Work and Sick Child

I finished my subbing position on Friday the 20th, and I am a free bird.  Really, it just feels like a regular Christmas break; it will feel more real in January when everyone else heads back to school.  My last days were hectic trying to get things wrapped up because Ellie decided that would be a great time to pick up some virus. We were juggling sitters, work time, and doctor’s appointments.  It was a little crazy.  I ended up feeling like I was sneaking out of the building Friday after a half day of work in order to get Ellie to the doctor. 

Turns out, nothing was wrong with her throat or her ears or her lungs or anything else that the doctor looked at.  He said to call if her fever persisted through Sunday or hit 104F.  Well, it hit 104.5F on Friday night, so I called the nurse line.  They, in turn, sent Ellie and me to the ER.  Their concern was a urinary tract infection; it was my concern as well.  No need to be concerned.  After disrupting a night’s sleep for her, and torturing her with a catheter, all tests came back clear.  It was just a virus – wait it out.  Ugh!  The only good thing about that was that I didn’t have to go the next day which was Christmas on my side of the family.  I would have missed most of the morning festivities. 

Cookies, anyone?

I have two very good cookie bakers on my hands!  I can’t believe how well this year’s cookie production went.  We started on Sunday.  I mixed the dough up.  (After seeing how well it went, I wish I would have made a bigger batch.  There’s always next year.)  Sunday evening we worked on cutting them out.  Madison did pretty well; I just worked to coach her on cookie cutter placement.  The less  you reroll the dough, the better.  Ellie… well, she worked really hard and insisted on doing it all herself with “no help me.”  I tried to let her go at it, but she would only press the cutter down enough to start the cut, but not finish.  So, I took over on a few of hers. 

        

They were very proud of all their work!

         

Then, tonight, I broke out the sprinkles, whipped up some frosting – yellow, blue, green, and red, and I set them loose!  When I asked if they were excited to frost cookies, this was their response (imagine loud screaming as well).

It was, really, pretty amazing to watch them focus on frosting them. 

        

And then Madison finished her last cookie.

And Ellie finished her last cookies, and I took the frosting….

Then, we showed off our beautiful cookies, and all was well!

    

A few things I learned:

• Ellie frosts with a light hand; Madison does not.
• Both girls are able to resist the temptation to eat the frosting. 
• Madison can resist frosting better than she can the temptation of eating cookie dough – like mother, like daughter!
• This is a great way to entertain them.  I even got a salad made for supper in the middle of all this!
• This is also a great way to get cookies frosting – a holiday task that I don’t really enjoy, but am happy that they do!

Just an FYI, this is the first of many posts.  A good many weeks have passed since my Thanksgiving blog, and I played catch-up for the past hour.  Enjoy the pictures and the stories.  What I learned?  It is not so super fun to play catch-up, but the end result IS satisfying. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season.  I will be blogging before the new year.  I will not be getting a Christmas letter out before the new year; for those on our annual list (or want to be), it will be more of a Happy New Year or maybe even, Happy Valentine’s Day letter.  But just like these blogs, I promise that it will come! 

The Live Nativity

Oak Grove Mennonite Church holds a live nativity walk-through.  We decided to go this year.  The girls loved it!  You start by registering, and then waiting for your guide to take you on the journey to find the baby Jesus.  We follow the star along the way.  We passed the angels singing, beggars begging, shepherds with sheep by a fire (really!), wise men, a marketplace to entertain the senses, lepers begging, King Herod (more on that in a minute), an innkeeper with no room, and finally, to baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a stable. 

The girls were entranced by every stop, watching the people, tasting the samples at the market.  It was incredible.  But then, we got to King Herod, who was, in real life, a very mean king.  Well, the actor portrayed him very well.  After we were introduced and our mission was announced (to find the new king), the King stood up, threw his giant book on the ground, and yelled at us!  The girls both, simultaneously, started crying and reachgin for someone to hold them!  We apologized to the king as we were leaving.  And we were reassuring the girls.  It was a good moment for a lesson about why Jesus came – how there were mean people and sin, and He came to save us.  We assured them we would find sweet, quiet baby Jesus soon.  Ellie just said through tears, “Jesus, Jesus.”  She knew, really knew, that everything would be okay if we just made it there. 

And it was. 

    

They were enraptured at the scene set before them. 

They soaked it up and wanted to get as close as possible, wading through the gifts for baby Jesus. 

They didn’t want to leave. 

It was beautiful.

Let it Snow…

I guess one benefit of not blogging for a half of a month is that you can combine dates together to make a theme.  So, this post contains pictures from December 7th and from December 14th, but it is all snow related.

On the 7th, Lehman’s Hardware had their winter open house.  They do a really good job on open house days – a local band, Honeytown (see a little taste of it here), usually performs, there a lot of samples, face painting is a staple for kids, and so much more!  The girls love it.  We started off by icing cookies and eating them.  This was followed by face painting – Madison wanted a castle on her forehead (a first for the face paint artist!), and Ellie chose snowflakes.  The we strolled, said hi to friends, ate some samples, listened to the music, and checked in on the ice sculptor.  When we came home, the snow was irresistible.  There was a snowman to try and build – Jeremy was successful on a small scale.  I couldn’t make the snow stick for anything!

             

Then, we tried a pull-behind-mommy sled experience.  This was initially exciting, but as snow crept up Ellie’s back, and Madison’s hands began the slow freeze, it became a cry fest. 

    

We picked up where that day left off this past weekend.  This time, however, we put on our snow gear!  The snow had come down all day long, and we had watched it pile up outside.  Finally, after naps, we all donned warm base layers, snow pants, boots, coats, hats, gloves, and headed outside.  It was just right – not too cold and snow perfect for packing.  Ellie was not thrilled with the idea of being outside, but we just let her whine while we all enjoyed making our snowman family.  Just to put it in perspective, Jeremy’s snowman was life-size, if not a little taller!

Ellie eventually decided to join in the fun when I started throwing snow at her – of all things, right?  I only threw it at her legs, but she thought it was pretty funny.  Then, we rolled around some and made some snow angels.  It was a good hour or so of family fun and memories.

    

We topped the night off by inviting my brother (Ben) and his family over for supper.  I had made a crockpot of soup and had been wanting to have them over.  And, surprisingly, a call an hour before supper was all it took!  Madison and Ellie had fun running and laughing with Cale and Landen.  Ben, Steph, Jeremy, and I enjoyed the conversations we had above the din of the children. 

When Daddy’s Away…

Jeremy had a week long training in Boston at the beginning of this month.  We went to my parents’ house one night for supper.  I had Sandy over for supper one night, and I took leftovers to my parents another night for a little reprieve from the solitude of being the only adult.  Thank you, all, who helped me that week.

On the other nights… the girls played and entertained and laughed and were, actually, quite delightful!  They pulled out the ole Steak n Shake hats for dinner one night.

   

And followed it up with a dance-a-thon afterwards.  (If I danced like them on a nightly basis, there would be no need to go to the gym!)

         

It is so neat to see how these two are becoming friends.  There are definitely moments of screaming at each other, tattling, and taking toys; but there are MORE (and that is the key) moments of laughing, playing, and dancing.  It is an incredible blessing to watch unfold. 

Trimming the Tree

It is a sad, sad thing when you realize that it is December 16, and you have not blogged since November.  I am sorry for my silence.  I am wrapping up my long-term substitute position, and then I hope to regain some sanity and serenity at home.  For now, I’ll just play a game of serious catch-up!

I just wanted to title this one “Trimming the tree” because, really, who says this?  We pulled out our artificial tree from the basement the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Madison helped sort the branches by the color coding and helped give them to us as well.  It is great when they start learning colors!  The tree went up without a hitch.  Jeremy conquered the lights next.  The girls and I worked to hang ornaments.  Ellie had chosen a Elmo playing a bass drum ornament from MCC Connections and Madison had picked an angel.  Then, we put up the other ones from when Jeremy was little.  We talked about the ones Grandma and Papa Yoh had given Jeremy and I and the girls over the past years.  Madison is just starting to appreciate these.  They stuck with the trimming for quite awhile.  Jeremy wrapped up by putting lights on the porch outside.  It looks great.  I am glad I have a husband that likes to decorate… maybe enjoys this more than I do actually.  (For those that know me well, it wouldn’t take much to out-do my love of decorating!)

Thanksgiving

I have very few pictures from this holiday.  Although it is one of my favorite, I am usually too busy eating, talking, and relocating to take many pictures.  So, I will recount a few things…

The day started with the Thanksgiving Day Auction with Salem Mennonite Church.  I always enjoy seeing what people have put together.  And, I enjoy eating what they have made – as well as finding a few crafty items.  I scored some peanut brittle, a snack mix, and caramels; a stuffed bunny and a santa pillow.  My girls enjoyed shopping in the Harvest Store they have set up for the kids.  It gave them an opportunity to give money as well, and they found all the crafty things they like that I never have around. 

From there, we went to my mom’s house.  We were the last ones to arrive – again.  I made a brussel sprouts dish – again.  I think the two things correlate.  I need to take note that it ALWAYS takes longer to make the brussel sprouts than the recipe says.  It was a delicious meal, and a good afternoon.

We headed to the Bricker gathering after Ellie’s nap.  We caught the leftovers for supper.  We had fun playing some charade game that was on Kristen’s phone.  The girls wound up before we left and burned off some energy.  We made it home by about 8:30.  Good Times.

The next day, my brother (Nate) and his kids were still in town, so we gathered again.  At Luke’s house, he took turns giving rides in his side-by-side gator thing.  (Sorry, I don’t know the technical name for this thing.)  The kids piled in the back, and he maneuvered us all over in his woods.  It was a lot of fun.  These are the pictures I have…

            

We had lunch together at Dad’s house before heading our separate ways.  It was a good few days with family.