What's up with us and getting sick at Christmastime?

First of all, we did have a wonderful Christmas. My parents, aka Nana & PopPop were here, and we had a nice relaxing week. The festivities started on the 23rd for Rene's birthday. I made a rib roast and at Rene's request, yorkshire pudding, which I never had before. I admit, I was skeptical, because the recipe looks like pancake batter cooked in the grease from the roast. But it was surprisingly good. Even the girls liked it! Score one for the birthday boy!

Christmas morning was fun and exciting, and although Lauren seemed a bit overwhelmed at times, we had a nice relaxing day. The gift the girls liked the most? The wooden cd box they got to paint as a doll house. I got the idea from this post from Amy Carol's blog Angry Chicken. I also bought some wooden figures the girls painted as dolls. I'll update this post with a picture soon. Erin also enjoyed the "art set" Santa brought, and lots of arts and crafts activities were done on Christmas day. And eating, too.

So here's the health update.

Dec 17th: Both girls have ear infections (left ear for both).
Dec 24th: Erin complains that her ear still hurts, so we get new antibiotics prescription.
Dec 26th: Lauren complains that her ear still hurts, so we get new antibiotics prescription.
Dec 27th (today): Erin complains that her ear still hurts, and Lauren has a rash. Doctor says Erin's ears look great (and thinks her pain might be due to 6 year molars coming in), but Lauren's is still healing. Lauren has a yeast infection. That was this afternoon, and now Erin seems to be in a lot of pain and says her right ear is hurting a lot.

Sigh. Hoping they both feel better tomorrow.

Sigh.

Happy Winter!

Lauren has been learning about the seasons at preschool and for the past two months every day she asks, "What season is it?" and "What season is tomorow?" I think she was getting frustrated that my answer was always fall. Today I was happy to report it was winter! Hooray!

The ear infections seem much better. My parents flew in on Tuesday, and yesterday was Erin's last day of school. Today is Rene's last day of work until the new year. So it feels like Christmas. It's remarkably calm here, which is good. I need to work hard at not getting the girls over excited and keeping to a good sleeping schedule. I want them to remember this is a time to enjoy your family, not a time of getting presents. I'm inspired by this post and this post to keep the season simple, sweet and special.

Two children, two ear infections

One tired mom.

Look at our lovely gingerbread house!

Or what's left of it.





Saturday was a rainy day. Hooray! Hallelujiah!! We desperately need rain here in Georgia. So it was a good time to whip out the gingerbread house that got at IKEA in Atlanta. The girls put the frosting and candies on the pieces, and Rene and I assembled them. I needed to get dinner ready so I put the house on the dining room table. At some point during the evening I walked past the dining room table and I realize that half the gingerbread house was gone, and bits of frosting were on the tablecloth and rug. I took the above picture, and I pushed the house to the center of the table and the next morning the WHOLE THING was gone. The girls were not too upset, which was good.

Either Jake or Daisy got to it. I suspect Daisy. Although Jake has a long history of eating things off of tables (a steak, and entire quiche, a stick of butter, turkey cheese enchiladas), I don't think he easily can jump up to the table these days. I inspected the doggie mouths for evidence of frosting, but it was a clean crime. We sent them outside for a good portion of the day to avoid any reappearance of the gingerbread house on our rugs and floors.

Erin complained that her ear hurt last night, so I'm waiting to see how she is this morning. I fear we may have a doctor's visit in the near future.

Mice have overtaken the house!

I joke. But not really. I decided to make the felt Christmas candy cane mice that I found on the Family Fun website here. While I thought it was a good idea at the time, I must admit I'm a bit tired of cutting out enough green and red felt to make mice for 2 ballet class parties and 2 class parties. Might also make some for the neighborhood Christmas carolling event I'm helping to organizing. I hope Santa notices how good I've been!

Turkey in the sun

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I didn't write a thing about it. It was nice, quiet, just the four of us but lots of neighborhood kids around, so we were not lonely. We ate a lot of turkey and the other fixings.

Here's some art by Erin to commemorate the occasion.