It has been almost exactly a month since my last entry. And so much has happened in that time. :) Hmm... where to begin? I'm going to skip some things that were not that important because it would take too much time. :P But, a few highlights from the month of December: Zoolights, Christmas, and New Years. I had to stop after I typed "Zoolights" and think. I just said to Mariah, "Come on! I know we did more... But what?" We looked at the calendar to try to spark our memory, but to no avail. Her answer to my question, "Um... I don't know!" Thank you, Mariah.:P
But wait! I just remembered another thing. We went to a production of a play on Sunday, the 19th, at Chapel Hill, which was written and directed by our dear friend (and the kids' godmother!), Ane Weber. It was very well done--a great storyline and wonderful acting; I wish that you all could have come and seen it with us! It was fun to see familiar faces in the cast. And upon perusing the program, we saw that an old friend, Garrett (Simeon's age), had co-directed with Mrs. Weber!
Mariah and I organized an outing on the 21st to the movie Tangled and then Zoolights! Some friends of ours had not yet seen the movie and we wanted to watch it together. We enjoyed it the first time so we definitely didn't mind going again! :D It ended up being eight girls and two guys going. We had such a blast laughing and talking! I hadn't been since I was... well, it was quite a while ago :). So it was fun to see the lights again. Being with friends made it go all too fast.
Christmas Eve we had two families over. We ate this amazing/delicious soup and Christmas cookies, sang Christmas songs, and watched The Nativity Story. Again, we had a blast!!! That morning, a few had woken up feeling sick. It was just a 24-hr flu; Mom and Dad told the parents, but they said they would come anyway! We were thankful because we still wanted to have our "party" in spite of that. :)
I stayed up with Mom and Dad until 12:05 Christmas Eve preparing food for the next day (breakfast and dinner). Well, actually I went to bed at midnight. They stayed up until 12:30 stuffing stockings and finishing last minute things. :) I was able to have sweet, sweet sleep... for 45 minutes. Because Phoebe woke up crying at one with an earache. I was still half asleep and was just like, Be quiet. Go to sleep. When you wake up, you'll feel better. Confession: I wasn't very patient. I didn't yell or anything like that. But I wasn't exactly in the mood for comforting at that time. Phinehas was sleeping in our room that night and Phoebe's crying woke him up. Which then made him start crying. Mom and Dad took both of them. They gave Phoebe Tylenol and she was able to sleep.
Mom, Dad, and I slept in until 9:45 Christmas morning. Our day officially started at 10. We finished our Advent reading and then did stockings. And then, since breakfast wasn't going to be done cooking for another half hour, we broke tradition and opened presents before breakfast. We had our brunch at noon which consisted of quiche (with meat, some minced veggies, tons of cheese, and of course eggs); french toast; scones; orange juice and cocoa. The brunch was amazing!
After brunch/cleaning up from that, everyone just lounged around until 2 when we decided to tidy up before people came :). Both sets of grandparents, Aunt Susie, and Uncle Chuck came over. I organized a thingy for the Katherine, Nathanael, Timothy, Kenan, and Jared to do. They sang Christmas songs and recited Bible verses. They were nervous to begin with, but they loosened up a little as they went on :). They remembered all their parts, with very few mess-ups—mainly because they were nervous—and I was so proud of them! :D
New Years Eve, our church had an "all-church family night" from six to ten. There were lots of hors d'oeuvres to munch on; people brought games and a group played Apples to Apples, others played Rummikub, others just talked. Some of the younger ones ran around and played tag. Towards the end, everyone (from the 2 year olds to the dads) played a game of charades. We used the Guesstures cards for the ideas of what to act out. We laughed a lot during the game. It was so much fun! We then made toasts and one from each family prayed for the new year. We arrived home at around 11; some of us stayed up until midnight to welcome 2011…and then promptly fell asleep. :P
We had a family over the next day to play some more games and fellowship. Some of us wanted to play Pictionary and it ended up being Mrs. Varsos, Bre, Miah, Mariah, Mom, and I playing. We separated into three teams which sounds fine! Except it was Bre and Mariah, Miah and I… and Mrs. Varsos and Mom. Which then it makes it not fine :). Because Mom is so extremely good at drawing and guessing things like the Eiffel Tower if you draw a line! Her and Mrs. Varsos? We knew there would be no competition. And we were right. :) There was none in that game. At all. Ever. But the point is to have fun, and we had that! At five, Mr. Varsos showed up at our house all dressed up looking sharp. They ended up taking Mom and Dad out for dinner at The Keg. The kids made quesadillas and salad for our dinner and watched Despicable Me :).
School has begun again and is going well (so far :D). Some of us are still sick with colds and coughs, but there’s no more of the flu, thankfully. :) Because of school starting after the 2 wk break, things usually take a little while before getting back to normal (especially with the chores), but Mom made this detailed kitchen cleanup schedule that is helping us in going right into 2011 smoothly. We know exactly what to do, when, and all that. Thanks, Mom! J
Right now I’m watching UP with the younger boys, Katherine, Mariah, and Mom. The older boys and Dad are at a men’s meeting. And it’s just getting to the good part. :) So I’m stopping now!
And leaving you with a late “Happy New Year!” and a “good night.”
<3 Tilly
