Holiday Madness

This is going to be relatively short.  Because I have lots to do, and also because I'm freezing...which doesn't have much to do with anything except the fact that I want to curl up with a blanket, hot chocolate, and my favorite New Year's movie. 

Christmas: Christmas Eve the fridge went out.  Made for interesting times and a forced cleaning out of the fridge (one less thing on my list!).  We had a pretty good Christmas.  I rebelled against the commercialization and hype surrounding Christmas and each of our children received one present, along with several "community presents" that were for everyone to use.  There was little to no candy in the stockings, but several snacks they love and don't get often.  We started a new tradition with these cute nesting boxes that stood about as high as the tree, which, delightfully enough, caused us to wrap exactly one present (the one that was too large for any of the boxes).  Pictures to come...whenever I can get them off the camera.  We were a tad unsure how the children would react, but it went wonderfully.  I don't mind presents, but I don't like being forced to buy a large number of them at a certain time of year because Walmart and Co said so...or whoever said so.  We will continue to give our children gifts (although we've decided we would wrap them so the kids would KNOW they were gifts) throughout the year and have encouraged the kids to do the same for each other and others.  We tried to emphasize the birth of Christ and what our gifts to Him would be.  Yay for new traditions!

Oh, also on Christmas, Teddy started potty training.  Why that day exactly?  It just worked out that way.  I was so frustrated and ready to give up!  But it's better now.  I might share that story later :)

New Year's: On New Year's Eve we went to the ER for a "scratch" (j/k husband!), okay, a cut on Shawn's leg.  5 hours and 4 stitches later we went home tired, but just in time for the traditional Hawaiian New Year's Celebration.  Boy did that keep me awake!  More on that one later too :). 

And now, I will settle for watching that movie while cleaning, because it's as close as I'm going to get to my ideal.  New Year's goals may have to come tomorrow, except the couple I've already made and started on.  See, I'm not too far behind!