My Joy is Full

(Note the two extra figures that were constantly being added to our nativity this year!)

A recap is in need. But I’m awfully tired. I feel that I lack the ability to put into words the joy of the season that has so quickly passed. Christmas morning with little children is always special. I look forward to it all year; it’s a high like no other. I sat nursing my baby and watching my other three children experience the glee of gift giving and gift receiving. Cries of “It’s what I’ve always wanted… thank you” and “I’ve wanted this my WHOLE life” brought grins to Mr. Man and my faces. I feel tender love for my children on Christmas morning, and always have this scripture come to my mind when I try to put my feelings into words: “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” A mother’s heart is often truly full.

And oh, the toys. So many toys. So many hours of play – oh boy!

A favourite gift, the one which generated the most of the above cries, was a LARGE set of wooden blocks that Mr. Man and his Dad made for the kids. Towers and castles, spaceships and boats have been made… and the fun will never end. I'm excited for this special legacy of homemade building blocks.

We took down our dying tree (it was too prickly for ME to water after Uncle Kyle left), and slowly gathered all the holiday décor to make room for our new furniture purchases.
Then Grandma, Grandpa & Auntie came, and besides the code yellow, a lot of fun ensued. The pool at their hotel was the biggest hit – as were the trampolines, I mean beds – Wonderlab, going to the play “Oliver”, LOTS of game playing and yummy food!
We finally made decisions on our armoire and love seat. Our Target was sold out on the armoire we liked (and could afford) and so we made some calls and on Saturday made the trek to the store that did have it in stock. Mr. Man has bad luck, and this purchase only solidified that fact. After three hours in the car, we opened the box to begin the job of assembling the armoire. This is what we found:

A box full of junk wood that someone must have successfully returned.

Can you believe someone would do that? We had spent the whole afternoon driving to get the very last one, and now this! Ughhhh! Mr. Man was ready to call the police. Instead he called the store manager where we had made the purchase. She told him to bring it back – yeah right. He called our local Target (the one where we lost our son – I think we may be having bad Target luck) and the store manager there told him he could bring it in. Apparently it caused quite a hoot with the customer service staff and they took pictures to post as a reminder to “always check the returned boxed items”. It seems that our luck turned, and while Mr. Man was there, the armoire we were trying to buy had been unloaded from a truck. Almost six hours later it was set up and beautiful. We are loving having our TV out of sight and out of mind, and with our new love seat, having room for EVERYONE in our BIG family to sit.

(Miss J with two of her friends on our new loveseat - enjoying all the playdates the break from school allows!)

Mr. T has gone two months without his fevers and we were advised to decrease the amount of medication we give him and see if it would still be effective. Apparently not. Yesterday he started his fever and so we zapped it with his steroid. Now he is zapped and with dilated eyes and everything has been bouncing off the walls , attempting to go out and play in the snow in a swimsuit and basically cracking me up and driving me crazy simultaneously. Tomorrow my parents and two siblings are coming and we will be heading out to a cabin together to make some memories and try to keep Mr. T contained!

I brought in the New Year nursing the baby… which seems fitting to end this year with. Goals have been set and we are excited for all that 2008 may bring. Happy New Year!