One crazy week

Whew! What a week it's been. There seems to be so much to do and not enough time to do it in! We FINALLY got our tree put up - six hours, 850 lights and several dozen ornaments later and we're set. Our beautiful "present tree" is up, our outside lights are set and now all that's left is the gift buying. Yip, it's last minute shopping, which I don't like very much at all, but with the busy year we've had, it feels like all I did was blink and the year was done and in the process I've seem to have run out of time. I'm not as prepared as I like to be, but hey, there's always next year, right?

The kids are doing wonderfully well. They had a lot of fun decorating the tree with me and really were a great help. Anna had a little bit of a fall this week and chipped her right front tooth. I feel so bad because we have to wait a few years before the tooth falls out, which means she's going to have to walk around with it for a while longer. I suppose if it really bothers her in a couple of years we can always get it fixed. Joshua's been staying out of trouble. We're thinking about starting him in Karate. He's old enough now and it will be a great way for him to make new friends and learn something that will help him for the rest of his life.

The countdown has begun - eight days left to Christmas. I've made my list, and checked it twice - now all I have to do is go out and get the presents. We have some last minute things to be done around the house and then we'll be ready for Christmas morning. Ready to see the joy on Joshua and Anna's faces as they open up their gifts.

Midweek break in South Carolina

After three cold days in South Carolina, it's very good to be home! In spite of the weather (we were able to put our winter clothes to good use for the second time in two weeks), we had a wonderful time. Our trip started out with our flight being delayed by an hour, but after that it was smooth sailing.




It was our first trip to Myrtle Beach and while we didn't love it (it reminded us a lot of Orlando, but without the theme parks), we certainly loved Charleston. A beautiful city that trully captures the "Southern charm" that you would expect from a Southern city.



We stayed in a condo hotel that had an indoor waterpark. The kids loved it!!! It had two adult sized slides that Joshua (who's growing more into a little boy everyday) wanted to go down by himself. I have to admit - Scott and I were VERY nervous about letting him do that, but we decided to be brave and let our little guy do his thing. I'm so glad that we did that! His first slide down I stayed at the bottom and Scott took him to the top of the slide to make sure that he was safe. He had a BLAST!! We couldn't get him to go with us after that. It was one of those proud, bittersweet moments as parents and we'll treasure that memory forever. Anna went down the slide with us too, but wasn't too crazy about it. She liked just playing in the water.




All in all, a great few days. Now it's weekend again and hopefully we'll go out and get our Christmas tree. I'm really looking forward to the kids helping us decorate the tree this year. It's going to be lots of fun!