My Children

They were all so pleased with the Christmas gifts that they received. This year things went so much better than I would have imagined. My mother-in-law and her sister were ever so generous.

My Deuce was able to get the Didj that he wanted. We bought Diamond a cupcake maker, the Jakks Pacific one, but she didn't get to even open it. Unfortunately, I was so excited to be getting it for her that reading the reviews for it didn't even cross my mind. I read them after receiving it while just checking to see if they had dropped the price, because the prices were being dropped on so many things. The reviews were awful, so I plan to send this one back. This is just too bad because she loves cooking with me and though she would have needed assistance, she would have loved it. I think she's having more fun playing with the boys toys right now anyway. She wants a Didj as well. Oh well, she has a birthday coming up in a couple of months, so we have this as an option. I know we probably won't find it at the price we got it for my Deuce, though. My Bruiser got the Smart E Bear. Cool because it tells stories and sings songs and plays games. The only thing, in my opinion that would have made it even better is if its mouth could move. I mean, you can even personalize it to make it say your child's name. He got so excited when that bear first said his name. Lastly, my Stone got a laptop for babies. They got plenty of other gifts besides which I won't mention right now. I myself got so caught up in the whole gift giving that I got off track on the real reason for the season.

We had Christmas service at my church on Christmas day. My Pastor says that this was the first time he recalled doing this and wants to continue. I agree completely with his decision. It's not our birthday, and though it may not officially be Christ's actual birthday, it's the day set aside for us to reflect on the fact that He was born. We didn't stay long. We had a short praise service with singing and heard three testimonies. A couple of solos, including one that the Pastor at times has me sing and the offering and then the message. In all it was around 2 hours.

I had to come back and finish up my Christmas dinner. Stone makes it so hard because he wants to be held about 80% of the day it seems. He'll cry and cry until someone picks him up. Anyway, we had turkey and dressing, ham, shrimp and crab fettuccine, mashed potatoes, potato salad, rolls and sweet potato pie. That was a lot of potatoes (smile) and a lot of work, but it was worth it for my family. We had a sparkling apple juice to drink with (non alcoholic of course). Hopefully those leftovers will be enough for everyone to eat tonight, so I can get out of cooking for two days in a row. Ahh holidays. My husband has already gone out to bring in the food that I plan to cook for New Years. His family tradition was cabbage and black eyed peas. I've heard that people think of it as representing money and good luck, but I think someone made that up because they didn't feel like all that heavy cooking, I know I won't. Not so soon anyway. Not that I don't love cooking, but that's a load for any one person. I grew up with three sisters and between us and my mom, she would assign us each a dish or two or maybe even three and the load was so much lighter then. My husband will help out, but it's kinda hard with four young children because someone has to constantly watch them, so most of it is left up to me. (Love you honey)