sugarplum

merry christmas!

not the christmas i was planning

this week was supposed to be a great precursor to christmas. by last weekend, i had accomplished something for the first time since we've lived in this house: besides laundry waiting to be washed, every room in our house was in order at the same time. oh yes indeedy. and our calendar for this week was very empty, which meant that there would be lots of time to finally do some fun christmas-y things with the kids. there were christmas lights to see and christmas cookies to make and crafts to make and presents to wrap... and it is hallie's first christmas! which means lots and lots of pictures to take! yes, it was going to be a holly jolly week.

was.

instead, brian and all the kids got colds and fevers, and not wanting to be outdone, i got the flu. so i spent the last 3 days in the recliner or my bed, shivering with a pretty high fever at times, with a big ole bowl in my lap. brian did a great job holding down the fort (not feeling so great himself), and i am happy to say that we are all on the mend. these three sentences really do not do my flu experience justice, but i'm done breathing, thinking, and living the flu experience, so let's just say it was worse than my 30+ hour labor with ethan, and now we can move on.

now for the laundry. 'cause that was the part that didn't get done at my house last weekend. it was already piled up. a week ago. and now every single solitary thing in this house that anyone has touched in the last week must be washed. my dear mother came over today (who had originally taken off today to make christmas cookies with us), and we all sanitized and aired out and cleaned and washed till we dropped. we only made a dent in the laundry. but we washed our hands 8,546 times each. (do not let the picture above fool you. there is more laundry behind the coffee table and another good 5-7 loads in the foyer behind the tree!)

so yes, i will thankfully be over this flu by christmas day (i was beginning to wonder that 48 hrs ago)... but getting these germs outta my house and everything back in its place? that's gonna take me the next few days. it looks like christmas festivities will have to be put on the back burner again... until christmas eve.

this was not the way i'd planned for this week to go.

of course, this is all so incredibly trivial when i remember the hurting families in connecticut mourning the loss of their precious children and loved ones. this was not the christmas they were planning whatsoever.

and then i think about mary. giving birth to her Savior in a dirty ole' stable was probably not exactly what she had planned either!

so even though my plans for this week have not been fulfilled, we will still be celebrating God's Rescue Plan that was fulfilled in the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lord willing, we will join our church family on christmas eve for a beautiful evening of lessons and carols.

we will have our little family christmas here on tuesday morning before heading over to brian's parents' for our first christmas in their gorgeous new house!

i think christmas cookies will become new years' cookies this year.

and we may even get to drive around and look at christmas lights before everybody takes them down.

so it will still be christmas. not the christmas i was planning, but a very merry christmas indeed. we have so, so very much to be thankful for, and there's nothing like a little flu-bug to flip your week upside down and give you some perspective!

if i don't reappear before 2013, don't worry... the laundry didn't really overtake me. i am just enjoying the christmas i wasn't planning.

what about me!?

hey! you can't have all this talk about teeth and not tell the world about my first tooth!!!

all she wants for christmas...

...is to lose her first tooth!


ohhhh my! have we been waiting for caroline's first tooth to fall out!!!

caroline has been anxiously awaiting her first loose tooth. ethan has lost several, and her cousin karina lost her first tooth this summer. when caroline's tooth finally became loose, it was such a big deal. i received hourly updates on the looseness of the tooth, including her running ecstatic into the living room one day. i thought her tooth had fallen out, but no... "it's LOOSER!" she exclaimed. yeah, this was gonna be a long few weeks.

it has been hanging by a couple of threads for a while now, but she was very insistent that i not pull it out. "i want God to pull it out," she would say every time i suggested that i yank it. she was going to the dentist on wednesday for a filling, and i told her that he could just pull it while she was numb and it'd be over. that really didn't fly with her Holy Spirit Extraction Plan... so we have just kept wiggling it and wiggling it.

on thursday night, after brushing her teeth, caroline had the idea to pop her tooth out with her flosser (SEE, DR. DENTIST!??! WE ARE FLOSSING!). not sure how her idea falls in line with God pulling out her tooth, but i just went with it. one little pop, and out it came!

and then she lost it. uncontrollable crying... with a big smile on her face.


by the time i grabbed my video camera, caroline had calmed down a little, but she was still pretty happy/upset. (warning: there is blood in the video!)


i am so thrilled for this big "first" for my first little girl.