Monday and Tuesday were stay at home days. We did school and chores those two days and that was about it. With all that has been going on with holidays and appointments, we got behind in school. Jaime is pretty much caught up and Alix is working diligently to catch up.
Monday night for FHE we went to the Creche exhibit in Palo Alto. They put on a pretty good display from all over the world. They made if VERY kid friendly and that made it nice on us. We didn’t take a stroller because a few years ago when we went, it was so crowded the stroller did us no good. But Monday night was not busy at all. At the door they gave the kids a paper with clues on it. In each room they had to find the Creche that was being described by the clues. It was so fun and the kids looked diligently for each one. They were VERY good about looking with their eyes and not with their hands. Not one kid touched one creche. It was awesome. They also had this very cool kids room. We must have spent close to an hour in there. The kids had so much fun. It was fun to be together as a family and enjoy seeing the Christ child depicted so many different ways. Outside they had a couple of fire pits with blazes going and hot chocolate. It was truely a great evening.
Tuesday Jaime had song practice. She is performing in the stake Christmas music fireside and needed to practice. She is doing a great job but, since she comes from me who can’t hit a note to save my life, is struggling just slightly with hitting the right notes. According to her piano teacher, she is improving.
Wednesday was another stay at home day with the kids. I did watch some other kids in the morning so their mom could go to a doctor appointment. In the evening I went to an Enrichement activity. That was Christ centered and very enjoyable too.
Thursday was piano, school, chores, dance and pick up Scott late. It started raining here on Tuesday and that slows everything down. Well Thursday was the worse!! I picked up Scott 20 minutes late and it was pouring rain. By the time we made it home and I put dinner on the table, I had to leave to do a baptism meeting with a family in our ward. The meeting went really well and I’m excited to see him get baptized in a few weeks.
Friday was my busy day. I had lots of stuff to do so I arranged with a friend to have the kids go play at her house. I was gone about two hours. By the time we got home and got lunch and got settled down, it was too late for school. O’well, more catch up next week!! After I picked up my day care kids from school, a friend came over with her little ones and we went on a walk. It was too wet and muddy to go to the park so we just walked. It was a site!! 2 moms and 9 kids!! We got home in enough time to get chores done. We had a late dinner and the little ones got to bed late. Scott stayed up with Jaime and Alix and they disected a fish together. Earlier in the day I went to the Chinese market and, with the help of my friend Li-LI, bought a fish with all the guts still in tact. Usually things like this don’t bother me, but for some reason I was not up to watching them disect this fish. So I left to go buy a dishwasher. However, once I got to the store I realized I forgot my wallet. So I just looked around a bit to get an idea of what we might be interested in and then went over to a friends house. The next evening we were going to the Google “holiday party” and I thought it might be fun to wear a new outfit but didn’t want to buy one. So she said she’d lend me one. I was there a bit late, but that was ok. By the time I got back the fish was all cleaned up and the kids were in bed.
Saturday was a busy day. We got up and had breakfast. Then Jaime and I got dressed and ready to go. First we went to a baby shower, then we went to a mini dance recital for Jaime. She performed perfectly and we were back home about 2. We spent the next two hours cleaning and organizing the garage a bit more (we had to clean up from our visitors. We’ve caught two at this point. If there are more, they are not coming near the traps). After that, we bbq’d ribs and ate dinner. We bathed all the little ones, put on jammies and put them to bed. Then Scott and I started getting ready. It was kinda fun. We felt like we were going to the prom or something. We cleaned up more than usual, I curled my hair and we were all ready to go by 7:30 pm. The baby sitter showed up and all she had to do was make sure that Jaime got to bed by 8. She was able to make a tree skirt and do her Young Women’s lesson while we were gone. She said it was a very productive time and she was glad for the quiet of our house. I was glad we could do her a favor while she was doing us a favor.
Anyway, the party was amazing, should we have expected anything less? They said that they were not going to serve a meal, just appietizers and that we should eat before we go. We ate an early dinner anyway so we were prepared for anything. They had TONS of food. We would not have needed to eat before going. They did a space theme. They had three different rooms (they were huge, combined they could hold 5000 people). Each room was a different space theme. Walking in you were walking into a space station. They had robot like talk telling you to check your coats and other belongings. Then you walked down this hallway that looked as if it went on forever. Off to the right was a room that gave the illusion of being on another planet. Off to the left you felt as if you were in a space ship. Things kept floating by the “windows”. Down the “never ending hallway” was another room that was the space station lounge. It was quieter and had HUGE screen T.V.’s playing reruns of Star Trek, The Jetsons, Science Theater 3000 (that’s not exactly the name of the show, but I can’t remember it right now). The two rooms off the main hallway had different music playing. The “space shuttle” had a live band, space related arcade games and a place to take a picture. The “planet” had virtual flying, massage therapy using sound waves (don’t ask), a D.J. playing music from when we were teenagers (Micheal Jackson, Bon Jovi, etc….) and a place to take a picture. The lounge had “relaxing” things to do; mind games, plush couches and bean bags, and a place to take a picture. There was different food in every room and an open bar in every room. Dancing was going on in both side rooms and enough bathrooms that I didn’t have to wait in line once!! Things stayed very tame for having an open bar policy and, because of the cold night, the dresses were more modest than we had prepared ourselves for. It was a nice evening. We did everything except the virtual flying (too long of lines) and the massage therapy (too weird for us). We were able to laugh and “play” and enjoy each other’s company. We had the best time we’ve had in a long time. It was awesome. We got home about midnight and all was well. We finally crashed about one a.m.
It was hard to get up this morning but we did make it to church on time. Yay! Church was low key and easy. We are home now having “quiet time”. We have tithing settlement in about 20 minutes. Then we will try to stay warm. It is cold around here and getting colder. We haven’t turned on the heater yet. We are a little afraid to. It was installed in this house before I was born. Not sure of the integrity of the machine. We’ll see what happens.
We love you all. Hope life is well. We are grateful for the gospel and for our children. We love our little family here and are so blessed by our children that it is amazing.
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