Christmas Time

Isn't it funny that when you are an adult, Christmas is such a surprize? It seriously sneaks up on you as an adult. Something to hit you like a bomb, rather than something to antisipate. That's what it was like for me this year. Not that we had a crummy Christmas, because we didn't. It was great. Chris has been home since December 19 and doesn't go back to work until January 5. We have been able to have some quality family time and I have enjoyed having him here to hang out with. My issue was that it was Christmas Eve and I was like, "Oh, crap, we need to send out Christmas cards." and ,"Forget sending any packages to my family for Christmas until next week because they won't even get there in time by this point." and "Really, tomorrow is Christmas??? We haven't even baked cookies for Santa." Yikes. All those little details that are left to the mother. Why was I so out of whack this year????

Our kids had serious overload on Christmas Day. They got way too many presents, which we said we were NOT going to do! They were only supposed to get 3 presents and a Wii altogether and they got way more than that. I don't think they'll run out of things to do for months. I have no idea what they could possibly want for their birthdays this year.

We did have some good Family Nights this month and did lots of things together as a family.

I am content. I feel peace.

I also feel like a loser over not busting my butt to get Christmas packages to my sisters and grandmothers and mom before Christmas, though, because they all came through! Guilt. Next year I'm sending them out in November.

ER visit

Well, I was on the phone this afternoon with one of my cub scout's moms, and I heard blood curdling screams from the kitchen - these were no ordinary screams. I walk in and there are blood splatters on the floor and Roman is shaking his foot like crazy. A kitchen chair is on it's side. Turns out, the chair fell over and hit Roman's pinky toe and busted it open. Warning: this is gross. It looked like his toe was sliced around almost his entire nail and the nail was detached from his toe. As he shook it in pain, blood went everywhere. Then he starts yelling that he needs to pee. What a great time for that! So August starts cleaning up the blood and I picked him up and carried him into the bathroom and he's yelling and I'm telling him to calm down and he's yelling back, "I can't control myself - it hurts too bad!!!" I get him to settle down after he has relieved himself and he is broken out in hives from the stress. It must have really hurt. The last time I had a kid look this flushed and have hives from stress, it was Canyon and his broken leg at age 2. The toe looked pretty bad to me so Chris met me at the ER since it was 5:00. They had to cut out his nail AND the flesh under and around it that was severed. EEEEWWWWW. It was pretty traumatic for him. And me. I was emotionally drained and exhausted. Then, I had to go to church to do cub scouts. Yea. What I really wanted to do was curl up with Roman and take a nap!

I hate those moments when I have to decide if something is ER worthy or not. Then there are the yahoos who work in the ER. We had a nurse practitioner with shakey hands who handled Roman's toe too severely and caused him more pain. Thanks. I'll get charged some ghastly amount of money for that.

Trying this out

So, I'm trying out this blogging stuff. I am so up and coming with the newest online cool stuff to do. I finally joined Facebook 2 months ago - I know, so jr. high - and now I'm blogging. Look at me! I hate technology. Imagine that. I could so go live in the mountains away from civilization without a computer. Really. No TV, either. Can't you see me living off the land? I figured this was a good way to journal, though, since my typing is way more efficient than my terrible chicken scratch handwriting and maybe I'll do it more often than once every 3 months. So, here we go.

Chris has been busy, busy, busy at work. I have been busy, busy, busy trying to deep clean every corner of my house for the holiday season. I like a clean house before Christmas hits. We are hosting the Carlson Family Christmas this year the weekend before the holiday, too. That means we'll have 14 adults and 19+ kids here. It will be fun.

We are trying to keep up with homeschooling, too. Trying to do at least SOMETHING everyday. The holidays get busy for us, though. That is what schooling through the summer is for - to make up for these times we take off during the other parts of the year!

Roman and Canyon have been fighting alot. I mean punching, kicking, beating eachother up fighting. What is with that? What family do they think they belong to? I wonder.... We have had many talks (or lectures) lately about loving brothers, etc. Roman was getting sassy with Canyon the other day and I told him to watch it or I would ground him if he got physical. He responded with, "You have GOT to be kidding me, girl." Girl? He called me "girl". Sigh. He cracked up at my expression. I was shocked, I'm sure. 5 year olds...

So, the fighting matches have calmed down and are becoming less frequent, but for a week there, it was every day. Drove me nuts. They had everything taken away from them that was valuable and dear, so I think that got through to them.

I have a million things to do and all I want to do is start blogging and read Rebecca and watch a good movie. I need some time management skills.