Packed Christmasy Weekend

The second full week of December was completely normal.  We got the science fair projects turned in and over with.  No one won anything, which is fine.  We did them - which I'm proud of! ha!

Starting Friday after school though - whew, we stayed busy and did a ton of Christmasy activities!  I knew it was my last weekend to get things done so we got them done.

We started with decorating gingerbread houses right when we got home from school.  I bought kits this year and they each had their own.  We had to build it and put it together.  I ended up having to super glue Will's to get it to stay but we got it.  They had fun decorating them.  A little later that afternoon, GrandBob and Suzette arrived and we went out to dinner and then to Korner's Folly to see it at night and all decorated for Xmas.  We had been during the summer one year and really loved touring the odd, old house.  GrandBob and Suzette had never been.  Each room was decorated by some different business or community group and you could vote at the end for your favorite room.  It was very pretty to see at night and all decorated up.  You couldn't take as much time as you'd like because there were lots of other people there that night.  They only do the candlelight tours two nights a year.  It was a really fun night with the Old Man (GrandBob) and Suzette.   We got home that night and decided it was going to be the lucky night for our annual Christmas tree camping night.  We made up beds on the floor for the kids, Drew took the couch and I got the recliner.  We fell asleep to the glow of the Christmas tree lights.  I just love that once a year tradition.  I'm also glad that it didn't end in puke, like it did last year!

We woke up Saturday morning and we headed to church to see Santa.  The kids know it is a guy from our church but it's still fun to visit him.  We came home and we started the process of making Christmas cookies.  I got the dough made and we ate lunch and then we cut them out and baked them.  I convinced the kids to use icing to decorate so we had to wait for them to cool off.

While they were cooling off, we ran up to the dog store in town so we could take Aiden to see Santa.  This is not normally something we would do but our friend Ms. Jenny was taking the pictures and we wanted to see her.   Aiden was a little freaked by the other dogs but we ended up getting a good picture of the kids, Aiden, and Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus!

We came home and we decorated the cookies.  We used frosting and then they decorated with sprinkles and such.  So many sprinkles and such.  Lindy dumped a whole bottle of red on her tray.  But they had fun.  And these were by far the best cookies we have ever made.  Normally we make cookies, because I feel like we need to.  We eat a couple, put some out for Santa and throw the rest away.  This year we had to set a couple aside so we had some for Santa.  Everything just worked out right.  Batter, thickness, time in oven, convincing them to use frosting.  They were so yummy!  It was worth the work this year!

Saturday night Drew and I went on a little Christmasy date.  He had seen this woman, Dee Dee Bridgewater - a jazz singer, was coming to town to play with the Piedmont Wind Symphony.  He really wanted to go.  Very last minute, like that morning, we got tickets after Lynn said she could watch the kids.  We dropped them off and went to the concert and I took a nap.  The first half was great - the wind symphony played all Xmas music and it was fun.  The second half Dee Dee came out and although she started out strong, she finished not strong.   After a couple songs she said she didn't know the words to the next song and sat down and sang them.  From then on out she was basically reading the music.  She had a good personality but I would have been fine with just some more wind symphony playing Xmas music.

Sunday morning the kids had their children's Christmas program during church and it went well.  Jess, Amy and I 'directed it.'  Jess and I found two different things and pieced them together so there was a part for the little kids and then larger parts for the older kids.  We had been practicing since October.  After church a group of church folks and most of the kids met at a local nursing home and we sang Christmas songs for/with them.  The children sang their Christmas songs from the program that morning and we all sang the good old, favorite Christmas hymns.  They seemed to enjoy it so it was nice we could do it.  We spoke with them after we were done singing and I hear Will got a big kiss on the check from one lady!

We had much fun participating in so many Christmas activities in one weekend!  I'm tired just after writing that all - not sure how we did it all!

Completed science fair projects!  Will's was called the Great Milk Soda Clash.  He poured different kinds of milk into Coke to see what happened.

 Lindy's was Sugar vs Teeth.  She poured different kinds of sugary eggs on eggs to see what happened to them after sitting for 24 hours. 

 Gingerbread house construction time!

 Friday night at Korner's Folly.  

 In the 5.5' tall room!  

 Annual Christmas Tree campout 

 Saturday morning with Santa

 Saturday afternoon Christmas cookies

 Saturday afternoon with Santa, Mrs. Claus - and Aiden!

 Yay!  We got to see Ms. Jenny!

Saturday night date night with Drew and Dee Dee

 Christmas program at church on Sunday morning

Lindy saying her part about Peace 

 Will saying his part about Joy

I thought this was just funny.  Lindy was bored by Will's part!  ha! 

 The whole crew!

And Then It Was December

We had an incredibly full and fun November but man was it busy!  I essentially traveled for two weeks straight and it took me about two weeks to catch up.  Everyone else had up Xmas decorations and we didn't and I felt behind until I did get things up.

Thankfully the last week of November was super quiet with not much going on.  Gave us a chance to get back in the swing of things.  And before we knew it, December was here!  I have a love/hate relationship with December.  It's one of the busiest times of the year but it's also one of the best.  I love the Christmas tree lights and all the fun activities we find to do.  Sometimes I find too many to do and stress myself out but they all end up so fun.  And this year I discovered Hallmark movies.  I'm not sure which rock I've been living under but I didn't know about them.  I became obsessed with them.  Like I watched one every single night after the kids went to bed.  I even got Drew to watch a bunch with me.  I think he secretly liked them but he mostly just liked spending time together during the holiday season.  Some nights we watched and wrapped and a lot of nights I watched and did online shopping, but I watched so many during December!  We had years to get caught up on!  ha!

We started the month off with Lindy's yearly neurosurgery appointment.  An appointment that literally takes 10 minutes with the PA but we were there for an hour, waiting.  At 8:20am - how do doctors get off schedule so early in the morning?!  She is still doing great and so often we forget she even has a shunt.

Saturday, December 2nd, I went with Lynn up to VA to Anna's house and then we went to a craft show in Danville, VA.  We were not blown away by the craft show, but it's still fun to look around.  I got both of them some presents so that was a good thing.  We also walked around downtown Danville, VA, which is a surprisingly cute town!  It has the quaintest little downtown - who knew!

Lindy had another appointment on December 5th - a nephrology appointment to check her kidneys.  It had been two years so I was anxious to do the appointment and make sure everything was going well.  She seems healthy so I wasn't too concerned but when you haven't checked for two years, you never know.  Her first appointment was at 9:30am but we got there around 8:30am so we could get her blood drawn and get the urine sample.  Getting blood drawn was a fun experience.  She freaked out a bit and I had to basically restrain her with my body.  I got a video up on my phone and before she knew it, the lady was done.  We got the urine cup but it took a good while of drinking Diet Coke before we had success.  Definitely our smoothest urine collection to date.   At 9:30am we had her kidney ultrasound and we got to see our favorite ultrasound technician, Ms. Klista.  She scanned the kids in the NICU and she is so sweet.  She lets Lindy help her and then she let Lindy scan her dog!  ha!  We headed over to the actual nephrology appointment and had not even barely sat down when they called us back - before our scheduled appointment time.  That's a rare treat!  We were scheduled to see another nephrologist but we were excited when Dr. Lin walked in the door.  He's been seeing her since she was a baby but we had not seen him two years ago.  He is one of my favorite doctors.  He has a pretty thick Asian accent, which Lindy can't understand, so I was basically a translator between the two, but he is so funny.  I love seeing him!  Everything looked great - which made everything better anyway.  Both kidneys grew, which is great.  She has a much smaller one, but it did grow some.  He said the left is definitely doing most of the work but the right must be doing something to be growing.  Her blood and urine all looked good as well so we will do it all again in two years.

Lindy had three outings away from school in about 5 days, which is unusual.  Two appointments lined up a couple days apart but the third one was a fun one - her annual HI hearing impaired Christmas party.  They invite all the HI students from the district, from preschool to high school.  They do crafts and get to have lunch.  A dance party, complete with a DJ and disco ball was just getting started when Lindy and I headed out.  We didn't have time to go clubbin - ha!  Back to work and school for us.

The biggest excitement for the beginning of December was that we got a snow storm!  We got snow before my sister in MO and friends in NY!  Totally unexpected and caught everyone off guard.  They said it would snow but no measurable accumulation.  For hours it was just beautiful - falling snow, but not sticking.  I had the day off work and a hair appointment scheduled but kept waiting for an early release.  They never did call it early so I got to school and everything was fine.  Things went downhill quickly.  By the time we got back in the car it was starting to stick to the road outside school.  Then things went really downhill.  A normal 22 minute commute took us 1.5 hours!  It was awful!  We took the road home that also had road construction on it and let me tell you, they don't mix well.  We were so glad to finally get home.  Drew thankfully was closer to home than us and ran a couple errands for us so we could just get home.

We spent the weekend playing in the snow and doing science fair projects.  Uggggggg.  The projects were actually done the weekend before but we had the dreaded boards to do.  That took us the entire weekend to get them done.  Ugggg to science fair projects.  They are required in 4th and 5th grades so we had to do them.  We powered through and got them finished.  Church was cancelled on Sunday morning so that gave us extra time to work on the projects.

The other fun activity we did was on Sunday, December 10th and we went ate lunch and then saw a play in Greensboro with Lynn and Martha.  It was called A Beautiful Star - An Appalachian Nativity.   They do it each Christmas and I have looked at it for awhile so this year we decided to go.  I like doing new things each year at Christmas.  It had all bluegrass music - a lot written by a singer we had seen before.  The theatre was really small and quaint and we were on the side and felt like we were on stage.  We were surprised to see the songwriter was actually in the play that day.  We all really enjoyed the play and although much different than I thought it would be, it was still good.  There was one funny part when 'Satan' came out right next to me and was basically singing right to me.  He tapped my head and was singing that he was going to take me with him.  ha!  Lindy looked at him with the funniest look on her face and then growled at him!  He didn't hear her but it was pretty funny.

Looking good for the first Sunday of December

 Lindy and Ms. Klista, her ultrasound tech

 Scanning her dog!

Lindy at her HI party

 At the party with Ms. Mary - one of her HI preschool teachers

 And Ms. Asbury - her main HI preschool teacher

  With Wyatt - one of her preschool HI buddies.  They don't remember each other :(

 The big early snow of December 2017!

 Aiden kept finding the not snowy parts to hang out in

 She loves to eat snow!

 Our neighbor took a family picture of us after I took their Xmas card picture for them.

 Lindy with their cat