Christmas Catch-Up Post

Some things that have happened/not happened since the last time I posted:

We celebrated Tate's birthday at the Play Station. I had wanted to take him to Chuck E. Cheese since he's been talking about going there forever, but Glen said it was much easier to keep track of kids at the Play Station, which is true. Tate had a great time, but as we were leaving, I heard him tell Chase, "Next year, I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese!" I realized tonight that though I had uploaded the pictures of his birthday from of the camera to the computer, I had not gotten the videos, and I deleted them on Christmas morning. :(


I was hoping to attend a Christmas party with some of my oldest and closest friends after work one Saturday, but drove the (shorter) distance home in blizzard conditions instead.

I took the kids to the Dollar Store to buy gifts for each other. It went a lot more smoothly than last year. Chase bought Samantha a bottle of orange juice.

Glen helped me wrap the kids' gifts! He's never done this before, and I was especially appreciative since I know how much he hates it. He always gets the girls to wrap my gifts from him.


I got my Christmas cards finished and mailed on Christmas Eve! We also went to the Christmas Eve service at church, where the boys sang "Away in a Manger" with another little girl from their Sunday School class (no, we couldn't hear them, but they were cute), Sammy played "Silent Night" on the piano, and Britta sang "What Child is This?" and I ACCOMPANIED. It was just out of the hymnal, but I only made a couple of mistakes, and now people at church (it's very small) know I can play the piano. I did practice a lot for this--it's been a long time since I played the piano in front of people!

Christmas at home was fun. The kids opened their dollar store gifts from each other first, and they all loved them. The plastic handcuffs that Chase got were broken before all the rest of the gifts were even opened. Sammy loved the orange juice. I actually surprised Glen with a couple of his gifts! He surprised me--I opened several small gifts, each with a letter or two on a card. I had to unscramble the letters before I opened one big gift. It was a Shiatsu massage cushion (the one advertised on Rush Limbaugh!), and no, I didn't figure it out until he told me the first and last letter. I did make several other words while trying to figure it out, though. I have used it at least once every day since. So have Britta and Sammy. I forgot to get a picture of all the kids together on Christmas Day.

All the snow melted on the 26th. I went shopping. Glen's family came out on Saturday the 28th. We had fun playing the kids' new Wii games, especially Mario Kart. His sister's family stayed overnight because the roads were really icy, but his dad drove home. We skipped church the next day because we kept thinking it would be cancelled, but it wasn't.

The boys went home with Luann on Sunday afternoon, and it was very quiet at home. Sammy and I played her new eclectronic banking Monopoly game. I won. :) Glen and the girls and I went out for supper and to Wal-Mart. Glen had planned to take me out but we didn't go since we had to go pick the boys up the next day.

I picked the boys up from Luann's after running some errands in CR. They had wanted to make Christmas ornaments with Luann but didn't get to since they never told her what they wanted to make--when we got home, we made bead candy canes while the girls worked in the garage with Glen building a workbench. Glen said something about role reversal.



I had to work on Tuesday. The other pharmacist went home sick within an hour of when I got there. It was a long day. Near the end of the day, we found out they had FOUR pharmacists working in Waterloo, so they sent one over. He was there by 5:00, and I was so relieved. We had LONG lines at the pickup window most of the day, but most of the people were nice about it.

We did nothing special for New Year's Eve. Glen had to work. The boys went to bed early, and the girls and I watched August Rush. They went to bed about 11:30, and I was up at midnight but didn't notice it. Lame, I know. :) I was watching a replay of the Iowa-Ohio State game on the Big Ten Network, even though I already knew they'd lost. It was a good game anyway. I found out later Mom and Dad were watching too, only they didn't realize it was a replay at the time.

I let the kids play the Wii a lot on New Year's Day so that I could watch the Outback Bowl in the kitchen. It was fun to see the Hawkeyes get such a good win.

While I was watching the game, Chase came and asked me when we were going to die, because he didn't like dying. I told him he didn't have to be afraid to die if he knew he was going to Heaven. He wanted to know for sure, and now he does! He didn't really understand how happy he made me, but someday he will.

Yesterday, I took Sammy, Tate and Chase to see Horton Hears a Who at a theater in CR that does free (admission is a food donation) kids' movies over school breaks. We hadn't seen it, and it was very cute, but I did fall asleep a few times. We got pizzas with coupons from the summer reading program and ate them at Mom and Dad's, then Tate spent his birthday money at Toys R Us. Luann picked the girls up in the evening and took them back to her house--we're celebrating Britta's and Chelsea's birthdays there tomorrow after church.

Next weekend, my family will be here to celebrate Christmas, and then the kids go back to school on the 12th. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, but we'll miss Brad and Allison and the boys.

I didn't really make any New Year's Resolutions, but I did have some things in mind I'd like to do. I so far have not really eaten any better, I haven't exercised, I have read my Bible, and I have brushed my teeth before bed every night this year.

I keep thinking (like maybe for a half-hour at a time) that I'm SICK of chocolate and junk food.