Thursday Thirteen #9

13 Tidbits about my Christmas

1. I got my wedding rings back from the jewelers! They look beautiful, and I'm soooo happy to be wearing them again. Emma didn't believe me when I told her that they were my wedding rings. She's never seen them before, and she kept asking where my other ring was. (I've been wearing a simple gold band for the last 4 years.)

2. I got the stomach flu. UGGH! At least it was done and over with before Christmas came. One of those 24 hours things. The blessing was, Todd had Friday off of work so he was home in the morning to help with the kids. When he ended up going into work in the afternoon, a WONDEFUL friend from work stopped by and offered to take the girls until he could come pick them up. Thank God for friends!

3. I didn't go to church. Well, actually, I did GO to church, but I wasn't in the service. I had nursery duty. Seems like that's all I do lately, but now I'm off duty till the end of January.

4. Right after church on Sunday we drove to my parent's house. It wasn't a bad drive at all. Mild weather meant that the roads were clear and the girls actually slept some of the way. A mid-trip stop at Meijer made the 3 hour drive bearable.

5. Christmas Eve was a nice time spent with family. My brother and his new fiance were there, along with my parents. We ate our big Christmas dinner on Sunday night and then opened up our stockings from my mom and dad.

6. Christmas Eve wouldn't be complete without the annual viewing of The Christmas Story. I have to admit, this movie is growing on me. Each time I watch it, I catch new things that I didn't notice before. And this was Emma's first year watching the movie. She stayed awake for the entire movie, even though we didn't finish watching it until 10:30pm!

7. The girls woke up around 7:30am and we let them play with the toys that my mom keeps for them. It wasn't long before Emma was asking to go upstairs and open her new presents. I think everyone else started waking up around 8am.

8. I made my ever-famous breakfast casserole! I realized on Christmas Eve that I had forgotten to purchase the dried hashbrowns, and it being Christmas Eve and all, there wasn't a store open anywhere to go buy some! So, lucky for me, my parents offered up the leftover cooked potatoes that were from the scalloped potatoes the day before. I was a bit hesitant to stray from the recipe, but it turned out ok. Notice I said, ok. I personally like it better the way I usually make it. And to top it off, I didn't even think of putting in some of the leftover Honey Baked Ham from the night before either.

9. We decided to stray from tradition again and purchase cinnamon rolls from a local bakery instead of the usual Cinnabon. I know, I know. Could have been bad, just like last year. But Jonathan and I let our feelings be known about cooked raisins being sooo wrong in a cinnamon roll and Dad just ordered them without. Topped off with mom's homemade cream cheese icing, they were BETTER than Cinnabon. I think we have a new tradition.

10. The girls really enjoyed opening gifts. Ok, Emma enjoyed it. Ella just kind of walked around, waving her PEZ candy dispenser around like a whip. She still doesn't understand the excitement of opening gifts. But oh, the expression on Emma's face when she opened her kitchen!

11. For those of you who read my 13 last week, I bought my husband an iPod shuffle for Christmas. Now I know that to most that won't seem like a big deal. Most of you have an ipod or a Nano or something similar. But we are just heading into the 21st century in the area of music around here. That's right, no more walkman's for us. We've gone digital. Finally.

12. We left my parent's house around 2pm on Christmas so that we could get home and put the kitchen together. Emma was soo excited about this and was a very patient little girl while Daddy put it together!

13. OH MY WORD, the fighting, crying, screaming, pushing, and general frustration that has ensued ever since bringing the above mentioned kitchen into the house! Emma is frustrated that Ella touches her dishes everytime she sets them up. I don't blame her, I'd be frustrated too! Ella is understandably upset that there is a new toy in the house that Emma doesn't want her to play with. I know this is only the beginning of the spats between sisters. If I can make it through this phase with my sanity in tact, it'll be a miracle from the Lord!

And by the way, I just have to add an additional comment to the 13 today. My dear husband has always told me that when the gas light comes on in the car, we have at least 2 gallons left which means we can go roughly 40 miles around town. He often likes to test this theory, waiting to get gas until the absolute possible moment. Needless to say, it is the source of many an argument between us (I have a few stories from my youth to tell, but I'll save those for later. ) Anyway, I was about 20 miles from home when the gas light came on in my car today. No problem, I thought, I can go at least 40, so I'll try to get home. About 5 miles from home, I had the strangest sensation that I was going to run out of gas. On a major road. With 2 young children in the car. Embarrasing! So I REALLY started praying. Something like, "Dear Lord, PLEASE let me get to a gas station before running out of gas!" And do you know, I was just pulling into the station when my car shut off and wouldn't move another inch. I was just close enough to the pump to get the gas in the car. So.... dear hubby, when the gas light comes on, you don't have 40 MILES until the tank is empty. Get gas immediately! (A small part of me loves it when I'm right!)

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