White Stuff

White stuff from our week: gift wrapping, snow, braces, school, cookies, church, and a little more snow.

Monday, December 13th: I wrapped the first four gifts of the season today! Let's just say I'm out of practice, and I was never a very good wrapper to begin with. The struggle is real.

Tuesday, December 14th: Jay got braces today! They are only on his top teeth so far; he will get brackets on the bottom teeth next month. Signing the paperwork for braces was like getting a mortgage! Jay and I both had to initial next to practically every sentence on multiple pages.

Wednesday, December 15th: Amber was selected as student of the month in her specialist class (art) this month-- her second time this school year and it's only been 4 months since school started! She's such a darling model first grade student. Jay says his braces are fine except it's a little hard to eat with them on because one side of his molars don't feel like they used to. Rose came home from school bursting with all kinds of tidbits of 5th grade news. She told me all of it. She was also starving hungry after school because her lunch was small, so she had a bowl of soup for snack and meatballs for dinner.

Thursday, December 16th: It snowed last night! Just a light dusting, but it was pretty. I went on a walk in it after the kids went to school this morning before the snow melted. I made 90 snowball cookies today to celebrate our first snowfall. Actually, they are to celebrate Christmas, but the snow reminded me to make them.

Friday, December 17th: We had to clean the church tonight. How can I even express the awfulness of scrubbing public toilets with a headache and period cramps?? Not to mention the terrible traumatic prego- memories that kneeling with my face that close to a toilet brings up. But it is done. And it is officially Christmas break!

Saturday, December 18th: We had our second snowfall of the winter last night! It was less than an inch. Jeff went on a run west along the canal road, and I went on a walk. I went out a mile and then turned back when I saw a few loose dogs. I wrote "Hi Jeff" in the snow for Jeff to enjoy on his way back. About half a mile from home, I saw a small pink person jogging along the canal road in the distance. It was Amber! She greeted me with a big toothy grin. "Mom! I followed your tracks to find you! I waited for cars to drive past before I crossed the street." THAT GIRL! As we walked back towards home together, we passed two messages that Amber wrote in the snow for Rose. She was trying to lead Rose to me. Amber paused and wrote a message to Jeff "Hi Dad I love you." Eventually we met up with Rose and continued our walk back behind our house. Jeff said he enjoyed all of our snow-notes on his run.

My pathetic first wrapping job of the season. I cut the paper slightly too small, and tried doing this "simple fix" for that problem that I saw online. It didn't work.

Braces! They will be on for 18-24 months.

I tried to let Amber wrap her gifts to her siblings as independently as possible. It was hard.

First snowfall of the winter! I love waking up to a white winter wonderland, and I love this view out behind our house.

I snuggled up in the corner of our couch and enjoyed the snowy view while reading my scriptures.

Walking in the snow along the drained canal. After nearly two weeks of no running, my hamstring seems to be healing nicely, but as it has healed, another hurt muscle in my lower extremity has been unveiled, so I'm still uncertain how long I'll have to rest before running again. Age 35 is grand.

Snowballs! My favorite Christmas cookie! I made 90 this year--a double batch. Snowballs and gingersnaps are the only Christmas cookies I made this year. My tummy's inability to tolerate chocolate has really thrown a wrench in holiday baking. 

On Friday, I picked Jay up from school so he could bring home both of his instruments (normally he leaves them at school because they're so big). He joined the band this trimester, so now he has orchestra class for 5th period and band for 6th period. He plays the two biggest instruments offered in each ensemble: the tuba and the bass. I folded down the back row of seats in our van to accommodate the load.

Jeff, Jay, and I did a 45 minute blitz cleaning the church building on Friday afternoon while Rose and Amber were at piano lessons in town. It was a perfect built-in time period so we didn't have to stay too long. Jeff was dressed as Rudolph for his annual French Christmas caroling at school that day, so he was an extra awesome cleaning companion.

Scene from my Saturday morning walk.

Triumphant Amber, after using her tracking skills to find her mother.

*Blogging makes it too easy to edit out the negative/frustrating/hard/embarrassing/lame things that happen in any particular week. While some trials are actually kind of fun to write about (after the fact),  some difficulties cannot be tactfully shared online, so they get left out. This is just a little side note to my future self, to remember that kerfuffles, frustrations, headaches, and misunderstandings happened right alongside the pretty snowfall, tasty cookies, and cute Christmas outfits. But we weathered those bumpy patches and then enjoyed some cookies.

Christmas Sunday felt early this year because it came six days before Christmas, but we still dressed extra Christmas-y for church.