This picture conveys the feeling of this past week. After a great Thanksgiving with family and friends, we anticipated a low-key Christmas. In fact it was a season of sharing as we passed the same illness from person to person. Everyone has had a turn now. Sara's came late Christmas eve as we prepared for Santa to visit. She was able to get up for the kids to open presents, but then was back to bed for the full day.

We celebrated Boxing day by getting everything but the Christmas Spirit boxed up for a season of storage. Saturday took us to the Ritzman's for an evening of dinner, games, and movies. You can see that Amy was too tired to make it up the stairs. Incredibly temperatures hit 75deg. We referred to it as a cold summer day.

There are many pictures that exist of me and my siblings lined up on the stairs ready to descend on Christmas morning. I've posted two of my children in the same pose. Paul felt that I exceeded proper decorum by taking more than one, and displayed his frustration.

Sara is mostly recovered, the house is mostly in order, and I am mostly ready for the last week of this year. Time to start settling on some resolutions and a path to their fulfillment.

Paul started Nursery today as an official 18mo old. It meant that I didn't spend 2 hours in the foyer with him. Strange sensation to sit through classes-- all but the last 10 minutes when Paul required some special attention. The church dumpster says specifically 'No Hazardous Materials' but I threw the Diaper in anyway.

3rd hour left me pondering the question-- what is the distinction between faith and hope?

As a parting shot-- I think this is my first official post to this blog. Hopefully it will trigger some friends and family to revisit their blogs and provide some updates. The holidays can be a tricky time.

Christmas Snow

Yes, Santa does visit Ohio, the kids were relieved to find out! They had a fun Christmas watching new movies, playing new games, & enjoying the day.
Brian made sure everyone had a wonderful Christmas, as I had to celebrate with the family the next day being too sick on Christmas Day. Unfortunately we missed Christmas dinner at the Winn's, but they so graciously brought of left-overs the next day. What caring friends!
Today we opened the plethora of gifts the girls had wrapped. Most of them were just wrapping paper--the presents had fallen out already. I received Amy's pencil (the one that she wrapped for Maggie), the family got bookmarks, & pictures.

My favorite was Maggie's gift for Amy: a snowball fight. It was many small pieces of paper wadded up into "snowballs". "So we could have a snowball fight inside."--Maggie





We wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

Big Words & a Trip to the Doctor

I ended up taking Paul to the Urgent Care last night. He had been wheezing & coughing all day & seemed to be having a difficult time breathing. I was grateful that it turned out to be not serious enough for extra medical treatment, just a little TLC & extra rest. As long as he stays a "happy wheezer" he should be just fine, and today he was doing much better.
I think also the extra crying helped open his lungs, which he did whenever anyone tried to listen to his breathing, take a temperature, or look at him--not to mention the 5 or so minutes of wriggling & screaming when they gave him an albuteral treatment to make sure it wasn't asthma related. (You try keeping a breathing mask on a 27 lb. toddler.) His thumb got plenty of sucking; his blanket got plenty of hugging; he got plenty of mommy loving.
While we were waiting in the lobby he was intrigued by the paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. Pointing crookedly with his chubby finger, he smiled and said snowflake ("no-fake"). I was pretty sure he was saying snowflake, but he wouldn't do it on command, so I started questioning what I heard. Then today he said candycane "ghan gane" (I had witnesses this time--Scot & James). My son won't say one-syllable words like ball, mom, dad, cat, dog. Oh, no, he has to skip right to the multi-syllabic ones! Paul, what do we have in store with you?

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Maggie woke up so excited and happy on her birthday that I was confused when she suddenly had tears in her eyes and a frown on her face. When I asked what was wrong she replied, "There aren't any presents!" Knowing it was her birthday she expected to wake up and be surrounded by gifts or at least discover a well placed pile downstairs. She felt much better after I explained that she would have gifts to open after her birthday dinner & cake.

At church the primary children sang happy birthday to her. The music leader asked her what type of cake she was going to have. She responded, strawberry shortcake, and everyone ooh-ed and aah-ed. They didn't realize I'd bought a cake from Walmart that had a picture of Strawberry Shortcake on it!








Maggie enjoyed opening presents (finally!) after her request of hamburgers and fries (this was her back-up request since we couldn't go to McDonald's on Sunday). The first gift: a surprise gift from James of James. He put himself in a box, had Scot tape him up, and then popped out when she opened the box. Actually, popped is a little too energetic of a word. The box was a little small and he was slightly cramped and gasping for air.



















It didn't help that Scot used the big box for his gift (picture left) of a bookmark, sucker, & glow-in-the-dark bouncy ball or that we had to push James (in his box) from the front room to the family room because we decided to change the gift venue (Brian had built a lovely fire for a very chilly evening).






Other gifts she opened were hair accessories and a Wall-e Leapster game. Three other packages/cards arrived the next day from Grandma & Grandpa Nielson, Great-Grandma Nielson, and Grandma Charlotte.




Paul, of course, wants to grow up to be just like his big brothers and sisters.

Santa's Lap

We had two fun Christmas parties this week. Wednesday was the UC Foundation's Holiday Party at the Cincinnati Zoo. In spite of being cold, the kids had fun making craft santas, jingle bell necklaces & eating fun desserts. We've decided we need to come back in the daytime--the only times we've been there so far it has been after hours & dusk.

Our other party was the ward Christmas party on Saturday. The primary children put together part of the program showing the symbols of Christmas & singing carols. I'm going to have to start paying attention to what's going on. I've been called to be the 1st Counselor in the Primary presidency.


Enjoy these pictures of the kids on Santa's lap! Paul's is classic Santa phobia.

The Spirit of the Season: Singing & Giving

Today we are (hopefully) finishing our Christmas decorating. Monday night for FHE we found our tree, but we haven't had time to actually decorate it. Last night was Scot's chorus concert & I spent most of yesterday practicing (I accompanied a few of the songs). We all went to watch. He & the rest of the 5th/6th grade chorus did great. There were traditional Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa songs. One of my favorite was about the fun of winter (making snowmen, etc) with a second part singing the misery of head colds. Very cute--all the kids pretending to sneeze. Even Scot in all his professional seriousness wiped his eyes & held his aching head. We may have video to share after next week's band concert.

Both Maggie & Amy have been busy the last two days wrapping presents. So far they've been through 2 rolls of paper.

I can't say what Maggie has been wrapping since they are "special projects" she has worked on at school & at home, but this is what I caught Amy wrapping this morning. It's for Maggie.




As the Christmas story goes (we've been doing the 24 Days of Christmas)...
I wish I could be a sister like that.

Thanksgiving Thanks

Yes, I know December came more than a week ago, but we've been reveling in our Thanksgiving holiday and it's been hard to move on. We appreciate all the family and friends that were able to join us. You all made it so easy to host. Anytime you want to do all the shopping, cooking, babysitting, house rearranging, and entertainment, we will provide the place to do it!! I guess we did pitch in a little:)

Our Thanksgiving highlights included:

• geocaching
• Jungle Jim's
• playing "Ticket to Ride" & "Settlers"
• making & eating way too much food
• candy making (key lime truffles & white chocolate gingersnaps were incredible additions)
• making & decorating gingerbread houses
  
• not having to play Wii on the 7" TV
• Christmas dresses:)

I know I'm forgetting lots...mostly inside jokes which will be remembered only by tender memories of awesome family and friends. Thank you for being the reason we give thanks!