Crisis

I sat down at the computer today for a few minutes of puke free (all the sickos are finally sleeping) minutes with the intention of getting all caught up on the blog with regards to our Christmas preparations and activities. BUT as it turns out, my memory card is not in my camera. This is a bit of a dilemna, a little crisis....I have 10 days (the kids won't let me forget) to find it before Christmas or I'll only be able to take 10 pictures with the internal memory. How does a memory card disappear out of your camera? With lovely gingerbread house pictures on it? Nevermind, I have five probable answers....

So here are the only photos that had been uploaded prior to my crisis. A few weeks ago, we decided to roast hot dogs over the fire. It was crazy fun, as you can tell by Reillee's disheveled hairbow. The only problem, however, is that when we started the NEXT fire, our entire house immediately started to smell like hot dogs. Lovely.

I love Christmas!! It is really, really hard for me to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up decorations and turn on the Christmas carols. But I did wait. As soon as Thanksgiving was over we:

*Put up the decorations!!

*Turned on the carols!!

*Made a Christmas activity advent calendar (the days that had no real "activity" scheduled have become Christmas story or movie nights)

*Started the baking--70 cake balls, 8 loaves of banana bread, 4 loaves of cheese bread (okay, we actually ate all of those ourselves, but we'll make more soon), 2 batches of muddy buddies, and more to come

*Made gingerbread houses and gingerbread men (this was soooo important to Benjamin). Many thanks to my talented sister-in-law for actually doing all the hard work and letting me just decorate....although, if we gave her family the flu, then thanks may not be enough....

*Saw a couple sets of dancing Christmas lights

*Attended the ward, tae kwon do, and little league Christmas parties...ate too much at all of them (a highlight was the little league party in which Reillee parked herself on the owner's dog's bed, and every time the dog tried to walk away started screeching, "DOGGIE!!! C'MON!!! DOGGIE!!!" loud enough for the entire party to stop and stare. Yep, that's my kid!)

*Saw Santa

*Yelled our Christmas lists up the chimney!! (The videos are on the elusive memory card. But EmJ would like Uggs, Joshua--a DS and a hamster, Benjamin--a bag of gummy worms, Sam--big Rapunzel hair, and Luke--flapjacks and lots of dinero.)

*Attended some beautiful firesides and musical performances

*Watched a Christmas Carol (three versions so far) and other Christmas classics

*Started making Christmas cards, gift tags, and thank you cards....although they will never be done!

*Took the kids shopping for our first annual gift exchange (everybody gets a dollar at the dollar store and has just a few minutes to find the perfect gift). Joshua wanted a paddle ball so bad that he convinced himself that's what Sam wanted, too. We're really getting in to the spirit of giving, obviously.

*Put lights on the house!! This was really hard for Scrooge, himself, but with plenty of prodding from the kids he pulled out the ladder and got to work. For my part, I promised that I'd be a penny pincher, too, by waiting until the week before Christmas to turn them on. (For Christmas, I'm getting Luke a half of a candle. So he can read in the dark at night. But only until the candle runs out.)

And that's it!! We are ready for Christmas!! Can't hardly wait!!

*And just a funny that I have to record: Gus, yesterday, was railing on Sam about being to noisy and annoying. He was getting really worked up, nearly into a tantrum (it doesn't take much), when he suddenly got quiet and thoughtful and turned to me and said, "I don't have to live with Sam when I grow up, do I?" It was such a revelation to him! And gave him the patience to listen to her (singing, wildly singing) for a few more minutes.