Friday, January 14, 2011

Wrapping up the last month

We've been back in town for over a week now, and it's the middle of January and only 10 months until we get our Christmas tree. I could so freak out right now.

I've decided to recap the last month since I spent the last week recounting the North Carolina trip and not yet posted anything about Christmas, and the best thing I can say about the 2010 yuletide season is....it's over. The final tally for disease at the Herrock household was 5 out of 6 with Caitlin being the only one who never got sick, bully for her. Not that that should annoy me BUT if it could, it would. The rest of us shivered and sniffled and coughed our way into the new year and kicked Christmas out the door as fast as we could. We had as much fun as we could, feeling as bad as we did, limping through Christmas eve and day with chills and fever and people looking at us as if we had the plague. Billie June, who was also sick, was unable to join us at church for communion...AND Becky had to cook Christmas Eve breakfast at Mom's so I wouldn't infect the people. Emma took most of the photos since I was in a feverish stupor and could have cared less where people were or what they looked like. Oh......it was a jolly old time for reals.

As with every year of my life, Christmas morning found us at Mom's with all gathering in the living room to open presents. I got lovely gifts which included a beautiful book of family photos from my children, lots of polka dots from Lindsey and Bill, AND a new pair of UGGS from the BJ. They are keeping my feet toasty warm this very minute. Other people got stuff too. The inventory could go on forever so I've chosen to make that statement and move on.

But I must note that Keith got some really special presents from me. Since I had his name this year I decided to make him feel really wonderful by creating some handmade gifts for him. Everyone knows I have quite the artistic flair and the stick people I draw, wearing triangle dresses (boy or girl) are like no other. So, I whipped up a few construction paper pictures of our past family vacations......all drawn with stick people, fake hay, macaroni art and crushed up seashells. It was worthy of framing if I do say so myself.

After the excitement of Keith's present wore off, we ate and slept and musical chaired the day away. Then as always we moved the gypsy tent to Melanie's for a late night movie....Young Victoria....and before we knew it, all the out of towners had to go home. After we'd had as much joy as we could tolerate, they rest of us retreated to our homes for recuperation and to de-holiday our houses. Then it was time to turn our focus on our North Carolina trip, which I've already documented thoroughly.

And that, in a nutshell, was Christmas 2010. I'll post some pics at some point in time.

Also I thought I'd update on the following things that happened during the last few weeks at our house.

Our plumbing:
The city did come and fix the city plumbing which was MAJOR. If it had been our pipes to be fixed, it would have cost $1500 and even though it took almost a month for them to finally show up and do the work, at least they did and it cost us nothing. That was a huge blessing from God.

The dog with food allergy issues:
Addy the salmon eating dog finished her medicine for her food allergies last week and started her expensive salmon food diet. She's already turning red and itchy again. I have NO IDEA what will happen next. Either I'm gonna have to slip some chunks into suppers to get rid of the expensive food or she'll just stay red and itchy until she finishes it. There are few worries for my family about the slipping in of dog food since I rarely cook anyway. I'd have to find a way to hide it in my speciality, a peanut butter sandwich, and that's not bloody likely at all. I find I really do need a personal chef who could do all my grocery shopping and then, ice cream would never be able to sneak in my house and be my bestest friend EVER.

Then last week as life was supposed to turn normal again, we were treated to a Louisiana snow prediction of 4 to 6 inches of accumulation....which translated means 4 flakes will float by your back door and quickly land in a puddle of water before the words, "It's snowing!!" can even leave your mouth. And once again, as we've done countless times before, we all looked hopefully into the night sky and the onlyest thing that made an appearance was the tiniest amount of sleet. Then as always,
we were left with the realization that the weatherman got his diploma from the dollar store.

After the "snowstorm" John and Owen returned to work and school and Owen came home this week informing us he has the highest average in Algebra I Honors of any freshman in the school. I don't have all the information yet but he told us something about having the opportunity to test against other students in the state. I have no idea what that means but I will be finding out for sure. College life resumes next week for my three girls as Caitlin begins her last semester of school EVER if she so chooses. Even with as many times as I've already said it, I can't believe she's all grown up and ready to take on the world. What happens next? I have no idea, but I'll put my trust in the Lord cause if I didn't, there'd be no more need for hair color for me.

And on a last note for now, during the time when I was sick and stranded on my couch, I had lots of time to peruse the Internet to diagnose myself with any disease I could find. At one point, I'd just about homed in on my symptoms until I discovered you could only get sick of whatever it was if you'd been traveling in the remotest places of Africa. After I calmed down from that near miss, I decided to see what flu symptoms were, and as I was reading that the most susceptible people to the flu were infants and "old people." I heaved a sigh of relief. That sealed it. There was NO WAY I had the flu. But, just as I was about to move on from the website, my eye became fixated on the ages of "old people" and there smack dab in the numbers, I found my age glaring at me.

It did not bless me.

It's official.

I'm old.

The Internet said so.

It was just another reason to say Merry Christmas to me.

And that's why I will forever refer to Christmas 2010 as the Eeyore Christmas.

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