hospital with various health problems, including blood clots, TWO of which entered her lungs and so she is SO LUCKY TO BE ALIVE! By some miracle, Wes actually had three full weekends off this month, so I was glad to be able to drive down and visit her and help out a bit. She seems to be getting better -- 3 good days in a row -- so that is a huge blessing!

The first time I drove down, I had to drive through an ice storm in Arkansas, which was terrifying and dangerous and slow. But when I saw the surprised look on Mom's face when I got to the hospital (she didn't know I was coming) it was all worth it! My dad was also really happy to see me, although he said if he had known I was thinking of driving through the ice storm, he would have "whipped your little $%^&*" ... so that is why he didn't know! The second time I drove down, I had some unpleasant stomach problems and spent an entire hour in the St. Louis area going from one gas station bathroom to another. Yippee. But I made it, and it was over just that fast. And no one else got it. Must've been something I ate.

So I made a 6.5-hour drive three times with no accidents or tickets. Then I backed out of my garage before the door was fully opened. Goodbye to my rear spoiler/brake light and antenna! So that was $500 down the drain for a happy deductible. On a good note, the man at University Chrysler was SO NICE to work hard to keep the cost under $1300 so that my rates didn't go up! (The estimate was $1294, so it wasn't easy!)

I also had a bad cold, which has now infected Wes.

THE GOOD NEWS!!!! -- We got more than we expected from Uncle Sam (the last time I'll ever love tax season, you know!) So ....... we bought me my DREAM CAR!!! Drum roll please ...

It is a 1971 VW bus. And it is in excellent condition. The same guy has owned it since 1971. And now it is mine! As soon as it gets a few things fixed and my fabulous mother-in-law brings it to me. Because right now it lives in Olympia, WA. I will have it in May! :) Thank you to Land!!!!!

In other good news ... Wes is over halfway through his one hard year of residency! He went to the Rusk Rehab Hospital the other day (where he will be working for 3 years beginning July 1) and talked for a long time to Judy Olson, the resident program coordinator. She said they are excited to have him come and work with them. He has quite the reputation around the university hospitals as the 'fix-it' guy now. He has fixed everything from printers to spreadsheets to the way the cancer clinic organized their patients (shortening the wait time significantly). So he is doing great! March he will be working a few shifts in the ER to practice for moonlighting next year, April and May he will be in the VA (HOME CALL YEAH!!), and June he will be on orthopedics (also home call!) Then we're DONE WITH YEAR 1!!!! And we can all celebrate having more time together, and Dad home for dinner every night, and moonlighting in the ER for extra cash! :) It's like the pot of gold at the end of the horrendous first year.

I think that's all I can share for now ... I think it's enough! So there you have it!