Happy new year! We survived December: a month with just about everything...travel, being snowed in on a trip, sickness, surgery, Christmas pageant, dance show, and of course the wonderfully fun Christmas holiday!
On the 1st, Bob got home from a week in Las Vegas, Erin had holiday cabaret rehearsal, and we adults enjoyed getting in the holiday spirit with a neighbor movie night. The 2nd was the big performance day, but not until after Bob worked on constructing the nativity at church and helped with an inurnment (funeral + placing an urn in the columbarium), and the girls had a piano group lesson/mock recital. Then, we all met back up to watch Erin's first dance performance onstage! She did a great job and really enjoyed it. From there, Erin and I went to Olivia's birthday party at her house and Anna and Bob went back to church for the nativity blessing, lighting, and reception. What a day!
We recovered somewhat on the 3rd, just going to church and to the yearly fun soiree at Liz and David's house...entertainment provided by the 8 kids and the remote controlled cars they each got from Liz and David. Their whole downstairs was a racetrack!
The next week, Bob got to see a new city, Austin, Texas. He seemed to enjoy it. We girls had tennis, sleigh rides at school,
2 days watching Sawyer, piano, Santa's workshop at school, and Anna in two performances of the school Christmas pageant (she sang wonderfully!) - all in 3 days!
Thursday after school, we ladies went straight to Boone for our big adventure with the McGee family. We got there around 6:30pm, they arrived around 9pm, and then Bob arrived around midnight, coming from the Charlotte airport.
Here is the story of the adventure in a nutshell: 1-3" of snow was predicted after midnight on Friday. We all arrived before that started. Woke up Friday morning with at least 6" of snow on the ground and more coming down! We had breakfast and based on reports we had heard of roads being ok, we headed out in two cars to go snow tubing. After sliding down the mountain maybe 1/4 mile, both cars ended up in ditches. So, we hiked back to the house and quickly realized that we didn't have much food (the plan was to bring breakfast and snack food and to get more groceries once we were there). So, the dads stayed at the house to call tow trucks and the moms headed down the mountain 2.5 miles with backpacks to get groceries. We had some nice App State students pick us up for drive us the last half mile or so down the mountain. After warming up in the store and finding some edible food at the Earth Fare, we began hiking back up the mountain. We saw many cars off the road, and the state trooper we saw said the storm was much worse than expected and the conditions were unusually bad. We helped a few people along the way and got driven maybe a half mile back up by a nice family. The next morning, Saturday, a tow truck was able to come get Bob's rental car out of the ditch but could not get to the other car. A second tow truck with chains on all 4 tires came back that night to get their car pulled out. Sunday morning, we shoveled the third car out of the steep driveway and were able to get all 3 cars to the entrance to the community where state-maintained roads started, which were in much better shape, and the kids and moms walked down since the third car was packed full of stuff and the other two were already at the entrance by that point. Then we slowly drove the rest of the way down to town, but not slow enough to keep Anna from getting carsick as the grand finale of the trip! We were late leaving after all of that and couldn't get to Concord for Ben and Cole's birthday party, and also did not get to get a tree, go ice skating, or snow tubing as planned. We were too late getting back to go to the neighborhood Santa party and hayride as well. But the kids did great being snowed in and got lots of time to play in the snow at the cabin!
So, we returned and Bob went to get us a Christmas tree at Food Lion the next day, and it was just fine. The McGees had to leave their trailer at the cabin due to the road conditions. Justin went back later that week, got the trailer, and was able to get a tree so they could enjoy a nice big tree for their first Christmas in their new house. The next week was wild with the usual things, plus Erin being sick Tuesday and Wednesday (cold/fever/malaise) and I had outpatient surgery on Wednesday the 13th. This was another big ovarian cyst on the same side as two years ago, and they think it started right after the last one was removed in January 2016, since the doctor noticed it last fall on my exam. Apparently scar tissue from removing one can cause other ones to form. So, this time they took the ovary out with the cyst on that side. It all went well and I have 2 very small incisions and one slightly larger one. Recovery went great once anesthesia wore off. This time they gave me a scopolamine patch to help with nausea and warned that it would cause dry mouth and blurred vision. That was for sure! Grandma A. came up to help with the girls and took them to a gingerbread house party at the neighbors' Wednesday afternoon, helped with school runs, and also helped me make food for the teacher cookie exchange and for a friend who had a baby. Grandma even helped with Erin's 9-year checkup on Thursday that could not be rescheduled...it went great and Erin checked out awesome!
Bob had to go to Boston that Thursday and Friday, but it worked out fine. So, that was another wild week! We wanted to have it done in December since we had already hit our insurance deductible AND out-of-pocket max for the year due to Erin's procedure in June, so we saved ourselves lots of money by dealing with the surgery inconvenience during this busy month.
Saturday the 16th was calmer, with just Erin's ballet class, and we made some hot cocoa treats for neighbors and teachers. Bob had a cold and wasn't feeling well and I had to go to an urgent care to get an antibiotic for a sinus infection. Sunday was more recovery time, and then the girls had 2-1/2 days of school the following week. They were pretty fun and easy days at school, and Erin also had a great prayer breakfast and reconciliation on Wednesday that Bob got to go to. We took Olivia and Josie to a fun pizza lunch after early release that day so their dad could handle a work meeting, then home to begin vacation! The girls got to see the Grinch and have a fun neighbor party on the 21st.
Erin had Enzo over to play on Friday the 22nd while Bob and Anna ran errands. Erin's cold that had started on the 12th took a turn for the worse on Saturday, so she went to the pediatrician and got amoxicillin for a sinus infection before we left for Concord.
We had lots of fun in Concord despite Erin not being 100%, and had a super awesome family Christmas celebration and lasagna lunch on the 24th!
Then we came home, lit our luminaries, and went to the neighbors' Christmas Eve party and had a great time!
Then on to bed so Santa could come, and he did! We had a fun Christmas morning opening presents and then going to church.
We spent the rest of the day playing with our presents! Tuesday, I hit the stores bright and early to shop for Santa's Secret Workshop at school for next year, which is always fun and good for some strange looks as I pile bunches of the same item into several carts. Wednesday was more shopping and Erin had to go back to the doctor since she was still not back to normal. They gave her Omnicef which finally cleared her up after 4 or so additional days on that. We also did some research and bought tickets/made reservations for our big trip to Europe this coming summer!! Thursday morning was more shopping, and that evening we had Tom, Pam, Jimmy, and Danny over for dinner and presents and had a great time! Friday, we watched dog friend Bear and then his family as well as another family came over for snacks and to watch the Wolfpack win their bowl game. Saturday, we saw Grandma and Grandpa F. on their way back from the beach to pick up things for their new house! Sunday, we put away Christmas stuff (sad) and Bob built Erin a nifty new cart for her new overhead projector. We didn't do much for New Year's Eve, but that was fine with us. Nobody here made it to midnight.
So, that was December. We all survived, no worse for the wear! It is always a busy month, and this year was extra busy with Bob's travel, my surgery, and Erin's marathon illness. It all worked out great though, and here's to 2018!
