Christmas Over, On The Mend Hopefully

As I was wrapping presents for the family on Christmas Eve, I started to cough and I was afraid something was coming on. By the time everyone left on Christmas Evening I was chilling, felt freezing cold and after a hot bath went to bed. I've been basically in bed, in my house, for the last two days. I'm a little better today and have way too much to do to be sick. I got up and just started digging out of the mess, taking decoration down, cleaning aquariums, doing laundry and now I need to rest before I try and do anything else. I remember when my kids were younger it was so stressful that I would spend the whole week between Christmas and New Years sick, so I guess this was one of those years that I hit the top of the stress meter. This is the first Christmas without Dad so Len picked Mom up on Christmas Eve for their party and then she came down and spent the night with us and we had a nice Christmas dinner and presents and then my sister picked her up and took her home. We worry about her living alone but she is better in her house and doing her regular things instead of living with us kids. As long as she feels well enough and wants to live in her house we want her too. She must have asked us ten times on Christmas if we thought Dad missed us and wondered what he was doing. As I get older I'm wondering if it's worth all the work to have a two hour party. Maybe next year will be the year I decide enough is enough. Anyway, I'm glad the shopping is over and now on to all the other holidays that seem to be coming, not to mention all the birthdays we have the next two months. Life continues to teach me lessons I wouldn't have learned had I not gotten married and had these four kids. I'm thankful for everything I've experienced and hope to have been an example for good in their lives.

Almost Done With My Shopping

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping for the grand kids. Yesterday I went out to shop with Jenn and this morning we met Candi and B.J. at the store to shop for their boys. I only have a couple more things to take care of and then if I want to shop, it will just be for fun. I must say having twenty grandchildren can be overwhelming but I feel blessed to have each one of them. My parents have been such great examples of generosity and love throughout my life. They were not rich, being retired school teachers but we always knew they loved us. Every Christmas Mom would give me an envelope for each one of my children with money in it with everyone's names written down. Then on Christmas Day, Dad would pass out his envelopes to each of the kids and grand kids that we could use to buy whatever we wanted after Christmas. When I talked to Mom on Monday she seemed confused and frustrated. She couldn't find her list of all the names so she could go to the bank and take money out to do her Christmas giving. Later on when I was getting ready for bed, I had this feeling that it was time to stop the money giving from her. Why should a widowed person give money to very successful kids and grand kids? The next morning I called her and told her that we are simplifying this year and she is not to give any money to any of us for Christmas. I think she was relieved but then kept saying, "but I want everyone to know how much I love them." I texted all my siblings and told them what I had done and wanted to make sure they were all right with the decision to let that tradition stop, they all agreed. We decided that she can still give a little bit for birthdays but nothing for Christmas. I feel really good about this and it may take a while for her to agree, but I think in the end she will be so glad and hopefully relieved. Today while Candi and I were shopping she found some really funny hats. One looked really cute on her with green and silver bows all over it. She wanted to take some pictures and made me try on some of them too. She looked really cute and I looked like someone who isn't all there, which is true most of the time. There's never a dull moment when she's around, but I'm really glad she got her hair back to a normal color, the pink was making me sick.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas Around Here

Today is the last day of November and I'm so relieved.  Thanksgiving is over for another year, I don't know why it stresses me out so much to have my family over. I guess it's because I want my house to be clean and organized when everyone comes. The problem is it only takes a few minutes before it looks like a bomb went off. Anyway, it does motivate Rich to get some things done around the house too. After everyone left I started taking all the Fall decorations down and Rich pulled most of the Christmas out of our closets and the garage. We spent all day Saturday working on the lights because I have learned if we don't do them right after Thanksgiving they never get up. All the kids and grand kids, plus a couple of Rich's workers helped and most of them are up. Rich still needs to get some power to some of them and then it will be beautiful. I love Christmas lights, they make me happy and feel young again. Ethan invited us out to his house for a little birthday party for the twins and Regan who had birthdays last week. He was in Montana working on a job, so they waited until he got home and their company left. Candi had scheduled a cute girl to take her family pictures, so I asked if we could crash the party and she could take a few of Rich and I and Mindi's family. After church Mindi and I went to Scottsdale to pick up Mom to come with us, I thought it would be good to get her out of the house and with us instead of spending Sunday alone. We had to walk quite a bit to the park where pictures were being taken. There were tons of people with the same idea, it was the happening place, plus it was really cold. I like to send pictures out in my Christmas cards so at least I know we will have two families done. Ethan and Jen are taking theirs on Thursday and hopefully Spencer and Annie will get a picture done this year too including their new baby. I've spent all day so far putting up my Christmas decorations, it is coming along but I still have to tackle the tree when Rich finally gets it up. This is such a busy time of year, but I hate to complain because at least I have a home to decorate and family to share my life with, I'm truly blessed.

Mom's House Decorated, Relief Society Dinner Done

   This is always a crazy time of year for me, but as I get older it seems like it gets harder to accomplish tasks like shopping and decorating.  It felt good to wake up today and be able to stay home and put a dent in my to-do list.  On Monday we went to Scottsdale to decorate Mom's house for Christmas. My sister had taken her to the doctor earlier in the day and had an appointment. Ben was in a meeting for work, so it was just three of us helping. Rich showed up for a little while but needed to come home to meet up with Ethan before he leaves for Montana early in the morning. Lennie got the tree put up and Julie did an amazing job of putting her humble ornaments, bows and angels on the tree. It's nice having a sister-in-law who is a little bit OCD because she always makes everything look nice. While she was decorating the tree, Len and I dusted and cleaned off her table and hutch to put her decorations on. This is the first Christmas without my Dad and it has taken a toll on Mom. She often tells me "life isn't fun anymore since Dad left us." After we finished making her house look amazing we took her to dinner. I don't know how much she eats but I don't think it is very much. We went to a little Mexican place and she seemed to have a nice appetite which made us happy.
    Last night was our Relief Society Christmas dinner. My friend Paula and I are on the committee so we helped as much as we could and it was very pretty. The theme was "Let Him In" and I was really impressed with how it turned out. I don't think people understand how much work it is to put on a dinner for sixty to seventy women. I am always glad when it's over and I didn't even do that much to help. Last weekend I went shopping for Spencer's family because Rich is flying up there tomorrow to spend some time with them and help with the baby blessing. Because I'm afraid to fly, I won't be a part of this special occasion. I can either have a pity party or just be happy Rich gets a few days off to spend with our kids and grand-kids. It is beautiful in Montana but it's really far away, so I will just have to spend my alone time doing what I like to do, which won't be a problem for me. Maybe I can finally get the ornaments on my tree and get all the boxes put away. I may even have to take a trip to the Mall, Yea!