The week before Christmas

Last Monday, Sean had his first 24 hour shift.  He went in at noon on Monday and came home just after noon on Tuesday.  He got about 3.5 hours of sleep at the hospital, which is better than nothing I guess, but sounds pretty miserable to me.  The kids and I got pizza and then watched Joy to the World for family home evening.  It was fun to watch the Christmas story with them and listen to them tell me all the things they remember.  There are very few things that Brett will tell me to skip in movies but the ones he wants me to are always a surprise to me.  He loves the movie Zootopia, but always wants me to skip the part where Gideon Gray is bullying Judy Hopps rather than the much more intense savage animal scenes.  One of the things he hides his face for and asks me to skip is the crucifixion scenes in church videos.  I think it shows how tender his spirit is that he understands that we should all hide our faces from how horrible that event was.

After the kids went to bed, I walked for an hour on the treadmill and chatted with Sean and then my Mom.  Then I went to work finishing the fabric roads I made the kids for Christmas.  I had already cut out all the black felt, but I still needed to add the stripes.  I was originally thinking of doing some ribbon but I didn't have to time to sew all that ribbon on, and I was also afraid the ribbon would stick up and get in the way of driving cars.  I ended up just doing some zigzag stitching on  each piece.  I was pretty pleased with how they turned out =)

On Tuesday I went to Brett's school for a candy house party.  I made a batch of Royal Frosting and took those over then helped his table frost and decorate their little houses.  It was fun to see Brett interact with his classmates.  There is a little girl there named Allison who has a crush on Brett and its really cute.  Brett says she just loves him, but I think he is just interested in her as a friend.  She gave him one of her stuffed animals on Monday which he of course LOVED!  Sean watched the girls while I went over to help at the school and the poor guy didn't really get any sleep!  Hopefully this week will be a little more conducive to a nap!

This is the paper hanging in the hall for Brett's student of the month award

On Wednesday we went over to Brett's school in the morning for his sing a long.  The concert started at 9:30 and his teacher told us to drop Brett off at 9:05 in his classroom.  I thought that was just a guideline and dropped him off at about 9:20, but as soon as we pulled into the school I understood why she said to arrive at 9:05.  The whole school was doing this concert and the parking lot was stuffed!  We parked in the church parking lot that is right next door then we walked through all the rain and slush to get to the school.  It was cold and Lizzie was really heavy in my arms with the bag and all the bulk of our coats and such!  We made it though and found a spot to stand on the side.  I got a really cute video of Brett singing SANTA to the tune of Bingo and Santa Mouse is Coming to Town.  I could totally hear Brett load and clear from clear across the auditorium.

Alana is very sweet and supportive of her brother!

The district bought these cute "Class of 2029" shirts for all the kindergarteners.  It was soo cute!

On Wednesday afternoon after we took Brett to school, the girls and I started getting things ready for Brian and Jill to arrive on Thursday.  We cleaned up both Lizzie's and Brett and Alana's rooms then I took some pictures of their Christmas decor.  We moved all Lizzie's clothes over to the big kids room then blew up a mattress and got Lizzie's room all ready for Brian and Jill.

Lizzie has been doing so wonderfully with table food the last week or so.  I gave her a big chunk on banana last week and she just took bites and ate the whole thing!  Its impressive what that girl can do with 2 teeth!

The girls and I also went to Costco on Wednesday while Brett was at school to get a few last minute things.

Sean and I finally finished the names on our stockings so they were completely finished in time for Christmas =)  I love the way our fireplace wall turned out!


Brett made this awesome color by number at school!


On Thursday, Brett had an early day at school so we dropped him off at 11:30 and picked him up at 1:30.  Right after we picked him up we went to pick up Brian and Jill from the airport.  We got home  and started to make sugar cookies.  My mom called so I left the kids and Brian and Jill to make the cookies while I went to chat with my mom.  They did a fantastic job and I am really sad I didn't get any pictures of them cutting cookies all together!
When Sean got home that night we frosted lots of cookies and ate lots too!

Lizzie and I mostly supervised!