Christmas Pictures

A Few Hours Out

I have really needed a break. The older the kids get the less breaks I need. Today I had to have one. We have been couped up inside for too long. There's never much to do in the winter. The weather has been nasty and everyone is always sick. The kids are not sick now but Woodstock has been SUPER whiny. It's gotten so bad that Stinkerbell has been walking around saying, stop whining. I needed to buy some Christmas presents and thought today would be a good day to leave the hubby with the kids and go out for a while. You might be wondering why I'm buying Christmas presents after Christmas. That's when everything is on sale and we don't see our family until after Christmas. It works out well. I went to Lifeway and bought some presents then went to Old Navy and bought the hubby and I some pants and then went to Barnes and Noble. I had some reading I needed to catch up on and some presents to buy there. It was a win win. I'm reading the Bible through in a year. I don't think I'm going to make it. I did good until this past summer. All that to say I have three months to read in five days. But I read for a while and drank some great hot cocoa. I love hot cocoa. I realized that I am bad at relaxing. The whole time I was gone today I couldn't stop worrying. Not about the kids being o.k. I just kept thinking how I hoped they were behaving and not stressing my hubby out and how I hoped everything went well and everyone was happy when I got home. I don't leave them very much but there is nothing worse to me than coming home to whiny kids and stressed out hubby. It gets me stressed when he is. I guess it's a good thing I don't work while he stays at home with the kids. I'm much better when I'm the stressed one and he's the calm one. Plus it takes me more to get stressed. I'm rambling....I'm just in that kind of mood. The day out was nice but I wish I could relax more. After I left Barnes and Noble I had to go to Target to buy a few things. It had been raining and was really wet outside. I walked out and was holding for bags in one hand and a thing of paper towels in the other. I came to the end of the side walk where there were two minivans pointing right at me and they were both full. I know this because I made eye contact with everyone right before I busted my butt. Technically, it was my knees. I stepped of the curb and went straight forward. I dropped everything and skinned up my knees. A lady that was in one of the minivans opened her door to ask if I was o.k. I said yes but just embarrassed. I think falling is always funny and I was laughing at myself but it's always extra embarrassing when it's in front of a lot of other people and no one else is laughing. They were all just staring at me with that whole "blesss your heart" look. I got home, skinned knees and all, at about 5:00 p.m. The kids and the hubby were all happy and fed. After all of this excitement I started to take all of our Christmas stuff down. I get just as excited about taking Christmas stuff down as I do putting it up. I'm always ready for it to be gone. Woodstock started getting upset. He said it wasn't Christmas yet. I told him it was yesterday when we opened all the presents and everything. He started crying and said we hadn't gone up to heaven to sing happy birthday to Jesus yet. I thought it was cute a while ago when he said he wanted to go to heaven to sing happy birthday to Jesus. I just left it alone then and didn't think much about it. Now I realized I should of explained how we can't go up to heaven. There were a lot of tears and a lot of explaining. I finally got things o.k. by telling him Jesus is watching him and could hear him sing happy birthday to Him. It was pretty cute though. Even though it was sad. Through his tears he told me that Angels could fly and they could come get us. After everything got happy again he would go to the window to see if he could see Jesus looking at us. I'm going to have to have the preacher on speed dial with this child. He keeps us on our toes!

*Disclaimer- I do not bake*

Woodstock has been begging for weeks to make gingerbread men cookies. It is amazingly a lot harder than you would think to find a store that carries the stuff. I ended up getting it all at Michaels. Which is where I should of gone in the beginning but wasn't thinking. Woodstock ended up having fun but the cookie event was a disaster (picture). The first batch hubby dropped in the bottom of the oven because he burned his hand. The next and last batch caught on fire because apparently I didn't get all of the cookies out of the bottom of the oven. We just decorated the burned cookies. Here's a pic of one of the little guys. It did have gum drop eyes but Stinkerbell ate all the candy off of him. It's not beautiful but Jesus's birthday cake did turn out much better. Check out the little figures on the cake. Baby Jesus looks like he's two or so. I got them at a party supply store. I guess we're not the only ones who makes Jesus a birthday cake.

Frustrated Friday

It's kind of like Thankful Thursday but....not. Frustrated Friday. It's about things that frustrate me. Feel free to have a Frustrated Friday on your blog too!

1. Woodstock still has an ear infection because he's also got a stomach bug on top of that and can't keep his antibiotic down. Yesterday he had to get a shot....sad and frustrating. I pray we are all well for Christmas or at least Woodstock can keep something down.

2. Woodstock threw up curdled milk on our couch and I cannot get the smell out. Any ideas? Can you take couch cushions to the dry cleaners?

3. Money....lack there of.

The Sick Season

My mom told me once when you have small kids it's like living in a petri dish. She was right. We all had colds for a couple of weeks then everyone's went away except Woodstock's. His cough turned into bronchitis. He finally got over that then Stinkerbell got really nasty ear infections. She's on round two of antibiotics plus she got a shot. The good news is she's finally getting better. Then Sunday Woodstock started running a low grade fever and was tossing and turning all night saying his ears hurt. Now he's on an antibiotic because it's a nasty one too. Good news is today they both seem to be doing good. The bad news is that since they feel good Woodstock sees no need in the meds. It doesn't help that they don't taste good. We have 8 more days of the meds. and he threw up last night after he took it. 'Tis the season!

Then and Now

It may seem hypicritical of me to be against Santa but always do the Santa photo. I love to compare them every year. I have a lot of them from when I was little too. Too bad there's not a frosty the snow man or something for them to have their picture with. Maybe I can start getting my hubby to dress up as 'ol frosty for Christmas pics!
Last year

This year

Things to Remember

I just saw this post on Natalie's blog. I love the idea and I'm going to do it just like she did. I'm going to start this post now and just update it every now and then as the littles get bigger.

1. Stinkerbell says "jew" for juice. I rarely give them juice but whenever whe wants something to drink she always asks for it. Which means she is constantly running around yelling "jew" at me.

2. Woodstock calls french fries "hoop pies". He can't say the f sound in words but we have no idea where "hoop" came from.

3. In our house butt is called "boohiney"

4. The kids think everyday is Sunday. If the sun is out it's Sunday.

to be continued...

Santa - the man. the myth. the legend.

This Christmas season has been very interesting. Woodstock has been asking all kinds of questions. At first, the hubby and I decided to just ignore Santa Claus. We've just been trying to focus on Jesus. Woodstock knows Christmas as Jesus's birthday. Which has lead to some very funny conversations with him. He has had a lot of confusion because we've been absolutely bombarded with Santa. I find it very annoying. Every decoration, every store, every cartoon on t.v., every person we see....it's all about Santa. On our recent trip to Alabama Woodstock started really asking alot of questions. EVERYONE we saw asked him what Santa Claus was bringing him for Christmas. He had no idea what they were talking about. To him Christmas is Jesus's birthday party and because He is so special everyone gets presents (from everyone else...people not Santa). Now everywhere he looks and everyone he talks to keeps talking about Santa. Obviously, the ignore Santa thing wasn't working. I decided to look up the story of St. Nicholas and tell him where Santa came from. Then explain that people just dress up as Santa as pretend and it's not real. I didn't even know the story of St. Nick. It's interesting, although I had to preschool it down a bit. There is some thing about some travelers being killed and cut up and St. Nick prays for them and brings them back to life. I stayed away from that stuff. I just told him that there was a man a long time ago named Nicholas. He loved Jesus so much and wanted everyone to know about Him and celebrate His birthday. Nicholas decided to give presents out to all the boys and girls on Christmas who didn't have presents. Now people like to pretend they are him and handing out presents. We now call him Santa Claus. Woodstock just said o.k. He's soaking it all in now. We did have a really funny conversation the other day. It went like this.
Woodstock: Mommy, can we have party hats on Christmas for Jesus's birthday.
Me: Sure
Woodstock: O.K. We can make a birthday cake and get a rocket ship and fly up above the clouds to heaven and sing happy birthday to Jesus on Christmas.
Me: That sounds like fun. I don't know if we can do that. One day Jesus will be back down here and then we can sing happy birthday with Him.
Woodstock: I think He will be back soon, maybe tomorrow.
Kids say the cutest things. In case anyone wants to know some facts for when the kids ask questions.....here are some.
Why do we hang up stockings?
According to tradition, the original Saint Nicholas first left gold coins in the stockings of three poor sisters. One night the girls went to bed, leaving their stockings drying over the fireplace. Knowing how desperate the family was, Saint Nicholas threw three bags of gold coins down the chimney which landed in the stockings. Since then children continue the tradition of hanging up their Christmas stocking on Christmas Eve, hoping to find it filled with gifts the next morning.
Why do we have a Christmas tree?
The tradition of the Christmas tree started in Germany. It's said that the church reformer Martin Luther was returning home one winter's night when he saw the stars twinkling in the sky through the tree branches. Enchanted by the sight, he cut down a small fir tree for his own family, brought it indoors and decorated it with candles. The custom spread all over the world. The Christmas tree first arrived in England in 1841, brought over from Germany by Prince Albert to remind him of his homeland. It was decorated with hand-blown glass ornaments, and soon the royal Christmas tree custom was being copied by families around the country.
Who's Santa Claus?
The story of Father Christmas begins with a real person, Saint Nicholas, in the fourth century. He had a reputation for being generous and kind and legends grew about the miracles he performed. These legends gradually died away over the years, apart from in Holland, where he was known as Sinterklaas. Dutch colonists took the Sinterklaas legend to what is now the United States, where his name became Santa Claus. He was originally pictured in a long brown robe and furs with a holly crown. The jolly Santa character in a red and white suit that we know today was adopted by Coca Cola for an advertising campaign in the 1930s.

Update

I have felt very unmotivated in the blogging area. I think of stuff to write about but never get around to doing it. It probably has to do with the constant sickness in the family. All four of us are sick but me and the hubby aren't bad. It's just enough to make me tired and blah. I did want to give an update on uncle A. We left him last Saturday to come back home. That day he was moved into another room out of ICU. He had spent a week in the ICU. He is doing very well and this Thursday was released. Grandette (uncle A and hubby's mom) has taken him home to her house to nurse him back to health. Overall he is doing very well and for that we are very thankful.