A belated Merry Christmas!

Wow! I know this time of year is supposed to be busy, but I think this year was a record for me. Now that we live closer to Blake's family, there were (and are still) many get-togethers. And, my Mom came up for several days, too, so we got to visit with her. I really enjoyed the things we did, and met some of Blake's cousins that I hadn't seen before. James had a blast at everything, since he loves (and demands!) attention, and he had lots of opportunities to play with his cousins. Every holiday activity with MOMS Club ended up being cancelled (more than once) due to the lousy weather we kept having.

This year it was really fun to see James so excited about Christmas! He really "got" it this year. He was able to tell Santa that he wanted a kitchen, a hammer, and candy (all of which he got) rather than crying at being placed on the lap of a big stranger. He was excited to leave out a cupcake for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and then see them gone in the morning. He also really enjoyed digging in everyone's stockings to see what we got, as well as ripping off the wrapping paper on presents. And, I was really proud of him for leaving the presents under the tree alone until it was Christmas. The only time he bothered them at all was when one of the recipients came over and he tried to give them their present right away. It was very cute.

After last year's gingerbread house of horrors http://stillheather.blogspot.com/2007/12/better-late-than-never.html , I got us a very simple gingerbread train this year. It was fun to decorate, although James kept trying to eat all the candy. Last year, it was Blake who did that.

And, our family ornament exchange was up a level this year: all of the ones we gave each other ended up being sets. I got Blake a set of recycled motherboard ornaments from ThinkGeek.com. James got a 4-piece shatterproof train set. And Blake gave me a set of 3 Thomas Kinkade ornaments that are just beautiful!

There were two downsides this year. One was last Monday. We awoke at 5:10am to the fire alarms going off. James and I had been through this a few days before, so I knew what it was, but it was a first for Blake, who had been at work the last time. It was very cold out and a water pipe had broken. Both times the problem started in the same apartment, which makes me think they didn't fix it very well the first time. The first time, it broke and flooded the apartment upstairs and across the "hall" from us, then came down to flood our neighbor's apartment. They were able to get it under control before it got to us. Not so lucky when it happened in the middle of the night. I think both residents were gone at the time, the response time was slower, and our apartment flooded, too. Nothing important was ruined, other than our day. Blake was late to work, since no one helped us with the water control (they were busy in the other apartments) and he had to use the shop vac. And I spent the day washing and rewashing the wet stuff we used to soak up the water, mopping, putting some of what we had to move back, and taking care of James, who had a stomach bug. And getting ready for Mom to arrive. We had very very noisy fans and a dehumidifier going for the next several days, but all seems to be well now.

The other bad thing was that I caught James' stomach bug on Christmas Eve. So, I missed everything on Christmas Day, except for getting out of bed for a bit to open stockings and presents. The upside is that when I weighed myself yesterday, I'd lost 5 pounds. So, if I can get the stomach flu 2 more times, I might get to my goal weight.

All in all, it has been a wonderful holiday, although Blake wants to quarantine us for the month of December next year so no one gets sick.