December

I'm not even calling my posts "Catching Up" anymore, because that's really all they are--a monthly catch-up. So why call it that?

Anyway, December was busy--mostly because we didn't actually start our shopping until just after Thanksgiving. We had to figure out where the money was coming from this year. Life is getting incredibly more expensive. Next year we'll only have one kid to pay out the nose to put into high school--and part-time at that. Marching Band is worth it, Marching Band is worth it, Marching Band is worth it...

Hannah has decided to take a year off before considering college, which is fine--especially for our wallets.

We spent much of our time following our musicians around town--concerts and performances and taking Hannah downtown to do some street playing. Then there were the friend parties and sleepovers and such. I used to worry that my kids would be a little anti-social with the homeschooling thing, but the truth is far from that. They're busy with their social group all the time. All three of them.

Hannah's Fiddle Group recorded two CDs this month--one traditional music, the other Celtic Christmas music. Both Hannah and Ian play on that.

I think the biggest piece of news for this month was our cold, dark December Sunday. We woke early that morning, having fallen asleep with snow falling, to find the power out. We shrugged, figured it must be out in the whole neighborhood, and went back to sleep. A little while later we woke again, got up to get showered for church, and looked outside. Lo and behold, all the neighbors had lights!

As it turned out, the snow that night was extremely wet and heavy (backbreaking to shovel) and had pulled our power line down. We could see it out there, looped over the yard, the end of it buried in snow in the corner of the yard. The line had snapped about 8 feet from the pole, in among the trees where the line's insulation had probably worn off. The power company came in the afternoon to evaluate the outage, and called the tree service to trim the trees out of the way. Fortunately for us, the trees that caused the problem were in the neighbor's yard, so we didn't have to pay for the trimming. Yay!! We spent most of the day at a friend/neighbor's house, eating dinner and playing Wii. The power company finally came around 7 p.m. and had the power on my 7:30 or so. Still, we were without power for around 18 hours. It was an adventure.

Our second disaster/adventure involved the garbage disposal. It jammed and Darin couldn't get it going again. He cleaned it out, didn't work. So then he tried to take it apart, but the screws had become so corroded that they broke off. Which was OK. The disposal was really ready for replacement. The gaskets were corroded, the whole thing was full of rust. So we went disposal shopping. We were disappointed by the choices available locally--either crappy models or very expensive models. We started doing some looking around, researching on the internet, and found a WasteKing 3300 (VERY highly rated, best warrantee in the business) for just $20 more than the crappy, poorly rated Insinkerator Badger that Home Depot and Lowe's carries. The downside, obviously, is waiting a week for it to arrive. We've been using LOTS of paper and plastic dishes because we can't use the dishwasher without the disposal in place. We've also stuffed that side of the sink with towels to deter any temptation to pour water down that sink--since there's nothing there but a bucket. I've never been more excited to do dishes!

Also big this month, obviously, was Christmas.

We had a really special Christmas this year. We worked hard to NOT make it about money and presents. We talked with the kids about how we were short on money and wanted to cut back. They were gung-ho about it all and offered suggestions of ways we could simplify. That involvement on their part really got them into the Christmas spirit as they carefully chose presents for one another. We had a simple but pleasurable Christmas, in which no one received any 'stuff' that they just didn't really want/need. You know how you do sometimes--you spend money on stuff just to spend money and just to 'fill' the tree skirt? We didn't worry about that so much and it was nice.

We also decided to spend Christmas Eve with grandparents so we could stay home on Christmas Day. We first started doing this last year when we were snowed in on Christmas Day. We had such a wonderful time, we decided to make it permanent. We also like to go out to dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we went to Applebee's. It was WONDERFUL!!

I've also started doing something that involves everyone in important things, and gets everyone excited. I've started asking everyone what they just couldn't do without for such-and-such an event, then making sure that everyone has at least one favorite thing. So breakfast Christmas morning, I had asked everyone what they thought was an essential food for Christmas breakfast. We had a meal heavy on carbs, but delicious--scones with honey, crepes with Nutella, muffins, orange Julius, and bacon. I do the same for summer activities--what does each person really want to do this summer?--and we try our best to do everyone's favorite. I also did the same with New Year's Eve dinner. We had lime Pepsi, steak, shrimp, a cheese ball, and crackers. PLUS lots of other goodies.

We rang in the New Year with the five of us plus a friend of Hannah and Ian. We stayed up until 3 or 4 a.m. laughing and playing games and watching movies and putting together puzzles--and of course, eating.

I'd bet I've gained at least five pounds this month--the great food in combination with the lack of jogging--due MOSTLY to snow and cold, but not COMPLETELY. I have to admit, I've very much enjoyed the month of sleeping in until 7! But with new Saucony's for Christmas, I have no excuse to sleep in anymore!

New Year's Day we went sledding at the golf course. We had so much fun, took some great pics, and thoroughly chilled and exhausted ourselves. GREAT TIMES!

We spent our weekend putting away Christmas. It's a bit melancholy. But this year we had such a wonderful Christmas season, we still felt very much in love with all things Christmas--even though we did some Christmas decoration housecleaning and got rid of some old stuff that we just don't use anymore. Just in time to adopt some NEW things from my mom and dad. We ended up netting a reduction our Christmas stock by about 1 box.

There's something oddly therapeutic about getting rid of stuff!