Christmas Eve

Thank goodness I was WAY more organized this year than last. Normally, Scott and i both procrastinate and wait until Christmas Eve night to do all of the "preparation." Each year we tell ourselves that we are not going to do "that" again and we are going to actually sit down, eat snacks and watch a Christmas movie together after the kids are fast asleep. This year happened a little different. I was on call for a birth in Petoskey and sure enough I got the call FIRST THING Christmas Eve morning saying the birth was imminent. My nerves and adrenalin kicked in and I made a mad dash to get all of the remaining wrapping done, organized each child's "pile" for Scott and headed to Petoskey. Once there, my client was 6 cm which is great progress! So I thought. I had visions of delivering the baby at 2:30, flying out of there and making to meet my family for Mass. Nope. Not happening. The baby knew she was destined to be a Christmas baby and waited until EXACTLY 12:00 Midnight, Christmas morning. Oh man was I missing my kids and Scott. But this is what I signed up for and to help this first time mom, in the end, was an amazing gift. As I sat in the labor room, I got periodic texts from my dear friend Mary, whose family joined ours for the evening. She updated me on how well Scott dressed the kids (yes, all matching-thanks daddy), and how well they sat through a service of one hour and forty-five minutes! Yikes! And then to dinner where they were visited by Santa and, of course, got their stockings and such special gifts from Mimi and Papu and the Cueter's. It was then time for them to head back home to get into bed in time for Santa to make his way to our house. My amazing mom was already there putting gifts out and getting things ready for Christmas morning. What would we do without family??? I appreciate every minute of it! By the time I got home at 2:30 am, the tree looked incredible. I wanted to take it all in and capture the image in my memory because in no more than a few hours, the kids would work their magic and have the entire living room in disarray.

Mermaid

I have to post this because it is a perfect illustration of our eldest daughter and her passion for science, religion and things like...mermaids. She went through a phase for a while where she wanted to BE a mermaid. She googled Mermaids and found a story on one of the major news channels about "real life" mermaids and the costumes they wear. They actually spend much time in the ocean and have an incredible ability to stay under water longer than what any other human being has ever known been known to do. Her idea after having read this acrticle was to have Nona make her a mermaid tail out of swimable material so that she could actually swim in it. To top it off, she found an actual mono fin online that she wanted to add to it by putting it inside the tail that Nona made her. So Mimi and Papu gave her the mono fin for Christmas to put into the fin of the other tail. Check it out.