The days after Christmas

As you can see by the slideshow, below, Christmas came to Western Nebraska.

After candlelight on Christmas Eve, in which the voice choir sang twice and Lars had crawled away into the narthex while I was singing, we came home and went to bed. The pastor, of course, stayed up writing a sermon. All is quiet and calm.

Christmas Morning, Al left early and I grabbed a shower and quickly got dressed, as I had about seven things to do before we left.

Eden woke up, ran to the bathroom in tears and started crying b/c she'd had diaharreah all over the bathroom floor and was standing in quite a mess. I undressed her, tossed her in the shower and threw her clothes and the rugs into the washer. Ran upstairs, got Lars up and into the highchair for breakfast and back down to Eden's shower. After her shower, she was, quite naturally, cold and shivering.

Back upstairs to the kitchen for a naked baby breakfast. Eden has to go again. Off the stool, into the bathroom, onto the toilet just in time. Back to the table for breakfast. We left the dishes where they lay and got some winter church clothes on. As soon as her tights and shoes are on, it's another run to the bathroom. Again, just in time. I change out the underware for a pull up, just in case...

Out the door, down to the car, back inside for the blankets, back down the car, back up for the cheesecake, back down to the blazer. The driver's door won't shut. Chalk up one more reason for a new vehicle. We drive to church, holding the door shut with one arm and steering with the other. Get to church just in time to run in and sit down. Except Lars has pooped up his back.

Eden sits in the back pew while I take Lars down, strip him, clean him up and put his sweater and pants back on over a clean diaper.

Get up to the pew, Eden has to go to the bathroom three times before the sermon. We really need a bathroom upstairs!!

Get through church, head home to eat lunch. Lots of cheese and yogurt offered up for this meal, along with some whole milk. Daddy comes home in the midst of this and we open gifts before crashing in various locations around the house for naps. After naps, we open some more gifts, play and read stories, then watch The Grinch and Frosty the Snowman beofore popping popcorn and heading to bed.

All in all, a great and relaxing day. Full of adventure and always full of something to smile about.

Has anybody seen my sheep for the manger??? Eden??

Yesterday, we got a sitter and Al and I headed to Scottsbluff to do some after Christmas shopping. It was great, except that Al and I both had what Eden did the day before. Thank God for the Wal-mart restrooms on both ends of the store! We hit about seven stores in 5 hours and test drove a vehicle we'd like to figure out how to pay for :-)

Love to all, enjoy the slideshow!