Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas Eve



My kids are fascinated with this German Nativity and beg me all month to light the candles on it so they could watch it spin. Today, I lit it up! The kids are so mystified by it! I love the look in their eyes as they light up at the little beauties of Christmas.

We spent the day with some friends roasting hot dogs in the snow. Tonight we will go to a musical fireside as well as the regular Christmas Eve festivities. My favorite day of the year!




Saturday, December 19, 2009

Winter Wonderland


Yes, the Mid-Atlantic snow storm hit us yesterday and today! It was amazing how fast the storm came and started to pile up. It took me 40 minutes to pick up Bryce from school less than a mile away yesterday after the storm had only been going on 20 minutes! It was so beautiful to watch the snow fall. The kids were dying to get out there and play in it, but we were trying to convince them that playing in a snow storm would be miserable. We finally did let Caleb go out just at dusk because he was dying to shovel the side walk.
Here he is with the shovel BEFORE he left it outside and allowed a foot of snow to hide it very securely on the ground! (I miraculously dug it out this afternoon!)
We found sitting around the house playing and singing Christmas songs and eating treats and hot cocoa was better than being out in the storm.
Today we played in it like CrAzY! Pictures to come . . .

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

"Ummm, Mommy?"


I was in the midst of making some good-news phone calls last night when Lucy came running upstairs. "Umm, Mommy? James is REALLY hurt. Me and Caleb and James were fighting and Caleb jumped on Jamsies' back and now he's really crying. And I didn't even do anything!"

I admit I did not rush to the scene immediately, as this is a typical occurrence in our home (wrestling, crying, etc.). When the crying didn't cease, I decided to check it out. James was lying on his back grabbing his shoulder screaming out in pain. "Everyone to their rooms - early to bed tonight!" I ever so gently commanded. After talking to Lucy and Caleb individually to get what REALLY happened, James had already cried himself to sleep. I thought he would get over it, but when he woke up screaming in pain again in his shoulder at 9pm, I decided I better whip out the ol' sports medicine evaluation of his shoulder (which pretty much I've forgotten everything - so I was it was down to mother's intuition) and decided there was a pretty good chance he had broken his collar bone.

Luckily, Bryce was home by then, so I was able to take James to the ER. We were only there an hour and a half and it was determined from the X-Ray that he did indeed break his clavicle.

James was very brave through it all and he even got to see the picture thy took of his bones! And he got to sit up in the hospital bed watching Jay Leno (until I figured out how to change the channel)! They sent him home in a sling and doctors orders of "no rough play" for 2 weeks (easier said than done).

Monday, December 14, 2009

Christmas Newsletter

Don't forget to check out our updated Christmas Letter blog!