Merry (day after) Christmas!!
Can't believe this will be my last weekly review for the year 2014.
Our days were pretty full this week. All those little last minute Christmas things can take up a lot of time. I hope someday I'll figure out how to simplify more.
We still have unhealthy people at our house. Seth and Jared are improving at last. Neither one of them made it back to school, though (last day was Tuesday). I finally gave up and had Frank take them both to the doctor on Tuesday. Not because I thought they'd be able to do anything to help them get better faster, but because I figured they'd missed so much school it would be a good idea for them to have a doctor's note. Plus I wanted to make sure neither one of them had developed any kind of secondary bacterial infection. They did a strep test on Jared, which came back negative, and an influenza type A test on Seth, which came back positive. Just as I suspected! They didn't bother to test Jared for influenza also--it was kind of a given that if Seth had it, he had it too. Anyway, they are both doing better although Jared still has a decent cough. Now the rest of us don't feel so well though. Tanner came home Sunday and by Wednesday was feeling sick. Frank and I both felt not the best off and on all week but we've been trying to ignore it and keep going...too much to do!! Frank seems to be worse today, though. I'm not too bad but my throat is feeling pretty irritated. Frank had a flu shot, by the way, so hopefully he will not get a bad case. I tend to fight things off pretty well so hopefully I won't get worse. Tanner seems to be holding his own as well, although he doesn't feel great. Gotta love it! At least we don't have a lot of places we need to go this next week, so hopefully we'll get some rest and everyone will be healthy again soon.
We are very happy to have Tanner back home with us. He got back late Sunday evening. His flight was delayed about a half hour and the traffic at the airport was ridiculous so it took us a while to get from the cell phone lot to the terminal, but other than that everything went smoothly with his flight home. He is on a very messed up sleep schedule but otherwise seems to be adjusting well to being home.
On Monday he had a visitor...a good friend he met at BYU came by. Her name is Caroline; if you've seen pictures of him with a girl on Facebook, this is the same girl. Caroline lives in Pittsburgh. She is going on a mission in February to Argentina and on Tuesday she was going to the temple for the first time. So on Monday she and her family drove down this way (they were staying in DC overnight) and on the way they dropped her off at our house so that she and Tanner could spend some time together. They went downtown and got some dinner and did some shopping in the cute little shops that we have in Frederick's historic district. Then Frank drove her (Tanner went along of course) down to her hotel in Bethesda. She is a very nice girl (and a very pretty one too!) and we were glad we got to meet her.
Meanwhile on Monday I made candy and tried to watch the BYU game (at the same time). Of course, the outcome of the game was super frustrating, but the candy turned out fine.
On Tuesday I baked cookies:
And here is the fudge I made Monday, minus a few pieces since Caroline, Tanner, and everyone else had to try some:
On Monday and Tuesday Frank and I were also getting lots of last minute shopping and errands done, and I was trying to fit in wrapping presents wherever I could.
Wednesday we had one of our sets of Elders over for dinner. I started cooking around noon and didn't finish until they arrived at 5:00 for dinner. Three days in a row in the kitchen...not my favorite! Plus I love my tile floors but they are hard to stand on for three days straight. I was aching all over (or maybe that was the flu...not sure!) The dinner turned out very nice, though. Not sure why I forgot to take pictures. The Elders loved it. They were allowed to stay all evening, since it was Christmas Eve, and their mission president had given them permission to watch G rated movies and the movie Frozen (I guess it's PG). Neither one of them had seen Frozen yet, since they've both been out over a year, so we watched that and they got a kick out of it. After that, we got more serious and watched Joy to the World. Then everyone got to open a present (the Elders got bread and jam) and we had dessert. I gave all the boys a copy of the book Erick put together a few years ago that is a record of all the things Grandpa Johnson has said in his sleep. Jared happened to pick that present to open, so he was reading a bunch of things Grandpa said and the Elders were laughing their heads off.
After that, Frank took the Elders home. They did some service for us, though...helped Frank pick up a Christmas gift that we had been storing at a warehouse of one of his clients. Since most of the boys couldn't think of hardly anything they wanted for Christmas, we decided to get a larger family gift...a bigger television. Ever since we got the new entertainment center (a year and a half ago) the boys have been saying we "need" a bigger television. So I knew they would like to have one. It was really nice for Frank to have some help loading that up in the car! He left it in the car until the boys went to bed and then I helped him get it inside.
Christmas Eve was rainy and very foggy. It actually rained a lot Monday through Wednesday. Christmas was sunny and mild, which is my kind of Christmas! I don't care if it snows or not. Temperatures in the 50s is just fine with me! Here is what "Santa" brought to everyone:
Seth
Jared
Tanner
Annette
Frank
Everyone
Plus lots under the tree; gifts to each other:
Random Christmas Day photos follow. First, coming downstairs:
(Seth is wrapped in his new Star Wars blanket--the present he opened Christmas Eve.)
Lots of treats on the table:
I meant to take treats to our home teaching and visiting teaching families, but we ran out of time. Plus, I'm not sure anyone wants anything from our infected household. So we have way more treats than we need.
Snickers sniffs his new stuffed squirrel:
Frank and Jared setting up the new television (which, by the way, looks much bigger to me here at home than it did in the store!):
Seth picks a "convenient" spot to build one of his Chima Lego sets:
A Tenkai Knight:
Me trying to figure out my Nook tablet:
Another Tenkai Knight:
The best part of the day, talking to Scott on Skype:
We had a relaxing day, mostly. We played new games and listened to new music and watched a new movie. I didn't even cook the food I'd planned to cook because I wasn't feeling too well. We just ate leftovers from the night before and of course...a lot of treats too. We had a nice day and feel very blessed.
Since last week I mentioned I was making a gift for Tanner, I should tell you what it is now. Because I know you're all dying to know, right?! :) I made him a calendar with photographs from the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I was actually more excited to give that to him than anything else. And he did love it!
Today I've been trying to get caught up on some chores like laundry, vacuuming, and updating the budget as well as some general tidying up. The house is a mess! Tanner was supposed to take his driver's test but since he has the flu and also hasn't had a chance to drive since he got home, we cancelled it. Unfortunately, the next time he can get in is February 20th. But the lady I talked to said we can check for cancellations each morning and we might be able to get him in sooner. She was super nice, by the way. I think she deserves employee of the month.
That's all I can remember from this week, except that I also read The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever to Seth and he loved it. I had to convince him to listen to it, but after one chapter he was hooked. I love that book too. It was really fun to share it with him.
We love you all and it was nice to talk to many of you yesterday. See you in 2015!
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