more december advent

After my surgery we had to keep the rest of the advent activities pretty painless. One day it was coloring Christmas pictures (Shane printed out trees), one day it was watching a Christmas movie (which they only watched half of), stuff like that. Tonight we're going out on a drive to see Christmas lights. It's actually my favorite thing to do on Christmas Eve and I can't wait. I'm glad Shane puts up with me. I loved doing it with my family when we were kids, so I wouldn't miss it. I'll be thinking of you tonight Mom & Dad while listening to Mannheim Steamroller :-)

OK, so some of our recent escapades....

1. Going to the Christmas breakfast at Church, PJs and all:

The breakfast was AWESOME. They had everyone like, make and bring the same thing. You either brought an egg casserole, cinnamon rolls, muffins, or fruit. Then we all sat on long tables and every table had a "runner" that went to the kitchen and came back with an egg casserole, a plate of assorted breads/rolls, a bowl of fruit, and pancakes and sausages (provided by the committee). Then we ate family style. It was AWESOME. No lines! The way we all sorta sat down was funny, I was on the corner next to my two kids, and across from me were FOUR other kids. Their parents were down the table. So basically, I helped the kids color on their activity sheets, and their parents all got me food :-) they were grateful I helped with the kids, and I was grateful I didn't have to move! It was awesome. Shane wasn't there so the help was appreciated. (It was a few days before my surgery and all, so that wasn't a problem or anything, I was just in charge of a lot of kids!! :-)

2. Having an adventure in downtown Seattle! We went as a family and met a friend and her two kids there.

We did the carousel... which was fun!

(That's Wesley with Emily and his carousel ticket!)

We rode the monorail to Seattle Center...

And saw the model trains! The kids got a chance to "drive" one of the trains and Wesley loved it.

3. Decorated cookies for the neighbors. This was particularly good because I made the dough BEFORE my surgery and thawed it out and cooked it a week after surgery. So it was nice most of it was done.

We had chocolate chip M&M cookies (Twining specialty), sugar cookies, chocolate covered pretzels (easy enough), and mock toffee that you make with Saltines which is SERIOUSLY CRACK. IT IS SO GOOD. I am SO LUCKY I only made half a pan TO SHARE because I'd eat every. single. bite. It's good. And dangerous.

I let the kids go crazy with the sugar cookie decorations. Why not? Laurel wasn't as into it. She'd poke her frosting and eat all the decorations. Wesley however really had a good time. It was cool!

Here he's giving one of his sugar men "feet," which I just loved. I had fun decorating too :-) We had gingerbread men, nutcrackers, angels, trumpets (I only made one of them... they didn't cut out well), and trees.

4. I guess this wasn't part of the advent, but we got a fun snowstorm and the kids had a great time being "snow plow trains" which is just hilarious. Shane went out and played with them and I had the arm strength to boil water and make hot chocolate.

Being laid up seriously sucks. I went to my post-op this morning and cried. My doctor handled my emotions very well, encouraging me and telling me I'm responding normally in every way. I just wish I could like, wash my hair better or cut white bread. Sigh. In time, in time.

For now.... Christmas tomorrow!