Quick Catch-Up

So it's been awhile since a real post and I think if I don't do a quick catch-up I'll just keep putting off posting.

We had a great Christmas. This was the first year that we didn't spend Christmas Eve with family. We just had our own little family at home. It was rather refreshing. I kept worrying all month about not doing something with family. I felt that it wouldn't really be Christmas if we didn't spend it with either Chris' side or my side of the family. But all that worry was for naught.

We had a nice dinner at home with the kids. We had a Christmas goose, spinach casserole, sweet potatoes baked with butter, fancy rice, homemade rolls, and salad. Everyone really liked the goose. I was worried - kind of risky making something you've never tried before but I trusted Alton Brown and he did not fail me.

We had the kids make Santa scopes and tracked his movements on Norad. That was fun. We then read a book about believing in Santa with the kids and it explained the symbolism of Santa with the true meaning of Christmas. I had made PJ pants for everyone - including Chris - and gave them to everyone that night. (I found John Deere tractor flannel for Chris - it's awesome! He said he hasn't had tractor PJs since he was five.) We sang Christmas songs and all the kids actually sang. I'm looking forward to our new tradition of having Christmas Eve at home.

Christmas Day was really great. We had a really nice relaxed morning. I had made cinnamon rolls for breakfast the day before. After we opened presents, Chris took a nap for a couple hours while I got food ready to take to my parent's house. We ended up leaving about an hour and a half late for my parents, but there were others who were later and so dinner was postponed anyways. We stayed the night at my parents and had a great day the next day with all my sisters and their families. My brother wasn't there this year because his wife's brother was getting married. We all missed his family.

New Years Eve was again at home with the kids. We let the little ones stay up until almost 11:00 which is unthinkably late for them. The three older kids got to stay up until the new year. I actually fell asleep on the couch the last half hour and woke up grumpy when they were ringing in the new year. My bad. We sent the three older kids to bed then and Chris and I watched a little TV. Around 1:30 we went to bed and I asked who was going to get up with the kids in the morning. Chris said they would sleep in because they had been up so very late. Didn't work. I got up with the kids.

We drove to Chris' sister's house for the annual monopoly game the next day. Before we left we were cleaning the house and I was working in the play room. I wasn't picking up anything heavy but I hurt my low back and it has yet to fully recover. It's been getting a little bit better every day, but is still sore. So my participation in the monopoly game was minimal. I spent most of the evening laying on the floor. We stayed the night at her house and then spent the next day at his other sister's house and then spent the night at my sister's house and went to the baby blessing on Sunday. Everyone commented on us being on time to the blessing. Apparently that's what it takes for us to be on time to a baby blessing, stay the night before with the family blessing their baby. All in all it was a great weekend. We got to spend time with a lot of the family and it was fun.

For the most part now, the kids have adjusted to going back to school. Laundry is mostly caught up - ok I'm swimming in clean clothes, but at least they're clean. The kids have all been passing around a mild cold/flu for the past week. I think we're mostly done with it now though. I've been making my sister-in-law's wedding dress. It's all cut out and needs to be put together now. We're thinking about moving. And I want to start homeschooling the kids. More posts to come...