Christmas Eve

Well, here we are on the backside of Christmas, and we survived. It was a frantic, stress-filled, wonderful Christmas.

Overall, other than a couple of minor bumps in the road, we had a great Christmas. Christmas Eve we had both of our mothers (both of our fathers are deceased for those in cyberland who do not know), one of my brothers and a friend join us for dinner and exchanging of gifts.

Everyone who comes to our house Christmas Eve is given a personalized ornament to hang on the tree. That is, if they can find a branch to hang theirs on. We may need to add another tree in the future.

This is also when the children open the gifts from those present, including us. Everything went well with that, even with my observation that I spent how much time wrapping presents only to have all the paper off within 10 seconds.

Bruce seemed a little put out that the children seemed more excited about their t-shirts from Wally World than they were about the big present we gave them. At least they weren't making a big deal out of the boxes.

Jonah enjoyed entertaining those gathered with his enjoyment of his sisters' new dress-up clothes (shhh...don't tell Bruce I put that in here).

After dinner and presents, the children sprinkled the lawn with reindeer food (compliments of Nana) made cookies for Santa and prepared his plate and drink. Usually, Santa can find a serving of Cheerwine in his cup at our house, but this year the girls opted for juice.

After leaving Santa's treat out, we made a picture in front of our tree while in our Christmas p.j.s, except for Bruce who decided not to wear Christmas pajamas this year. (Can we say bah humbug?)

Please pray for this little boy

I have been following the plight of this little boy for a few months now. Things are not looking good for him. Please pray for Ethan Powell. Here is his website: http://www.ethanpowell.com.

Two funnies from yesterday

Yesterday was day two of no school and the girls had already had two fights by 10 a.m., one with Adriana storming off and telling Cara she wish she was not her sister.

I was on the computer when Adriana came up to me and said she was not going to Disney if Cara was going to Disney, but she would go if Cara were not going.

Mmmm...so I told her, "That's fine, I'll have Daddy call Nanny when he is home to see if she will stay with you. You need to let me know for sure because I need to cancel your reservation for breakfast at Cinderella's castle since we have to prepay for it."

She thought for a minute. Her reply? "I know what, I'll be nice to Cara and see how that goes." Think she's onto something?

The second funny, and I probably should surrender my mommy card, but it was a classic. We went to a local mall that none of us had ever been to before. I was near it and was just curious what it looked like, so we went.

The mall was small. We walked around it in about 10 minutes. Santa was there and the children saw him from a distance, but didn't talk to him because we have already had that visit.

Of course, a few minutes later the girls started picking at each other and starting to whine.

As we were getting ready to leave, I needed to go to the bathroom which was behind some heavy steel doors and down a long hallway. The girls evidently didn't know where we were going and asked where we were headed. Off-handly, I said, "I think Santa's office is down this hall and I might stop in to tell him how you are acting."

That set off the alarms in their heads. Adriana didn't panic as much as Cara, but at first they were acting like they didn't believe me that he had an office, so I said, "Let's go see."

Poor little Cara went into a panic and started trying to get out of the hallway and she even started crying a little (okay, I did feel bad at that point). They both begged and begged not to go to Santa's office. I finally told them we were going to the bathroom, and not the office.

We went to the bathroom and when we were finished a mall worker was waiting outside to clean the restroom. We went back inside to check to make sure we were the last people in there, and we were. I told the girls that he knew Santa and I am sure he would tell him what a big help they were.

Damage reversed, and, no, Cara didn't wake up crying in the middle of the night this time.

Now, don't think that we are cruel to our children and emphasize Santa over the real meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth. They know that and understand that to the best of their abilities at their various ages. When they misbehave, we emphasize that we are not happy with their actions and God is not pleased with their actions. It's just fun to yank their chain a little at this time of the year. We have to have something to work to our advantage when they are so wired with excitement.

Bring on the sickies

One of our time-honored family traditions at Christmas is for at least one of us to be sick on or around Christmas. The first year Adriana was hear, I think all three of us were sick, the first year Jonah was sick-projectile sickness and so on.

I guess this year is my turn. Last night, my nose started running and my throat is feeling sore. My left ear has been stopped up since I was sick last month. My father was deaf in his left ear all of my life, now I know how he felt. Pretty aggravating. Ugh! Hopefully, none of the children will get it, but Jonah's nose has been running, so that is highly doubtful. And, Adriana started coughing pretty bad this weekend. Ugh!

Our mothers and one of my brothers always join us on Christmas Eve. Maybe we are allergic to them? Hmmmm...just a thought.

Cara's nightmare

Cara woke up crying Saturday night. She was sobbing pretty hard when Bruce went to check on her. I heard him in the monitor ask her what was wrong. Her reply, "I was dreaming I got hickory switches for Christmas."

Okay, like my children even know what a hickory switch is and how it is used.

Cute story

Bruce told me that on Saturday Cara told him she didn't want to go to church because she didn't want to see Cody (her boyfriend). Bruce told her that she needed to realize that in our family, as long as you live with Mama and Daddy, you will be in church on Sunday.

Jonah was nearby, and after Bruce said that, he said, "I want to go live with Nanny." hehe! Of course, Bruce said, "I hate to tell you son, but if you go live with her, you still have to be in church on Sunday."

The Riot Act

Sometimes reading them "the Riot Act" does work! After church on Sunday, we were on our way to a Christmas drop-in at one of my Weight Watchers member's house. She lives in a very nice neighborhood in our town.

When she invited us to this event, she told me to bring the children because she wanted to show them her Disney room. She has been very helpful as we have been planning our trip.

Before we arrived at Elyse's house, I had a "prayer meeting" (as my mother calls it) with the girls and told them what we expected of them and how they were to behave.

When we arrived, a lot of people were there. And, because Elyse and her husband live in a retirement community, ours were the only children there. We were there a little over an hour.

I have to say, overall, they did fabulous! Even Bruce must have been listening to the Riot Act, because he did okay, also.

Christmas party

Adriana's class had a Christmas party yesterday afternoon. Bruce came home for lunch and kept Cara and Jonah so I could help her teacher with it.

I became the pizza delivery person. Mrs. L. asked if I would mind picking up 10 pizzas for three of the first grade classes. I picked those up and headed to the school. I told Bruce I needed one of those pizza delivery signs on top of the car.

In the classroom, I helped hand out the party items, and talked some with the teacher. I also took some pictures, of course, but Adriana tried to avoid the camera. Some of the children called my by another mom's name because she is in there a lot, too. She is also a good friend of mine, so I told them I didn't mind.

The party lasted until time for recess, and Adriana said she wanted to stay to go outside. We went outside and enjoyed the high 70s weather we had yesterday.

As we were leaving to go home, Adriana wanted to stop by the Santa Shoppe and get her teacher a present. The Santa Shoppe is something that is held by the PTO. They have a room filled with various gifts in all range of prices. Most of the items are less than $3.

Adriana sprung the Santa Shoppe on me, and I didn't have any cash on me, so I tried to convince her to go home and use the gift I had already purchased for her teacher. She insisted on going in, and since I know something picked out by her would mean more to her teacher, we went in the shop. She settled on an ornament and I got ready to write a check for $1.85. I was grumbling to my friend that I mentioned above who was running the register that I was about to write a check for that amount. She said she probably had that amount on her if I wanted to borrow it. After she rang it up, it was only $1.10. I was able to find 60 cents in change, so I owe Chris 50 cents. I guess the PTO ladies need to keep a running tab for me and I can settle up every once in a while.

Last night, Adriana made the sweetest card for her teacher to go with her present. She drew a heart, and on her own wrote "I love you". I think her teacher will be pleased.

Surprising Adriana

A few weeks ago when we were preparing for our yard sale, I surprised Adriana at school by having lunch with her since I was home alone. I told Bruce I thought that would be good idea for him to do sometime, so we talked about him doing before the school is let out for Christmas break.

He asked me if I knew what was on the menu for yesterday, and I tried the Internet and the local newspaper, but was not able to find out. He left work earlier than he normally does for lunch because Adriana's class goes to eat at 11:05. This is also near the time that Cara gets out of school, so we basically passed each other.

Cara's teacher assistant said something about turkey and dressing being served for lunch. Great news for Bruce! Dressing is probably his most favorite food. I called him on his cell phone while he was waiting and told him that he was in luck. He then asked if we wanted to join them. At first I said I thought we were going home, but I quickly changed my mind when I thought I would not have to make something. Yeah!

Adriana was very surprised. Her class made room for all of us beside her. Cara sat beside Adriana, and Adriana was on the end of the bench. Bruce said something about sitting beside her, but she told him she would rather have Cara beside her. At least they weren't fighting!

Jonah didn't eat anything, and I think Cara barely ate, but Bruce finished his whole plate and then some. I have to say, the food was very good. And what a great deal! All five of us ate for less than $9, including drinks. Students get to eat for $1. I can't make a meal for anywhere near that, so Adriana usually gets the meal at school.

Church Christmas program

We had our church Christmas program Sunday night. The children were not a part of it as they have been in the past. I wanted them to be, but for whatever reason most of the children were not a part of it this year. I have to admit, I was glad not to have practices to go to this year. I am not sure where we would have put that in our schedule.

After the program, we had refreshments and the Christmas tree where some presents were given out. For some reason, people at the church think our children do not have enough toys so they like to lavish them with even more. Another reason why we have cut way back this year. We could get our children nothing for Christmas, and they still would make out like bandits.

I do have to say I was proud of Cara. Her name was not called until almost the very last, so she had to sit there and watch while her sister and brother received and opened their presents. She never once said anything about where's my present or whined about it. She seemed to be enjoying just watching them open theirs.

Parade, trees and Santa

On Saturday was our town's annual "Holiday on Main" which includes the Christmas parade.

Both girls were in the parade, Cara with her class and Adriana with her Girl Scout troop. This meant that we all ended up in the parade because Bruce and I volunteered to walk with the groups. Bruce went with Cara's class because he said something about it looking better than walking with the Girl Scouts and I went with Adriana's troop.

The parade route ended where children could visit with Santa afterwards. As soon as the girls' groups finished the parade, we got in line so the children could see Santa. And, we were the first in line. Yeah!

All three of them did beautifully with Santa. I was concerned about Jonah, but he walked right up to him and sat in his lap. I was also able to get some decent pictures of the visit.

After visiting with Santa, we went to pick out our Christmas tree. I had great visions of going to the tree farm where we went last year and spending another long afternoon picking one out. That was not to be, but for a good reason.

The private school here was selling trees, and one of Bruce's co-worker's mother had donated some money for an extra tree. The co-worker offered to us, and Bruce being the frugal (ahem, cheap) person that he is, we decided to take her up on the offer. The best part was they were selling the trees in the empty lot right next to our house. The guy helping us offered us free delivery without a problem.

The tree is a beautiful fraser free tree. We set it up and gave it a few hours to let the branches fall before we started decorating. I was also in the midst of baking for the church Christmas program the next night, so we waited a while.

After a sugar rush from the baking which was not too pleasant (on my part, not the children's), we finally got down to the decorating. It went well for a few minutes until Jonah decided he liked the crashing sound of glass balls breaking. I think three were sacrificed. I really didn't mind that those ended up broken, because they were cheap ornaments I bought when I was living by myself. This is the reason the sentimental nice glass ornaments we have bought through the years will stay off the tree for a while. After we cleaned up the mess, Bruce and Jonah went to watch football.

The girls didn't last much longer than that. They hung a few ornaments and then they started getting distracted. So, we ended our session and I finished decorating the tree on my own.

I left the ornaments where the children had placed them, so the tree definitely droops in places, but it looks great.

Shopping, ugh!

We had a busy weekend this past weekend, and Adriana is still paying for it. She gets tired very easily, and takes several days to recover. You would think we would have learned that by now, but we haven't.

On Friday, right after I picked Adriana up from school, the children and I headed to the nearest city with a Wal-Mart which is about 30 minutes away. I was trying to finish up our Christmas shopping, and I don't want to wait too much longer to complete it.

I explained to the girls that I needed them to cooperate and help me shop. That lasted for about 15 minutes, tops. Something about having all three of our children together throws off the balance of the universe. Two together, no matter which two, no problem. Throw the third one in there, and all sense of sanity is lost.

The girls started picking at each other and wanting to play with Jonah. They also were trying to play with each other in the aisles, which was not helping matters.

I called Bruce's office to talk about dinner plans and the person answering the phone asked me how I was doing. I told her that I would rather be dipped in honey and fed to the bears than go shopping with my children.

Nevertheless, we survived three stores, including Wal-Mart and dinner.

The Christmas links are back

When I was growing up, one thing I loved to make during Christmas time was the Christmas chain. My mother would help me make a chain out of construction paper links. The links represented however many days were left until Christmas.

I finally remembered to do that this year with our children. So, on Monday we made paper chains to represent the remaining days until Christmas.

Now, if I could only get those chains not to shorten so quickly. Think if I add links back that would help?

Peace on earth

These are our sweet cherubs we came home to Saturday night.

All I want for Christmas is my front tooth

One of Adriana's top two front teeth came out on Saturday. Of course, she helped it a little with the apple she ate earlier in the week.

The children's choir director told me Friday night her tooth had been bleeding. I told her that it didn't help matters that Adriana had been trying to get that thing out all week.

A boy in her class has been telling her all kind of stories about the tooth fairy. Of course, she didn't turn down the money the tooth fairy left under her pillow.

We had a date

Bruce and I were able to enjoy a date Saturday night. As a part of my Christmas present, he purchased two tickets for us to a Point of Grace "Winter Wonderland" concert and secured Nanny's (his mom) babysitting services. We were supposed to go out to eat also, but were not able to so we had Wendy's drive-thru instead.

We had a wonderful time. Point of Grace sounded great and I enjoyed being able to relax. Going to a Christmas concert has been a highlight for me for many years, but for the past few I have not been able to do so. This was such a great way to welcome in the season.

I think my favorite part of the whole evening didn't involve singing, though. Point of Grace is partnering with Compassion International to help raise awareness about children in poverty stricken areas in the world. During the concert, the members of POG presented a video about a trip they made to visit children they sponsored through Compassion. Then, volunteers with Compassion passed out information about children to those who were interested.

For years, I have wanted to sponsor a child through an organization like this. For one reason or the other, I have not up until this point. I didn't raise my hand when the volunteers came around because I had not discussed it with Bruce beforehand. Right when the intermission started, I told him I wanted to sponsor a child. As someone in our church said about her husband, I consider him the conservative one, so I waited for his reply. He told me he was all for sponsoring a child. He said, and I agree, that we can stop giving our children so much and help some other child in the world. Yes, we have been guilty of giving our children too much. I will admit that.

Almost as soon as Bruce had finished speaking, I jumped up and practically ran to the Compassion table to find our child. I said a quick prayer to the Lord to show me the right child. I wanted a little girl who was six years old so Adriana could relate to her. I found her! She is a six year old girl who lives in a family with three children. She lives in Africa. She also had on a pink dress in her picture, which is Adriana's favorite color. I came back to Bruce and told him I found our child. As I told him, I had wanted to have four children, but we settled on three. Now, I feel like we have our fourth.

The next day, I told Adriana about her and she was so sweet about it. Our sponsored child is not presently attending school. Adriana said she hoped she could go to Mexico and speak Mexican because she knows children in Mexico go to school. I told her I thought that might be a little far for her to go.

Now, I debated about writing about this in the blog because I don't want to come across as being like those in the Bible who prayed for show, but I am hoping that maybe someone who reads this might think about sponsoring a child, also. If you do decide to sponsor a child, Compassion is a wonderful organization. Everything I have read about them since points to a well run Biblical-based organization. I am going to try to post a link for them on the front page of the blog.

Our own personal superstar

First, let me say, whew we still have our children, so I guess no one has called child protective services. Thank you!

Now, onto our scheduled blog time. Adriana has been participating in a children's choir at a local church and this past Friday they had their Christmas performance. They did fantastic! And, I am going to be partial and say Adriana was the star of the show (at least in our eyes).

When I asked her what her role in the play was going to be, she said, "I'm an angel like always." She has been an angel in almost every church play in which she has participated.

My only complaint, and it is a small one, is I didn't get to video record the performance. I was close enough and had a perfect spot, except I had the church organ in front of me. Of course, Adriana stood behind the organ and all we could see was her head, so I didn't even bother trying to record it. I did get some still shots of her when they did the manger scene. So, here is one for your enjoyment.