December

Wow - December has been the busiest month this year. Well, maybe 2nd behind July. I've been wanting to get on here and post some info but it's just been so crazy!

The Christmas holidays were fabulous!

On the 15th, David and I went to a friends house for a dinner party. I was a bit nervous since I didnt' know everyone but it turned out to be quite fun. After a very yummy dinner, we played The Newlywed Game (a dvd type game) which was hilarious since most of the couples there had been married for more than 10 years! It was fun to see how different David and I responded to the questions. I finally figured out how his perception of the questions were - He was viewing them from a totally different perspective than I.

On the 20th, David and I went to the high school for an IEP meeting for Bryan. He is doing so well in school and we just needed to iron out a few things regarding test taking. Bryan gets distracted and anxious when there is alot of noise. He was having problems taking tests in History. He wasn't the first to finish and those that did sat around talking which was causing him problems. We had it written into his IEP that he will be able to go to either the resource room or his general ed teacher's class to take tests. Well, it turned out to be a good decision. He scored a 98% on his final test this semester. He was thrilled because it brought his grade in History up to a C which meant he didn't have to take finals. He will also be able to go to the resource room to get notes that he might have missed in class.

In the new semester, Bryan will be taking 2 mainstream classes - History and Driver's Ed. He is on his way! The start of the next school year will be an opportunity for him to transfer out to another one or two mainstream classes. I'm so proud!


We spent Christmas Eve at David's parents house. His brother Jason and his girlfriend Jessica were there along with Grammy, Gene and Aunt Cathy. We had some really yummy broccoli cheese stuffed chicken breasts for dinner along with the normal side dishes. After dinner we exchanged gifts - I'm pretty sure everyone was happy with what we gave them. David's mom seemed happy with the digital photo frame we gave them. I was thrilled with the Angel of Friendship and Mother & Son Willow Tree figurines my in-laws gave me.
Jason and Jessica gave me a $50 iTunes gift card - I'm not sure how I'll use that up but I'm sure I can . Brandon was eyeing it so I'll have to make sure to keep it in a safe place!

Christmas Day turned out to be so much fun. David and I were actually awake before both of the boys. That hardly ever happens on Christmas morning! Bryan, David and I had to wait for Brandon to wake up. At 8:30 I finally called him to come down so we could open presents. I think the boys were thrilled to find a TV and DVD player for each of them. David gave me the most beautiful pair of Leo Diamond® earrings. The boys both gave me a Cropadile tool for scrapbooking. I gave David a Cars: The Movie DVD and a STL Cardinals wind shirt.

Since David and I hosted Christmas for my family at our house this year, I had to get busy getting things ready for the evening. I had already baked 3 pies on Christmas Eve so all I really needed to do was clean up the house and get the ham in the oven. I also made a sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes. The rest of the meal I had divided up amongst my sisters. I only had a moment of anxiety - that was around 3:30pm. I was mashing the potatoes and turned around to find about 20 people standing in my kitchen! ACK! Everyone was arriving at the same time but as they took their coats off and put them in the closet, and moved on into other rooms in the house, the anxiety decreased and I was able to get dinner on the island and start serving. Since there were 23 people I decided the best was to serve dinner was buffet style. Good thing my kitchen is large enough to accommodate alot of people.

We opened gifts around 5:30pm and it was crazy! Instead of waiting for one person to open their gifts, or waiting while all the kids opened theirs, I just told everyone I would count to 3 and we could all dig in at the same time! LOL! It was so fun to watch everyone and try to keep up with taking pictures. After the gift exchange was finished, we had dessert and the "men" headed to the basement for a night of Texas Hold 'Em (poker). My sister Cindy, Tim's girlfriend Melissa, and I decided to just veg out in front of the TV. We watched Christmas Deal or No Deal. It was nice to have a few minutes of peace :)

On the 26th, we headed back to my in-laws house for a celebration with my MIL's sisters and their families. It has become a Christmas tradition with them that we eat Christmas Taco's, something started by my MIL's dad a few years back. It's actually quite fun and something I look forward to each year. We didn't exchange gifts, but rather had a fun time with a game my MIL shared with us. The tree had all sorts of small gifts under it. Basically, the game was this: a set of dice was passed around and if you rolled a double, you got to pick a gift (but no peeking!) or steal something someone else already had. This went on for a bit until every gift was taken. Then we opened them and found all sorts of fun little things. Brandon and I had containers of M&Ms, David had some chip clips, and Bryan had a notepad. I tried trading my M&Ms with Chris (a cousin) for a 2007 Bad Dogs calendar but he just gave it to me. It's really hilarious and I'll be sharing some of the photos from it as the new year progresses.

Now it's New Year's Eve - time to put away all the decorations and start thinking of plans and ideas for the coming year. I think I'll pack everything away on Monday...maybe Tuesday.

If your traveling or going out for New Year's Eve parties - stay safe and have a great time!!