Christmas Eve

 Christmas eve Shannon worked from 10-2.  We were glad that she had a day time shift this year.  Kirk and I ran to Wal-Mart to get some necessities.  It was pretty crazy there.  Evan and Kirk finished up Whitney's Christmas present.  It really could have used one more coat of paint, but since it was so cold the paint was taking forever to dry.   I made treats to take to Phelon's. 

Late afternoon we headed over to Phelon's for our usual Christmas Eve festivities.  The Phelon's  had also invited a lady and her daughter over (her husband was out of town for work).   We did our usual dinner of pizza and pop.  After dinner we had our program.  Our kids all read short Christmas stories.  

 

 

 We ended the program with the usual puppet nativity.  Then the kids opened their presents.  We headed home about 8:30.  Once home we watched a little TV and once everyone was in bed I got all the presents out.  Once everything was ready for Christmas morning, Kirk and I headed to bed.  It was a fun family filled day.

The Week Before Christmas

  Unfortunately for us the week before Christmas was a sick week.  Luckily everyone was off of work and school for the break, though.  Whitney was sick over the weekend and then on Tuesday morning Kirk woke up with it.  They had body aches, fever and a cough.  I have had body aches and a cough.  Thursday Evan threw up.  So like I said it was quite the week.  Shannon and Lauren were the only ones that were spared.

 Here is a review of our week:

Monday - Kirk and Evan went to PCC to get his grades finished up and turned in.  They also cut out the pieces for a project they are doing for one of Whitney's Christmas presents.  They are making a closet for her doll clothes and accessories.  While they were gone the girls and I ventured out to do a little Christmas shopping.  We also bought a small birthday present for Whitney to send to Josie.

Tuesday - Evan and Shannon went and saw Rogue one.  They thought it was great.  We had the missionaries over for dinner.  Later that evening we went to Megan Waite's wedding reception.  It was nice to be able to see them again.  Kirk stayed home since he wasn't feeling well.   Late that night Shannon had a DQ Christmas party.  They had to do it after the restaurant was closed for the night.  I stayed up late waiting for her to get home and Dad went to bed early.

Wednesday - Evan went running in the morning with a couple cross country teammates and Mrs. Reedy, one of his coaches.  Kirk had to run in to work to meet with a new student that is interested in the program.  He was still pretty sick, but went anyway.  When he came home he went straight to bed for a couple of hours.  Luckily his fever broke early Thursday morning and he has gradually been feeling better.  Shannon had to work on Wednesday evening the rest of us just stayed home.

Thursday - Evan went running again in the morning.  Then my visiting teachers came over (Sis. Barnes and Sis. Hoffman).  After their visit I ran to Wal-mart to finish up my Christmas shopping.  I couldn't believe it.  I was looking for Christmas candy for stockings and most of the Christmas candy was gone and it was replaced with valentine candy.  Luckily I was able to scrounge up enough Christmas candy.  After that I ran home and ate lunch real quick and then ran Whitney in to meet Jim.  She stayed the night at their house.

Friday -  We are picking Whitney up at 4:45 and then going to see the lights at PIR tonight.  Kirk and Evan put Whitney's doll closet together.  It looks really nice.  They did a great job.

More Snow

 

This week (December 11th-17th) was another week that started out normal, but then we had some more snow which threw everything off.  Tuesday was a busy day.  I had work in the morning and then had to make cookies for the RS cookie exchange.  I also made taco soup for dinner, since Kirk wasn't home.  We all thought of Tyler while we ate it, since it is one of his favorite dinners.   I took the kids on a quick shopping trip to Wal-Mart to get a few last minute things for Tyler's Christmas package.  I had to get his presents wrapped and the package ready to mail in case we got more snow.  That night we had our Relief Society activity.  We had a cookie exchange and a small gift exchange it was fun.

Wednesday was kind of a weird day.  I only taught my first group.  Then Erin Wheeldon and I spent most of the rest of our time in the workroom making copies.  Today was the dress rehearsal for the 4th grade Christmas program.  That is why I didn't teach most of my groups.  Kirk came over to the school and watched the dress rehearsal because Thursday night is the main performance and so is Evan's court of honor.  The plan was that Kirk would go to the court of honor and I would go to the 4th grade music program.  It is always nice when two things are scheduled on the same evening at the same time.   About 2:00 Wednesday afternoon it started snowing.  Luckily it was early release day, so Whitney was already home and the other 3 were on the bus almost home when it started.  Kirk doesn't work on Wednesdays so he didn't have to worry about getting home in the mess.  I guess the roads were really bad and the freeways and highways were parking lots.  Apparently other school districts had kids stuck on buses or at schools still that evening.

 I think we ended up with about 3 inches.  School was cancelled on both Thursday and Friday again.  PCC was also closed, so Kirk's Thursday class didn't meet for their last 2 Thursdays of the quarter.

Thursday we just all stayed home all day.  We did some cleaning.  I also had a mild cold, so I didn't feel to great on Thursday.  I took a nice long nap in the afternoon, which felt great.  Friday we were able to get out.  Kirk and I ran some errands late morning.  The roads were still pretty slippery when we left home, but had improved a lot by the time we returned home.  In the afternoon I took Evan and Lauren to the library.  It felt good to get out of the house.  Lauren went to a Christmas party at her friends house that night.

Saturday we ended up getting another half inch of snow.  Shannon went to work, but we ended up picking her up early because the roads were getting bad again.  When I was fixing dinner I noticed Whitney looked flushed.  She had a 101.5 fever.

On Sunday Whitney was still sick.  Kirk and I took turns going to church.  Kirk went to the first 2 hours, while I stayed home with Whitney.  Then we switched spots for the third hour.  She is still running a fever (102.5) that evening, so we had to cancel her trip to her friends house in Vancouver for the next day.  She was disappointed about that.

Zoo Lights and Snow Days

The week of December 4th-10th started out as a normal week, but ended up a little unusual.  We started out the week with a pretty typical Monday.  We got our emails from our missionary Shannon worked that evening.  Evan went running after school with a few of his cross country teammates.  We had FHE as usual and Whitney gave the lesson.  Tuesday Whitney wasn't feeling well, so she and I stayed home from school & work.   It was actually kind of nice because I was able to get caught up with all my housework and laundry.


Wednesday is when the week started to veer from the normal.  Wednesday Whitney came into my classroom at school crying and saying her stomach hurt.  I called and had Kirk come pick her up.  He doesn't work on Wednesdays this quarter.  That evening the youth went to the zoo lights.  I volunteered to be a driver, since we had 3 kids going.  I ended up not needing to drive, but still went and rode with Sarah Cluff.  It was really cold (in the low 30's).  It was my first time going to zoo lights.  I prefer the PIR lights, though, since you can stay in your warm car.  When we got home from the zoo lights our home teachers were at the house visiting with Kirk.    At this point they were predicting a snowstorm for Thursday morning.  They actually cancelled school Wednesday evening even though it hadn't started snowing yet.






 

We got up  Thursday morning and it was completely dry out.  It didn't start snowing until noon.  We ended up with about an inch of snow and then got a layer of ice on top of that from freezing rain.  We decorated our gingerbread house for something to do.

School was cancelled again Friday.  PCC was also closed both days.  Evan and Kirk went out and cleared the driveway Friday morning.  Then they took the truck out to see how the roads were.  Things cleared out enough that I was able to drive Shannon to work in the van.  We spent our afternoon making Christmas cut out cookies.

Saturday started out with a funeral for Flora Ward.  This is the second Saturday in a row that I've attended a funeral.  Kirk went with me to the funeral, since he used to be their home teacher.   After the funeral we helped set up for the ward Christmas party. Then we went home and had some lunch.  Later that afternoon Kirk and Evan went over to a lady in our wards house  to finish up her Christmas lights.  They didn't get much done because the roof was too icy.  That evening we went to the ward party.  Shannon had to work, so she didn't go with us.  It was fun.  They just had dinner and then Santa came.  Whitney went and sat on his lap only so she could get the candy he was handing out.

Christmas Tree

Saturday December 3rd was an extremely busy day for us.  Even though we had so much going on, I really wanted to go get our Christmas tree that day.  If we didn't we would have to wait until the next weekend and then it would be December 10th.

Our day started bright and early.  Kirk and Evan had to be at the Jensen's at 8am to help pour some concrete and the girls and I had to be at the church also at 8am to clean.  After Kirk and Evan were done they met us at the church and we ran to a Christmas tree farm that is about 10 minutes away to pick out a Christmas tree. I wanted to get a Noble because they don't drop needles like the Douglas firs do, but they didn't have any.  So we ended up with a Doug Fir because we were short on time.  We wandered around and found a tree and then cut it down.  We hauled it home.

I had to go to a funeral and noon in Rainier for the lady I had helped dress a few days earlier.  So after arriving home from the tree farm, I ate something quick, changed my clothes and then waited for my ride.  They were a little late in arriving, so we arrived at the funeral just in time for the start of the funeral and didn't make it to the viewing. 

That evening after dinner we were finally able to set up the tree in the house and decorate it.  Evan put the lights on and the kids did most of the decorating.  It is always fun to get the tree up and make the house feel more festive.

And that's it for our first very busy Saturday in December.