I am back... sorta...

I just realized I have not written anything since last Friday. Of course, my first thought is to say how INCREDIBLY busy I am. Actually, I realized that was not entirely true. Some of the time, I have been really, really busy, but a lot of the time I haven't been doing much but hanging out with my hubby. See he has been off of work for almost two weeks. He has been working our turning our laundry room back into a walk in closet and moving the laundry room into the garage. He has been really busy and some of the time I have been helping him. Like today, I helped peel up old tile from that room. Other times - I am just sitting there talking to him. I was also really busy shopping the day after Christmas. You know there are some awesome sales to be found that day. I am trying very hard not to look at all the great on-line sales, but it is pulling me in. I guess it has just been a very busy and hectic last few months. I got to Christmas Eve and was ready to just do NOTHING! And we did do pretty much nothing. We went to church and that was nice. Then we went to my mom's and had wonderful Chinese food. I love having Chinese food on Christmas Eve. After a relaxing evening over there, we came back to finish wrapping gifts and I had to bake one batch of peanut butter blossoms. It has long been our tradition to eat cookies and fudge for breakfast on Christmas morning. We slowly crawled out of bed on Christmas morning to open presents. Timmy was barely awake, but Savannah and Sebastian were more than ready to go. I had to slow Savannah down so I could catch her brothers opening their gifts. If I let her, she would have had all hers done and I would have missed it if I blinked. We decided to do something a little different this year. Timmy really wanted a 30gb Apple IPOD. This was really not in our typical Christmas budget. Tim and I discussed it for quite awhile and decided to go ahead and get him the IPOD and a few key accessories and call it a Christmas, 18th birthday, and graduation gift. I was a little worried he might not like getting all of his gifts in one, but not enough to not do it that way. As it turned out, he was thrilled! He has always been a pretty thankful kid, but he was extremely thankful over this. He sat with me later and told me he really did not expect us to do that for him. I know the material part is not the meaning of Christmas. And that is not what touched me. The fact that we were able to do something for him that he really wanted and he had such gratitude for it just made my Christmas. Savannah and Sebastian really liked their gifts too. Sebastian didn't quite get that he should open his gifts. This was a first for us. Usually, the kids have torn into presents. The older two just like to rip and tear! Not Sebastian. He didn't want to open all of his gifts! I keep saying he is not like my other kids and he once again proved that. His cell phone that records voices was a big hit and he loves his Thomas Flashlight Train. Savannah asked for The Biggest Littlest Pet Shop. She has spent the last few days pretending she is opening a pet shop just like her dad dreams about complete with PANDA BEARS! My mom really loved her garden statues we bought her in St. John. I loved how Timmy got us all gifts and put them in great big stockings. He got me a great assortment of bath stuff from Bath and Body Works. Sweet Pea - my favorite! I got Tim a few books - one on opening a business, one on Aquarium Corals and two on creating your own coat of arms. I got the Coat of Arms books at the homeschool convention on a whim. He has always been interested in them and he loves to draw. I mentioned to his sister, Jessica, that I had got them for him. She said the most profound thing to me. I mean literally it was one of those WOW things. She said that she wanted Tim to create a NEW Coat of Arms for our family. One that did NOT look at the PAST, but looked to the FUTURE. One that this generation of our family and the coming generations of our family could be proud of. One that did not hold all the pain from the past. She said if he did that, she would wear it with pride. I was in awe of her. Of course, some of you have no idea the trials that my husband and his siblings have gone through in their lives. If you did, this would make more sense. Simply put, they have all had a hard road and it is something they all need to look to the future and not the past. So, I gave Tim these books and I wrote him a letter telling him what Jessica said. I can only hope that someday he will do just what she asked him to do. The rest of our Christmas day was very uneventful. We took quite awhile opening everything and eating cookies. I finally popped the turkey in the oven around noon. Oh, about 4-5 hours LATER than I had planned. No problem - we just ate more cookies to hold us over. It was a yucky rainy day that just made us want to sleep. Savannah set her pet shop up in the computer room, Timmy went to see his friend's family, my mom and my sister went home for an afternoon nap, Tim took a nap, and I watched TV all comfy on my couch. We all joined back together for dinner. Timmy had 3 of his friends join us for dinner. That helped to fill the spots of my nieces that didn't get to be here this year. Not that you can replace them, but we still had a lot of young adults around our table. The food was good, the company was great. All in all, a very nice Christmas. Later that night, I did "rock-a-baby" with Sebastian while Savannah sat by me. We sang Silent Night and Joy to the World. A perfect end to celebrate His perfect birthday! I am on my laptop and the pictures are on the other computer. I will get some of them up tomorrow or Saturday, I promise!