Thankfulness Reminder #12

I'm sitting here watching the Hallmark movie 'November Christmas'.  While I don't think it's a true story, it could really be anyone's life.  I'm so thankful I don't have a child gravely ill and having to watch them go.  I always pray my children outlive me and Brian.  I pray they are held safe by God.  So when people ask why I wasn't scared when Cole had his first surgery or if I'm scared about the next, I'm really not right now.  I try very hard to remind myself that there are people in harder positions than we are in.  We're lucky to live where he can have treatment, we're lucky it's nothing worse.  We're lucky he's done better than they ever expected and the expectations of the previous surgical procedure.  As long as we're all together, I will be thankful for our health. and pray He keeps us together even longer.

Thankfulness Reminder #11

I'm a little late on this, but it's been busy.  We had a yummy Thanksgiving.  I enjoy the food more and more each year.  It's amazing that as you get older you start liking all of the stuff you thought was so gross when you were younger.  We had everything you could imagine at my aunts.  Everyone brings something to go with the turkey and ham and it's so good every time.

We did something different this year.  My uncle had everyone go around and say what they were thankful for.  I thought it was great to hear my kids say things.  I mean if I made them do that at home they wouldn't take it seriously, but there they did it because everyone else did.  They were thankful for family and life and that was so great to hear.  We're lucky.  Not a lot of families still celebrate holidays together anymore.  So many get separated by distance or feuds.  We still get together with my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma; along with my sister, mom and stepdad.  The kids have this familiar placed tradition every year to run around with cousins, play with new babies, play games and cards, talk and eat together.

There is NO better tradition than this.  Family trumps everything in my mind and being together is important.

I'm SO done!

My Christmas shopping is complete.  I just started, literally, 2 weeks ago.  Didn't have a thing until then.  Now, I'm just waiting for everything to arrive.  What a relief to be done.  We way splurged this year.  The older kids each asked for slightly more expensive items, so we decided to get this this year; within reason and watching our dollars of course.  Every once in awhile it's okay and this is definitely something we NEVER do.  And though our budget is $100 or less per child we went a little over on the big ones.  The little ones help us average out and all the years past that we went under budget, so it's justified in my mind this year.  One thing I won't do is go into debt for Christmas.  Glad we save for it.  The kids even decorated the tree last night, so it's up too.  Here's the main picture we're using for our Christmas card this year.  This is our traditional pj/Christmas tree picture. 

5 little elves dancin' all around

5 Little Elves

Thankfulness Reminder #10

Thankful that I made a very stupid mistake on a Christmas present and it worked out to my advantage.  I ordered my new nephew (only niece or nephew on my side) his first Christmas presents and had them shipped to NY.  Well, right after that I ordered my kids a sand and water table.  I was super excited about getting this for Jaemin and Chelsi.  Great fun/outdoor activity  But, I failed to notice that it still had the NY shipping address on it and well, their gift was delivered to my brother's house.  It was too late to change the location by the time I noticed.  So, I called the store and they said I needed to go ahead and reorder without waiting for it to be returned so I could get the same discount I got last week (expired) and get it by Christmas.  So I did.  It ended up being on sale this week and I got the discount.  So, it wasn't too bad of a deal and the other one has been returned.  AND I've already got all the Christmas presents I have so far....wrapped!

Thankfulness Reminder #9

Simply, I now have some time to watch to of my gifts paint me some pretty pictures for my fridge and get to enjoy giving little man a scrub down after he, more or less, paints himself instead.

Definitely tired from today

I actually slept last night because I did have a certain nightly visitor to keep me up.  But, last night was not a good night for another child in the house, so we had to have a little .... okay a lot.... of a talking to before bed.  I was spent before I ever hit the bed.  This morning was better, but had to get the laundry caught up because it's our anniversary today and we were planning on taking the kids to Petco to spend some of their saved money, Barnes and Nobel to use their gift cards and then take them to Colton's Restaurant because we had free kids meals.  Didn't quite turn out the way we expected.  Brian did get Chelsi, Kaelin and Jaemin's sun catcher's and notes mailed to Korea to their foster mothers.

First, Brian's uncle came out to look at the furnace because it had been really loud the last couple of nights and we couldn't figure out why.  Ended up being the thermostat.  It was doing something wacky, so he said we needed to replace it.  I told him we'd get one tonight, at Menards, since I'd seen one on sale.  We stopped to get that one, took the kids to Barnes and Noble and then Chase, Kaelin and Chelsi each bought a beta at the pet store.  They were so proud to pay for this stuff themselves.  It was the first time Chelsi's ever spent her money and I could see the pride in her eyes as she paid for what the gift card wouldn't on the books and her fish.

Next was Colton's to eat and it was already 6:30, so we were all starving.  We had a 20 minute wait, which I didn't think was too bad on a Friday night.  But, about 10-15 minutes in Brian went outside and sent Cole back in to tell me he wasn't feeling well.  He said he's stay outside while he ate.  Doesn't that sound like a great way to spend your anniversary?  I went to ask the ladies how long it takes to cook the food and she said maybe 15 minutes.  It was so late we needed to get the kids some food, so I ordered their food and we took it home.  He's feeling fine now, but the smell was not appealing to him earlier. 

The upside is the rest of us really enjoyed our meals and it only cost $20 for 3 kids meals and 3 adult meals, tons of yummy roles and some peanuts.  We had a VERY late supper and then I still needed to wire the thermostat.

Thermostat is wired, kids are in bed and our anniversary is, as always, just another day.  That's what happens after 16 years. :)