Merry Early Christmas!

I usually have to wake Hadley up, but this week she was up twice and joined me in the gym. She didn't join me in exercising, just laid on the ground and waited for me to finish.

We attended Deck the Halls at school, it's a family night of singing carols, eating cookies, and a visit from Santa. 

I went to a holiday party for old Sherman teachers - some retired, some in other buildings, some resigned (technically, that's only me). It was fun to catch up and laugh w/ all of these ladies! This week I'm looking forward to attending the Jingle Mingle, a luncheon at Sherman for retired staff to visit...I'm so happy they see me as retired and invite me to these events 😍

While I was gone, the kids got clean - super duper clean!

I caught Hadley reading to her stuffies. 

Every once in awhile we get a cute little visitor at our back door.

Our neighbors built a hockey rink in their yard and Finley LOVES it. Last year was his first attempt at skating and this week he's asked to go next door everyday.

Uncle Ryan gave him a brand new stick and he is SO proud of it!

Despite the -8 degrees, he skated for about 20 minutes yesterday, just long enough to put marks on his stick. Hadley got skates this weekend and is excited to try it too.

Hadley was supposed to celebrate the Hmong New Year at school and I was supposed to help w/ the Hmong New Year. Then a snowstorm hit and they dismissed school early. The celebration didn't really happen, but I still delivered 300 hundred egg rolls and got to see each kid for a few minutes.

Finley was desperate to attend December's Cookies & Canvas because the project was Van Gogh's Starry Night. W/ the snowstorm and bitterly cold temps, some of our events were canceled, which opened up our Saturday afternoon and the awesome teachers let us join last minute.

Hadley had her follow-up appointment w/ Dr. Myhre for asthma. Dr. Myhre was happy to hear the Flovent inhaler is working (she's no longer wheezing and is coughing less). We're going to keep on it until spring and then try lowering the dosage to see what happens. Dr. Myhre said respiratory issues will probably hit her harder, so cold-season isn't the time to play around w/ doses. Fortunately, Dr. Myhre said she'll probably outgrow this and very few patients continue to need Flovent after elementary or middle school.

Perhaps we picked it up in the waiting room, but the next day Hadley started a battle w/ the crud that lasted all week - it started off as croup, she ran a low-grade temp, coughed, runny nose, no appetite, low energy, red eyes, it sucked.

After two days of complaining that her face hurt, I took her in for a possible sinus infection. We went to the walk-in clinic and waited for over an hour to be seen. They confirmed she has all of the symptoms of a sinus infection...then told me they aren't treating sinus infections w/ antibiotics much anymore. They'd rather they run the course :(  After not sleeping for a few nights, I was so frustrated and she continued to be miserable. Last night she finally slept all night, so hopefully we are turning the corner. My rockstar 'snapped' while we waited to be seen 😎

M&J helped sponsor and participated in the Clearwater Winter Parade. The parade kicks off w/ awesome fireworks - that's the part M&J sponsors ;) 

Our float was a spin-off of the Polar Express - the Market Express.

Our float was the last one, pulling Santa & Mrs. Claus. It was REALLY cold and Hadley was crying by the end, but it was a fun community event to be part of.

Yesterday was our Christmas Program at church.

Hadley's Sunday School class sang Go Tell it on the Mountain. 

And Finley had a speaking part! He sounded completely nervous, but did really well reading his part. 

Finley wrote/sent a last minute letter to Santa.

My favorite Chippy trick this week - Chippy "snapped" and printed pictures of himself. I'm sure I was a sight taking selfies of our Elf.

Thanks to our neighbor, Chippy & Snowball have another friend - Packer Ernie!

Like Snowball, Packer Ernie is touchable, I didn't think Finley's nerves could handle another untouchable Elf.

Chippy & Barbie were married :)

Unfortunately, my camera fell out of my bag at the parade and crashed into the pavement. The outer lens cracked, it still works but you can see blurry spots in the corners of my pictures (the parade and church pictures were taken after the crash). Just looking at this makes me want to throw up 😡

I have successfully turned holiday prep into a full-time job (for example our selfie-taking Elf on the Shelf). I'm just about ready for Christmas and I'm sure the UPS guy is too!

I can't believe my next post will be recapping Christmas (I can guarantee it won't be ready on Monday!). The kids are excited for break and I'm excited for our family celebrations.

Since we visited Santa two weeks ago, we aren't visiting the mall-Santa this year, but I took a trip down memory lane to compare how my kids have changed. Merry Early Christmas!