I’m having trouble with the fact that it’s 2013 already for some reason. Most years I am quite happy to let the new year come, but this year just felt like it went by so slowly and quickly and unsatisfactorily that I can’t believe that it is over. So let’s catch up first on the end of 2012, ok? Great!
The last week of school before the break David came down with the flu, which of course quickly spread to me and I got bronchitis, too.
We had all kinds of obligations that week including D’s first band concert, which he missed, and the annual Christmas music recital, which we all missed, and class parties, which David missed and I was asked to leave when it came out that I was so sick (“But I’m the coordinator!” “Mrs. H, you are sick. Go home to bed. We’ll be all right!”), and we also missed a birthday party for Greg’s friend Asher which was End of the World themed for the Mayan Apocalypse (we have awesome friends, right?!), and our beloved Owen’s first birthday party was missed as well. I did manage to catch Greg’s Christmas program, though, which was super cute!
Our van also broke down the next-to-last day of school before the break. I was at Brookshire’s in my less-than-appropriate-for-the-weather pants when it happened. Fortunately my friend BR came and picked me up and took me and my supplies up to D’s school for his class party and then dropped me back at the van to await the tow truck. Then Nick rescued me and brought me back home to my sick David. (And then my van was gone until New Years Eve, due to one thing and another needing to be ordered. It was a ridiculously expensive experience.)
So Nick ended up driving us down to CS for Christmas. I slept through most of it. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was dozing in front of the television or feeding people. Seriously, I have no real memory of what went on other than A) gifts were given and received, B) I watched more bits of more random things than ever before in my life except when I had pneumonia, and C) I wore a Typhoid Mary name tag to Christmas Eve service at church. Cause my mom said I had to go and I’m wacky like that. Looking back at pictures, I see we played some games, made a gingerbread house, grew some crystal snowmen & trees, the kids scootered with the neighbor kids, my sister took them out to play basketball at the school, and my dad got them a giant remote controlled car to play with.
We eventually came home and found out that it had snowed while we were gone! There really was very little left, but the kids went outside and had a blast!
The kids spent the night with their Nana & Pa. Then we had dinner with our friends L & M, making pizzas and exchanging books. It was delightful.
Then next day Nick, David, and Greg left for Dallas for their Teen & Pre-teen Winter Weekend (a church event). Ben stayed with Nana & Pa, as he was still sick, and I had two whole days to myself. It was lovely. I spent one whole day reading than watching movies based on books I read. The next day I tried a whole bunch of things from Pinterest and posted them all just in time for the Pinterest Party some of my group of friends from church is having.
The next day was New Years Eve. We got the van back and I bought a few party supplies and the kids and I made a few decorations and we had a party at my parents house here in town. We stayed up late playing silly games (Apples 2 Apples is my current favorite) and tried to do fireworks in the rain and ate a whole bunch of junk food.
We did a countdown at 10pm for the younger kids, then had a toast and took everyone home. The younger kids went to bed, then we counted down the new year again with David watching the East Coast new years eve show. Then he went to bed and Nick fell asleep while I watched Sherlock and waited for it to be 2013 properly (I couldn’t stand any more of those stupid new year’s eve shows). It was a good night! In the morning we got up and went back over to my parents house for coffee and more games (we got my dad addicted to Settlers of Catan this year and even my mom will play it). Eventually they left to go back home to their other house. We spent the rest of the day trying to clean up and put away stuff from all the places we’d been and all the stuff we’d gotten.
Today feels like the first kind of real day of the new year. Although not exactly, as the kids are still out of school until Tuesday. Still, we’re working on our resolutions and playing with our new stuff. Tomorrow I’ll post about our resolutions and our family motto for the year. 🙂
Lisa Holcomb 