Merry Christmas!

Title says it all.

Parade and performances

This past weekend was quite busy as we had a parade and two performances over the course of two days.

Adriana was in our town's Christmas parade with her Girl Scout troop. It was fun, although chillier than we are accustomed. Afterwards, the children sat on Santa's lap for a visit and some pictures. For me, the visit wasn't the great warm memory, but I won't go into why on here. Let's just say I was hormonal and leave it at that. Adriana didn't get to tell Santa what she wanted because I rushed us all out right after she sat in his lap. She did, however, send him an e-mail and she quickly received a reply. Pretty cool, especially considering he said he knew she was helping her parents around the house. She helped clean more than usual that day.

That night, we went to our church's Christmas program. The children sang a couple of songs and Jonah was the "Little Drummer Boy". (Now, I know the little drummer boy is not biblical, but the directors were trying to find a part for him.) The only problem was he wouldn't drum. During rehearsal, we had to fight him to get the drum away. The afternoon of the performance, he almost took a nap a couple of times. We even tried lying down with him, but he would fight it. He fell asleep right before we left to go to the church, so he was sleepy for the performance. I am surprised he even walked down the aisle. He did while drumming with one drumstick and sucking his thumb. He saw me and walked right to me. I couldn't get him to move anymore after that.

The next night, the girls were in a Christmas concert presented by a local church's children's choir. Adriana was in the chorus, and Cara was a cheerleader. Both of them did great, and Cara stole the show in my humble opinion.

Needless to say, we have all been recovering this week.

The tale of the leaning Christmas tree

So, the same weekend we went to the Live Nativity (which was used as a sermon illustration, by the way), we went to get our live Christmas tree. Supposed to be a great, warm family memory. Supposed to be. Not quite.

First off, we started off the day with me cleaning out the living room which someone turns into a junk room any time other than Christmas. It wasn't too bad, but a little girl was desperately wanting to help and I just wanted to get it done. I wasn't the patient mother I should have been.

Finally, after lunch we headed down to the Christmas tree farm in the freezing, somewhat damp weather. All was going good until Adriana spotted two cats. And, Jonah had a blow-out in his pull-up. (Yes, potty training is on the horizon. Don't worry.)

For some unknown reason Adriana is terrified of cats. Now, she has never been attacked, scratched or anything else by cats, but she is absolutely petrified of the things. The two cats were not anywhere near and she was begging me to carry her. I want her to get over this fear, so being the nice, loving mother I am, I refused. She becomes hysterical.

In the meantime, Jonah has a runny blow-out in his pull-up. (I know, TMI, but you have to really appreciate the scene here.) Christmas tree farms generally do not have a changing table right handy, so Bruce took him to the van, but decided he needed to put him on the ground to change him. We did have a changing pad to place him on. We got him taken care of and outfit changed.

Then, Jonah was in tears because I would not let him have his Doodlebops "magazine" as he calls it. It is a CD insert.

So, we proceeded to have two crying children. Needless to say, we wrapped up the tree shopping very soon after that.

Cara was cooperative that day and did not have a meltdown when I talked her out of getting her Beary a tree.

And, they did enjoy the little tractor-train ride.

We got the tree home and set it in the stand and left it for a little while. At this point, we decided to finish the tree the next day because it was so late.

The next day, while stringing the lights, I noticed the tree was leaning. That turned into an hour or so of trying to right the tree. Seems the tree has a major limb that prevents the tree from sitting right in the stand. Ugh!

We finally got it secure enough that we each put about two ornaments on there and called it a night.

The tree now has about 15 ornaments on it. Maybe it will be finished by Christmas. Maybe.

And on Dec. 26, it is turning into an artificial tree.

Live Nativity

We went to see a live nativity this past weekend in a neighboring town. I saw an advertisement for it, and thought this is what my children really need to see. If you ask Adriana, she can tell you that Christmas is about Jesus' birth. I thought Cara would be able to say that, too, but a couple of weeks ago she said it was about Santa and getting presents. Big mistake. Before you think that we haven't raised our children correctly, last year she could tell you the real meaning, but I think she kind of forgot in all the excitement and it was at the beginning of the season.

I really wanted to go, but we hesitated because of Cara's fever and sore throat the day before. She said she was feeling better, but her throat was a "little bit" sore. I decided we should try it, so off we went.

(I had posted a whole paragraph here that somehow just went away all of a sudden, so I am going to ignore it.)

After eating out, we went to the place with the Nativity. They had free wagon rides with horse drawn wagons, so we got in line for that first. We didn't have to wait too long, but it was cold. Very cold. We rode around and saw the beautiful lighted displays that were set up. Adriana paid special attention to all the lights and seemed to be soaking everything up.

After getting off the wagon, we headed straight to the Nativity scene. We passed where some groups were selling baked goods and a couple of fires were set up. On the way, we mistakenly saw what we thought were people roasting marshmallows. (I think people were carrying around these neat little pretzels dipped in white chocolate that we saw in the dark as marshmallows.) Bruce or one of us happened to mention the marshmallows, and that was all Cara could think about after that. We kept hearing how she wanted a marshmallow.

Bruce was complaining about his feet hurting because they had been swelling during the day. (He has recently been placed on high blood pressure medicine.) I don't doubt they were, but I was thinking this was supposed to be a warm fuzzy, teachable family moment. I wasn't being such a good understanding wife at the time. I am sorry, honey, I really am.

We were standing waiting for the next Nativity presentation to start when Bruce said something like, "I could take Cara and we could go get a marshmallow" or something like that. Nice coming from the minister, huh? I guess we all have our moments. I told him I thought we should all stay together and it wouldn't last too long. Cara kept saying she wanted a marshmallow. I then said, "No, we are going to stay here and learn what Christmas is really about."

Her response in a not so soft voice, "I get it, Mom. Christmas is all about Jesus' birth. Now, I want a marshmallow."

After all that, they didn't have marshmallows. But they did have some very yummy chocolate treats and hot chocolate. Oh, yeah, and bunnies to pet.

Some Thanksgiving pictures

Digging into the food.

Cara found a few things she liked.

Nanny with her grandchildren, some birthed into the family and some acquired by other means.

Listening to the "only game that matters".


Cara and Jonah entertained with a fashion show.

Sharing memories around the table.

Leaving B in the dust with the Andy Griffith show game.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend. I failed to mention that the children had fun with my mother, brother, and some family friends, also. The children decided to name our turkey "Joe Cong Cong Phooey", don't ask me why because I am not sure.

We went to see the children's "Nana", too. She is someone I have known all my life and is like a second mother to me. She is the one who inspired me to acquire all the Christmas decorations that I have. Her house is always decorated from top to bottom with decorations. We haven't seen her in quite some time, so that was a nice visit.

The girls enjoyed playing the Andy Griffith Show game with their cousin B. The older brothers listened to Clemson-Carolina game on the radio since Nanny does not have cable.

Sick kiddo today

Cara woke up this morning with a temperature of 100.1 under her arm (the only way I could get her to let me take it). She also complained that her throat was sore, she felt dizzy and felt like she was going to throw up. (I know TMI.)

So, Cara is home from school today. Sorry, Mama (Grandma/Ma), she won't be getting her perfect attendance certificate this nine weeks.

Waiting for it to go through the rest of the three.

Thanksgiving

We had a bittersweet Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful visit with family and friends, some that we had not seen in quite some time. I was actually without Internet access for a few days and survived.

We lost one of our dear church members during the break. She passed away on Wednesday. "Miss Judy" was such a sweet person and we loved her so much. Very often, she would make Bruce meatloaf for Wednesday night supper at church. We will miss her a lot, but we know where she is and that makes it better.

The children had a great time with Bruce's brother and his family. They were definitely worn out by the time the weekend was over. I have some pictures that I will post later.

The children spent the night with Bruce's mother and a couple of other family members while Bruce and I went to a nearby city for the night since she only has one bathroom. The next morning while we ate breakfast, we were surrounded by some rabid Clemson and Carolina fans, but mostly Clemson fans. Thankfully, Clemson won the annual contest. And, they now have a full-time coach.

Of course, I did get a little Black Friday shopping completed. I lost my watch while I was out, but a friend whom I was shopping with found it, so I was overjoyed.