Going Through Life One Blog Post at a Time
Today, Laura and I put together a foam craft “Santa’s Toy Shoppe” (John helped for about two minutes, but he sat at the table and talked to us while we put it together.) I try to buy one of these every year. This year’s variety was $8 from Michaels and, for the first time, Laura helped me pick it out. It took about thirty minutes total and was worth every minute! Laura was so proud afterwards. $8 for thirty minutes of just me and the kids. Priceless.
We put up our big Christmas Tree today in our family room. It was BOTH a challenge and a great time with the kids. They were so very excited to help and to see all the ornaments. It hit me today that I’m so glad that I have these special moments with the kids. Watching them look at *their* ornaments along with all the others was just so fun. Who knew that ornaments made entirely of wine corks could be so much fun?
Each year, I buy the kids a new ornament that they pick out. This year, Laura chose a unicorn and John chose a train. Some day, these ornaments will be theirs to put on their own Christmas Trees. While putting up the ornaments today, I came across my baby ornament and an ornament that I got from my third grade teacher, Mrs. Stambaugh. Laura was so excited and it made me think that someday I hope her child is as excited as she was today.
Despite the challenges with the kids wanting to touch everything and not being as careful as we would have liked, I wouldn’t change a minute of today. These memories are priceless.
I spent all day today putting up Christmas decorations inside the house. Andy managed to get all the lights up on the outside of the house despite it being a fairly windy day. The only thing left is our main Christmas Tree, which is a time-consuming endeavor as I wrap the lights from the inside out on every branch. We’ll do that tomorrow because I’m exhausted! We did manage to get most of the non-tree related boxes back into the crawl space. In case you were wondering, this is only about 1/2 of the Christmas Decoration boxes for the inside of the house. Yes, I’m aware….it’s a lot. 🙂 I love Christmas decorations!
Happy Thanksgiving! What a beautiful day we had. It was just the four of us because my Mom and Dad couldn’t make it down this year. It turned out to be a blessing and exactly what I needed. The day was perfect – relaxed, calm, great food, my husband, and my beautiful kids. I have a lot to be thankful for even if I haven’t felt that way much lately. My work situation has been really clouding my perception of things and I forget that I really do have a great life. Thank you, Thanksgiving. What a difference you made.
Laura and I made the beginnings of Thanksgiving dinner today. First, we made Cranberry Sauce. For those of you who eat it from a can, my recipe is so easy and it’s spectacular! One cup of water and one cup of sugar until the water boils. Add one bag of cranberries and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Let cool and put in the fridge! YUMMY! Next up, Laura and I made Fresh Pumpkin Pie using the pie pumpkin that I cooked down last weekend. She helped make the pie crust and roll it out.  We mixed up the pie filling and put it in the oven.  I love cooking with the kids. Too fun!
I took Laura back to the doctor today because she has strep throat AGAIN with a side of a right ear infection (she was given the antibiotic azithromycin this time around). Having said that, though, she was showing no signs of being sick at all. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
Yes, this *IS* the extremely sick child, wearing Tiger ears and playing with her dollhouse. Oh, and wearing pajamas because, after all, “I’m sick Mommy and that means I can wear pajamas all day!”
