Merry Christmas!

This post is long overdue. I had intended to post Hannah's debut in a Christmas program, but I've yet to get the clip to work. The live-in computer guru hasn't had time to look it over, so alas, you have to miss out on that lovely singing (or pretending singing).

Christmas this year was a lot of fun. We weren't sure we'd all be healthy to enjoy it, but we got healthy just in time! Hannah is finally at the age where she adores everything about Christmas, and of course that's fun for us.

Our Christmas Card

A few pictures of Christmas morning:

The Girls Favorite Present

We decided to get the girls a kitten for Christmas. Since the baby is going to arrive in a few months, and I didn't want to be adjusting our family to a new cat too near the arrival of our baby, and I felt that summer was too long to wait, we decided that if we were going to get a new cat, it should be at Christmas. Since I can't say that I was really emotionally ready for the arrival of a new cat, we felt a kitten might be easier. Something completely different than Aurora. So we have Callie :-)

Unfortunately I now have a swollen eye to celebrate the arrival of a new allergen into the family. I'm allergic to cats, but once they are in the home I usually adjust. I must've touched my eye, I figure, since it is just one eye that swelled. I keep hoping each morning will bring relief, but I'm going on day three with no relief in sight. I guess I keep waiting! In the meantime I try to avoid Callie as much as I can, but she is determined to be as close to me as she can be. I may spend the rest of my life with a swollen eye!!

We hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and that you enjoy your New Year!

Christmastime

It seems like the last month has gone by in a blink. Busyness will do that, I suppose. Christmas is just 5 days away. Fortunately we are pretty much ready!

It has been lots of fun shopping this year. I love it when you find exactly what you are looking for, and feel like you are really getting your loved ones something they will like and enjoy. And it is even better if it is something they won't expect. And even better than that is if it is something they like, something unexpected, and something on SALE!

Of course there is always the downside to that...I received an email yesterday informing me that my gift for Eric was out of stock and it would not arrive by Christmas. So that left me in a lurch, scrambling desperately to figure something else out for Eric in time for Christmas. His Christmas gift will become his birthday gift, I guess. That's one benefit of a January birthday.

On top of all the Christmas hustle, we noticed that a home we've been watching for some time went down in price. We decided to go and look at it. We have no idea why we were so compelled to go look at it because we both knew it was most likely impossible that we'd ever be able to afford such a house. But we fell in love...it is the perfect house, perfect neighborhood...it needs some cosmetic updates, but after the overhaul we did of our current home, a few cosmetic things is trivial.

Unfortunately the home is in short sale (what happens sometimes prior to it foreclosing) so because of that we cannot place a contingency on the sale of our home, and also cannot "close" the deal until the actual sales papers are signed. Typically when you make an offer on a home, the seller accepts your offer and then it is legally binding and to back out there is a penalty. Not so in this case. It remains open until the actual closing. So if the seller receives a better offer, we could potentially lose the house. So we really have no idea if we'll get the house, or sell ours, and at this point we don't even have an accepted offer from the seller, although we're in negotiations. So tons of prayer would be appreciated! We really want this house to work out, but if it doesn't then obviously God has something different in mind for us. All we can do now is wait, and pray, and wait, and pray...you get the picture.

This weekend we are going to try and "complete" our home. We want to refinish the floors and finish putting some trim around some windows. Things that we've been wanting to do for some time now. Not what we'd like to be doing at Christmas, but we're hoping that there will be some interest in our home starting in January, so we'd like it to be finished by that time.

Well, the clutter is calling for me to clean it up, so I had better get to that. I'll leave you with a picture of the girls at Christmas. In our opinion, there isn't much more precious than that.

What a Week So Far

I've been having the worst week so far. This is the third day in a row that I've had the kids to myself from morning 'til bed with no adult contact. It isn't like Eric is off partying so I can't complain a whole lot, but between work and school his schedule is taking a toll on my sanity!

Just tonight was mayhem...Grace has a cold so she was incredibly fussy, so I was carrying her around while clearing the table, I go back into the kitchen to find the dog eating off the table (lost my temper, let me tell you!) and then go into the bathroom to find that Hannah had dumped all of my powder make-up onto the floor. And this was after a day packed with similar incidences...the kids both went to bed early and I wish I could say that it was time to relax but no...now I have to do dishes and fold laundry. Blah!!

To top it all off Eric was roped into doing the Christmas program at church. So logically I realized when I looked at the calendar that this involved Christmas Eve. But yesterday it hit me emotionally when I really realized that Eric was going to be gone for the entire Sunday before Christmas, and on top of that all of Christmas Eve, so that means all family festivities are shot. I'm so the type of person that just thrives on the little family traditions and the fact that this is Grace's first Christmas means a lot to me. So Eric threw a wrench in the whole operation because he couldn't say no to the church, and I didn't realize how much it meant to me that he didn't do it until now. He has the two weekends before Christmas pretty much filled up with rehearsals, performances, etc. Should make for a very lonely Christmas season.

Some highlights from my week:

Playing together so nice



Hannah singing the "Crocodile Song" from Peter Pan



Here's hoping the rest of the week goes better!