Sunday, December 26, 2010
A very Lovelay Christmas
We had a great Christmas. Well, sort of. Mostly. On Christmas Eve we had a conference call with Katie, Brent, Laura and co, and Doug and Delanie's clan, and Mom and Dad. My favourite part was mom's singing of Mary's Lullaby. Beautiful and touching as always. My kids made it hard to get everything, but at least we got something and were able to share in some Christmas Eve festivities even if we are far away in Winterpeg.
Once that was finished we had a quick dinner and we got the kids in their jammies and let them open one present before bed. Adriel picked a present that we got from our home teachers. They were so nice and got some really nice gifts for the boys. Adriel's was a rescue submarine that came with men that you could dress up in scuba gear and torpedoes that shoot out of it. He was so thrilled. Sloan wasn't feeling so great. He had a bit of a fever and wasn't all that interested in opening his own present, he just wanted to play with Adriel's. So Adriel gladly helped. Sloan got a big plastic drum with a bunch of other music makers that go inside, like a tambourine, maracas etc.
After we got the kids in bed, it was time to finish wrapping their presents and stuff their stockings. We watched Gilmore Girls while we worked. We're at the part where Luke and Lorelei finally get together, so it's quite satisfying.
Kyle and I agreed we weren't getting presents for each other this year because it just wasn't in our budget. I was sad about this because I like to do nice things for my sweetie, and if I had actually been on top of things this Christmas, I may have been able to think of something cool and meaningful to make for him but I hadn't. We did buy a book for him together on our date way back and I told him to forget about it and he'd get it for Christmas. So I stuffed that in his stocking. I also got to pick out his present from Ann. That was fun.
Kyle was sick. He suffered through the night and got up and slept on the couch. Feeling crappy and sick for the rest of Christmas was the result. Him and Sloan. Sloan was miserable until I gave him advil. Then you'd never know. It was sad too, so many yummy things to eat and Kyle had no appetite.
The boys woke up too early. They had never done that on Christmas before. Adriel was the culprit. Yelling "hello?" from his bedroom at 6am. Sheesh. How was i going to hold him off? Ann wanted to watch us open our presents over Skype and it's two hours behind in nanaimo. I held them off in my room until 7 and then we went down stairs to open stockings. Adriel said "ah ha!" after each thing he pulled out as if he knew it was in there. It was funny. Sloan just wanted to eat all the candy in his, of course. Kyle was a sneak and got me a stocking full of yummy chocolate and an array of chapsticks to feed my addiction. I held Adriel off until 8 and then we called Ann. The boys got spoiled between Uncle Adam, Grandma, Kyle and I and Santa Claus. Sloan was content with the first present he opened (which was a three dollar Value Village present that Adriel picked out for him). He followed me around like a puppy dog and every time I sat down again, he'd plunk himself in my lap. Adriel got what he asked Santa for, and was not in the least surprised when he opened it, because he'd asked for it and he was a good boy (in his mind). Him and Sloan both got light sabers and they have been slashing around in our house since. Kyle tricked me. He hid a big box behind all the other presents that I didn't notice and then when all the presents had been opened by the boys, he pulled it out and said "looks like Santa brought you something too" I pulled the lid off the box and was so overwhelmed. It was full of goods. I started to cry. He said "What's wrong?" "You weren't supposed to get me anything!" I said in a broken voice. "I didn't get anything for you," I said. He said "That's ok, we didn't have the money." Then I asked "How did you get all this then?" And he told me he sold his bass guitar. It reminded me of that story where the wife sells her hair to get a chain for her husband pocket watch and he sells his watch to get his wife a pretty hair clip. Except one sided, making me once again a Christmas loser. The box seemed to be never ending of pretty sweaters and yummy smelling bath and lotion stuff and jewelery and cute tights. What a sweet special man I have.
Adriel played. Sloan grew worse in his sickness and wouldn't let me put him down, which I had to do to make buns for dinner. He cried at my feet the whole time. Any time Kyle tried to coax him away, he cried harder. I put him to bed and when he woke up I gave him more medicine.
We went to Jill and Josh's for dinner. It was really good. I love turkey dinner. The stuffing was sooo good to me for some reason. We hung out, the kids played, and Sloan, even though he was feeling better due to advil, still stuck to my side. We played games and all was good until Kyle took a turn for the worse. We came home, put the kids in bed, and were in bed ourselves by 10. I felt the same sadness I always feel when Christmas day is over, and a little lame that we were going to bed by 10. I mean, Kyle was sick and I was exhausted but 10?
Sloan woke up at one and Adriel woke up at 3 and Sloan woke up at quarter to 4 and then at 4:30 at which point Kyle left so I could bring him in bed without disturbing his sleep. He was so restless and moving constantly (kicking legs, flailing arms, chewing on his soother) I didn't really fall back asleep and then Adriel woke up at 6:30. Brutal. But once again, my sweet sick hunk of a man got up with them, because he said he needed to take more medicine anyway, and let me sleep.
And that was our Christmas. In a nutshell. How was yours?
4 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 8:57 AM
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Christmas Tree Fiasco 2010
I said I'd write about it, so I had better get it done before Christmas. I'm afraid that I've left you waiting too long, and now it won't be as interesting but here goes.
When I got home from my trip I was anxious to get a tree, since the Christmas season was half over. We had plans to go to a tree farm. There are several in the surrounding Winnipeg area and we were told that they were fun, with sleigh rides and hot chocolate and big bonfires. So I got me and the kids bundled up and ready go. Just as we were leaving Kyle decided to give a couple of the farms a call and much to our dismay, they were all sold out of trees. Who ever heard of such a thing? So, we decided we'd go check out some of the mall parking lots because we had noticed that they were selling trees too. The first one we went to they guy told us the trees under six feet were $35 and the ones bigger ranged from $40-60 depending on how nice they were. I was surprised and I said to Kyle "let's go go some where else. That's too expensive.
Little did I know.
We went to Superstore, thinking we'd just get one from there. My dreams of having a fabulous tree were already deflated somewhat, since I'm used to the fun of going out to a tree farm and paying $25 for the tree of my choice, so I was kind of like "whatever, we'll get a cheaper tree from Superstore." But the trees at Superstore were $40!!! I couldn't believe it! $40 for some tree that was wrapped up and you didn't even know what it looked like?? So we decided to go to another parking lot stand that we knew of. By this time the kids were getting tired of being thrown in and out of the car and trudging through stores. We told them we were getting a tree and they wanted a tree.
At the next lot the prices ranged from $50-60, surprise surprise. We were defeated. Some of the trees were cheaper because of bare spots and things, so we got our tree for $45. Personally I would have gone back to the first place and got a 35 dollar one that was under six ft. I don't need a tall tree. But Kyle was done with me and my tree issues, so we got that one and came home.
We had a HARD time getting it to stand up straight in our tree stand. We thought we got it in good at one point. Then when Sloan was in bed, I got out the lights to put them on. Out of four strings of lights none of them worked!!!! I have no idea why they would all stop working at once. We had already looked around for some lights when we were out and most places were almost sold out and the ones they did have were the really expensive kind. I didn't need the expensive ones! I just wanted some regular lights. Too much to ask?
Kyle bought some lights on his way home from school. I had my achievement activity that night. Kyle had young mens. On the way home Adriel was asking and had been asking all day if we could decorate the tree. I usually do that by myself, but I knew i wouldn't get away with it this year. So I suggested that we put Sloan to bed and I'd let him stay up a little later than usual and we'd have a special time just the two of us, decorating the tree.
But first I had to get the lights on. While I was putting the lights on, the tree started to fall. I tried to fix it and couldn't. All Adriel wanted to do was put his sparkly train decoration on and he was really bugging me about it the whole time. So I let him put the train on and then I put him to bed.
Then the tree and I really got into it. I got down and I tried shoving the screw things hard into the tree while holding the tree up with one arm (which is ideally a two person job) I was struggling and sweating and to no avail. The whole thing just fell over. The water from watering it was all over the floor, there were needles everywhere and I acknowledged that I couldn't do it by myself. Sometimes I wonder how people survive without a man in their house. If I was a single mom, the tree would have never gone up. So I called Kyle and in panic mode asked when he was going to be home. He came home and stuggled with it for a while and we decided that it's just a lop-sided tree and it was throwing our tree stand off balance. So Kyle went outside and dug through the snow to find a heavy rock, brought it back in and covered it in a plastic bag and thunked it on the back side of our tree stand. It worked but the tree is still lopsided and tilted and it bugs me.
I felt like a Christmas loser.
6 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 7:08 AM
Friday, December 17, 2010
Time flies and then there's too much to write about! It ain't fair.
Well, where to start? I'm home from my vacation. It was nice to come home, as it always is after a long trip. It hasn't even been that cold... Ok well it's cold but not that cold.
I had a really nice time seeing family and friends. I feel like it's way too overwhelming to give a detailed recap of my whole trip so I'll point out some highlights:
-Laura got me in the rosebud mood, and I continued down that road with Katie.
-Basically, Katie and I spent every moment we could together. We went to strong starts, we went to super saturday, we stayed up late making cookies for super saturday, we stayed up late talking, we stayed up late making hairflowers and watching Gilmore Girls, (there was a lot of staying up late because that's the only time we were free from kids, and would finally be able to do some adult things) we went to ladysmith to see the lights. I spent a little over a weekend at her house and it was full of busyness and fun. There was a lot of sillyness and laughing, as is typical and only appropriate when sisters get together. I got to take Michealah out shopping to get a present for Nieve, and that was fun. Just getting to be with the girls and talk to them about their lives was fun. They have special place in my heart.
-I also got to spend some time with my angel-friend Leah. She rescued me for a day and we just had a nice time visiting while the kids played. She has the cutest chub-a-chunk baby. I also rescued her hair. I like being able to do that for people.
-Ann had a client the whole time, so we were quite limited to the things we could do together, which was really too bad. We did have some nice visiting time too though, and the kids loved being at her house. I'm not sure the feeling was mutual though. It was stressful for her having us there. I told her she was old and set in her ways (only because I was defending some food combination that I thought was yummy and she did not) and she loved repeating it to everyone. "Sarah says I'm old and set in my ways!" she'd say like she couldn't believe it. Most people responses were "Yeah, and?"
-I had to have my red redone there, because L'oreal is the best. It was such a beautiful shade of red. It still is, but it's changed into more of a natural look.
-I have to mention that I after I did Katie's foils, we were in Costco and an old guy working a sample stand asked us if I put her streaks in. It was just weird that he knew that somehow.
-Being in Nanaimo was weird to me. It was like I never left. It was home. It's what I've known for so long, it was almost like a dream while I was there that I really live in Winnipeg. AND other than the first few days of snow, the weather was SO mild!!
-I got to see my old high school friends Kathy and Tamara. It was nice to catch up and remember the "old days" together. Crazy to think it's almost been ten years since graduation. It had been so long since the three of us had all been together.
- I got to go to the Vancouver temple!! Yay! It was much needed. And thank you Laura, for letting me drag you out first thing in the morning to go.
-The McLean lunch was crazy, but nice. I can't believe that Uncle Duncan and Renee wanted to take on such a wild bunch.
I had a great time staying with Evan and Esther. We had a lot of laughs and it was just nice to be there and spend time with them. Adriel loved playing with Evan of course too and kept calling him his "best cousin."
-The trip ended with the last night at Laura's. Once I got the kids in bed (which they did with out much of a fight considering all the different houses and beds they'd been in at that point) we decided it was an appropriate time for picture stories and tea. I realized that I didn't have the effort I wanted to have to put into it, but we still had some good laughs.
-It was so nice to see my handsome man again (it was the longest we'd been apart) and I was tired of being the only parent to my children. Kyle missed me and it's nice to be missed.
Now to get ready for Christmas...Wait til you hear about my tree fiasco.
5 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 7:05 PM