We've moved! sort of.....



"People, when they perform a behavior a lot — especially in the same environment, same sort of physical setting — outsource the control of the behavior to the environment".
                                                                                                      - David Neal


We listened to a very timely piece on NPR's Morning Edition yesterday morning, about how the best way to follow through on an intention (or resolution) is to change your environment.  Case in point - if you are trying to lose weight, and you have a nightly ritual of sitting on the same spot on the couch, with three scoops of ice cream in your favorite bowl, watching your favorite late night show, you won't have success in eating better if you don't break up that entire scenario.  Move the couch.  Ditch the bowl.  Purchase a different type of dessert - low calorie, preferably.  Watch the show on the DVR at a different time of day.  You get into a rut, and your brain becomes trained to do it the same way, over and over again - it goes on autopilot.  Those are the most difficult of all habits to break.

This story was amusing to hear after we had just spent the past week moving practically everything around in our house.  We have been wanting to make better use of our space for quite some time.  We live in a two-story house with an unfinished basement.  Each level is 'about' 900 sq.ft.  Since we spend about 80% of our time inside the house on the main floor, we have been six people crammed into 900 sq. ft.  That can make for some cranky kids and even crankier parents.  The main floor consists of the kitchen, living room, office, dining room, entryway, 1/2 bath and a coat closet.  The kitchen is a very nice size - it is my favorite room in the house.  The living room has an odd shape with little wall space.  For the past 18 months it has also had all of the office furniture in it too.  It was where we did the bulk of our school work.  We would rotate the desk to make a "U' shape during the week, and then push it back against the wall during the weekends to make more floor space.  We only had room for one couch and one recliner in there, so there were constant fights for places to sit to watch TV.  The front room is what I suppose would be where most people would traditionally put the office.  We used to have our office in there, but it was too tight of a fit.  Once we inherited my grandmother's piano, that was the place it needed to go, so we moved our office out and the piano in.  The fish tank and a recliner and the small love seat couch were crammed in there as well.  The dining room has served as the playroom for a number of years.  Four kids had very little floorspace to use.  It was crammed full with shelving, bins and whatnot, but there was still no room to spread out train tracks or dump Legos or dress Barbies.  The toys would spread to all areas of the main floor.  I was tripping over toys constantly... kicking them out of the way as I tried to get from the stove to the refrigerator, sweeping aside a pile just to open the front door.... I was sick, sick, sick of toys.  Every time ANYBODY would come over I was embarrassed about the mess.  I would lie awake at night and worry that we would have a housefire and some poor firefighter would not be able to rescue us because he couldn't escape the playroom.  I confess I have broken quite a few when I would get into cleaning fit and throw them full force towards the playroom area.  Not a good situation.

So when Dean mentioned that we should use the week (his vacation last week) to clear out the basement and move the playroom down there, I was all for it.  We took down all of the Christmas stuff so that it would be out of the way.  We spent an entire day clearing out 2/3 of the large basement area room (about half of the basement, so.... 400 sq feet??) and moved every single last toy to the basement.

It.  was.  glorious.

Here are the before and afters...

Playroom before

Playroom before

Basement before

Basement before

We cleared out some junk and built a wall (November)

And now... ta-da!!

(cue the choir of angels....)

We haven't put up wallboard on the wall that Dean built yet, but fabric panels work just as well.  I had these left over from my classroom.  So glad I finally found a use for all that fabric.  Need some more staples though...

We bolted the TV to the wall because that sucker weighs a ton.  Owen got that car mat on the floor for Christmas - I'm glad that it can be left out and be used at all times.  The cat has been on the prowl for all things creepy-crawly.  Good cat!

The bigger furniture items that we want to keep but have nowhere to put (for now) were shoved into the back corner.  My china hutch is back there (again, no where to put) and all of our file boxes that we have yet to sort.  Dean put up safety fencing to keep little buggers out.

It's nice that there is room all around the train table for kids to move, and Jordan has his own table for building Legos.

Rylan's dollhouse had been residing in our bedroom since her birthday last May.  Now I don't have to step around it every morning when I roll out of bed.  Hallelujah!  She even has room to park her new motor home.  Jordan added a monster in the attic as a special touch.

With that done, we had an empty room in the house (the former playroom) to FILL with stuff.  So we did.  We filled it with our office furniture.  Funny story - and I can't remember if I mentioned it before, so forgive me if I am repeating myself.  But when Dean and I met, we thought it was hilarious that we both had the same office furniture.  He had a file cabinet, the computer cabinet and another cabinet that a desk attached to.  I had a file cabinet and the stand-alone desk.  We bought the four hutch shelving units just a couple of years ago to handle the ever-increasing about of school stuff.  So here is our *new* school room...

I'm not finished reloading the bookshelves quite yet.  I have some sorting I would like to do first.

This one is all about the cat.

Just bought a nice wall calendar...Year-at-a-Glance.  I have to squint to read the dates when I am sitting at the computer - but it is so handy when I am working out school/scout/vacation schedules.

I can FINALLY put up my dry-erase board - complete w/ All About Spelling tiles.  This little guy has been living under the couch for the past year, to keep Colin from jamming the tiles into the paper shredder.

Our hallway.  A five-way junction of absolute chaos.  Office?  Garage?  Kitchen?  Bathroom?  Tiny useless coat closet?  Take your pick.  We had an 8-cube shelving unit in here (it was under the key rack) that held all of our shoes/mail/purses, and then two more bin units with 3 drawers each that held all mittens/hats/scarves/snow boots, ect...  Then, behind that were two coat racks - one high and one low...FULLY loaded.  You could not get through this hallway to save your life - and bringing in groceries was an absolute nightmare.  And if you REALLY had to go to the bathroom - forget it!  We removed the lower coat rack and all of the bin units.  Just look at all of this S - P - A - C - E.   I can breathe!!!

We moved the 8 - cube shelving unit here - and put it longways instead.  Each kiddo has a shoe bin, and then a place above it to put their mittens/hats/scarves...  We moved the lower coat rack to here, and then weeded out the coat selection to just a lightweight jacket, a fleece and a heavy winter coat.

And now... for the living room.  We moved the office out, and the little couch in.  Now everybody has a place to sit.  But most importantly... S - P - A - C - E .  And you can play the Wii without bashing your little brother on the head.

Before... (NYE 2010)

After.  Now even the lazy dog can stretch out!

I just can't get over how nice it is to not be tripping over toys.  That I can vacuum at my leisure, without moving cars, trucks, Barbies or plastic fruits and vegetables out of my way.  I can walk to the bathroom, unimpeded.  We can focus on schoolwork without the distraction of the toys or kids overflowing from the playroom.  We can work on the computer w/o the distraction of the TV.  The coats and shoes don't get all jumbled up with the toys - along with gross and disgusting curdled-milk filled sippy cups.

I will confess that there is one thing I will miss.  We took the two trikes to the basement.  I miss the kids making hot laps around the house.  I may move them back up here because it was fun to watch them race around.  Although not so fun to take a hit in the ankle when you are trying to dump super-hot pasta into the colander at the sink.

The environment has changed, so we intend for habits to as well.  Putting things away.  Focusing on schoolwork.  More space should equal less squabbling.  The best thing is that this whole transformation cost less than $50.  We had to purchase a space heater for the playroom because it is super-cold down there.  That is not without a ton of anxiety on my part, but it was absolutely necessary.  It has a lot of safety features on it, and we are being very vigilant about turning it off when playtime is done.  I also move the baby monitor to the basement during the daytime, so that I can keep tabs on who is doing what.... to whom.   :)



Intentions...



"Do...or do not.  There is no try."

             -Yoda

 

Resolutions invoke pressure within me.... not the promise that things will get better.  But Yoda is right - it will either happen or not, and it begins with you.  You will either follow through.... or you won't.

 

You can't make positive change if you don't know where you are coming from - so a time of quiet reflection must come first.  This year has been a difficult, yet richly rewarding period of growth.  I began with intense baby blues.  Colin turned One in early February, and - just as it happened with the other babies, they hit the one year mark and I felt sad and longed for another baby to be on the way.  It was made even worse because I knew it was no longer possible.  I think the finality hit me rather hard and I felt a little lost as to how to proceed.  It worsened throughout the spring.  Colin had hit the age that I dislike the most.  I know a lot of parents rejoice at seeing their older babies learning and doing in leaps and bounds... but for me it just takes them further and further away from that precious babyhood that I loved so much.  He was also mobile and into everything.  It is a dangerous and nerve-wracking time for me - I just felt like I was running from one fire to the next.  It was no longer fun to go anywhere because all I could do was either chase Colin or Owen around.  Isolation doesn't help when you are already feeling down.

I went into therapy at about that time - and I thought it would help if I talked through all that was bothering me.  I also began to write (blog) again, in earnest.  Guess which avenue was most therapeutic for me?  The one that doesn't require me to leave the house.  I suppose feed-back helps, but I think that writing it all out helps me sort out my feelings and figure out how to proceed, much better than someone who doesn't really know me trying to tell me what to do.

As the year has progressed, things have changed quite a bit.  Colin has managed to get through those tough months unscathed, and now it is just a matter of keeping the heavy furniture bolted to the wall, and all sharp implements locked up.  No problem.... (ahem).  We can go to the park and I know that the kiddos can roam freely and climb to their hearts content - and Colin can safely keep up.  We ditched the diapers for Owen.  We've ditched the bottle and the binky for Colin.  Colin's potty training will begin in a month or two.  Life has gotten much easier for me in a very short span of time - and I am rejoicing in my new-found freedom.  This helps to permanently kick the baby blues to the curb - I can't even fathom the upheaval a newborn would bring to the family dynamic now.   But this doesn't mean that my heart won't ache every time I see a newborn - I seriously need to just turn around and walk away because I am certain I make the parents uncomfortable with the way I just stare at their baby as I imagine how it would feel to hold that little sweet bundle.  (damn... now I am starting to cry)  You think you are cured and your issues just smack you in the face!  I am done with that stage of my life - I love my sleep too much - and I want to care for myself now. I have neglected my needs for five long years now... and my priorities need to change.  It is my intention to improve my quality of life - I have four busy children to keep up with!

It's been a year of growth for Jordan.  He eleven and testing the waters.  Not in a disrespectful way (for the most part), but he is asserting his independence in small ways.  He watches over all the kids for short bits of time and earns some spending money doing so.  It's nice to be able to run to the store for some milk and know I don't have to drag everyone with me.  Jordan makes good decisions most of the time.  He is kind, he helps his younger siblings out and he doesn't talk back.  He will argue, but most of the time he has a point.  He has even taken on a pivotal role in the potty training - he will often dump out the potty and give it a rinse.  Now, that is saying something.  Jordan has had a hard year.  An important friendship came to an abrupt end, and he is struggling to find his way.  So one intention for this coming year is help him do that.  And give a good deal of coaching on how to be a good friend.

Homeschooling is and always will be a constant challenge for us.  Not because it is hard, but because we have such a span of ages and abilities.  I will do my best to use it as a strength.  It is my intention to make nature studies, science and art the subjects of intense focus this year.  Writing will really go in hand with that.  I am taking a step back from all things political with our homeschooling group this year.  I'm tired of it.  I will keep up my friendships and support my children in their quest for quality friend time, but it won't go much beyond that.  I've fretted and stewed over many issues over this past year, and it just wasn't worth it.

We have a low-key year ahead - our main focus is continuing our path to financial freedom.  We blew our Christmas budget to smithereens... but the good news is we did not use the credit cards.  We haven't touched them since August.  The bad news is is that our Emergency Fund became the Christmas fund.  There are no vacations in the works, save the occasional Boy Scout outing and summer camp, family hiking and camping trips and a trip to OKC at some point.  The only BIG events this year are Owen's first OFFICIAL birthday on Leap Day (wahoo!), and my dad's 70th birthday in September.  It is on my list of 40 Things to hike a fourteener some time this year.  If I keep with my intention to take care of myself, that very well may be a possibility.

Now all I have to do is reconcile that intention does not equal 'try'.  It is a deliberate decision to go ahead with something... I just can't let life derail my good intentions.  So I am putting it out there to the Universe - I intend to continue to grow, heal, learn and love this year.

 

Happy New Year!



The Trifecta

Poop     Pee     Puke

On top of everything else going on around here (room rearranging) I think that Dean and I have more laundry around here than we thought humanly possible.  Starting with Dec. 17th, the day we started potty training with Owen, we have been averaging 6 loads of laundry a day.  I'm not kidding.  That's 78 loads give or take.  I'm getting a little tired of laundry.  I don't even want to think about what our utility bill is going to look like.

Owen is doing marginally well with the potty training.  He is getting it right about 80% of the time where pee is concerned.  Poop on the other hand is a completely different matter.  He hasn't quite made it to the potty yet.  At least he only goes once, maybe twice a day.  At this point he is responsible for most of what it takes to clean that up.  We have a small bucket (I call it the 'poop bucket') stationed by the potty chair that all misses go into until the washer is free.  The poop gets rinsed away before the dirty underwear goes in there, but the dirty stuff has to go someplace other than the laundry pile.  And my bathroom sink is not an option either.

Colin has some sort of stomach 'thing' lately.  He's evidently coughed during the night (several nights over the past week) and thrown up in the process, and then gone back to sleep.  Gross.  Even though the monitor is on, I never hear it - but I find it in the morning... a nice large swath of puke right by Colin's head.  So in go the sheets, blankets and pj's. 

Occasionally we do hit the jackpot and throw the whole trifecta in the wash at once.  Colin has also been throwing up on himself a couple different times during the day... along with a wonderful soupy diarrhea.

I'm sorry.....have you had breakfast yet?

So, in addition to all of the laundry that is going on - and the extra long time it takes to wash things through the 'Sanitize' cycle, we are bathing the house in Lysol, and scrubbing everywhere there is a miss or a clean-up.  The house has never been so clean.

So, you wanna come over for a visit?  You might get lucky and witness a trifecta - place your bets now!

 

The Most Wonderful Week of the Year

This is the best week of the entire year.  Seven straight days of empty white boxes on the calendar.  Bliss.  I love this week.   And, we are officially done with all things Christmas - everything was packed up yesterday (don't hate me).  I want to get back to all things homeschool next week with a serious bang.

There are numerous things to celebrate this week...

• no schoolwork, apart from reading
• a fridge full of leftovers
• tons of cookies!!!!
• there are several family games to play and puzzles to put together
• we can get caught up on chores around the house w/o guilt
• no karate lessons to drive to
• the upcoming new year creates the perfect atmosphere to sort, donate and pitch
• I get to shred all of my documents from 2004.  Hallelujah!

Since Dean is home all this week, we have three different major projects in the works.  Finish clearing out the basement (we are a third of the way there), move the entire playroom to the basement, and move the office to what was the playroom and will now be the official school room.  I.  can't.  wait.  I have wanted this for sooooo long.  I am sad that the kids will be playing in the basement, so I don't get to hear the sounds of play in the adjoining room as I am making dinner or whatnot, but I also don't have to hear the constant fighting over toys.  I don't have to deal with the constant mess of toys strewn EVERYWHERE!  The last straw came a few weeks ago when I came down the stairs during the night, stepped on a sharp piece of Lego and went down.  I was done - the toys were going to move come hell or high water.  I do have several concerns about how to make this work. I worry about supervision.  I will have to move the baby monitor around on a daily basis, and rotate out Jordan and Rylan as we move through our lessons - which might actually be a good thing because then I can work with them one on one.  We have a big gigantic behemoth T.V. down there.  We bolted that to the wall on Monday, so I feel much better about that.  Now all I have to worry about is the china cabinet...

I wanted to get a lot of posts done this week because my mental queue is getting out of control, but the work I described above is pulling rank.  I didn't even get to post about our actual Christmas, so here it goes...It was very nice.   We had dinner at my mom's on the 23rd, and opened presents.  We went to my brother and SIL's for the large family gathering on the morning of the 24th for a brunch.  That was awesome.  I highly recommend trying that instead of a large heavy evening holiday meal.  The kids got to play out in the snow, the adults weren't stressed about how late it was getting and the kids were in fine shape.  I'm all in favor of morning things - then it doesn't interfere with naptime. 

We brought my dad home with us that afternoon and he stayed through the evening.  We got a pizza (it was too late to start the crockpot meal I had been planning to making), and had a quick dinner, then it was on to baking and frosting sugar cookies for Santa.  We hurried down to church and enjoyed a gorgeous candle light service.  Then we dropped of dad at his house, went home and put the kids to bed, and the stayed up until 3 am wrapping presents.  Good times. 

I picked dad up at 8 am, brought him home and then the kids came down and the present fest began.  We had a wonderful, low-key day.  A lazy breakfast of strawberry coffee cake, bacon and eggs, and then lots and lots of play.  My dad and I made stuffing and got the turkey into the roaster, and then we played a new game that the Oklahoma grandparents gave us.  Ever played Qwirkle?  It is awesome!! My stepmom joined us about dinner time, and we had a lovely Christmas meal of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies and cherry pie.

Loved spending some time with my dad.  We haven't seen him since before Thanksgiving.  We both arrived home sicker than sick from Thanksgiving vacations, and then the whole Chicken Pox debacle - he's another family member that can not afford to get Shingles.  It was really nice to have him here, and he loved the chance to do some baking with Rylan.

Here are some pics...

A few thoughts...

I tried to talk Santa out of it, but he insisted on bringing ice skates to Rylan.  So now we have the pleasure of figuring out how to work in skating, ballet and tap lessons.  Wow.

Rylan can pack a mean snowball.

The Firefly is an awesome toy to use in the dark - so cool.

Opening presents one-handed is difficult...especially when you can't put down the cookie.

Owen eats, sleeps, and breathes all things Lightening McQueen.

Sparring gear is expensive.

Rylan's dollhouse family can now go on holiday in a cool camper van or go camping in the wilderness.

We've watched Cars2 five times in the past 72 hours.  It's still good.

Jordan got 2 new Nintendo 3DS games.  We also found out that Jordan has frequently been getting up in the middle of the night to play... even more disturbing is that it was online with other people.   All handheld gaming devices are now under lock and key.



It was a lovely holiday and I am thankful for all of the wonderful gifts that our family received.  It was so nice to visit with family that we haven't seen in awhile - it's great that most of our kids are at an age now that they can run around and play with their cousins without constant supervision.  I also felt the painful absence of my grandmothers.  We spoke of memories, fixed some of their trademark recipes, and set the table with their holiday finest.

I'll leave you with my grandma Betty's mealtime blessing....

Be present at our table Lord,

Be here and everywhere adored.

These mercies bless

and grant that we,

May feast and fellowship with thee.

Amen.

Going on the go



Yesterday, Day 4 of potty training went something like this:

"Owen, tell me if you have to go!"

Repeat 467 times.

This is appointment week for us again.  Which was an entirely stupid thing to do the week leading up to Christmas.  Note to self: No doctor appointments during December - so nobody better get sick next year!

Day 4 of potty training meant that we needed to take the potty with us.  This was Owen's first foray out into the world (besides seeing Santa) in just underwear.  So, armed with 3 pairs of pants, 10 pairs of underwear, a towel, a roll of paper towels, disinfectant spray, wipes, and a water bottle, we set out.

First stop was Jordan's pair of appointments that are set back-to-back in a nice little clinic in Loveland.  I went in first to speak with the doctor, while Jordan stayed in the car with the kids and they watched Santa Clause.  Owen sat on his potty chair, which was situated on the floor, between the seats.  I was inside for about 8 minutes.  I came out, and switched with Jordan.  He went in and I checked on Owen.  No pee!

Add in three more stops and a trip into Kohl's  He did pee in the potty twice. I dumped it (discreetly) into the bushes in the parking lot, and gave it a rinse with a squirt from the water bottle.  Easy!  He also went once on the big potty in the bathroom at Kohl's.  That was *fun*.  I did not have enough hands to prop him up and keep Colin from touching every yucky surface imaginable in that bathroom.  I wanted to bathe them and myself with Lysol after it was all over.

It is probably not the best idea to incorporate errands into the potty-training schedule, but sometimes it can't be helped.

For the next few weeks the potty and extra supplies will be constant companions every time we leave the house.  Oh how I look forward to the days when the diaper bag and the potty chair and so on and so forth are a thing of the past.  And then, when I reach those days, I will miss this age.  You can never win.

All things bright and beautiful

This holiday season didn't start out like we thought it would.  Dean and I were both sick.  In fact, we still sort of are.  Three weeks of this, and it is tough to shake.  We didn't get the Christmas lights up on the house.  It was too cold and snowy the first two weekends of the month, and well, we were sick.  I did get one, lonely little wreath up by the front door.  We did get most of the inside decorations up, though, in record time for us.  I unloaded all of the bookshelves that hold our school stuff, and I filled them in with my Santa collection (26)  and my Nativity collection (5).  We placed our small tree up in the front window, on a little table.  It is the designated Santa tree - it has all of the Santa ornaments.  Then we put up the main tree in our open living room/kitchen, which is a new thing for us this year.  We usually put it up in the big picture window in the play room (which I suppose would really be considered a dining room).  But that always encouraged kids to mess with it, drape it with toys and Jordan would suspend his marble track from it.  So we moved it this year, and I just love the new location.  We can see it at all times, I can chase kitty out of it before she strangles herself on a light string, and I can chase down Colin each time he runs away with an ornament.  It may not be visible to the street anymore, but our little tree is, and that is enough.

I swore a long time ago that this was to be the month of 'No'.  I only wanted to do things that really meant something special to us.  I was not going to pressure myself to do every little thing that came along.  We made up a wish list of Holiday Must-have's during our trip to OKC over Thanksgiving.

• Get the Christmas lights up on the house (next year - BEFORE Thanksgiving)
• Put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving
• Do the advent calendars
• Drive around and look at Christmas Light displays - sometime the week before Christmas
• Go to the Nutcracker
• Attend the Christmas Eve Candlelight service
• Plan several different nights of popcorn and Holiday movie
• Putting together the Christmas -themed puzzles
• Make cookies.  Lots of them.  Deliver them to friends.
• Put up the Santa Collection/Nativity scenes
• Make a tree ornament/do crafts
• Visit Santa
• Write out Christmas lists/complete a letter to Santa
• Go to the Hall of Trees at the Lincoln Center
• Build a gingerbread house
• Read multiple Christmas books, every day (we have about 60...)
• Take a family picture

This year brought a few surprises when attempting to stick to the list.  Most of the items involve just us or close family.  I love that.  No programs, group events, gift exchanges... all of those events incur a lot of stress - principally on me.  This has been the least- stressful holiday season on record.

• We didn't get the lights up.  Being sick and bad weather were the principal reason.  I feel bad about that, but on the bright side, there will be no stress of take-down, and no boost to the electric bill either.
• We did get the tree up.  It took an extra week to get the lights on it because it was hard to get Dean motivated. ;)
• We are doing the advent calendars, and I even made a new one.
• We will be driving around looking at lights with my mom tomorrow night.
• Rylan and I went to the Nutcracker last weekend with mom.  It was wonderful!
• We will be going to the Christmas Eve service with my Dad, brother, SIL and nephews, and listen as my mom plays the organ.  Should be very nice.   Owen and Colin will most likely be in the nursery - which they just love after spending so much time in there all during the fall while we were in Financial Peace University.
• We did the bulk of the holiday movies the first few days of December, in order to allow Jordan as much popcorn as humanly possible before he got braces on the 6th.
• Puzzles are going out today - per Jordan's request.
• So far we have made one batch of Christmas cookies- plenty more to come this week.
• Put up Santas and Nativities.  Accomplished by Dec 4th  Yay me.
• Make a tree ornament.  Sometime this week.
• Visit Santa.  We did this last night.  We went to our local community garden/education center, and it was just beautiful - I loved every minute of it.  The light displays were all garden-themed.  Plants, insects... there was even an imaginary Koi pond with lighted fish moving across.  Santa sat under an outdoor shelter and visited a long time with each and every kiddo that came along.  There wasn't a very long line (it was cold), and the kids thought it was just amazing and magical.  Santa even visited with Jordan, who stood at a respectful distance.  Jordan's magic was abruptly cut short a couple years ago.  Santa was very cool with it all, and gave Jordan some wise words of wisdom: Keep the magic alive in your heart.  Amen.
• Each kid wrote out wish lists by cutting out pictures and pasting.  Rylan managed to write out a letter to Santa last week - it will go in the Christmas scrapbook.
• The Hall of Trees was something of a mystery.  The performance hall was closed last year for renovation, so we were eagerly anticipating it this year.  In the years past (mom and I have made this our tradition for over ten years), thirty to forty merchants would decorate a tree with a theme and create an entire display with gifts, decorations, etc...  It took a half an hour to stroll past all of the displays that ran the length of the entire complex.  This year the kids and I met mom on the first day of the tree display (it was advertised in the paper and on the web) and there were no trees.  At least not like we were expecting.  There were 15-20 'mini-trees' on display in the art gallery room.  They were decorated rather simply, and were part of a silent auction.  That was it.  We were there 10 minutes.  What a huge disappointment.  We weren't the only ones baffled - there were a lot of confused patrons wandering around as well.  I hope they get back in the game next year.
• Build a gingerbread house.  The kids and I did this this past Friday.  A lot of work but it was pretty fun, actually.  I've never made one before, so I am adding it to my list of 40 Things (this will be #2) I suck at frosting anything but Jordan swore I did a really good job.  The cat, of all things, has been nibbling away at the roof all weekend.
• We have been reading Christmas stories all month.  We still have more than half of the books to go... I think I need to pare down our collection.
• Take a family picture.  We tried this yesterday.  The kids cooperated, but we were outside, looking partially into the sun and at least one family member in every picture is doing something they shouldn't be doing.  We are going to try again tonight... with a picture of all of us in our Christmas pj's....we'll see.
• There was a cookie-exchange party that I was invited to just this past weekend.  I really really wanted to go, but we already had family plans and then the chicken pox fiasco just wrenched everything.  I feel that it is important to avoid anyone and everyone until 14 days have passed,  which is, thankfully, Dec. 23rd.  Otherwise we would miss the family Christmas Eve brunch and I would be mad as hell.
• There was also my bookclub ornament exchange/party this past Saturday, but I already knew I was going to be missing that weeks ago because Jordan and Dean were going to be snowshoeing in RMNP with the scout troop and my mom couldn't watch the kids.
• We went to see White Christmas at our local dinner theater last Sunday with my brother and SIL.  My mom graciously gave the four of us tickets to the matinee and $20 each couple to spend on any extras like drinks or dessert.  She said to think of it as a gift from my late grandma Betty.. which makes me want to cry and smile at the same time.  Mom also offered to babysit all seven grand kids (at our house) while we were at the show.  My 15 yr old nephew manned the first hour on his own, until my mom arrived at our house after finishing up the last service at church.  He did a terrific job.  He even rocked Colin to sleep and placed him in his bed.  We had an awesome time at the show.  I can't remember the last time the four of us went out... it's literally been years.  The show was very good (I've never seen it before) and it makes me want to learn how to tap dance.

Each weekend has been a true delight.  Not too busy, but with just enough activities to keep things special and magical in their own right.  Having a slow month meant that I could schedule a focus weekend to get potty training underway which is my Christmas present to myself.  It's a little chilly for Owen to be running around in just a shirt and underwear, but it's working.  The two times that we left the house (for pictures and to see Santa) he wore pants as well, and each time by the end of the event he was wet, but we were prepared with extra underwear and pants in the car.  At least he didn't pee on Santa.  :)  We did that first thing.

Here is a picture diary...

Happy Holidays!