Merry Christmas 2018

Let me start off by saying that we had a white Christmas!! We didn't think it would happen because this December has been very mild, and no snow has been on the ground for a couple weeks. It was 50 last Friday! We got about an inch on Christmas Eve, then ended up getting about another inch overnight into Christmas. We were very happy ❤

We love our funny little family traditions, and they start on Christmas Eve. Every year Nick's grandparents would get a bunch of Arby's roast beef sandwiches, so we continued that with our family after they passed. But once we moved here to Albion there are no Arby's close by, so we make our own! We tried a new Amish market for the beef this time, and it was DELISH. Even had onion buns and curly fries.

Christmas morning was good, and we started off with the traditional biscuits and sausage gravy breakfast after opening presents! I was delighted to see that Nick got me the complete set of Golden Girls on DVD!! He also built me a Super Nintendo and got my favorite Mario game (plus others).

Growing up my mom got us pickled okra for our stockings (I love it!), so Nick hunted some down and gave it to me.

The boys were very excited with their presents and played with them all day. We all stayed in our PJs!

This was our 3rd year of having a Mexican feast for Christmas! I made a new recipe for chicken enchiladas, as well as black bean chipotle dip, white queso, Spanish rice, and tacos. YUM

I browsed through our local paper today, and saw that Brad's letter to Santa was published in it! I'll have to save it ❤

I hope everyone had a great holiday, and a safe New Year! I get to spend 2 more weeks off on disability, then it's back to work for me!

Crafting Teacher Gifts

This week Bradley and I were busy crafting with old Christmas cards to make handmade presents for his teachers. There were 6 teachers so we made 2 of these geodisic ornaments....

(Instructions and pic from this site)

They were hard but turned out pretty!

Next we made 4 of these with Birch slices from Michael's. Brad helped me decoupage pictures to the front, and daddy drilled a small hole for the string.

These are my favorite! I save my cards every year to try new crafts with. We may have to do this again next year. He also wrote his name and the year on the back.

Christmastime and Surgery Time

I managed to fill the freezer, finish chores, and get the house decorated for Christmas before my surgery Monday!

We've already gotten several inches of snow, and it's been lovely to see from my window.

On Monday the 3rd I had my first surgery (I don't count wisdom teeth removal...) which was an open ventral hernia repair. I chose a great surgeon I work with and I was very happy with everything! It was outpatient at my hospital, and of course the whole family came along due to NO babysitter :) The staff was amazing and let even the little ones come into pre-op and post-op to see me. And my lovely coworker Jessica brought a special gift bag in for the kids, as well as a nice gift bag for me from the unit! So sweet!!

The incision is only a couple inches, and I've really had little to no pain since I woke up. I didn't require anything in recovery, and I've only taken a couple Norco right after just to ward off potential pain. Frankly I've been battling a headache more!

I am getting around pretty well at home, and have started venturing outside the house. But I am of course on lifting restrictions so I won't be going back to work till next month. My post-op checkup is Tuesday. I was able to remove the outer dressing today, and the steri-strips will come off on their own.

Nick has done wonderfully taking care of me while watching the boys and keeping the house clean.

Today I got out with the boys for a fun afternoon of Christmas events in our town. They had Santa there, pizza, donuts, music, and crafts for the kids. They had a blast! We love our town.

Food Prepping and Snow

This big guy loves to help me in the kitchen! And his attention span is up to about 4 seconds!

We got our first dusting of snow a couple weeks ago. Brad was already asking to go sledding...

It melted the next day, so Nick and Jacob hit the leaves with the mower one last time.

I'm going to be out on medical leave soon, so I've been meal prepping to stock our freezer so that I don't have to bother with grocery shopping or cooking for awhile! I spent an afternoon cooking and knocked out several meals. I even enlisted the help of Brad.

That day I made sauce, lasagna, meatloaf, tuna casserole, and banana bread. Yum!

We had company over for chicken fried steak last week, and wouldn't you know it--the kitchen sink decided to clog right before they got here! Nick got on the next day, and it took the whole afternoon to fix! Thank God he was able to finally clear it. Damn potato peels!

Today we got a bit more snow, and the news called it a "snow squall" that came thru. It dumped heavy snow for about 30min. We have maybe 2-3" on the ground. Our high temp tomorrow is only 20°!

I've been prepping all day for turkey day tomorrow, and I work tomorrow night so it will be a long day! Hope you all have a great holiday with family.