Month at a Glance

This month has been amazing, wonderful, busy, and happy. Here’s the month at a glance:

December 1- Zone Conference Lunch for the missionaries. Gym set up and decorated, turkey roasted (mine was 1 of 4), 60 missionaries happy and fed.

December 2- Bridal Shower- for a sweet sister who got married and baptized on the same day the week before.

December 3- lots and lots of cleaning, shopping, agonizing, for the work Christmas party to happen the next day at my house.

December 4- Kohler Christmas Party. 50 people RSVP’d (100 were invited), my dear friend Amanda “catered” for me (Sam’s Club provided all the food). Fire pit, hot chocolate, mood lighting, surprisingly delicious food, awesome dessert tower. Lots of people coming and going. Success. Completely exhausted when last guest left.

December 5- taught in Relief Society. Assigned topic: Inviting the Savior Into Our Homes. First Presidency Christmas Devotional that night.

December 6- Orthodontist Appointment for Nigel. The first of many.

December 7- My first experience with a Vitamix blender. Wow!

December 8- I’m pretty sure I attempted to clean my house this day.

December 9- Relief Society Christmas Dinner- this was a day where I spent the entire day at the church. Lots and lots of work. Lovely evening, good food, good company, and beautiful decorations, clean-up. Emmaline also had a dentist appointment in the afternoon where the dentist informed me that due to playing “Dead Man” on the trampoline, Emmaline’s two front teeth needed to be removed.

December 10- Ernie’s parents arrived for the weekend.

December 11- Grandparent’s Day at the Smith House. Breakfast with Santa in the morning at church and dinner at night just the grown-ups. Cajun food- Big Ernie was in love with the crab cakes.

December 12- Church with the in-laws, turkey dinner that night.

December 13- In-laws say good-bye and Rebecca has some suspicious congestion. Nigel goes to the Orthodontist again. Emmaline does not come home on the bus with the boys and Rebecca spends 20 panicked minutes on the phone tracking her down. Emmaline apparently fell asleep shortly after getting on and the substitute bus driver didn’t know her stop. Emmaline arrives home and goes directly to the dentist to have both front teeth removed.

December 14- Rebecca goes to the dentist for herself and has a cavity. Rude. Cub Scout Pack Meeting at night. Rebecca’s suspicious congestion is starting to be accompanied by really bad chills and fatigue.

December 15- Rebecca has the flu. Kids eat pizza for dinner.

December 16- Rebecca has the flu. Kids eat cold cereal for dinner.

December 17- Rebecca has the flu. Kids eat McDonald’s for dinner. Rebecca calls Sylvia and cancels the planned visit with Sylvia and her kids this weekend. Little Ernie wakes up in the middle of the night throwing up.

December 18- Rebecca has the flu. It’s Saturday so Ernie helps. A lot. Rebecca starts on the Christmas Cards.

December 19- Ernie is the high council speaker in Columbia Ward and we go as a family. Rebecca works some more on the Christmas Cards.

December 20- last day before Christmas Break. Rebecca purchases all last minute gifts, stocking stuffers, etc. (Thank you to the Dollar Store for making that easy!) Ernie goes out of town right before Christmas. Rebecca wasn’t happy. The Christmas Cards (147 of them) make it to the Post Office.

December 21- half day for the kids and they are over the moon to be out of school! Max wakes up in the middle of the night throwing up.

December 22- Ernie’s out of town and Rebecca is a zombie from being up while Max threw up from 1am to 6am. Cold cereal for dinner again.

December 23- Ernie comes home!

December 24-  Christmas Eve at the Street Farm. Hay rides, lunch, good conversation, lots of guns, old friends, exhausted kids. It was a perfect way to spend Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve night, too many presents to wrap, but so much fun to make magic happen!

December 25- Christmas Day- wonderful! So much fun to watch the kids open their presents. Best part was when they gave each other hugs because they were so excited for the others to get the gifts that they wanted. Ernie and Nigel: Nintendo DSi’s. Emmaline: Barbie Dream House. Max: a ride-on battery operated motorcycle. Steak dinner that night and every child made one of the dishes. My Ernie: gnocchi and 4 cheese sauce, Me: green salad; Little Ernie: steaks; Nigel: rolls, Emmaline: jello with cool whip, Max: helped me with the salad.

December 26- church and Elder’s for dinner.

December 27- date in the afternoon with Ernie :) True Grit and sushi for dinner, just the two of us. Sylvia and her kids and Melanie and her kids arrive for a visit. (the visit I postponed when I was sick with the flu).

December 28- Fun Cousin Day with my kids, Sylvia’s kids, and Melanie’s girls (Natalie and Madison) taking over the house. Ernie gets major brownie points for watching all the kids except Baby Madison while Sylv, Mel, Baby Maddie, and I went to Chili’s for dinner and some grown-up conversation.

December 29- the cousins all went home and my kids were so sad. Ernie had a consultation with the Urologist (is that TMI? or just appropriate after having 9 kids in the house for 2 days?)

December 30- Ernie decided to have a self-appointed “take your kid to work day” today and Little Ernie spent the morning with Ernie at his office and then at lunch I swapped Ernie for Nigel and Nigel is spending the afternoon.

Of course, in the middle of all these happenings there was laughing and friends and neighbors and lots of saying Merry Christmas and driving around to look at lights and most especially, lots of feeling gratitude for the Savior’s birth and ministry. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

#792

Reason #792 for Why I Love Ernie:
Max was sobbing this morning as Ernie was walking out the door for work. Max kept begging to “go Daddy’s work”- it was really pitiful. While I was trying to distract/soothe Max, Ernie turned around (he was already outside the door) and said that he could take Max into work with him if I could then drive to the plant and pick Max up after I did the school drop-offs with the older kids. (Sounded good to me!) I cannot tell you how happy Max was when Ernie said, “Alright Max! Let’s go!”
When I got to the plant at 7:45am, Max was happily pushing a toy Kohler truck around Ernie’s office while Ernie was at his desk answering emails. I love that Ernie is such a good Dad.

Guilt

I’m feeling insanely guilty for not blogging ONE SINGLE DAY yet in December. I will preface my guilt though, by saying that every day has just been so busy. [Christmas parties and other similar shenanigans.] I’m not Grinchy at all- just no time. Now I’m in a hurry to get all the Christmas Cards addressed and mailed and THEN… I will quietly sit down with a delicious cup of Peppermint Hot Chocolate, a comfortable blanket, and relax while I type up a wonderful blog post with all the appropriate updates.

Until then.

It finally happened.

I’ve been waiting a long time for the day when one of my children was going to walk in the door from school and announce that they had a big project due- the next day. It happened this week. I actually got more than a day’s notice about the Reading Fair Project that was due- I got two day’s notice.

Tonight I quested for a tri-fold board. I went through two glue sticks. I helped Ernie type up and edit what he wanted to say. I sent him to bed and then I glued and cut and glued some more. And the whole time I kept thinking, “This kid better get into medical school”.

Ernie was sweet, and he apologized and told me how good it makes him feel when I help him. And I was humbled and I looked at him and remembered what he was like as an infant. Now he’s all grown up and forgetting big projects that are due at school. It’s the circle of life, people.

And just in case you’re wondering, he did his project on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth. A very funny book, according to Ernie.

21 Days

Ernie IV has been introduced to the concept of “21 Days”. As in, it takes 21 days to make a habit.

I think this concept has struck such significant a chord with him because he is a child who craves order and structure and routine. When he was a baby, and even a toddler, I could tell you his schedule down to the half hour- he was that predictable. Naturally, this predictability would mean that any interruption to the schedule would guarantee a melt down.

Now Ernie’s grown up and he’s 10. He’s developed a great deal of self control, but he still craves order, predictability, and routine.

Back to the 21 Days. Every single thing he’s heard at church or at home today- that he likes- he’s said, “I’m going to do that for 21 days!”

Just now I heard him in his room shouting at his siblings, “Let’s not fight for 21 days so we can make a habit of not fighting!”

And I thought, “If only…”

Turkey Comas

Yesterday I made the best turkey I have ever made. It was a Butterball and I watched the temperature of the bird very, very carefully, I basted it faithfully, and it was basically amazing. The leftovers today have been divine.

A few of my favorite things about Thanksgiving:

• Mashed Potatoes (my very favorite)
• Pumpkin Pie
• The delicious smells in the house
• Staying home all day

The kids had a great time yesterday. We had the Painter family join us for the day and since they have 6 kids and we have 4 kids- you could certainly say that it was a kid-centric dinner. There was much running around outside for the kids. There was much fun and laughter from the adults.

Best thing about the Day After Thanksgiving:

• Black Friday Shopping

Yes, this morning I went out shopping. I didn’t get up at 3am or 4am or 5am. Nope, I slept in until 7am, then I got up and eventually made my way out the door about 8am. I still got some really great deals, thanks to Toys R Us and Target. (Mostly Toys R Us). The very best thing of all is that I am now completely finished with the kids shopping. All that’s left is some stocking stuffers for my Ernie and I am officially done!

And the Christmas decorating has begun. Sigh. I love my house decorated for the holidays, I just really hate that it takes me two solid days to get it all done! I started today and after unpacking everything, and then surveying the damage- I looked at Ernie and told him I was going to take a nap. And I did. And it was way better than hanging garland.

It’s possible…

It’s possible that this is what my kids ate for dinner.

And then again for breakfast the next day.

But, hey. We’re on vacation, right?