Year 5: December 21st-24th, 2020: Slow Preparations

 As we approached Christmas, I set out a plan to do one major thing a day. Today was wrapping presents day. Well, late in the day yesterday, I started developing the dreaded SYMPTOMS. Yes, those Sars2/Covid-19 whatever you want to call it symptoms. Or rather, some flu like symptoms. Jared had us all take a melatonin because he heard that it helps (maybe because it does put you into deeper sleep?). Well, I took mine about 12:30am, and went to bed between 1:30/2am. Not smart in the first place, I know. But I had been busy organzing gifts and boy was that WORTH IT because today has been a breeze in getting that part done little by little. Abishai woke me up at 7am as usual and I went out to the fire side room with him to lay down to let Jared sleep. I usually just doze on the couch and never fall back asleep. But today, I not only fell back asleep, but I slept until 10am! It looked like everyone else had been in and out of the kitchen. Granted they probably weren't super loud, but I wake up even to hushed voices. I know I dreamed hard and tried to wake up several time. I hadn't taken a melatonin pill in years so I had no idea it would affect me that much. Well, I'll try half a pill tonight because I've got things to do! It's Christmas week!

However, when I got up in the middle of the night and then again at 7 with Abishai, I was so sore. Maybe I didn't move around as much. Maybe missing my chiropractic appointment wasn't such a good idea. Maybe I had lingering minstrel pain or I had eaten some gluten (I had tried something off of a plate of cookies that looked GF, but the chex could have been wheat chex). But I went to bed and woke up with achiness in my neck (which is usually a sign of illness for me), my ears hurting again, which was causing slight dizziness which causes slight nausea. And sciatica pain through my lower back, down around my hips and into my legs. It's been really bad all day. Just chronic all day soreness that isn't my baseline fibromyalgia pain. Typically I will be sorer on one side of the other, especially in my shoulders. Nope. This is both sides. I've also been feverish and have had hot flashes and very cold feet. Taste is fine so far. 

Jared was fine all day until he took a nap. When he got up at 5:30pm, he quickly got to the bathroom and threw up. Great. He was supposed to make dinner because I was wrapping gifts by myself and I was the one doing it with flu like symptoms, shaky hands, dizziness, and nausea. Thanks a bunch. Well, I didn't realize he wasn't up until 6pm, so I made pizza rolls and frozen vegetables. Sorry, kids, mom and dad are sick. I'm not standing and making bologna and potatoes on these sore hips.  Jared promptly went back to bed. He was just up and ate some food though.

We were all questioning if we should get tested (the swab to see if we have active virus or the anitbody blood test to see if we had it) but the doctor said to wait. And now that Jared and I have developed symptoms, I don't know where that leaves us in the quarantine count. I'm fine with staying home and not traveling. The ONLY requirement that no matter what, Benaiah comes here at 9am on Christmas morning. We shouldn't be active anymore and he already has the anitbodies and can stay away from people for another 10 days before going back to work because he was taking the week off anyway. But that's it. I don't care if we got to Christmas Eve service or if we watch it all together. I don't care if Shauna and Aaron and the girls come all the way up here and stay or if we do just say, "Whatever, we have it or we don't, we have antibodies or we don't, so let's just get together anyway." I rearranged my gynecologist appointment and made some other appointments today that are either telehealth appointments or can be done in two weeks or so. Now that I had a good experience with delivery, we can do that again or do a pick up order if we feel we are no longer super contagious. We've never had super "have to" traditions with the Johnsons, so I'm ok with whatever. But I HAVE to have Benaiah here on Christmas morning. Just thinking about NOT having him here breaks my heart. So, I let Benaiah and the folks know that. Benaiah agreed to coming. But anything can change between now and then. We were all hoping that we wouldn't develop symptoms because then we could stick to the same timeline. What a bummer and mess. It's not like anyone is checking on the timelines anyway. So, we'll see about traveling. I told the other adults to worry about it and make decisions and I'll go along with everything except Christmas MORNING.

In conclusion, I pushed through the day and hope to finish the wrapping after I finish today's blog entry. I'm about 2/3 done. I might do my own. I like wrapping. I just don't want to do it last minute. Jared did play with Abishai a lot today. Everybody had screen time, reading time, Lego time. Jared told Justin to rebuild Abishai's fire house to go with his display, so Justin started that and got frustrated. He doesn't know which pieces go with the sets like Jared and I do because we are the ones who built them a couple of times. Keturah did help me with some gift wrapping and Abishai stuck around for a few minutes. Otherwise, it was a boring day.

We ended it with seeing the "Star of Bethlehem," aka Jupiter and Saturn were in alignment and showing up quite brightly in the sky! First time in 500 years! Very appropriate for this time of year and season, Christmas and Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year is over! That was a treat and I'm glad we went outside to see it right after dinner. There were some clouds in the way at times, but oh well. Now to be for some and back to wrapping for others.

Phew, one last gift from a favorite Auntie, thankfully BEFORE I wrapped that child's gifts!

Prewrapping organization! 3 gifts per person for the J6, so do I save some for another holiday? Do I combine some into a "themed" gift with many parts? Which ones are from Santa and which ones are from Mom and Dad? What goes in each stocking? I'm glad I did this while I was feeling decent last night because it made today's actual wrapping a breeze! And the kids all pick out their own wrapping paper for the year and I wrap all their gifts in that. They seem to like that. And I just tell them the Santa gifts get dropped off and I wrap them.

I was watching a random vlogger video on Facebook and they went to the mall to an actual Hot Wheels ONLY store! Say what?! I need to find one of those! Except Abishai would never ever leave! Ah!

Today's battle scene for Abishai and Daddy.

Keturah was pretty helpful in the process.

Only a couple more days!

Gorgeous sunset! Not sure if this phone captures it better than the other one though.

Sunset reflecting from the back of the house to the clouds. These windows face east.

A little redder in the photo than it is in real life, but I'll take it.

This was my attempt at using a "filter" setting.

Mommy's other little helper for 2 minutes wrapping Daddy's gifts.

I'm glad I saw this notice! We do live south of I-74!

My phone's night camera was on, so the clouds and sky look like it's day but it's very much night. Saturn and Jupiter are peeking out from the top of the middle cloud there.

There they are! We have a TON of wind right now so the clouds were moving fast.

See how dark the playground is? That night mode is something wild!

This is a still shot from the videos below and more accurately depicts the darkness, although it's grainy.

I thought it was way colder than 45 degrees! The wind is raging out there!

The "Polar Express" in Connersville in 2010! Super expensive but awesome trip I think of an hour perhaps? We stopped at the North Pole and everything. Then the train goes back north on the same line. Abishai wore Justin's coat and shoes last year and he's wearing Benaiah's coat this year. We still have Jared's coat because it's real wool and I think from a foreign country. I gave up on the white puffy coat after one season because it was too small and I wasn't into puffy coats. And now I have a large pink fluffy coat.

Night mode and our front porch decor.

Ah, the moon moved! I could see it from the front yard and then didn't because of clouds. It's actually only a half moon though. Night mode is weird to handle.

Have I ever told you how being a moody woman sucks? Ok, I have reason to be. I was feeling pretty good as I got up this morning and lasted a few hours before "hitting the wall." The overall pain isn't as bad and I'm not as dizzy but it's all there. Hot flashes, chills, hip pain, ear pain. No, it was more of the mental energy today of deciding on next steps. I'll spare you the details, but I've decided to get a Covid-19 test at the CVS .5 miles down the road tomorrow. It will take a few days to get back. It's not one of those rapid ones because all those spots are filled. Walgreens had a spot at 4:30 on Christmas Eve and I thought I booked it, but I'm not sure because I never got an email confirmation. I hemmed and hawed about going to see our doctor friend and then it was too late. SO, we won't get the results back until the weekend at the earliest. So, going on vacation to Tennessee is on hold for the J5 until the results are in. It's been a frustrating day because everybody and their brother has an opinion on when and how to quarantine. And I have ADD, SAD, and analysis and decision paralysis. I needed quiet and time to think without the draw of the phone. So I put it away a couple of times today.  I'm still not sure who is right. I told Jared to lead the charge on when to quarantine and for how long. I asked him to help me decide which test and when, but he bounced it back into my court, as he should. I'm a big girl. I can do this. So, I did. Tomorrow. And then we wait.

One person said that if I am positive, I have to isolate myself from the rest. That isn't going to happen. There is no way we can degerm this place. And I will not be isolated in my own home. That's too anxiety producing. My babies are healthy and probably asymptomatic at this point. Jared is ok with this decision. Not going on vacation doesn't bother me because it's a lot of work for me. We agreed we would still pack and if my test is negative, then we will drive down separately as soon as we can. I guess we will start that process tomorrow as planned. If I'm positive, we start the 10 day quarantine over, with mine starting yesterday and the rest of the family's actually not starting until tomorrow or something, I don't know. That's where it gets confusing. I just want to hole up for a month or so until everyone has had or is eligible for the anitbody test. Then they all get the antibody test if they haven't had symptoms (and me too if my Covid test is negative) and we move on from there. Immunity is anywhere from 3-6 months. This is why this whole thing is ridiculous because know really knows if they have a Covid-19 virus or the normal flu if they don't get tested. Everyone is guessing. I'm tired of figuring out what is best and then sticking to it. Thankfully, my symptoms are already abating. So, for me, it wasn't that bad, just like I expected I would be fine. I think it would put our mind at ease if Jared got the antibody test as soon as he can. Then he can't use the "but what if I'm asymtompatic" argument for wearing a mask and avoiding people. But we'll see.

I don't have many photos, if any, to share because I was low key today. I made the cranberry bread, but it was already 2pm and I needed to lay down. Cherry winks will have to wait until tomorrow. Everybody helped with supper and now everything is cleaned up. Jared and Abishai have been on and off the TV all day, with lots of tickle fights in between. I took a nap with Jared for a little bit, which felt good just to be together after a mentally taxing morning. There's just something calming (most days) about having your spouse nearby, no words spoken, just nearby. I wish everyone had that kind of relationship with their spouse. We've worked hard at it thought to get to this point 22 years into our relationship. 22 years ago, one of his gifts from his parents was a plane ticket to come see me! Oh how I cherish those few days when secrets were shared. He stayed in the basement at Restoration House where the interns lived. The same place he would stay 2 1/2 yrs later when we got married. The same place we stayed as a family of 5 on one of our trips back to Indiana from PEI. I remember watching at least part of the movie "Zorro" with him on that trip. Oh, that was the trip I took him on a science highway, and he bought both the cd and the audio tape of DCTalk's Supernatural record for me! My dad's car only had a tape deck but I had a cd player at home. We went all the way out to Portsmouth and went to a couple of the shops out there. I think I drove the whole time, but I can't remember. Ah, the memories. I was just hanging up his new e2 fleece zip up shirt and thinking about how cozy and comfy it is when he's wearing one. He's always loved fleeces, even way back 22 years ago. He was wearing one today, his Cows Creamery plain one that I got at one of their deep discount fall sales. It would have been used to add a logo or something but maybe they didn't need it. It has their label on it though and it's a nice olive green. His e2 one is a gorgeous blue and super soft as well. Anyway, I love fleece on him and I love him! Lol! Thanks for going down memory lane with me!

Back to reality. I hope I feel better tomorrow so I can handle the packing process. I don't want to do it. I just want to stay home, but that's hard to say to family. They won't understand why because they really don't know me enough to fully grasp why. So, I'll keep it to myself and let it play out. The kids didn't pitch a fit at least when I told them about the different scenarios. Thank goodness! And they know how to pack. So, I haven't made any lists. I'll just start gathering it up for now. Then I'll go get my test done. Then we'll make cherry winks. I'm going to still make Benaiah come here on Friday on a technicality. It's the only thing I want for Christmas and he knows it. Just the 6 of us as close to normal as possible. It's a big Christmas. Please let me have it. Please? I told myself I would delegate logistics of gifts from the others to them but then when I heard that they wanted to do it over zoom on Christmas, I internally pitched a fit. I had to stop myself. I had to come up with a logical reason to have them wait until after Tennessee if we can't get down there. Let's not open gifts here IN CASE we can go down there. That's my line for when they ask. They can take our gifts to themselves and the J4 just in case we don't make it. I wish we could just Zoom them at the cabin but there's no wifi. We'll see if my reasoning holds up. But for tonight, I'm in a good place and tomorrow is a new day. I think my symptoms peaked yesterday, so that's excellent.

Onward to the next day of Christmas prep!

Oh man! If I didn't already have a logo on my phone case! I'd pick this one! The "Protector" and Baby Yoda!

Speaking of! It's a Jedi Knight and some kind of bad guy battling it out!

Socks kept putting his paw on Keturah asking her for more pets.

Awwwwwwwwwwww, she just lays there and strokes his fur over and over. He makes his rounds throughout the day and night though. He typically will lay in the hallway now until I go to bed and then bunk in with Justin.

Abishai wanted Santa to see the cello and cello music. Keturah moved it to her room today. It makes me a little nervous to have it in there but with Jared's stuff in our room, well, it's a bit stuffy in there!

Abishai carried all the boxes we didn't use for wrapping back into the garage for me today AND heaved them OVER the box of presents without noticing them! Jared rearranged the cabinetry to make more space yesterday.

Well, I didn't have the flaxseed meal that the paleo recipe called for, so I used hemp seeds hoping that they would grind up in the mixing process (used the standing mixer, and it worked really well!) I was the only one cutting the cranberries but that's ok. The dough had to "rest" for the baking soda and vinegar to mix and bubble up so the loaf wouldn't be as dense. I can't wait to try some! One for the freezer and one for later this week. I used almond flour and 6 eggs for each one! I've used this recipe for several years with a few different tweaks each time with decent results. Yum! Cranberry nut bread, this time with walnuts, pecans, and hemp seeds!

Oh me oh my I'm tired! But today's short list of to do's did get done with time to spare! We prepacked our vacation bags. That basically means my kids put REAL CLOTHES and not pjs into the bags. I told them, "If you are willing to wear regular clothes on vacation, why can't you do that at home?"  And I told them to start gathering their toys and books for their backpacks. I told them to leave some room for gifts they want to bring after Santa comes tomorrow night. And of course there will be new toys to play with when we open up everyone else's gifts. I got out the travel medication and my travel toiletries and packed my clothes for the most part. Jared won't do anything until the day before. I also combined some of the grocery bags and such for our gingerbread house project and yummies to eat. I told the family not to pack a bunch of food and here I am with two big bags of food/crafts! Hypocrite! And I haven't even packed my few GF items yet!  We also packed the games we'll bring. I'm not sure how we will fit everything, but we'll see.

Then Jared and I took a little jaunt over to CVS for my Covid-19 swab test. I shoved that swab back as far as I could go, promise! I did make myself sneeze and my eyes water, so that's a good sign. I'm glad he came with me. I had asked him to take me to the doctor yesterday because a) it's a fairly long drive  because of traffic and b) I don't understand or communicate well with non native English speakers. The doctor is a friend, but he's from India or somewhere I believe. He runs a clinic here. I wasn't expecting Jared to go with me today, but I'm glad he did. He did the talking and I handed over the right stuff and did the swab. Pretty easy. Now we wait 2-4 days for the text or email to come through with the results. I did download the app, so maybe I'll get it there, too, after I created an account. Easy enough. We then dropped off books to the library because I know they sit in quarantine for a few days before people touch them and/or they get wiped off. I wanted to get my new stash, but I didn't want to make contact even with the curbside service. Then Jared wanted to get me something, anything, for Christmas, so we stopped at Kroger. I told him that yes, we are over the quarantine for exposure to Benaiah, but we are taking a risk here because I literally just sneeze all over him. He went in anyway while I stayed in the car. We did need more eggs, pizza, and eggnog. I'm not sure what else he got. He could only find cinnamon eggnog so Santa is in for a treat this year! 

We came home and had lunch and then I got started on the cherry wink cookies with the kids. I must have had some bad brain fog and ADD moments because I was having a really hard time gathering my thoughts and being patient with the kids and remembering to take photos. In the middle of it all, I grabbed the almond flour instead of the GF baking mix I had originally planned to use. I don't know why I had almond flour in my head the last 24 hrs. Meanwhile, the standing mixer had been going too longer and the butter and eggs got over beaten. Combine that with wetter than other flours almond flour, and the dough was quite wet. I had to had about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of rice flour to get it to be a little more stiff. Then we had to put in the fridge for a couple of hours to chill and really firm up enough so we could drop it by spoonfuls into the coating of rice chex. I wasn't sure how it was all going to turn out, but in the end, they came out PERFECT. Like AMAZINGLY perfect! I am very, very pleased! We ended up making a triple batch and actually came out with over 60 cookies! That's amazing! They are thinner and some of them are a tad crispier like those cookie thins. Some are a tad underdone. But they aren't dry and crumbly like in the past few years. I was pretty pleased!

But after the cookies came out to cool, I was overheated. I had to step out of the kitchen and sit in the garage for 15 minutes while everyone else warmed up food for supper. I'm still not 100% over whatever virus I have. I still feel a tad achy and nauseous. I'm tired, but that's normal. I've got some pain right around my rib cage in spots I don't normally have pain so I'm worried about my lungs. And then I'm having a lot of hot flashes and a few cold flashes still. And the runny nose. So, I'm exhausted. I'm grateful that we've had a peaceful week so far and plenty of time to get things done at my pace. I don't feel rushed. I'm working my plan. Kids are a bit bored but they are zooming through their history reading and are done with their Constitution workbooks. Even Justin has read a ton! I'm pretty proud of them actually. They've been very helpful, too. We've had some great moments.

One such moment was this morning when Abishai woke up at 6am instead of his usual 7am. I heard him pitter patter off his bed and into the hallway. And then, "Slam, slam, slam, slam." Ok, it was more like a gentle closing of all 4 doors in the hallway. Then "click." On goes the hallway light. He gets the Hello Kitty blanket and a pillow from the living room and tries to lay down. When that doesn't work, he's literally running up and down the hallway! As quiet as he can, but literally doing laps waiting for it to be light outside so he can fling open the doors and wake us up! Crazy child! And because he woke up so early, he was stir crazy by dinner time. The littlest thing would set him to giggling so hard he was red in the face and his neck veins were popping out. It was glorious! Until, he tried to play a video game with Daddy and things didn't go his way. Then the real meltdown began. Daddy quickly shut it down and off to bed he went. All is quiet and it's only 7:45pm! Woot! Woot! I hope this early morning rising doesn't happen again tomorrow! We teased Abishai that he should sleep with Grandma and Grandpa, the other early risers, so the three of them can hang out together. Grandpa can take him for a walk on the trail at sunrise or something, lol. We'll see. Just as long as he doesn't come running down the hallways flicking on every light in the whole place! He will make a great camp counselor some day for sure!

On that note, it's only 36 hrs until Christmas Day! Can you believe it?! We made it! With lots of time to spare, thank goodness. Just enough hours to feel better and go to bed early, AND watch my tv show, lol. Then hopefully we'll  hear back about my test by Saturday morning when we are supposed to leave. If not, we'll leave after we get the results, if it's a negative result. If it's a positive one, we have to stay home. I guess we could go straight down and not stop anywhere or take the risk like Jared did today. But Nora and Everly and Grandma and Grandpa haven't showed any signs and I don't want to infect them if we can help it. My own kids are a different story. There's no way I can cut myself off in this small house. We breathe the same air and use the same bathrooms. I wouldn't be able to keep up with the cleaning at all to make it worth it. We are in this together! Even if it's another 10 days!

Um, Abishai is never allowed to grow up! He's the baby! But, in reality land, in 50 days, he'll be 6 yrs old! Wow!

This is such the truth! But, really, Jared doesn't keep the wishlists and doesn't like spending money and doesn't know where the best deals are, so, I do it. And I LOVE doing it! I had to communicate with other family members about the kids' wishlists, because we want to eliminate duplicates. And we don't want things the kids won't like in our limited space. We pretty much have at least one of every kind of toy, art supply, clothing, books, we have more than we need. Oh, and most of the time, I get my own gifts. Although today, when he stopped at Kroger, he picked me up something. Ok, then! I only spent.....loads of money on....clothes, phone, books, supplements, shampoo, hair pretties,......yes, way too much this year. Way too much. But we were blessed with extra funds so a lot of those were in the "when we have extra money" category.

I don't know where or how the reflections work, but I just LOVE how the lights dance off the ceiling!

Woah. I bought this sign before Justin, and possibly me, were diagnosed with ADD, but it applies so well to it! Our minds will wander and "switch channels" but we aren't lost. We just take a path less traveled.

Socks usually waits for me in the hallway and then goes off to the boys' room when I open the door for him. Well, he had to check on his Keturah first.

Jared tweeted a lot today about us!

Abishai made his own bed/cubby for himself and his police gear. This was his first set up.

Yes, the heater was on, so yes, I turned it off before I took the photo and kept it off. He's using 4 large cups under 3 pieces of cardboard that held e2 mugs for gifts for this fall's gathering. Then he put the other end of the sled on top of the drum set he pulled over. Genius engineering!

Fish, bones, and hearts, that's the treats Socks has been getting in his very own advent calendar!

RIP, one of our favorite dress up pieces. There's a big rip in the plastic and it's kind of sharp.

Mrs. Alisha dropped off a few things including these cool Avenger boots! Abishai said they are so warm! And then after he goes out, he promptly takes them off to run barefoot with the dog in 40 degree weather.

Now he's reengineered his bed to be even more stable and safe using the Christmas wrapping boxes and the Christmas train box.

A boy and his dog running to the corner of the fence line because Socks now has 2 friends over there! They got a second dog in that corner house and that's who Socks has been obsessed with for over a week!

Good on Amell for recognizing that the comic book version wears a gotee and it's bright yellow. But Fortnite purposefully made the Green Arrow character look like Stephen Amell's embodiment of the character. I'm sure some other fan could tell you from what season this suit is from though. Definitely not the first season though which has short sleeves. But way to go Fortnite!

So Jared has been competing with himself about his weight. Basically, he doesn't eat much. He's not exercising, so he's not gaining muscle He now weighs pretty much the lowest he has ever weighed as a full grown guy. 190lbs. I'm not used to him looking like this. He was at his heaviest when we were dating and got married. It's like he's wasting away before my very eyes! His clothes fall off of him, but he won't go down a size because tighter clothes puts pressure on his sciatica. So he wears suspenders and hides them under his now too large for him shirts. It doesn't look quite right to me, but he won't listen.

Meanwhile, yours truly went up to a higher BMI category and my BMI is more than Jared's. We are also only 30 lbs apart in weight. This is not good at all. Not good. When we got married, we had a 150lb difference. It's not fair that a) Jared has more discipline and b) he has a lot less factors working against him than I do. It's upsetting for sure. But here I am talking about it, but I hope some one out there can really help besides saying "don't eat sugar" and "exercise more." Exercise hurts me more than the average person. And I'm not going sugar-less again. It didn't do anything when I've tried it before. So, here I sit. With all my pain and struggles and different pains in my legs because of the extra weight. I'm not sure what's next on my medical to do list in this area. Help!

Not good at all.

Keturah got these awesome boots that were Mrs. Alisha's! And if she goes out of them, they are mine! How generous of Mrs. Alisha to give up her favorite pair of boots from her childhood! I will take care of them, promise!

We also got this horse translucent scarf. Makes a good blankie for Socks and he won't get too hot.

Time to make cherry winks! Abishai want to cut one cherry in half. Then Keturah did the rest.

I don't think I've had a kid use his feet to crush up the rice chex that makes the outer coating before! We've used hammers and fingers. But never feet!

Raw egg alert! And the first one he cracked, he jumped and let go and the whole egg shell fell in! Whoops! But that's how they learn!

Taking a break while the cherry wink dough chills out for a couple of hours. I needed to chill, too. I was already getting tired. I had some special comforters come hang out with me.

My protectors.

Jared hasn't tweeted this much in a long time!

I forced myself to get up and get these done before supper because I was fading fast. We drop the dough by spoonfuls into the crushed up chex mix and roll it around. This cookie is a basic sugar cookie base with dates inside, corn flakes or shredded wheat (because my dad couldn't have corn products) or now rice chex because it's hard to find GF corn flakes, on the outside with a piece of cherry on top.

Much better and easier to keep together once it was chilled! Too much beating and I used almond flour (which is naturally wetter) instead of the GF mix I was supposed to use. It was really, really runny so I added rice flour, but I didn't want to over do it. I'm glad it came out ok.

Putting the cherries on and making sure more end up on the cookies than in the mouth.

The first batch came out perfect! Just a tad crispy but FINALLY they aren't falling apart! The second batch were a little undercooked because I was in more of a hurry, but they are just as yummy!

Abishai likes to go outside when Justin brushes the dog. I could tell he was dancing to either a song in his head or Justin's music. I was Justin's music. But he was jumping and dancing with his other rainboots on. At least this time he had a sweater and hoodie on!

Meanwhile Justin just throws his hoodie over his t-shirt and bed shorts, puts on Jared's huge water boots, and no socks. Crazy!

"Now, Mommy, this is my DREAM COME TRUE to sleep here in the sunroom. Don't ruin it!" Well, buddy, you can't sleep here. "Mommy, you didn't make my dream come true!" Sad faces on Mommy and Daddy. Sorry, kid, if you want the 20 or 30 hot wheels cars Dad bought as gifts, he needs a place to wrap them! But notice that Abishai now has Dinosaury, ducky blankie, cars pillow, doggy song, and a place to put his police hats on the top under the timeline, and his police guns are at his side. Sweet cheeks!

Night night! Maybe Christmas night, ok?

Had to get big guy into the kitchen for a couple of minutes to officially "help" with the cherry winks! Keturah said, "The smell of cherry winks means it's Christmas!" Melt my heart, kid, melt my heart! That's SUPER special to hear that! The memories are STRONG for our Christmas traditions. I can't ask for more right now.

And I'm wearing one of my mom's old shirts. I love the olive green just like she did. And at my weight, I've become my mom, too. Carrying on the traditions.

A little board game time because there's been too much TV time today. Notice Jared hasn't shaved his head in a while. He really has the dreaded "friar ring" he dislikes so much. His beard is getting very white/gray though and I love it!

Abishai opened his last part of the Lego advent calendar. Darth Vader's castle! Could Darth Vader with that cool looking Christmas sweater be the last one that Justin takes out tomorrow?!

So much concentration! And look at that long hair but bald spot on Jared's head!

 

It's finally Christmas Eve! I feel yucky. I can't get my stomach to settle and my nose running more and more.  Not nice! But, I'm still super grateful for all the time and nudges from God to get things done early, to make a plan, rework the plan, and stick with it. And for all the things He's taught me to do to cope with myself and the unexpected. Like leaving myself twice as long to complete a task than others would take. And to do have a top 3 priority list for each day with "extras" if I have time, but not to worry about them. I accomplished my stuff today. I had a phone appointment this morning. Then I took a nap (oh yes, I put that on the list AFTER I took it, lol). We watched the Creek's live Christmas Eve service at 2:30. We just wrote a letter to Santa and left out eggnog, cookies, and carrots. Keturah wrapped the baby Jesus from the Little People set so we can open him up first tomorrow morning ( after stockings). And we did a load of laundry (that goes on the list as well). Otherwise, I was pretty bored today. I could have read or done crosstitch, but I couldn't keep my eyes open despite having plenty of caffeine. I think this virus or cold or whatever I have is still kicking my butt. I did have a hot flash again today and achiness.

But Jared is being very helpful and very tender. He's playing video games with Abishai and then putting Abishai to bed. Then Jared will build me a fire. Keturah and Justin will help put out the gifts and hide Abishai's as requested by Abishai. Yes, to go along with the 15 packages of 2 cars each that Jared wrapped yesterday, it's going to be interesting for Abishai to find them all! But we will do it because that's what Abishai is all about: having fun! Even Mrs. Ellen brought over a stocking full of goodies for all of us and some new Hot Wheels for Abishai. So cute! Oh, and Jared made gluten free pancakes this morning, too. And that's all I want. Helpfulness with kids, especially meals, tenderness, like making tea for me, and a hug or kiss on the forehead to acknowledge I feel icky and I'm seen.  Jared gets better and better at it, even when I try to find negative things to complain about. 

There was a bunch of screen time today. I was hoping the kids would play with me but no one wanted to. They read their school books. Played Legos. Same old same old. We did manage to vacuum well and pick all the toys up so Santa won't trip over them. Yup, that's about it I think. I will probably have more things to say with the photos. I do know that Benaiah, Gary, and Leah went to church in person today. Benaiah wouldn't tell me when they exited quarantine though. Yesterday or today was the 10 day mark, but they could have left the house earlier than that.  It's not really my business, but it kind of is because we are following the "law" to the letter and they are breaking out sooner than we are. It can be frustrating. But oh well. We are happy and crazy at home most of the time. Just bored right now. I teased the kids about starting school next week if we can't go to the cabin and they said,"No!" I agree, lol. One more week of vacation please and thanks! And then right back to it!

Wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve Eve? That's unheard of around here! I don't like getting the giftwrap out each time I buy something because I also tend to reorganize who gets what and how and when and how it's grouped right before Christmas, But yeah! Getting 'er done!

Too many Hot Wheels!

15 sets of cars, 2 cars each! Plus ones I bought him. Abishai is one lucky little Hot Wheel collector!

Last Hot Wheel cars from his Hot Wheels Advent Calendar!

Ok, ok, you win!

Helping Daddy make gluten free pancakes for everyone!

Still 40 lbs on the dot!

It was wonderful to look outside all day today and see flurries in the air. It didn't accumulate, but it brought that sense of "It's Christmas" to the day! Big fluffy flakes like in a snowglobe!

Not bad for using coconut flour, 4 eggs and no recipe.

I like how Facebook changed their name using people making snow angels!

Jared loves this book! He's read it over and over and over again and is reading snippets of it to me, too. It's so wonderfully written!

These days, I'm identifying more and more with the son, Nathan, than I am with the mom, Sally. I just wish I could stay awake long enough to listen to more of it in a single sitting!

Dancing to the music before Christmas Eve service.

"Live from behind stage with Luke Green!" Like he was really LIVE! Way to go, Creek tech team! They just add more and more live and real elements all the time and their sound mix is incredible!

Church selfie!

I knew it! As soon as I heard the "bells" and organ and extra chorus, I KNEW it was the For King and Country version that I've been listening to all season! Way to go for nailing it, team!

Playing in the snow flurries.

Abihai found a new cubby spot to play in. I think he's missed playing with his Legos. And of course those are our traveling bags for next week IF we get to go.

Very lonely over here. I'm way ahead of schedule. But least there's snow flurries outside and I don't have to rush when I don't feel good.

I was looking for the hymn book and found that we still had some sheet music from the library. Did you know you can borrow sheet music from pubic libraries? Well, you do now! This is a hard back cover book of easy to play Mozart! I think this is the first time I've actually played this song! And I'm a decent sight reader. I don't usually get the timing right the first time, and some of the bits slow me down, but otherwise, I can make it sound ok the first time through. I've been playing piano for 30 years now. I haven't impoved that much in the last 20 or so though. But it's good to know that I can still play the classics.

This was part of one the songs during the Christmas Eve service. I just KNEW it was written by one of the composers we had been studying.  Did you know that there are many hymns that were written by the famous composers? They wrote both sacred and secular music! Even Martin Luther wrote some as well. The hymnal is a wealth of theological study and history. I have a 366 day devotional based on the hymns that I'm going to start now. It's been sitting on my shelf way too long.

Abishai made this complete with a place for the jail cell.

The jail cell is hidden away in this "Trojan horse" of sorts. He just doesn't realize that he made a Trojan horse!

Snow!

Dinner entertainment brought to you by Abishai the Elf. And yes, he choose the sparkly one for himself, of course.

Last doors on their Lego advent calendars! Keturah got Mrs. Claus and Justin got the new Darth Vader with new removable helmet and chin strap and the awesome Christmas sweater!

Abishai is big enough to write "Santa" and part of his name! No complaints either!

Look at my little leftie go! I finished his name and wrote the body of the letter for him. He dictated it.

Santa's on his way! He made it through a bunch of the world already!

All ready for Santa!

Letter, cookies, carrots for reindeer, cinnamon eggnot (they were out of regular egg nog), and toys Abishai wanted to show Santa but didn't want Santa to keep.

Aww, baby boy's handwriting! (Just the Santa and the AB in Abishai).

From Ireland now to Iceland. Go Santa Go!

I've kept this advertisement card for a month now just so I could use it tonight on my hubby's pillow.

Keturah wrapped up baby Jesus (who had to have a bath today because oh my was he dirty!) and wrote To: J6 From:God and "Take care of him" on the tag. She was very happy to do that part!

The End