Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Recovering from the holiday RUSH...

It is so nice to be slowing down as much as you can with 7 kids.  Christmas is always such a busy time for us, as I'm sure it is for all of you.  This week has been a time to catch up on things that were let go for a week or so, although it still looks like a hurricane has blown through here.
Our Christmas week started out w/ a phone call at 11pm on Sunday from Mama saying they had been robbed.  They had gone to Papa & Grandma's for supper, so no one was home.  Daddy & Mama had went shopping the day before to buy Christmas gifts for the grandkids.  It has been a very tough two years for my parents with Daddy getting hurt on the job, then losing his job.  He is working now, but doesn't have the benefits etc. that he had w/ the county.  Anyhoo,  all the gifts that Mama had wrapped were stolen, along w/ food from the fridge, and other items that have a lot of sentimental value.  What a way to start the week!  It just burns me up to think how hard Daddy has worked and for someone to come in and help themselves to it.  One thing that we pray will turn into something good about this whole situation is Mama didn't buy the little kids toys this year.  Instead, she bought each of them a Bible.  Those were wrapped, so they were taken.  We are praying that whoever robbed them will read the Bible and come to know Christ as their Savior.  Every other year, they would have gotten a lot of toys.   
Tuesday was Laura's 13th birthday.  She enjoyed a date w/ her daddy.  I took Mama back to Savannah to try to replace some of the gifts that were stolen.  We were able to make a little progress in that task.  I want to say thank you for all of those that have been so kind during this entire ordeal.  Between family and friends, Daddy & Mama were able to rebuy Christmas for the little ones.  We all know that Christmas isn't about the gifts.  But I do know that my parents would have been crushed to not be able to have something under the tree for their grandbabies.  Daddy & Mama's church family were a huge blessing to them.  Thank you all!  We will never be able to express our gratitude.
Wednesday we worked on candy for Mike's co-workers.  Laura and I worked on it until 2:30am, when Mike had to leave for work.  Then, we wrapped "Santa" until 5:30am.  No, we didn't get it finished, but we were too tired to continue.  We also didn't want to chance little ones waking and catching up.
Thursday was spent at home most of the day trying to rest up for another late night.  Mike had to work 4am-4pm.  We went to Papa & Grandma's for supper for the Thompson Christmas.  What a great time we had.  It was so good to have Adam, Kara, and Makenna here.  We got home around midnight and hurried to get the kids in bed.  Santa was on his way, you know!  Mike went to bed also b/c he was completely wiped out.  Andrew got the job of putting together Luke & Jonathan's cozy coupe.  Laura and I finished wrapping Santa, then the two of them went to bed around 3:30am.  I still had to wrap their Santa which I had kept hidden from them. :o)  I think I went to bed around 4:30am.
Mike started trying to drag me out of bed around 8am.  Needless to say, I wasn't as excited as he was to get up.  I finally gave up and followed him out of the bedroom.  He woke up all the kids and led them to the living room where there were mounds of presents from Santa.  Yes, it was Mike's idea to wrap all of Santa so Laura and I did it.  Now just think about wrapping gifts for 7 kids... each little action figure, tu-tu, etc.  We even wrapped the cozy coupe after it was put together!  After all the gifts were opened, I started napping.  I think I finally got up for good at 11:30am.  I spent the rest of my day in the KITCHEN!  We had supper at Daddy & Mama's.  We had a birthday cake for Jesus complete w/ candles and singing.  Daddy read the Christmas story from the book of Luke.  We had a mexican theme this year... tacos, enchiladas, even a PINATA!  The kids LOVED that.  Sarah bought it in Claxton.  I think we finally got home sometime around 1am.
Mike and I braved the crowds in Savannah on Saturday in search of a new washer.  I couldn't put it off any longer.  I found the one I wanted, so Mike done his dealin' then.  He talked them down a good bit.  That sweet hubby of mine even went back Sunday morning to pick it up.  We were beginning to run low on undies and socks.  LOL  It was getting desperate.
Monday was spent washing load after load of dirty laundry.  Thanks to my clothes line, I was able to get a lot more done because I could hang a load on the line and put a load in the dryer.  I'm still working on getting Mt. Washmore conquered.  Yesterday, I didn't get as much washed as I would have liked b/c Mike and I went to Statesboro to pick up some things.
Yesterday, Mike and I had to go to Lowe's to pick up a few supplies to get the boys' room finished.  Mike wanted to buy a small ceiling fan to put up in there.  He also bought a new fluorescent light for the kitchen.  I even talked him into letting me go into The Hen House in the mall to look for ornaments.  Each year, we buy a dated ornament for each of the kids and one for us.  We usually buy them at Carlton Cards in SAV, but both stores have gone out of business.  We looked at the Hallmark store in the Oglethorpe Mall, but didn't see ornaments we liked.  Well, yesterday I was able to find ornaments for everyone and they were 50% off!  YAY!  Mike came home and put up the ceiling fan while I started on Mt. Washmore again.
Mike went back to work today.  I think he was happy about that... needed a break from the home projects.  He finished sanding down the sheetrock in the little boys' room, so I have to wipe down the walls and start painting.  Then we can get the bunk beds put up.  Yes, we were blessed last week w/ a VERY nice set of bunk beds.  My great-uncle and aunt gave us the set for which we are very thankful. 
Love ya bunches!   
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