MERRY CHRISTMAS

And this is how Christmas Eve started off. My little "comfort" boy who could live in pajamas was having serious issues with his Christmas outfit. His shirt had a hole in it ( on the sleeve under the button-all dress shirts have this) the pants were yucky and he hates those brown shoes. He actually went into his room and started getting undressed.

He only "smiled" for the camera once I told him I would bring pajamas to change into.

I thought he looked very handsome, but he would disagree.

Jenevive loves to get dressed up. If she could wear a dress everyday, she would. I have several shots similar to this. She spent 5 minutes modeling for the camera.

Jim's gift for the kids was a Wii. He had spent Christmas Eve setting it up and of course testing it out so that it would ready to go in the morning. Jen unwrapped the box and almost started to cry when she realized the box was empty.

Our house is even more jammed packed full with the bed tents, snuggies, games, clothes, marble mazes---you name it. Christmas night started off the same as the night before with Jimmy trying to convince me to let him wear his pajamas. We compromised with Spiderman socks.

THIS AND THAT

Merry Christmas..a little late.Here are a few thing we do leading up to Christmas. With Jen being as tall as she is, some ornaments actually made it almost to the top of the tree this year. Usually they are hung only half way up. The kids had fun looking at past ornaments they had made in school. My tree is getting quit colorful with beads, glitter, noodles and puzzle pieces. Some people love the trees that are all matchy like in a department store, but not me. One of the things I was most excited about when my kids started school, was the fact that I knew they would be bringing home their "treasures" to hang on the tree. I love my tree!!

Every year the kids help me with the nativity set. They love setting it up, and I usually have to fix it when they are not looking. I will have wise men and sheep in all different directions. Once it has been set up, they leave it alone with the exception of Christmas morning when they place Baby Jesus in the manger.

This year after setting of the nativity scene, we read The Small One. It's a cute story about a poor skinny donkey that no one wants. A little boy is sent by his father to sell the donkey. The boy spends all day trying to find a good home for him when finally a man offers to buy the donkey for a trip he must take with his wife. The man is Joseph, and Mary rides the donkey to Bethlehem.

Another tradition we do, is decorating a gingerbread house. We usually still have Halloween candy in the house, so we use that along with Christmas candy. We have had some "interesting" houses before. This year, since we have landed in the "everything has to be fair or I'm going to have a meltdown" phase, Jen and Jimmy had their own side to decorate. Jen took great pride in making sure it was just right, while Jimmy was just fine eating frosting and candy as he went.

The Polar Express That Went Very Very Wrong.

At the first Daisy meeting we received a list of some future field trips. On that list was a ride on the "City of Warren Polar Express". Basically it was a ride on a heated tour bus around the city looking at Christmas lights followed by an art project, hot chocolate and a visit with Santa once we returned back to the community center. Jim thought it sounded fun and we should all go as a family. They had two time slots for our "tour",either 5:00 or 7:00. The troop met at the school at 6:15 for our 7:00 trip. At 7:30 when the first "tour" still hadn't returned, we started to get a little worried. The guide came off the bus and said that it was the first trip for them and now they know where to go. Well, that sounds reassuring...right?

For every house that we visited, we drove 10 - 15 minutes getting there. We were on the bus for almost 2 1/2 hours!! All of the dads were ready to abort the trip. Every time we thought we were heading back, we would go into another subdivision. Jim tried having Jimmy say that he had to go potty ,but that didn't work. We did see a few houses that were a bit extreme with the lights, but through the steamed up windows you couldn't take a good picture.

Here's another one...nice huh?

One of the last house was owned by Santa's brother. When he got on the bus, he greeted everyone and passed out candy canes. All was well until he got to the dad in front of me. Santa's brother had the nerve to ask if he was enjoying the ride...he shouldn't have asked. The dad said "Well, for the first hour I did". Then Santa's brother got in his face and said" You mean to tell me your not enjoying all of this? You can't even say you enjoy my house?" And then he proceeded to pass out his candy and walk out of the bus. For a brief second I thought the candy canes were about to fly!

So, when we got back at 10:00 it was time to see the big guy - the nice one in the family. Jenna and Jimmy took out their lists and were so excited to meet him. They had been cutting out their pictures earlier that day. When we got out of Santa's room, we chugged down a fast cup of hot chocolate and took the art project home to do the next day. We will not be going on any more Polar Express rides through the great city of Warren again.

WHO TAUGHT THIS CHILD HOW TO TALK?

Jen was a very late talker. At age 3 she still was not saying much and what she was saying was very slurred. Finally at 3 1/2 we were able to get he into a speech and language impaired class and gradually her speech has improved. Just last week she was finally removed from the ECP program and is just a regular 1st grader who just needs 20 minutes of speech class a week. It may not sound like breaking news, but for Jim and I it was music to our ears.

During the same week, I was put in my place by that very child who once never talked back. When Jen was younger everyone would say just wait until you can't stop her from talking your ear off...it will happen one day and then you'll be sorry. I used to think yeah right! Everyone else's child spoke clearly it's easy to say when your not the one going through it. I should have listened and enjoyed the silence.

So, last week we were in the store and snow boots were on sale. I told Jen let's go look and check them out. Well, the boots were on sale for $30.00 - not that great of a deal when you have to buy two pairs. I said " $30.00 that is not a sale. Why is everything so expensive ?" Jen then replied very loudly and clear as can be " Do you want to know why everything is so expensive? It's because your so cheap!!" **My mouth just dropped and I said" Who taught you how to talk?" My day had come! Jimmy is now in the same program and I can hardly wait to get a piece from him as well one day.

*** I am very cheap and I don't mind!!I am very proud of myself when I come home and save more then I spend, and I know in my heart that I will get those same boots for 1/2 price-even if it's in July.

I love that Jenna is in a Daisy Girl Scout Troop. She has had so my experiences that I never would have known about. This year she is in a new troop with a new leader at another school. I guess it's not as easy as you would think to keep a leader for that age group. **DON'T FORGET COOKIE SALES START SOON** One of the field trips that we went on was at The Parade Company in Detroit. If you ever get the opportunity to go ( it's a very interesting road trip down to Mound Rd and Mt Elliott) definitely do it !

They house all of the floats in a huge warehouse during the year. The floats are bigger and more beautiful than you can imagine. It's funny to think of them as beautiful, but when you are there you see all of the work that is put into them and you get a whole new appreciation for them. It was fun for the girls because that Thursday they got to see all of the floats in the parade, and Jen remembered all of them.

The have hundreds of volunteers who donated over 15,000 hours of their time and talents. We were able to watch them retouch one of the heads. If you wish to wear one during the parade you must make a minimum donation of $200. I told Jim that was something that I will have to put on my bucket list.

It's really hard to tell, but Jen was able to put on one of the smaller heads to try on. She was so happy , she was grinning from ear to ear. We had a great time seeing it all and realizing just how much time and effort it takes to have a Thanksgiving Parade.

Jim Bobby's First Dentist Visit

My kids are very different from each other. Jen loves going to the Dr.'s and the Dentist. She has been waiting since her last appointment to go again. Jimmy on the other hand does not enjoy leaving the comfort of his home or getting out of his pajamas, and going to the Dentist was not exciting to him in the least.

Jen had to go first and show him how much fun it was - he did not buy it. He did reluctantly get into the chair and chose blue sparkle tooth paste and grape fluoride. He loved holding the suction straw and did great overall. I'm not sure that he is as excited as Jen for the next visit, but I was very proud of him for being so brave.

Jimmy was excited to show off his pearly whites for the camera. He had 20 teeth so far and no cavities. Yeah!!!

I'm Back!!!!

So, one day I decided to run away from home and start living with the Amish. I cooked, cleaned and sewed for 20 hours a day. I gave up running water and electricity so that I could milk my own cows and churn my own butter. Yeah - I only wish the past 2 months were that exciting and fun!!!!

During the last 2 months a huge black cloud of illness has come over our house. We have had multiple ear infections, an upper respiratory infection, a sinus infection, two bouts of step throat along with a couple of all too common "common colds". At one time three out of four of us were on antibiotics. Little Jimmy only missed being on them for an ear infection by a couple of days. The pharmacist at CVS is now on our Christmas card list, and we are definitely not on HAP's. So, little by little I will have to recap in bits and pieces.

Jenna and Jimmy loved Halloween this year. They both held up their own when it came to the Trick-or-Treating. We had done so many Halloween events leading up to it, that no one was the least bit upset about it coming to an end. I think my kids wore their costumes more than regular clothes for the month of October.

For a couple of months Jimmy wore his army costume everywhere and couldn't wait to wear it Trick-or-Treating, but once the time came to get dressed we pulled out an old dragon costume that has been in Jen's dress up for years.

Another exciting thing for Jimmy was being able to join baseball with his cousin Cody. It was more of a baseball clinic, learning the basics of throwing and catching, but he didn't know the difference. He had a blast with his buddy.

Every week he had to wear his baseball pans and jersey along with a hat that covered most of his face. He thought he was just too cool. Coach Mike had named his team the Tigers which just made his day.