Sharing

As with any four year old, Andrew struggles with sharing. He wants what everyone else has and anyone that wants what he has, well... tough luck! Imagine my surprise when he shared his cold with Keith and I, oh so willingly! It is now 3 days before Christmas and we're all on antibiotics. Andrew is on the mend and Keith and I are limping through each day. Both of us have sinus headaches/infections, Keith barely has a voice (now, I didn't say everything about our colds was a bad thing, hehehe...) and of course we have scratchy throats to boot.

Getting sick really happened at a bad time. You see, I'm your stereotypical holiday procrastinator. I pretend to plan my shopping far out in advance, have lists and things circled in flyers and plan on being done 2 weeks before Christmas. In reality, I was out until 10:00 tonight buying stocking stuffers and last minute gifts. Same on Saturday night. Instead of shopping, I should be in bed, right?? Yea, right! I dread sleeping with a sinus infection. Inevitably, I wind up unable to breathe out of one side of my nose and then I become obsessive compulsive trying to lay the right way to make it drain. And what happens? The other side gets stopped up. I become bound and determined to win and instead wind up tossing and turning until my body finally beats me at my own game. Of course, 5 minutes after I give in Keith snores super loud and I wake up. Can't win for losing!

So, back to Christmas... Everything has been purchased (I think) and nothing has been wrapped or put together. Teenagers are virtually impossible to shop for. All they want are gift cards or games or movies. All of these things add up very, very quickly and it winds up looking like they have next to nothing. Now, of course, I know it's not about the quantity but, as parents, there is a certain amount of making sure everything is equal amongst our kids, right? Well, for every 5 of Andrew's gifts, Alex will have 1. Maybe.

Speaking of procrastination, we decorated the tree two weeks later than I had planned (and it took us 3 days to do because of light issues and the need for non-breakable ornaments thanks to the crazy cat) and we still have yet to put up outside lights. At this stage in the game, there will be no outside lights. Keith has had quite a rough month with his business (some good, some bad) and there just wound up not being enough time in the day. It was more important to me that he rest and relax during his downtime then become Gumby trying to hang lights from the porch roof. Due to mandatory rest time, Andrew now knows to cheer "Let's go Dolphins, Let's go!" whenever football is on.

I mentioned in my last post that we have a new Christmas tradition in our house now that Andrew is home (and if I told you this last year, sorry - I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago much less a year ago!). When we were in Russia, we bought 15 Russian Christmas ornaments. Since Andrew was just about 3 when we brought him home, we planned on giving him one ornament each Christmas to hang on the tree. Once he's an adult, he'll have his own set of ornaments to take with him to his new home. (I actually bought 18 so he'll have 1 for each year of his childhood.)

This year, I took some pictures of my favorite ornaments on our tree. I was playing with Av vs. Tv mode on my camera and the pictures wound up coming out good! I also played in Photoshop and created a quick collage of a few of them.

Alex and Lindsey hanging Christmas lights (Day 1!)

Andrew decorating the tree (with his shirt on inside out - yes, he dressed himself)

Concentrating....

A few of my favorite things... An ornament from Paris (I've recently started collecting ornaments when we travel), a photo ornament with our wedding picture in it, a cute little snowman with Alex's name on it.

Ever since my mom passed away, I make it a point of visiting the Hospice table at the mall and make a donation. The butterfly ornaments always go on the very, very top of the tree right next to the star.

Can you believe how much our boy has grown?? Here he is in 2008 and 2009 hanging his Russian ornaments on the tree. (Yes, a different shirt for the 2009 tree. Did I mention it took a few days to decorate?? :-))

The Russian Ornament from 2008

The Russian Ornament from 2009

... and finally... after 3 days... a finished tree! (Which is now partially undecorated thanks to Callie the cat)

And with that, I think I'll head to bed. I'm sure this is full of typos and I kindly blame that on the medicine I took to hopefully knock me out! In case I don't have a chance to post again before Christmas, from my family to yours... Merry Christmas!

Hugs!
Becky