Blessed Christmas

I hope your Christmas was as blessed as mine! Scott, Sam, and I all agreed that this was definitely our best Christmas yet; and it wasn't about the gifts. We had a very special time with family. Louise told me last week that we'd be having Christmas at our house on Christmas Eve, since Melissa (Scott's half-sister) had to head back for North Carolina on Christmas Day. That was totally fine with me, and I appreciated not having to go anywhere. I told her to invite her brother's widow (Dorothy), and was very pleased that Dorothy accepted the invitation. (This was her first Christmas since her husband died, and she would have been all alone if she hadn't come over.)

That morning, Melissa went to the nursing home to visit her dad and called to ask if she could bring him also. Of course, I responded that he was absolutely welcome to come. Later that evening, Melissa told me that it was the first time she had ever gotten to spend Christmas with both of her parents at the same time. Scott and I were so happy to have been a part of that blessed event!

On Christmas morning, I got up and cooked us a big breakfast of biscuits, gravy, eggs, and leftover spiral-sliced, honey-baked ham. It was wonderful!!! At the breakfast table, Sam reminded us that it was Jesus' birthday; and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Him. It was so sweet!

I hope your Christmas was likewise full of love and goodwill.

Hodgepodge

I have so much to write about today, that I decided to do one big hodgepodge post.

First, BIG news!!! Today is my last day to work at Kintronic Laboratories. As you know, if you have been keeping up with my blog for a while, I've been looking for a full-time job. Back in September, they had agreed to let me go on full-time here at Kintronic but changed their minds a few weeks later for whatever reason. So, I have continued looking, and now I have a new full-time job at Country Auto Sales as their in-house bookkeeper. I'm very excited about it, too. Since my current job is 9-1 every day, I went ahead and started my new job Monday afternoon; and I've been working 2-5 there so that I could get a bit of a jump on the end-of-year stuff.

This next topic is pretty big, too!!! I have received "THE BEST MOM AWARD"!!! Sam made it for me in art class last week, and it's official. I'm sorry, but all you other moms will just have to take a lower position. Of course, I wouldn't dare to claim it without proof, so here it is:



I'm finally feeling much better, after having been deathly ill for much of this month. I still don't feel like going dancing or anything, but I am feeling much, much better than I did this time last week.

This past weekend, Sam appeared to be getting sick. Saturday, he was running a fever, and Sunday he complained of a sore throat. Thank God, he felt better by Monday, and he managed to go to school each day this week (well, except today, since he is now off for Christmas break). He was looking so cute and pitiful, all cuddled up in the recliner Sunday night, that I just had to take his picture and share it.



Tuesday, Dec. 11, Sam got to be in his first band concert. It was held in the gym at the middle school. I meant to take my digital camera so I could get a good picture, but all I had was my cell phone, so the picture's not all that great. This is the elementary band, made up of 6th graders from all the city's elementary schools.

It's been a while

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted on here. That's because I've been SICK!!! Note the all-caps and bold lettering. That's because I've been very, very sick. I've had bronchitis and a sinus infection .... nothing exotic, but just a really bad case of it! The doctor ordered me on bed rest for a week and a half.

I don't believe I've been this sick since I had mononucleosis at age 21. At that time, my mom came to nurse me back to health, and she did a great job and MADE me stay in bed the whole two weeks, as per doctor's instrucions. Too bad she's not here now!! Scott and Sam can hardly help themselves, let alone a sick woman. And, I've still had to get up almost every day and cook for them. It just doesn't pay for a wife/mother to get sick!!!

In their defense, my men have helped me around the house some. Here's Scott folding laundry a few nights ago:



Sam has also helped some, although I don't have any pictures to prove it.

Here's what I've been doing:



I'm back to work today. Not feeling the greatest, but happy to finally be on the road to recovery.

Cookie Day!

Sunday, since Sam was disappointed that a friend couldn't come over after church to spend the afternoon, he decided that it was my duty to entertain him; and he wanted me to do that by helping him make cut-out cookies. Thankfully, we had all the ingredients. Unfortunately, although the recipe we were using was supposedly kid-friendly, the dough was very hard to work with. Sam eventually figured out how to roll it out to just the right thickness and eagerly anticipated making (and eating) the icing.

Here's Sam painstakingly rolling out the dough.



And, here's a plate of decorated cookies. Help yourself! :-)