First Christmas Card Received Brings Back Wonderful Memories

Our first (and only so far) Christmas card received this year is from the farthest away of those we normally receive. I'm happy to say we receive one from this particular couple every year since we've been married. It is from New Zealand (Bay of Islands) and is from a couple who own a B&B in Opua where we stayed for part of our honeymoon. We hit it off right off the bat with this couple and they frankly felt like a wonderful aunt and uncle to us. Every year we exchange Christmas cards and I am touched by the handwritten note always included. This year it was 2 pages long. :-) It came at a good time, when we both can use some positive energy flow around here. Luckily we've been creating a lot of our own, but other input doesn't hurt at all!



In other news, our wonderful daughter made this totally awesome drawn, cut and pasted together little girl! She wants to make up a game for her bday party called "pin the nose on the boy and girl." I'm excited to get her going on making the boy and girl and the noses.

We are also gearing up to teach swing dancing at our church's volunteer appreciation night. They will be having a live band and I just got our baby sitter in place as there was a little miscommunication on whether we had one or not or whether the church had child care that night. It should be fun.

Yesterday I didn't take my new allergy medicine for the first time in several days. I am not real happy to admit I might have allergies for the first time in my life (besides penicillin, darvocet, many other pain relievers and muscle relaxers, and carrots (yes I said carrots)). So last night at the end of the dance class I teach my throat started getting very sore and after I went to bed I woke up in the middle of the night with completely clogged sinuses. I gladly took my meds today and feel MUCH better. Darn, I was hoping I didn't need them.

Today I've been trying to rest as my insomnia is catching up with me. I took a nice bath and just about fell asleep in the tub. The most precious part of my resting was Miles joining me and cuddling and insisting we sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". After each song he'd say "More spider mommy." Each time he got the words a little better. It is just so fun working with each child on their development and learning. I actually broke down and bought the 1st grade math book for Ella. It is a little scary to admit she is ready for it. But if she loves it and is good at it, why not. And it is not too hard to believe she'd be prone to be good at math. Look at her parents, look at her grandparents... I just hope that stupid stigma that girls aren't good at math has diffused since I was in school.