Our Christmas Week

I'm planning on writing a blog about my favorite apps on the android market, but that's gonna have to wait for now cuz I need to update about our Christmas week!

So our present (Renell, Laura, Kevin, Roy, Dennis and I) to Mom and Dad this year was Laura and her kids coming up for Christmas. Her husband was going to be away working so he couldn't come or get to spend much of that time with them. So we all pooled the money to get them here. Mom and Dad loved their presents!

On Monday I waited and waited for Laura to get here. She was suppose to be here around 1 but left late and didn't make it here until 6! I kept having to give Mom excuses as to what was taking me so long to leave! We had this clever little plan for keeping it a surprise, I was going up to get help working on a quilt I was making for Dennis' dad and then she couldn't mail off their box of stuff yet cuz I was bringing some stuff to add to it... :) It was all a clever little ruse, I thought!

So, after they got here, we drove up to Mom and Dad's. They were so excited to see them! Mom apparently had figured it out early that afternoon and had gotten confirmation from Michael when she asked him straight out, so she wasn't surprised but still happy. Dad had no clue and you could tell he LOVED his surprise!

But that's when something bad/sad happened :( Right after we got there, Charity's dog Angel bit Laura's little boy Spencer in the face, barely missing his left eye. She'd shown aggression towards other kids and had recently started nipping at Danielle. We'd been considering returning her for that very reason but Charity was so attached to her (and she was SUCH a good dog with her) that we hadn't done it. That was the last warning we needed though and we returned her to the rescue we got her from the next night. I took Charity with us so she could hold Angel on the way there and get to say goodbye to her. But Charity ended up falling asleep on the drive. I found it hard for me to say goodbye though, so it was probably for the best. I hadn't realized just how attached to her I had become. So, it was a sad few days :( Charity didn't realize that night after she'd woken up that Angel was gone but the next morning she came to me asking for Angel because she couldn't find her and I had to tell her then that Angel was gone, that we'd taken her back the night before. She was really sad :( I had to hold her for quite a while after that. Poor girl.

Earlier that Tuesday day (now onto some fun stuff!) the kids had lots and lots of fun playing in the snow! We ended up going down town to get the kids some real gloves because their hands were frozen, but they still wanted to play! Laura's daughter Aurora wanted to walk, so Laura took her three kids and Charity and walked to the store! (it's only a couple of blocks) I hadn't taken shoes for being outside in the snow so I drove me, Danielle and Mom and Dad to the store! It was a good thing, Danielle and Miriam both fell asleep while we were at the store! And then Spencer had been throwing a fit so he got a timeout in the van, but that was before the others were taken outside so he couldn't wake them up! Aurora wanted to walk home again but Laura was freezing so I went and dropped everyone else off at home and then went back and picked them up!

On Wednesday, while we were doing some last minute shopping, Laura talked me into letting Charity go look at some Border Collie/Lab mix puppies near Preston that we'd seen advertised for free at the store the day before. Well, guess who found a puppy she loved. And guess who got suckered into it... Yup, I let Charity get a puppy. I'm thinking it was probably a little too soon but it has made Charity so happy. Although now we're having to deal with a couple of puppies around here. Atleast they haven't managed to chew anything up yet!

So, Laura was hoping Kevin would let her have a puppy (sorry Laura if Kevin reads this!) so she got a puppy too. He ended up saying no way, so Michael decided he wanted a puppy, he's still waiting to hear from his Mom if he can have him or not though. Dennis says there is no way we are keeping him. The guy said we could take him back if she wasn't going to keep so what on earth are we still doing with him? lol. Oh yeah, waiting for Renell to decide! lol. So that was is named Cocoa cuz he's got a light dusting of brown on his black coat. And we named our puppy Dusty :) Charity wanted to name him Pal though but in the end Mommy and Daddy won. Though, now I'm not sure it was the best pick, lol. I'm great at making decisions :)

I had planned on going home Wednesday night cuz Dennis didn't have to work on Thursday. (I loved paid holidays!) But Dad wanted us to wait until Thursday so I decided I could wait but I wanted to leave early on Thursday! I should have known better. Laura needed to get Miriam's hair cut so after everyone was finally dressed (around 10), we went out to Mom's friends house and she cut Miriam's hair, then Laura's hair, lol. I don't think it was layered as much as Laura wanted but it's hard to beat a free hair cut! You'd think we'd be able to go right back, pack up the van and get out of there! Nope! We really just lounged around all morning and didn't do much otherwise so we didn't manage to get out of there until after 2! We were going to stop at Logan's Heroes for Laura's once or twice a year visit but they were closed for the Holidays so Laura will have to wait until next time! So, we ended up going through a drive through to get something to eat cuz we were all hungry and then headed on our way.

Mom had packed Lasagna for us to take to have for Christmas Eve dinner and we got there just about the time we needed to put it in the oven, but Dad called and said he had just stopped at Del Taco (we'd gotten seperated before) and was grabbing a couple dozen 50cent tacos for dinner. lol, we still cooked the small lasagna but I think only Dennis ended up having any after all the tacos! lol. We've decided Dad must not have wanted Lasagna cuz everytime we tried to eat it, he had a different idea! lol.

Christmas Eve just flew by in a flash and before we knew it, it was time to put kids to bed and get ready for Santa to come. They get so excited it's hard for them to fall asleep, don't they? We finally got them to bed and made all of our preparations though. It was a lot of fun! Michael had been adopted by Toys for Tots that year and they must have spent at least a couple hundred dollars on him, he had so many presents! Almost half of them were his! lol. And we had to hide them all when we got his help throwing up stuff after it was all set up!

Then Christmas morning dawned bright and early, or not so early. lol, I don't have early risers at anytime except when I don't want them to! So, I was the first one up at 7, but it turned out Aurora and Miriam were up as well, so the three of us had to wait until everyone else was up! We ended up waking Charity and Danielle between 8 and 8:30! It was a fun Christmas morning, all the kids loved their presents, though Aurora kept asking when it was her turn again! We open one present at a time so I kept handing them out and had to make sure Michael got a present every so often more than anyone else! lol. They all got some good presents that they loved and spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys!

Laura and I, well, the night before we'd bought us some hair dye, so we spent that afternoon coloring our hair :) It was a lot of fun! And I really like the color, though what a change! I wanted to get Tiffany to come over to help us and to hang out for a little while but Dennis reminded me that it was Christmas and I shouldn't interrupt their holiday. We found out the other night that Tiffany wanted to come over and see me but that Karl wouldn't let her either cuz he didn't want her to interrupt our holiday! lol. Great minds think alike :)

We also played games all afternoon and that was a lot of fun as well, there were no new games for us this year but we played The Train Game I got last year and then we also played Settler's a couple of times. Dad was so proud cuz he won the most! We had a lot of fun! But all too quickly the day ended and it was time for bed. :( Laura had been planning on leaving early Saturday morning, but then she told me she decided to leave later in the day and stop at her in-laws Saturday night (they're about halfway between right now) so we got to spend some more time together Saturday morning! But once again no one was in a hurry to do anything so she left a couple hours later than planned!

But it was a good visit, Mom and Dad got to see Laura and her kids (and boy did Grandpa having fun spoiling them!) Aurora and Charity had lots of fun playing together! lol, although they really frustrated each other at times because Aurora expected Charity to be on her level and Charity expected Aurora to be on her level! lol (They're a little over a year apart, Charity being the younger of the two, though Charity is the bigger of the 2!) They did have a lot of fun though! Poor Spencer being the only boy, oh no, he actually wasn't because Michael was there, and Michael was great at entertaining the kids and played with Spencer quite a bit. It was cute watching Michael play with them when he did. And then Miriam and Danielle had fun with each other, someone their own size! lol, or closer to it!

Laura wants us to go down there in March during her spring break, we'll have to wait and see for sure, although there won't be a lot of spring breaks left when we can since our spring breaks happen at different times and Charity will start preschool next fall and then be in kindergarten after that. Where does the time go!?! So, we'll see, plus she wants us to take her a surprise...

Dad suggested Dennis and I run away Saturday afternoon while they watched the kids but it never worked out and they were quite a handful that night anyway. So, Sunday morning we hid in our room and read the book we'd been reading while they watched the kids! We had ended up finding subs for Sunday, Saturday night, cuz we thought we were going out of town, so we took advantage of it even though we ended up not going anywhere. We all had another lazy day.

Monday was nice. Mom and Dad watched the kids for us that afternoon while we went to the movies. We went and saw Avatar, it was a pretty good movie, I compare it to Pocahontas :) But then all that afternoon I was soooo tired. Going to a movie in the middle of the afternoon, especially a long one, does that for me! Dad had gone into Salt Lake while we were gone and he ended up bringing a chicen back for dinner. So, we had chicken and potatos and then it was time for them to be off. Though, their coming back on Thursday so they can watch the girls on New Year's Day while Dennis takes me on another date! Yay! This one will be lunch and maybe a movie! I'm hoping for Tucanos, but I think he has something else in mind.

Wow, I can't believe the New Year is just about to arrive. This one has gone so quickly! It's been a terrible year for some of our friends and I really hope the new one is better for them! This year, overall, has been good to us, and I hope for many more good ones!