HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

(This picture is the centerpiece I used for the Ladies Tea at church on the 5th.
We forgot to take still pictures yesterday!)

Christmas was a great day! Although I know it isn't all just about the one day! I think that Christmas is one of my favorite Holiday's! Because it is when we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Last year we wanted to try something new and have dinner on Christmas Eve so that Christmas Day could be a day where we went to friends and family's house and not have to worry about cooking dinner. This year since my step-mom and Terrilyn both had to work Christmas Eve we had dinner last night.

My mom had her 2nd chemo treatment on Friday and it really affected her this time. I am not sure if it is because last time she slept the whole day after her treatment. On the 9th she had her first treatment and slept from about 1pm on Sat until 1pm on Sunday. So I don't know if it was because she slept the whole time and didn't feel the ickyness, or if because this being her 2nd treatment she felt it more. Mom has started loosing her hair, also. We knew that, but it is still different. Anyway, mom didn't come up for Christmas. It is the first year since Terrilyn was born that she hasn't come early or spent the night to be here on Christmas Morning to see the kids open presents. I missed her. But at least there will be MANY more!

We got up about 6am (after going to bed about 2am. Rachelle wouldn't go to sleep!) The kids opened their presents and were surprised! They loved what they got. Even the clothes! We had been telling the kids that there wasn't going to be many, if any, presents this year. But God provided! Someone got the kids some things. And then of course the things that they got from My dad and Step-Mom, brother, sister and her family.

Terrilyn got an MP3/CD player, lots of makeup and hair stuff (shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, ponytail holders, etc), shower gel, a book of one of her favorite movies, Where the Heart Is, $30, Reliant K music CD, hat scarf and gloves.

Delsa got 2 Bratz dolls, a couple pairs of pants, a swimsuit w/shorts, Bratz makeup(lip gloss and nail polish.) the eyeshadow she has to wait until 13 to wear, 2 dresses, 3 shirts, ponytail holders, socks, $10, a Lil' Bratz doll, hat scarf and gloves.

Stevie got socks, Spiderman shoes, an outfit, a set of Tonka vehicles (little cars, planes, trucks etc) with a play road, Don't Wake Daddy game, bowling ball set, slippers with a matching teddy bear, Winnie the Pooh spelling toy, hat and gloves, craft supplies (glue, scissors, paper, crayons), a color book of Orange County Choppers, $10, snow boots, books.

Rachelle got some puzzles, AquaDoodle play mat(fill the pen up with water and draw on it and you don't get marks on everything else!), 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, socks, hat and mittens, hair barrettes, 4 puzzles, $10, slippers with matching teddy bear, snow boots, coloring book and crayons, books, a set of wooden 'beads' to make necklaces, an electronic Blues Clues guessing game, an electronic ABC game.

Steve and I got $125, a coffee pot, Black and Decker Gizmo Cordless Grater, War of the Worlds DVD, Stevie made a cute thing in school for us - a picture of hmself with a clothes pin attached and it said 'Steven's Work' on it, a picture frame.

As a family we got a S'mores maker (with graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars, of course!), Polar Express DVD and Herbie: Fully Loaded DVD.

After the kids opened the gifts we had here we had breakfast and Steve and I went in a laid down for an hour or so. I got up and got the kids ready to go to my Granddad and Grandmother's to say hi.

Dinner took longer than I wanted, and I killed the rolls (Deja vu!!?!! Seems like this happened before!), But all in all it was a very nice day. Even though I woke up with a migraine! We had dinner of turkey and stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, baked beans, yams, rolls, green bean casserole, green salad, olives, corn, and of course pumpkin pie and whipped cream!

December 05, 2005

Yesterday I woke up at about 9AM. I knew what I needed to and when I needed it done by. Here is my schedule for the day as it started out:
1)9:30a After Mortgage Broker called take W2 and checkstubs to him so we can refinance the house
2)11:00a Mom will be here
3)12:00p Meet Stevie in his class for his special day, eat lunch with him
4)1:00p Go to Bishop's Storehouse and get the food order that someone told the bishop we needed(which we did, but we are not LDS, so this was a GRATEFUL surprise to me).
5)Get the rest of the stuff ready for the Ladies Tea
6)Go to church and decorate my table for the Ladies Tea
7)Ladies Tea

When I got up my schedule TOTALLY changed! Here are the details for whoever would like to read them! LOL

I went to make a pot of coffee for Steve and got about 1 cup of water out of the faucet. No more would come out! GREAT the water company forgot about my payment arrangements and shut it off anyhow! So I called them and they said there wasn't an order to turn the water off. The lady said I should talk to Public Works and find out if something was going on in my area. I talked to someone and they asked if I talked to any of our neighbors and see if they had problems with their water. I hadn't even thought about that one. So they said they would send someone out to check it out. I took the papers to the Mortgage Broker after I learned that the pipes were frozen. We have lived here for 6 years and 5 months and never had that problem. As I was leaving to go to the mortgage brokers office Steve asked if I would stop at Home Depot and get some heating tape. Great! Something else to add to my day! LOL

I get to the mortgage broker's office and he had stepped out for a few minutes. I couldn't ask him the questions I needed to ask him. Oh well, I will call him later. I am driving to Home Depot and decided since I had Steve's cell I could just call him then. I called and got the answers I needed. Then I call Steve and his phone kept shutting off! UGH! So I just go to Home Depot. More than half way there from the Mortgage brokers office I realized I could have saved myself more than 1/2 hour of time by going to Lowes which is 3 blocks from the mortgage broker's office. Instead I drove about 40 or more blocks to Home Depot all because that's where Steve told me I needed to go. Hmmmmm One track mind. I walked into Home Depot and asked the first person I saw for 'Heating Tape'. She told me all their tape was in the paint isle. Wrong stuff! LOL So I went looking around. I was getting pretty upset. At some point in the morning I realized I needed to thank God that it was only frozen pipes and not a broken one! THANK YOU JESUS! Finally I find someone to help me and get what I needed.

I came home and my mom was here. Steve spent the whole time with the blow dryer on the pipes and had turned up the heat. THANKS! My mom and I left and met Stevie for lunch. We had some yummy corn dogs, raw broccoli, pineapple slices, and bread and butter. Then we went to the Bishop's Storehouse. I got almost home and realized I had to go CLEAR back to the far north end of town to get Steve some cigarettes. Then I came back home and had to unload all the groceries we had been given. THANK YOU JESUS!

I spent the couple of hours with my mom getting the finishing touches ready for the Ladies Tea that our church does every year. They have 35 tables set up with a lady at each table who is the 'hostess'. The Hostess is responsible for the table settings and centerpiece. I am normally the type of person who shys away from leading things like this. I like to just participate. Especially if all the people participating are people I have no clue who they are. We have only been going to this church for a couple of months.

At 4 someone from the church calls and asked me if i need help with my table. Seems my table was the only one NOT decorated! That's ok I have until 6 to get it done! :) So I am planning on leaving my house about 5 to go decorate the table because I don't want to get it finished to early and have to sit around a while or come home again. At 4:30 I realize that since the pipes were froze this morning I had not taken a shower. UGH! So I jump in the shower and hurry and get ready. Good thing I don't wear makeup! So, about 5:30 we get to the church(Steve said he would go with me and my mom and help us set up my table! What a guy!) We get all set up in plenty of time of course! :) As I am setting up my table, I remembered that my Joseph figurine lost his head last year and I hadn't gotten him fixed. Problem solved. We used the shepherd in Joseph's place. No one would know unless I told them right? The Nativity Set I used was a set that my mom had gotten in the early '80s from Avon. In Fact the Holy Family is dated on the bottom as 1981. WOW! I love Nativity scenes.

The Tea was a lot of fun! Kneaders catered and they provided 1/2 sandwiches of Turkey, Ham or Roast Beef(these sandwiches were REALLY huge, though!) and a garden salad and some kind of tortellini pasta salad. For dessert we had several choices. A few were Key Lime tart, some kind of German Chocolate cake and a rich chocolate brownie. I don't know what they were called, but the whole meal was DELICIOUS! Each table had a server also. I only know my server as Travis. He was very great! I really appreciate him taking the time out to serve us. While we were eating we talked about some questions that were provided. 'What is your favorite Christmas memory'? One of the ladies, Adele, said that her favorite memory was the year she went to a store, JC Penny I believe, and entered into a drawing for a porcelain doll. She got a call the next day that she had won the doll and she gave it to her daughter. A few of the other ladies talked about aluminum trees and that had the color changer at the base. Also they talked about the trees that were flocked by using a vacuum to blow the flocking stuff on it. I told about the year when us kids woke up and there was wrapping paper covering the doorway from the kitchen to the livingroom and while we were trying to peek in Tom, my step-dad, came up behind us and pushed my sister through. Another question we talked about was 'What is your favorite gift you ever received for Christmas'? I told of the time that my sister got a toy she didn't really want and I got the one she really wanted and she was very upset, so I traded her. Other favorites was Monica's gift of a cross necklace she received from her husband just months before he died. And Mary Lou's gift was a tea setting she got from her husband on his last Christmas before he died. The speaker, Cherry Wickle, was great. She talked about how there was 'No Room in the Inn'. (I will have to add more details about the speaker later as I need to get off the computer so Terrilyn can take her Biology test online.) I had planned that I wouldn't be home until nearly 10:30p so it was a nice surprise to be home at 9:20p.

My mom spent the night and went home today at 9:45a. It started snowing about 9:30 and right now at 5:40p hasn't stopped all day. Steve says we have 5-6 inches out there. The attached picture is of the storm today. There is another one in my photo album as I can only add 1 for each entry.