Christmas

Hello all...yes, we did survive Christmas. I figured I better get on here soon or you would all think we didn't make it through this year. This will probably be a rather lengthy post and may become 2.
Rachel's party went rather well on Friday night. Everyone had a good time, I think and only 1 minor burn with the glue guns that were being used to make the crafts. Rachel and Jackie were still awake, talking, when Mark & I went up at 11:30. They actually slept with the light on because they fell asleep talking.
Big brother's package did arrive on Friday as was expected and then the second package arrived from Dad on Saturday. Thank you to you both. The kids thoroughly enjoyed them. Nate, you must not have been able to get their lists but you actually hit an item on Rachel's. I couldn't get their list on the internet either. I'll find out more about why next year. I have to tell you though, if you continue to get him science kits dealing with electricity and other forms of energy, you really need to move closer...so he can do them at your house, just in case!
I went out early Christmas eve to finish up the last minute shopping. Mark's bonus didn't even make it out of the first store. Then I made sure we had all we needed for groceries before heading home. My shopping also made it possible for wrapping to be done but then I had to help with other wrapping when I returned home. Mark made a nice turkey potpie for our dinner before we headed to church for our candlelight Christmas eve service. We did our traditional ride around town to look and lights (which wasn't very impressive this year since it started raining on Friday and continued on Saturday). Then it was home for our telling of the nativity and checking NORAD for Santa sightings.
We let the kids open one present each on Christmas eve this year. Gramma had made them all new pj's so that was what they got to open. I sort of figured it would help everyone look a little nicer in our Christmas pictures with the new jammies. Mom did a good job on the sizes for not having the kids around to fit.
It was 10:00 before we got the kids to bed and could finish our preps. I had to finish the sewing projects that we had started which I can now tell what it was. I had bought beanbags for all the kids to use in the living room. I really didn't like the covers on them though and decided to make my own covers to go over the originals. Mom and I had completed 2 before she went home so I just had to put Rachel's together. I finished in about 2 hours without much of any problems. But when we went to put all of them into their covers, we made a discovery! Evidently, Rachel's wasn't as full as the boys' and we used hers as our model! It took both Mark and I working together probably 15 minutes or so to coax each of the boys' into their covers. Rachel's slid in incredibly easy! Of course, Rachel really needs the largest one. What we are probably going to do is to open them up and take some of the boys' beans and put them into hers while they are all sleeping.
After finishing the bags, then we had our other wrapping and Santa duties to take care of. We were up MUCH TOO LATE! Mark even wrote a note to Rachel from Santa expressing disappointment that for 2 years now she hasn't left him some of her birthday cake.
I came downstairs about 7:20 and Rachel and Stephen were already up. I thought they, especially Stephen, might melt down before Joshua and Dad got up but they all survived. We were able to get everything opened without major rushing and eat some branmuffins before we headed to the 10 a.m. service at church.
After church, it was home to make biscuits and gravy. The kids asked if they could have a "pajama party" so they spent the day playing and watching DVD's in their new pj's. We got The Polar Express for the family. Mark also worked on his "3" puzzle that he received. I started charging my new cordless phones that I received (was top of my list).
It was actually rather quiet and relaxing...a very enjoyable holiday! When Mark has to be at work on the 26th, travel just isn't feasible. We do miss not being with family during this time of year but also enjoy the time of just being together without rushing around. (We do enough of that at other times.)
I think that about covers it for now. We are busy today with cleaning and laundry. Tomorrow is newspaper day and Rachel is supposed to go to Jackie's in Newaygo for a sleepover.

Rachel's party

It's almost time for Rachel's birthday party. Even though her birthday was Tuesday and we did a celebration with Gramma here, tonight is her friend party. One guest is here, Jackie from Newaygo. The other friend we have to pick up in about an hour. The cake is done and the kids are quiet....wait a minute, maybe it's too quiet! Actually the girls are watching Rachel's Samantha (the American Girl) DVD that we got her for her birthday and the boys have either joined them or are in the basement playing foosball. I have even partially cleaned up the kitchen.

Of course, plans have changed several times in planning this. We were going to make gingerbread houses. I have 2 kits here plus a Longenberger mold to make more. I thought the boys should make one and the girls each have their own but that would have entailed making 2 from scratch. Mark thought the boys could do one another time and just let each girl make their own so that meant making one from scratch. Then I realized I hadn't bought the real butter required to make the recipe (and I'm avoiding taking all 4 kids into Meijers myself just for butter)...well, we'll just go with 2 houses. Then a light went on...I had some craft kits stored away from previous years that I had used for our preschool dept. at church. 1 of them had never been opened because they are "Shrinky Dinks" and could only be baked in electric ovens and I had gas at the time. There are also kits to make bell doorhangers, angel and tree bells. Rachel said that these would make a fun activity for her and the girls tonight! Whew! The gingerbread houses will be something for next week of vacation.

So in the middle of all the rush to get everything ready for Christmas, we take a break and focus on birthdays! Like we need more to fit into our schedules.

We received our first package of 2 we knew were coming from Dad on Wednesday. Thanks for the ornaments. Pretty soon we are going to need 2 trees and 1 will be strictly dedicated to NASCAR. Big brother's box is supposed to arrive today but when I was tracking it on Wed. it didn't indicate that it had left Utah yet. Now the email with the tracking number is not in our inbox so I can't see if it is coming or not. It hasn't made it yet. The package coming from JCPenney's from Mom arrived yesterday and was promptly stashed away. I haven't even started any wrapping yet.

Well, I better run. I need to get out some glue guns and a few other last minute preps for the party before we officially get under way at 5:30.

Time

Dad says it's time to blog again but I just haven't had the time. I actually only have a minute or 2 right now. I have my own 3 kids home plus 2 of a friends because she had a medical appointment. After they are picked up, we will have lunch and go do our paper route.

Mom has been here since last Wednesday and we have been busy all the time. She left this morning to head back to Alpena. I probably have her rather worn out...going all day with kids and errands and sewing into the night on a project I'm working on for Christmas. I didn't plan on having her do so much of the sewing but I'm glad she was here or I probably wouldn't have finished the projects. We were working our own design and ran into some kinks I might not have been able to work through without us talking through them together.

We went to the Festival of Lights at Calvary Church on Friday night. It was as beautiful as ever. We have gone more over the last 15 years that we have known about it then not going. I didn't think it would be going on last weekend because it is usually the first and second weekend of Dec. but found out it had been moved this year.

The kids did great in all their programs this year. Both had one for school and then the church one which was Sunday evening. Mom was going to watch the school ones on video but we were so busy we never got the camera hooked up to the VCR.

My shopping isn't done, my sewing isn't done, holiday baking is unheard of in this house, and I have AVON customers that need their orders. Guess I better get busy. Oh yeah, there is also a birthday cake to get baked and decorated for Rachel when her friends come over on Friday night. More about her birthday later.

Wish Lists

Just a quick note to let you know that we have taken the kids to Toys 'R Us and had them do their wish lists for this year. Joshua has been done for a couple of weeks but we just got Rachel and Stephen there today. They are starting to have a lot of fun doing them each year and ask when they are going to get to. Their lists, do not include a couple of items they would really like though, because we couldn't find them at that store. No one would be disappointed if they unwrapped The Dukes of Hazzard seasons 4 or 5. We have 1, 2, & 3 and they absolutely love it. Mom & Dad don't mind the memories from our teens either.

I'll have to get on later and give you my wish list. Actually the top item is already covered. I kept telling Mark that a dumpster was on the top of my list for Christmas. But now that we spent 2 weekends working on the basement, I don't need that because we already made our trip to the dump.

SNOW DAY...

We are experiencing the first snow day of this school year. It's hard to believe it isn't even Christmas yet and the kids have a snow day! This could be a lllooooonnnnggggggg winter!

You are really not going to believe the timing of this snow day--Mark and I have been in charge of a Toys for Tots drive at the school. Each day for the last 3 weeks I have picked up the toys, brought them home, counted them, and reported the total to a local TV station having a school challenge. Well, today was the day to deliver the toys to the TV station during their MORNING NEWS! Of course, Rachel & Stephen wanted to go with Mark to make the drop off. They even went to bed an hour early last night so that they could get up at 5:00 AM to go. So on a day when there was no school and they could sleep in, they were up at 5! I have given a very strong warning already that if there are problems getting along, etc., there will be more than just Joshua taking a nap today. By the way, they were all on TV and Stephen even got to answer a question about our collecting.

I thought I was going to have lots of kids today. In talking with the mom of the daycare kids that come every morning till school, we had made arrangements that they would stay the whole day on snow days. A neighbor is in Mexico this week and she had asked if there was a snow day, her third grade son could stay here while the gramma that is watching him is at work. Plus, of course, I knew Sarah would be coming since both her folks work. Turns out that Sarah is the only extra one coming. The day of the morning kids called and he decided to take a sick day today and stay home with the kids. I don't know what happened to the boy next door but he never showed up either. When I talked to Sarah's dad, he said that she was sleeping in and would get herself here by noon.

You think that means I might get some work out of mine this morning...that has yet to be seen. I have barely been able to get them out from under all the blankets we use to wrap up in in our livingroom. Well, I guess I better start leading by example.

Here we go again...

Joshua is sick again. He is sniffly and congested and starting to cough. I'm starting to think that those 2 parades might not have been the best idea for him but he was fine then.

The other item that could keep our holidays "interesting" is that I have found out that a little boy that was at church on Sunday, in program practice, was sent home from school on Monday with the chicken pox. Of course, all my kids have been vacinated but that isn't a comfort since so had this child and all 8 of the other kids in his classroom that all have it now. If you know the statistics that means the first of mine that might show up with it would probably do so around 12/18 which is the day of the program at church as well as being just 2 days before Rachel's birthday and a week before Christmas.

The other thought that this brings up is "How many others from the Christmas program might end up with it just before the actual program?" If very many do, we may have our program in January this year.

The only thing good about the timing that I can think of is that my kids wouldn't miss any school if they came down with it at the 18th. I can't believe it but they have the entire week before Christmas off! That sure doesn't help a mom get any last minute items taken care of. I know when I was a kid we would have had school at least through the 22nd. From what I understand there are some schools in the area going till at least Wed. or Thurs. but not ours. The principal mentioned that the teachers like it because it gives them a chance to do personal stuff before the holiday.

Well, I have papers waiting to be bagged. Rachel and Stephen are going to have to do the delivery again after school since Joshua's sick but I'll have them bagged and ready. I also drive around to supervise and have more papers ready when they need them. Joshua stays in the van with me to stay warm instead of walking in this cold.

Last Weekend

This last weekend was filled with parades! Mark's work, Camp & Cruise, had entries in 2 different parades in the area and they needed people to pass out candy to the kids. Mark volunteered as long as all the kids could come. So Friday night, we were in the Coopersville parade which was really rather short and then Saturday night, we were in the Grand Haven parade. The weather was cold for both but Saturday we also had quite a bit of snow coming down. It wasn't bad when we left GR but part way there, it started snowing hard. We actually called friends to have them check about cancellations.

The kids did great and had a ball! The worst was just waiting around for the parade to get started and for our turn to move came. Besides several normal layers, they all had on their snowpants, hats, gloves, etc. and then I topped them off with 1 of Daddy's work shirts. It not only helped keep them warmer, it also made them easier to see and keep track of. I kept Joshua right close to me and we worked out of one container of candy. It was really funny watching him try to hand out candy with the kind of big mittens he had on. Sometimes he thought he had a piece of candy in his hand but he didn't. Other times, he had the candy but couldn't get it dropped in the other kids mittens and it fell in the snow at their feet.

There was hot cocoa after both parades. Coopersville had cocoa and cookies for everyone at their jr. high gym and then Sat., Mark's bosses invited all of us to a restaurant for cocoa and dessert. It was a nice visit only because of the snow it ended up being 11 p.m. before we got home. I ended up sleeping on the way home because there was the smell of gas/diesel on a lot of the crews boots because of the generator they were using to run the lights on the float. The smell really got to me. I don't know whether you would consider it my allergies or not but it made me rather miserable.

The float was rather cute. They took a pontoon boat and put a box around the middle of it so both ends stuck out and they had lights strung on them. They had the box wrapped with a BIG bow on top and a sign that read "NO PEEKING". I thought it looked rather neat.

Stephen had hoped that we would have a new tradition to replace our trapsing through the snow to pick out and cut down the tree together as a family since we had to go to an artificial tree now. Who knows, maybe this will be it.

Basement

Boy, have we been busy! I can't wait for someone to come visit and see our basement! We have spent a good part of the last 2 Saturdays working down there. It isn't completely cleaned out because there was some boxes we are going to have to go through item by item but it is definitely improved.

At the same time, we also managed to clean out the garage enough for 1 vehicle to go in it--the van! This is especially good since we are now under a Winter Snow Advisory and are expecting 8+ inches tonight and tomorrow. The van is rather difficult to get cleaned off well and is usually home first and out second in the mornings so that is why it is getting the privileged position in the garage.

All this cleaning and reorganizing took 3 trips to Goodwill and a dump trip to do. For Goodwill we just used the van but for the dump we had a friend bring over his full size pickup. We had the bed of that truck packed full and piled up as high as the cab of the truck. We were even able to move the game table and stairstepper machine into the basement. Of course, the basement will be even cleaner on Friday morning when the school's Toys for Tots drive is done and we can deliver the 130+ toys that they have collected to a local TV station.

I have been spending my days breathing through a filter to keep the allergies under control while we worked. I really don't like those things but they do help. I probably should buy a few more to keep them closer at hand and not have to search for them any time I need to do a bit of dusty work.

I'll have to fill you in on our other cold yet fun activities later. Now that Dad has a blog, I've sort of been challenged to blog more often and keep you all better informed. I'll have to figure out a way to put a link to his blog over on the side later too.