Weekly Roundup

Whew! This past week has seriously been kicking my tail!

While I can't hardly complain that I have been so much busier than anyone else, I can just say that this has just got to be the busiest and best time of year.

Let me give a quick rewind of the events leading up to this weekend. Oh yeah, since it seems as though I am approximately a whole week behind. Here's some snippets of how we've been staying busy:

Friday, 12/14: My parents rushed into town to babysit Elaina and Lincoln while Eric and I attended my evening Christmas party for work. It seems as though their night went relatively smoothly as they enjoyed each other's company until we came home and I realized that I never made any mention to grandma and grandpa to feed Elaina dinner. Like any typical grandma and grandpa, they may have shared some cookies or maybe some candy with Elaina, but no dinner. And she was never hungry either. Imagine that.

Saturday, 12/15: Nancy, who babysits the kids, invited her 'big" kids to an afternoon pizza/ bowling party for her 2-4 year old crowd. Uh, can you say, "brave?" We dropped Elaina off and my parents, Lincoln and myself went south of our town to do some shopping. Gradually, we began to her some buzz among the other shoppers that the snow was accumulating like crazy outside. What? When we left, there wasn't even a flurry or sign of snow. We hurried through the mall and headed back north to be on time to pick up Elaina. By this time, the snow had actually accumulated nearly 3 inches, making the roads an icy and dangerous mess. My stomach was reeling as I navigated about 40 mph on the highway and I felt a little sick inside knowing my baby was with someone else in the same weather conditions. I trust Nancy like she's a part of our family, but trust sometimes isn't enough when accidents happen everyday. My heart was sick with worry over all of them. We finally arrived home 30 minutes later than we should have and Nancy called a short 5 minutes later saying that she was going to drop Elaina off at our house. My stress and worry jumped out of my body when I saw 3 sleepy, little, sweeties sleeping safely in the back seat of Nancy's car. Nancy, her 2 grand kids and my baby Elaina had made it home safely after a fantastic, fun day of bowling.

Sunday, 12/16: Happy birthday Eric! Eric spent both Saturday and Sunday in the woods hunting. (Yeah, even in the 3 inches of snow and gusting wind!) Being able to spend time doing what he loves was Eric's best gift. My kids and my parents were keeping me company for the weekend, but by the time Sunday's weather forecast came about, I sent my mom and dad packing even before lunchtime. It wasn't so much the weather in our area that was getting frightfully bad, but near their home nearly 3 hours west. They ended up braving more gusting wind and icy, snowy roads and drove right on through a Level 3 snow emergency, meaning that they could have been arrested for driving on the roads without just cause. I'm grateful that they came and relieved that every last one of us stayed safe on the roadways.

Monday, 12/17: I left work early to finish my Christmas shopping, which I did before attending my very first Tastefully Simple Christmas party at a local steakhouse. What can I really say about sitting around, eating dinner and exchanging lame gifts with 30 strangers and paying $25 for my meal? Oh, maybe that gives you an idea.

Tuesday, 12/18: Lincoln has croup. Again. And pink eye. Again. He makes my heart hurt with his chronic coughing and feeling bad.

Wednesday, 12/19: Eric took Lincoln to see the doctor. He suspected that Lincoln never really got over his croup from last time and once he got pink eye, that triggered respiratory problems which brought the croup back bigger and worse than ever. Lincoln was prescribed an antibiotic and prednisone steroid to kick this out of his system once and for all.

Thursday, 12/20: Eric and I worked like a finely tuned machine as we got the kids fed, bathed and put to bed to have as much time as possible in the evening to wrap up gifts and put effort into our final push to get everything done for Christmas. We would be leaving town to spend Christmas at our families' houses and needed to have everything in place to make that possible. We finished our wrapping, finished our laundry and got plenty of packing done too. This night was a little excessive and bedtime, for me, came around 1:00 a.m. I can't wait for my 4 day Christmas vacation!

Friday, 12/21: I had already warned Eric that I didn't want him to try to rush me or even say the word "hurry" to me tonight as we tried to get ourselves out of the house for the drive to my parents' house. I knew I had plenty to do and I even had a list, but I didn't want to start off my Christmas holiday by rushing through. I don't even know how we were able to pack everything into the truck with still enough room for 2 kids and a dog, but we did it. I actually sent some big Christmas gifts home with my parents last weekend and left some at their house when I was out shopping on black Friday. Thank goodness because there would have been literally, no room for a single item more without busting out the turtle cap to ride atop our truck. NOT. At one point into our drive, Elaina and Lincoln were crying at the same time. Well actually, Lincoln was scer-reaming and Elaina was whining and I was just so thankful that I hadn't already stressed myself out before leaving otherwise this would have totally pushed me over the edge. We managed. We had a safe trip, Lincoln got fed in his carseat in the backseat and Elaina put herself to sleep when she got over her bouts of whine. I'm so happy to be here and ready for the Christmas magic to begin!

That brings me to now. At this moment, (which I know won't last long enough) my brother Greg and Colin have arrived at my parents' house and after some play time and lunch, Eric suggested that Elaina take a nap and Colin could join her. Once the munchkins got cleaned up from lunch, they were both bouncing in the kitchen shouting, "I'm tired!" "I'm tired too!" Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. The two of them laid in bed nicely for a little while until they decided to have a party. Greg joined Colin in bed for a nap. Grandma ended up with Elaina in her bed. Lincoln melted into dreamland on his daddy's shoulder. And grandpa found comfort in a nap with his old friend, Lazy-Boy.

In the next few hours, we are headed to church for my cousin's daughter, Gracie to be baptized. Following church service, we'll be joining in our crazy family Christmas at my aunt and uncle's house with approximately 10 kids under the age of 5 and a plenitude of aunt's and uncles and sisters and brothers. Oh, and this gift exchange with my family isn't lame! A nice reprieve from Monday's sorry attempt.

Since the whole family won't be asleep for long, I'll take this moment to wish everyone a safe, happy and peaceful Christmas holiday. Merry Christmas!