Your Christmas is Modern |
 Your wish for the New Year is more happiness. For you, Christmas is a spiritual holiday. You can’t separate it from your beliefs. You are patient when it comes to Christmas. You don’t celebrate too early, and you don’t like seeing holiday decorations in October. You like Christmas traditions, but you’re not uptight about them. You do things your way. You like to celebrate Christmas your own way, and you don’t like to have to compromise. You enjoy Christmas more than anyone you know. Some might call it an obsession! You give a big during the holidays but nowhere near as much as you’d like to. |
Can you see the irony?
My favorite quote in my kitchen broke the 2nd day I ruptured a disc in my back. I was in agony for 14 days. Can you say “ironic”? {{Geeze}}
Reinforcements!
My mom came up over the weekend to lend us a hand. She was a HUGE help! She did some much needed grocery shopping, bought amazing stocking suffers, and did laundry.
Most importantly she brought some much needed positive energy into our home, took all the boys to a movie, and made TONS of Christmas cookies.
I think I can speak for everyone in our family when I say we were so grateful for Grandma’s visit. The boys had so much fun, Jason was so grateful for the help, and I was grateful for the service and the company. Thanks Mom! I can’t thank you enough for everything you did for our family in 2 short days.
Since Dylan still believes in Santa, I was really worried about the stocking suffers. I know it seems silly worrying about that in my condition. But it’s important to me to try and keep this Christmas as consistent as our others. It’s difficult.
In other news, Drake is now officially full force in a robot phase. He’s watching The Iron Giant, Zuthura, and playing with Davis & Dylan’s robots. I really wish he would be into things more age appropriate. Geeze this kid.
I had to take a picture of him playing with the Little People Nativity. It’s the only time he’s given any attention to little boy toys and it’s only because it plays music and lights up. Sadly he only played with it once.
He’s more likely to play with my cast-iron animal decorations than Little People. He totally cracks me up!
I’ve realized that Drake has the stubbornness of the Jason and I but with the sass of my side of the family. (Great combo, I can’t wait until he’s a teenager.)
My friends have been so wonderful to play date with Drake every day and last week when he got home he said, “I stay HERE!” Poor little guy. I guess the excitement of a new friend every day has worn off.
Also last week as I was walking hunch-backed like a 90 year old; he pushed my chest and said, “Stand up!” He’s had it as much as I have. {{sigh}}
Epidural Cortisone Shot
Just a quick update on my back. I met with the surgeon on Tuesday he confirmed that I have a ruptured disc. He wanted me to try a Cortisone Epidural Injection before I rush into surgery. So I did.
I couldn’t eat anything after midnight Tuesday night (except pain meds) and went in to have the epidural Wednesday afternoon. It’s supposed to take 24 hours to take effect, but I’m still not feeling any better. I’ll call the surgeon in the morning to schedule the surgery. I can’t live with this pain any longer.
Thanks to Lisa, I just finished watching the first season of Jericho. It’s a lot like 24. However, watching 24 hours of the end of the world while in the most terrible pain of my life; has done little to keep my spirits up. {{wink}} But the action and “what if” sequences in my head has certainly done it’s job distracting me from time to time.
Naturally, I’ve got to check out Season 2 and can’t wait to see what happens.
In the meantime, I’m finishing the 3rd season of the O.C. with my hot pad, drugs, and Diet Coke…
Keeping Christ in Christmas
A comment I read recently got me thinking more about the spiritual aspects of Christmas. So I thought that I’d pose the question over on Tip Junkie, “How do you keep the Christ in Christmas?”
This time of year it’s so easy to get caught up in the material aspects of gift giving. For me, it’s a constant conscious effort to bring traditions, books, movies, and stories into my home that focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I’m sure we could all use some new ideas.
Here are a couple of mine:
12 Days of Christmas with Nativity – Read the poem or story that corresponds with each piece.
Felt Nativity Hand Puppets – Not everyone has enough people or costumes to act out the Nativity. Using puppets is an alternative that you can do as a family or just let the kiddos play together.
A book a day – Wrap up 25 Christmas books and unwrap one and read it every night until Christmas. It’s a wonderful way to get have your children practice as well as get in the Christmas spirit.
8×8 Christmas Album – All you need is a red 8×8 album, 3 pieces of textured scrapbook paper, a red ribbon, a charm, 3 red small buttons, and brown ink pad and print out all the stories. Read one each day.
Christmas Tree Advent Calendar – An advent is a way of marking the days until Christmas, start on December 1st and read the corresponding meanings for each symbol.
I’d love some more ideas! So head on over to Tip Junkie and join in the discussion. Simply compose a post answering the question and then copy and paste it into Mister Linky.
A Pain in the…
I woke up last Sunday to some major back pain. I’ve had back problems since 6th grade so it wasn’t anything new. However, by Monday I was in such severe pain I found myself in Urgent Care.
Since then, my medication has been increased and the pain is still unbearable. So today I went and got an MRI.
Bad news.
I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on Tuesday because I have a badly ruptured disc. It looks like it’s surgery for me with some pretty intense recovery.
I haven’t stopped crying since I got the call. I’m devastated. As usual, my timing is impeccable being the 1st week of December. {{sarcastic}}
I do want to send a big blog thanks to Cindy, Kim, Tiffany and Heather for the dinner they sent over!! That was so unexpected and seriously so thoughtful. Thanks Ladies!! {{teary}}
My family LOVED it and it was a nice break for Jason who’s been up with me and Drake all hours of the night, working from home, and trying to juggle the jobs of Mom and Dad.
I haven’t had surgery before and I’m really scared. I’m just hoping that I can keep it together for the kids and still give them a happy Christmas.
Thanksgiving in the Mountains
This Thanksgiving we headed out of town with 3 other families and celebrated the holiday in the mountains. It was so nice to get away and celebrate such an important holiday with close friends.
Our kids were so excited to be surrounded with friends and I was just as excited to be with my friends. {{giddy}}
We started off Thanksgiving day making Apple Turkeys.
Drake really got into it.
Then we made Oreo Turkeys.
As you can imagine, they were a big hit.
I went nuts over the table decor but kept it simple since we traveled a long distance.
Here’s a picture of the kids table setting.
They kiddos had such an amazing view.
Everyone loved the maze, even Drake.
2 thumbs up on the food and it was such a wonderful day. I have much to be grateful for.
The kids did a lot of exploring and hiking.
And just had a great time being together.
Davis found a new game that he enjoys, Stratego.
We went a bit OTT with pictures on our hike.
Me and my Boys
Laurie and her family
Tricia and her family
We sang songs around the campfire and had smores.
The boys got plenty of use out of their army knives. They widdled branches for days!
I got addicted to Sequence as we played several tournaments over the weekend. I’m hoping Santa brings it to me for Christmas. {{hint hint}}
It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by some pretty amazing families. Everyone has so much fun that it actually felt like a vacation instead of a family trip. I adore these Ladies and feel very blessed to have them and their kiddos in my life.
Sweet Escape
I can’t believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I’m still a bit in denial as I’m downloading fabulous traveling music onto my iPhone thanks to my Sister! Lisa hands down has the best taste in music. I’m loving her newest blog opener, “Gives You Hell”. {{too funny}}
I called her last night as I was walking home from a friends’ house and and we were both in rare form. We only talked for a couple minutes but in that time we laughed so hard I got a tummy ache. I think the reason I love being with my sister so much is because she has a talent of kicking out Mommy Laurie and bringing out me. Does that make sense?
The past several weeks, I’ve been so busy trying to fix problems, dealing with difficult people, trying to keep up with the demands of Tip Junkie, getting ready for Christmas, all the while making some major changes in my day-to-day life (more about that later). Needless to say, I’m a bit spent.
So huge shout out to my sister skiing in Utah! I miss you and thanks for the laugh last night. I know I can always count on you to make fun of me and give me the belly laughs. You’re the best!
Who’s the person in your life that breaks through your “mommy wall?”
A Little About Me
The girls over at the Lil’ Peanut Patch interviewed me for their Marvelous Mommy feature. {{ahh shucks}} Thanks Ladies! It was a fun interview and thanks for the huge compliment.
If you’d like to get to know me a little better, head on over. Be sure to leave a comment and tell me what you think!
Tough Guy
Ahhhh. Finally a TV show that keeps my attention with guns, intrigue, tough men, action, and deception. I can’t wait until January. {{squeal with delight}}
Jack’s my kind of tough guy and it was nice to have him back in my home, even if it was for only 2 hours. However the best part of the special were the previews of the upcoming season.
Spoiler Alert!
Tony Almeida is back!! YAY! He’s become my second favorite character in the show .(Sorry President Palmer, I now get to see you in the Unit.)
However, this time he just might be the bad guy. {{ooooh}} Obviously, he’s still hacked-off that Michelle got killed. This boy can hold a grudge. {{love it}}
I love it in the preview when Jack has him by the throat and says, “This time I’ll kill you myself and you’ll stay dead!” {{giggle}}
Tony has officially become Jaws from the Bond movies who would never die. He was my favorite character while watching the old movies with my Dad.
Gotta appreciate those kind of skills!