I Survived... Did you?

Despite our two hour wait for Santa we survived to tell the tale. That's how I feel about much of 2010. I survived. I'm much more hopeful about 2011 though. My sisters keep trying to convince me that turning 40 is great but I still hated it. It didn't help that the other week I had someone ask me when they saw me with my foster-daughter if I was a grandma. What?!? Thanks a lot! I hate 40. (for those of you who didn't hear the news... our foster-daughter who left in March of last year returned to us on December 9th - Yeah!!!!)

Despite a two-week intestinal flu during the month of December I managed to pull everything together at the last minute and recovery in time for Christmas. That was a relief not only for present buying and wrapping but also in time to enjoy Christmas dinner. It would have been a tragedy to miss the turkey, gravy and best of all... my sister's stuffing!

Two of my kids confessed that this was the "best Christmas ever!" It really was a great Christmas.



Any Christmas is great when my sister and her family come to stay with us. I dread the day when her kids grow old enough to have families of their own and when she will decide to stay home and have Christmas with them at her house. I am already trying to convince my nephews now that when they get married they will definitely still want to come to my house for Christmas because that is TRADITION.

Thank goodness I did all my shopping for the string pull before I got sick. The string pull is our family Christmas game where you pull on a string and you never know what you will find in the bag on the other end of the string.
It could be something good like a bag of Ghiardelli chocolates or something silly like a pink hat from the dollar store.
It could even be money in an envelope. We had a lot of fun with the string pull this year with Pirate gear, an army hat and Franken-monkey making appearances.


My sister was supposed to end up with the Franken-monkey yet somehow with all of the trading at the end of the string pull it went home with my mother-in-law to go in her arcade "claw" machine with lots of other stuffed animals that she received for Christmas this year.

Unfortunately my boys went over to their grandma's and played the claw machine and as luck would have it Sheriff used the claw and pulled Franken-monkey out. (it wasn't really luck because he REALLY wanted the Franken-monkey). So much for my evil plan. It bit me in the you-know-what.

Of course we mustn't forget the current sock monkey war going on between April and myself. You already know about Franken-monkey but I also gave her a whole sock monkey ensemble and another sock monkey tied onto the outside of a gift bag for her and Drew. That makes a total of 5 sock monkeys for Christmas this year. April gave me a sock monkey candy jar and two candy dishes but of course she also hid a sock monkey reindeer and sock monkey on my tree at the beginning of December so that also takes her up to 5. Rats! It is a tie. Of course I hid one of her sock monkeys in her backpacks to take home when she left so that gives me 6! Yeah!!!!! She vows she will get me back. I believe it.





The best part of Christmas this year though was not the presents but to have our little foster-daughter back with us. She went back to her birth-father in March and in December she returned. Of course as foster parenting goes we don't count on it being permanent but we are enjoying her company while we have it. She is a beautiful 2-year-old now with a strong personality and our boys continue to shower her with love and attention. She, in turn, entertains them and gives them hugs and smiles. So although it was rough going for us for most of 2010 as we missed her terribly, it ended on a positive note to have her back at the end. Our Christmas gift.