First dip in the hot tub!!
December started out with my Community Concert Band of Whitby concert. It got off to a rocky start, but got better as the show went on. It's too bad we have such a small turn out. The last week of school flew by as I was making a batch of brownies every single night for the kids and Rob to take to their parties! The kids had their school concert, which was quite nice, esp. since this year, they left the lights on, LOL. I had no idea of what Hugh's class was doing for the show (or even Meg's class!), so their performance was a neat surprise!
The day after school got out (Sat.), we headed up to the country for the Vetzal family Christmas. The most chattiest member of the family, and a few of the others, were absent. It was quite a quiet affair, and it was so nice to be able to get home at a reasonable time instead of having a 3 hour drive after. And, just like almost every other year, there was a blizzard, LOL!
The Monday of the break, Meg had a doctor's appointment as she had been not well for a month. I had the babysitter come over to watch Lucy (and Hugh). Meg was diagnosed with a sinus infection and since I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well either, she looked me over and gave me a sinus infection AND ear infection diagnosis. Wow. I thought, since we were over that way, that we'd just "pop" in to Michaels and pick up some yarn. It should have been a 5 minute drive. It turned into 1/2 hour! There was an accident and the lane I was in (eventually, a left turn lane), was blocked. I had also wanted to get some groceries on the way back, but we were hungry. Got home, asked the babysitter if she could stay while I went to Wal-Mart to get the meds. Sure, no problem. I got to Wal-Mart and found I had no wallet. Dropped the meds scripts off, came home, got the wallet and headed back. And waited. And waited. Eventually they told me they were waiting for a fax from the doctor. She had put Meg's name on both prescriptions...they were for the same anti-biotic, but one in liquid and one in adult capsules...Finally, they gave up and filled it anyway. I was there nearly an hour. I wish they had said something when they first faxed it, as I would have just gotten Meg's and came back after dinner for mine!
Tuesday was a get together for my family. With the passing of my aunt in the summer, no one knew what to do about Christmas. She had been hosting it for over 30 years, although last year she didn't for a number of reasons. We didn't want to exclude my cousin, but we also felt it was time for our immediate family--my two brothers and our parents--to have their own celebration. Since all the children live down here, and our parents live "up north", it seemed logical to do it here. We have the biggest house, and the biggest brood, and I really wanted to do something new. Rob, however, did NOT want a party, with two extra dogs and 5 kids, and people he's not fond off....so I planned it for the afternoon, while he was at work. No meal to prepare, serve, clean up, etc, a time deadline for everyone leaving....LOL. It was a wonderful afternoon, although I think we need a better family room. With the piano in the house, there's not much room for seating in the 'living' room, the family room is awkward too, the 'dining room' is where we tend to hang out, but the seats are hard....Anyway, I hope we do it again next year, and I hope Rob will join us :)
Wednesday was the only day that we were all home (except Rob)! I don't remember the day, but after the kids went to bed I went to Wal-Mart (after 9pm). I was surprised by how busy it was, but stunned at how few cashiers were open. It was a LONG wait in line.
Thursday, the kids went in the afternoon to see a play with their grandparents, so I wrapped presents. After 2 1/2 hours, I realized I did not need to be hiding in the cold basement, I could have been using the dining room table! LOL! I got almost everything wrapped, but sadly, forgot that fact and found out late on Friday night that there were still some significant things to wrap!
Friday, Rob was home, although I think he probably went out shopping; I think he took Lucy....
Saturday was Christmas, and this is what the kids saw when they got up (plus their stockings):
Yes, we used our little mini tree again. We didn't want to try even the fake tree with the crazy puppy.
Lucy got a guitar for Christmas...I had been trying since her birthday! After lunch, I tried to tune it. I found a website, and it said the 6th string gets tuned to E below middle C on the piano. So I did that, using my tuner. I thought it seemed like a high note for the 6th string. Then I tried the 5th string....and broke it!!!! I felt terrible, Lucy was furious. Turns out that the 6th string is an OCTAVE below that E. Then, I tried to get her new camera working. It didn't seem to realize there was a memory card in it. I tried loading the disc to get the real manual, but it wouldn't load. The website wasn't working right. It wasn't till after everyone went home that I just happened to open the camera from a different angle and was able to push the memory card in further. But then, it was putting an annoying date stamp on each picture...still couldn't load the disc the next day.
Rob's parents and his brother came over. I took too few pictures, being stuck in the kitchen, even though I thought I had everything planned out well. This is the moment before the picture above (which was cropped!).
Yes, the window is horrifically filthy with handprints. Yes, John looks bored out his mind. Yes, I knit those socks their mother is wearing :)The big gift I got Huey was a "real" photo and video editing program. I made sure it would accept QuickTime videos as that's what his camera makes and our program doesn't like them. I saw that it could use Vista. I saw something about Service Pack 2....had heard about that before, but didn't know about it. Turns out, we didn't have SP2....and Microsoft had stopped supporting Vista. "We" had tried to download the updates before, but it wouldn't work. Rob spent all afternoon on the Tuesday trying to get it uploaded, and it finally worked. There were many updates we were missing. I don't think things run any better, but I was able to finally upload the disc from Lucy's camera! Her and I went to the music store while Rob worked on the computer. It was very busy! Got her string changed, and then she had a meltdown when she looked in the new book and saw she was going to have to actually work to learn to play the guitar! LOL.
The rest of the week is a blur...late nights with Meg screaming, Rob working on his truck, me working on some belated Christmas presents....there was no public skating unfortunately, no snow, nothing to do!! We all stayed up on New Year's Eve, then Meg had a tantrum that was epic. What a way to start the new year!
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