Playing Catch-up

Ok, so I guess this is my catch-up post. So much has happened since my last post Im not sure where to begin. Well first there was Christmas. Christmas was pretty good. We had my boys' Christmas program for their preschool. They did a shadow puppet show about Jesus' birth. It was very cute.



We spent Christmas Eve day with my in-laws. They showered my children with lots of gifts, one of which was an electronic drum set for my boys, (yikes!) and Elizabeth got lots of cute clothes (have i mentioned i LOVE having a girl?).



Christmas Eve we went to church, followed by our family tradition of watching "The Grinch". Christmas morning we woke up and did our little mini family gift swapping.





Afterwards we headed to my parents house. We do not exchange gifts among my siblings and parents. There are so many people in my family (I have 5 siblings and most all are married, or soon to be). We just all buy gifts for the neices and nephews. The kids had lots of fun opening all their gifts. 2 of my brothers reinacted the story of Jesus' birth using my moms wooden manger set. The kids loved hearing the story.



Afterwards, we followed with the tradition my dad started where we all sit down as a big family and he challenges each individual and/or couple with a thought for the new year. He sits and reflects on the past year with us, how each of us have changed or grown, as well as prays for each of us. Its always an enjoyable and inspiring time, one of my most favorite things about Christmas. The one downfall to Christmas this year was that one of my brothers showed up stoned. He has had a battle with drugs for the past 5+ years. He was clean for at least 3 and recently fell back into it. It put a real damper on the day. He showed up a few hours late, stayed for 1/2 an hour and then left. It was really rough on everyone since we all knew what was going on.

Then there was New Years. We spent New Year's in Winter Park where my husband (the bass player) and his band played a concert. We had a great time and met some great people as well as had the opportunity to catch up with some old friends.




This is how Elizabeth and I spent the weekend
(yes, shes in there somewhere - i love my sling)

We got back in town late Monday night and Tuesday morning started back to our normal schedule. The kiddos had preschool (ugh 7:30 came early that morning), I had lots of laundry and house cleaning to do, as well as grocery shopping. Now here we are, Thursday night - I am still not sure where this week went but anxiously await the weekend to catch up on some much needed sleep. I now just realize it took me almost 2 hours to completely write this blog...Well its 11:30 and i am heading to bed. Hope you enjoyed my update. Good Night!