I'm alive and kicking even though I feel I'm behind in everything. To be perfectly frank, I've struggled this Christmas season. I've struggled being happy and not allowing the "stuff" to get in the way of enjoying Christmas.
There have been more bad stressful days than good. My chest has felt heavy with obligations and long lists of "need to do's." I've never felt my time less my own and felt my schedule more full and burdened.
This afternoon has been one of the first times I've felt I could sit down and write…and I hate that. But this morning, I felt a light at the end of the tunnel. My kids are home from school, we currently do not have any sickness in our family, and I think we are super close to being ready for Christmas. I want to stay home from now on and just enjoy my family. I'm crossing my fingers here.
Some catch up things that have been going on in the last week...
I finally got my family book finished and ordered. I had a coupon code that saved me $816 dollars! Say What? Yes…$816. Kind of love that coupon code for unlimited free pages when your family book is 160 pages long. I feel like I stole from Shutterfly. Hee hee.
Saylor keeps changing her Santa list and tells our elf what she wants that's new daily. I'm very afraid she will be disappointed for Christmas. Santa currently does not have a pink unicorn OR a special shell shaped Ariel locket with a picture of a mermaid in it for Saylor in his sack. How dare he!
I'm so so happy this kid is not sick anymore.
…but he did have a green nose this morning. I'm hoping he's not catching yet another virus.
Carter missed three days of school last week. His blood sugar had not returned to normal and I had to keep him home. He was a fantastic help with Grady.
…on another note, Carter's first doses of growth hormone will be on our doorstep tomorrow. I'm anxious for this new crazy adventure we are starting with him and I CANT wait to buy him longer pants!
The plan was to give them all away.
My family ended up eating most of the loaves. My neighbors only got cards this year. Oh well.
Grady's most favorite isle in Target.
I was in charge of Colby's class Christmas party this year.
One mother who signed up to help canceled the morning of and informed me that she was ok with her sick daughter missing the party this year because she didn't feel we were doing anything great and that it wasn't a "Good Party" anyway. I'm not even exaggerating here.
I was pretty steamed. I planned the party exactly how Colby's teacher wanted it. She wanted board games and sugar cookies. I even had tiny individual containers of frosting and sprinkles for homemade sugar cookies.
I've now decided that I will never be a room mother again. I'm getting to old for this crap.
(I'm not bitter…really I'm not.)
Saylor sat with my mom this week and named every Walker cousin in order by age.
She almost got all the Dixon cousins too!
Cute little girl.
Candy Cane Envy.
Our elf lying down on the job.
Sunday night we went on our annual reindeer hunt/count.
It started off pretty well with five real deer in the field by my mom's house.
We counted 10 for each of the real deer…its only seemed fair! We saw over 220 this year.
Love the quiet rare moments when my kids all hang out together without fighting.
A new Christmas Lego set will do that I guess.
Steve and I had an ugly sweater party last night.
Here I am threatening Andrew when he refused to just take the blasted picture.
This morning I took the kidlets to Chick-Fil-A for a "free" breakfast that actually cost me $15 after I bought milks, my soda, and hashbrowns.
So worth it though.
The kids were super happy and grateful.
(Maybe my pre-breakfast lecture actually sunk in?)
Bad picture of everyone else, but Grady was so excited to hold up his own milk and say CHEESE!
We also adventured to the car wash.
Why this is a thrill I might never know.
We went to the toy store too.
My kids all think they need more junk now.
Maybe taking them wasn't my best plan, but we had to kill thirty minutes before our car service appointment.
This is Saylor's "Please oh Please" face.
She really wants that pink unicorn.
Andrew now wants a dinosaur puppet...
so he can terrorise everyone around him.
Hate the toy…love the genuine teenager smile.
No Andrew, you will not be getting that puppet because I don't want to wake up to it staring me in the face!
Our last adventure this morning was at the Honda dealership. I put on my big girl pants and took all five kids with me to have my van serviced. The service guy thought we were nuts I'm sure…I feel like a spectacle sometimes. But luckily, I thought ahead and brought games for the kids to play while we waited. We had a few rounds of Uno and Pass the Pigs before the van was done.
I texted Steve this picture and told him Merry Christmas. I usually let him do all the car servicing, but took pity on his crazy schedule this morning.
All the kids were decently behaved especially this one.
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