Fa La La La La...

Whew! What a day!

Why do they call it a Christmas vacation? I am not on vacation over here. :)

So far we have had a morning obligation each of our three "vacation" mornings, which means setting the alarm. Just for the record, I am NOT setting it tomorrow!

Today we got up and got started on breakfast. The doorbell rang. Uh oh. Every one of us is in our pajamas. I would have been tempted to ignore it, but as soon as the door bell rings, my little angels run to the door to see who it is. We have windows on the sides of the door, so we cannot hide the fact we are home, especially when noses are pressed against the window out of pure curiosity!

I cautiously opened the door to find a couple of young men standing there. They were the carpet people. We got new carpet about a year and a half ago. We love the carpet. We just don't love the fact that it is ripping away at our "transition" spots (by the tile), leaving staples exposed. I think we have all stepped on them a time or two. Anyway, I knew the carpet guys were coming, at say...4-6 p.m. It was maybe 9 a.m. at this point. I think they felt bad; they had been told to come as early as possible which is funny since the carpet place had actually called Mark Friday to confirm the afternoon appointment. I think someone was having fun with me! I invited them in, warning them we were all in pj's. I am just thankful I was wearing a decent pair, not some of the threadbare ones that I have had forever. :)

Those poor guys. I think they felt really bad about the carpet. But there was not a thing they could do about it. They left promising that they would have the supervisor call us. I will give them all credit; we had a phone call within an hour.

Then we had a little time to work on cleaning and organizing. Finally we left for a bit so our house could get cleaned. We had the wonderful opportunity of visiting with my mom and my aunt, uncle, and grandmother. (My aunt and uncle are visiting, a special treat!) After our usual time slot, we drove back home. At that point, my kids thought they were "starving". Unfortunately, when we drove home, our house was STILL being cleaned. So we drove around for a bit until we got the "all clear". We returned home for lunch.

As we were working on lunch, the doorbell rang again. It was just one of those days. This time it was the termite inspector, about thirty minutes early. Again, I invited him in but warned him it was lunchtime.

It was about that time that I realized our youngest wasn't feeling top notch. He has been coughing and had a runny nose, but today he had a fever too (slight). I made his whole lunch which he didn't touch. After a little bit, he just asked to go to bed. (It was about two hours after his normal school naptime so he may have just been tired) He proceeded to sleep for about three hours. When he got up, his fever had gone up. Thankfully he perked up as the night went on. He didn't eat just a bunch for dinner, but he did drink some and ate a little. We will see what tomorrow brings.

After dinner, I took child 1 out shopping. This year we had the kids "draw" names to buy for one sibling. We are footing the bill, though they have a set price and can get only ONE gift with it. The rules may change as the kids get older. Last year we just had the two older kids exchange gifts, so this is new for them. (It just happened to work out that they all drew out someone else's name on the first try!)

It has been interesting to watch the kids shop for each other. The first to go a couple of nights ago was child 2. She was shopping for her little brother. We went on a Saturday night before Christmas to Toys R Us. Can you say "crazy"??? She investigated almost every possibility. She checked everything twice. She also discovered the price scanner and had to "scan" anything she could find. Somehow she had missed the rule on "one" gift, so she was trying to get as much for the price limit as she could. Once I explained the rule yet again, she settled on something very fast. It was funny; she doesn't have much of a concept of prices yet. There were a couple of items she pulled up that were 70 dollars or more...she was shocked when I told her how much they cost. (That was WAY over the price limit)

Mark took child 3 shopping on Sunday. I will admit, we simplified things for her a bit. I had some ideas of what her sister would like so that narrowed down her choices. Now let's see if she can keep a secret before Thursday night!

And tonight was child 1's night. I was pretty impressed. He was buying for child 3. I asked him if he had any ideas, and he quickly named three things that he thought would be good gifts. And he really had a good feel for what she might want...he has been paying attention more than I had thought!

Tomorrow night, as long as he feels up to it, is the youngest's turn. I have a feeling his shopping experience will be different. He is so ready to go though. Every night he has asked, "I go shopping, Mommy?" So hopefully he will just be excited that he is actually shopping. I have a feeling his gift will involve us holding out a couple of items and letting him point to one. :)

Well, not the most exciting post (not that they usually are) but that is all I can do for today. Still, I have gotten in three posts in about 24 hours, so I am pleased with that! For now, I am off to bed... I am ready to sleep and hopefully sleep in!

Reba