Summarizing December

So, I noticed my last post was on the evening of Thanksgiving. That was a long time ago! Much has transpired!

Derek and I have been working on our house. Literally, every room and closet in the house will have work done to it before we can call it "quit".

We are stripping stain, priming, and painting all the trim (which is ENDLESS!!!!) and doors throughout the house. We are also pulling up all the carpet throughout the house and the tile in the entryway and kitchen. We are doing drywall work (thanks to the kind and gracious Adam Harris for supplies and for teaching us!) and making repairs and updates to the kitchen. In the mean time, Derek and I are working mainly at night when the children are asleep. Thus, we are getting very little sleep.

We put all the tools away before we go to bed, and the next day, I get to re-dust and re-clean all the things I had dusted and cleaned the day before.... It is tiring!

Also, we are moving furniture around constantly as we rid the house of the old flooring, which leads to heavy sorting and organizing....

In addition, in December we had about three weeks of illness, where all the children but 1 got sick--with congestion and fevers up to 106.5*F!

So, our house has looked like a bomb has hit it many times throughout the month of December. Remember, every nook and cranny is getting treated to a makeover, so all closets and every kitchen drawer and cabinet is being emptied.

Therefore, concerning decorating for Christmas, this was a year of not many decorations. We decorated the outside of our house, I made a wreath for our front door, my cousin Laurie Lawrence bought our family a real Christmas tree (so the house could look and smelled like Christmas), and Cherish decorated the children's bathroom and bedrooms with small Christmas trees and lights. It was a year unlike any other.

Some highlights from this Christmas were that my sweet friends Sandra Tabor and Lisa Wilson provided Christmas gifts for my children, my brother Paul and his wife Kelsey rented a condo so that our families could get together for about 24 hours--to spend some quality time together celebrating Christmas, and my mom and sister Jen put together all kinds of games and entertainment for us during our time at the condo. What precious gifts from some amazing family and friends!!

Life has been rough for the last month and a half, but we did take time out to celebrate Cherish and Samuel's birthdays, Cherish and Andrew's "Gotcha Day", visit a nursing home so Cherish and Andrew could play piano with their piano teacher and fellow students.

So, now I leave to put another coat of paint on a door.... Good night, sweet friends!