Another Christmas Come and Gone

I was just going to post a bazillion pictures to make Rhonda happy, but the PC is not cooperating. :-( So, I'll just type a bit here and see what comes out. Then I'll go to bed like I should have a half hour ago!!

I feel like I"ve been living in a bit of a whirlwind around here. I have to admit that, even though Christmas was really fun, I'm glad it's over for this year. I guess it's because I'm pregnant and don't have the energy I usually do, and that I'm trying to home-school as well. Anyway, there were lots of things that just didn't get done this year and I did learn to be okay with that. Really! Like that fact that there was a pile of clean laundry on my bedroom floor all through the holidays, and it just got folded today. For the last few days, I've been sleeping lots and slowly working my way through the house (with the help of Keith and the boys!) restoring order from chaos. And it feels good! I don't know when I'll tackle taking down all the decorations. I'm not ready for that yet, and we have to have a birthday party for the little guy first...

So, here's a run-down of our Christmas activities, and I'll try to be brief. (hahahahaha) Last week I finally gave in and admitted that I couldn't get ready for Christmas and still do school, so we abbreviated it for a few days, and then scrapped it totally. My out-of-town family arrived Friday evening/early Sat. morning (except for the Malagasies, whom we missed!!) We all just met at Jeff and Wendy's this year and it went really well. We really did have a fun time. Talked, laughed, ate (duh!), played games, slept, etc. On Sat. night we had a catered Christmas meal at the Rec. Centre then went bowling and swimming - all under one roof. Pretty cool. I opted out of the bowling, but did go swimming. Some people stayed at Jeff's overnight, but I wanted my own bed! :-) Logan stayed over there with his best friend, Alabama. We had fun getting to know Rachel's boyfriend, Dave. I hope we didn't scare him off too much! Also, Alicia's boyfriend, Aaron was there. How can I be old enough to have a niece seriously dating?? When I stop and think, I realize I am old enough to be her mother... Oh well! Sunday after lunch we opened presents. That was fun, of course. We had exchanged names, and we supposed to spend $5 - $10. It's amazing what you can come up with for that price! One sad thing was that Dad ended up having to be on-call for the snow-plow and it snowed a pile. So he worked Friday night and part of Sat. night and didn't get to be there as much as we wished. By Sunday night I was pretty much toast, but it was a fun time.

Monday I don't remember much about except a bit of cooking, and preparing for the evening. We once again we pretty involved in the Christmas Eve service so that was a bit stressful until it was over. But, I think it was a really good evening - one of my favorite parts of Christmas!! One really neat thing was a video of Matthew and Rhonda talking and Derek put video and pictures with it. They talked about God's grace in their lives. It was so neat to hear their voices and see the pics of them and the girls. And the girls sang "Angels We Have Heard On High" at the end. Makes me excited for next Christmas when they can be here!!

Our dear friend, Debby R. came Christmas eve and spent three nights here! Rachel and Dave were here too. So, we had lots of fun. After the service on Christmas eve, we ate a bunch of food and then watched a movie, "Scrooge" that Dave's family always watches on Christmas Eve. We let the boys stay up as late as they wanted. Caleb went to bed at 12:30 or so and Logan stayed up until the end of the movie - about 1:00!! The only good thing about all the late nights is that the kids slept in so we could too!!

Christmas morning we were pretty slow to get moving! Keith and I made our "traditional" gut-buster brunch of pancakes, eggs, sausague, etc Debby brought a cinnamon roll wreath so we put candles in that and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. And we also lit the Christ candle in the Advent wreath. After brunch we finally got around to opening presents. It was a little chaotic and took a long time. Dad and Dru stopped in around 12:00 and we still weren't done. I didn't get very good pictures this year. I was too tired and out of it, I suppose. But I'll post some when the computer decides that I may! Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty laid back. Some went for walks, Josiah and I had naps, we made a fairly simple dinner - sweet and sour chicken, etc. Our friend, Bobbi and her Dad joined us for that. After the kids were in bed, Debby taught us how to play Battleship on paper. That was fun! Of course, we got to bed late again!

On Boxing Day we headed for Grandpa and Grandma Grabers. That was another laid back day - big breakfast, opened some presents (Caleb got a Swiss-Army knife and life will never be the same again!), crotcheted, slept, went with Rachel and Dave over to see our house where we grew up, Debby joined us for dinner (prime rib roast!), made home-made ice cream, went home and crashed!! :-)

Since then, we've been slowly recovering. :-) On Thursday I told the boys we'd do something fun (play a game, read, etc) and then clean up a room, then repeat. It worked pretty well. Yesterday we did some more of that. The house is starting to look normal again, and that MOUNTAIN of laundry is folded, at least - but not all put away. This morning Keith took the two oldest with him to get a load of firewood and I managed to get Josiah's hair cut while they were gone. I don't know how my parents ever did that without movies to distract their kids!!! This afternoon Caleb went to a birthday party for his friend Taylor. They went sliding and, unfortunately, his face connected with another kid's face. I had to go get him because he was crying and crying. He said he doesn't remember what happened, so I guess that means it was a pretty hard hit. :-( He has a big fat lip and one side of his nose and eye is swollen. Keith is predicting a doozy of a black eye. I feel bad for him, and for me because I really was hoping to get someone to take family pictures of us this weekend. I guess I have to leave the tree up until Caleb looks normal again. :-)

Okay, this is geting really long (surprise!) but I really have to list a few blessings from the past few weeks.

* Remember me complaining about my back hurting?? It was pretty bad at times and really was affecting my life! I was praying about it and was trying to slow down and rest more. Then we went to a Christmas party at the home of some friends. She "happens" to be a physio-therapist. She and I were chatting and I asked her if she treats pregnant women with lower back pain. Before I knew it, she took me in the bedroom, gave me a treatment, and showed me a simple exercise/stretch to do whenever it hurts. My back improved dramatically over the next few days, and it's been feeling great ever since! Yesterday was the first I've done the exercise in awhile! And I can walk on the treadmill without pain. Thank you, Lord (and Deanna!!)

* Awhile ago, some friends gave us some boxes of apples. We've been eating them, but not fast enough keep them from spoiling. I really wanted to slice and freeze them, but it just wasn't happening. I had borrowed my Mother-in-law's apple peeler/corer/slicer, but hadn't done anything with it yet. Keith picked it up today and started slicing apples and he and the boys had a blast doing all of them!! Here's a hint ladies: If you need your hubby to help with something, have a cool tool on hand that will do the job!!

* I'm not a big jewelry person, but I do usually wear a necklace. Usually the same one for about 6 months at a time. :-) Well, one of my two pendants that I usually wear lost the stone, and I was actually wishing for a new pendant for Christmas. But I didn't get one. (Yes, I know this isn't really a big crisis! But God cares about the little things too.) So, yesterday I got a box in the mail from two dear friends who forgot that my last birthday was a "big one". I guess they felt a little badly about that. :-) Anyway, they gave me a beautiful pendant from Greece. (They were there on holidays this summer and so they ordered one for me from Thessolonika!) How cool is that!?! Maybe I can post of picture of it soon. Thanks, Brenda and Karla!!

It really is time for bed! Since tomorrow is Sunday and I'm leading worship, I really can't sleep in like I've been doing! So, more later, and hopefully a bunch of pictures soon!