December Happenings

As you probably know better than me, December was a busy, fun-filled month! The first weekend Lee made all of the arrangements and got us one of these:



He found it on a local re-sale site for $50. It desperately needs a tuning, but it looks great! It was also nice to have an extra surface to put Christmas decorations on. I am glad he went through all the trouble: finding a piano, contacting the person about it, arranging the use of a trailer, getting help, moving it with his help, and even mopping the floor and vacuuming up from the dirt and mud that was tracked in to our house from moving the piano. Thanks Lee!

On Dec 10th, Clark didn't have school. Well, let me back up and give an introduction. Most of you have read The Scarlet Letter, or viewed the Scarlet Pimpernel, or insanely enjoyed the mom squeezing the needle into her hand in Scarlet and The Black (that was for you Roger), or maybe you have even indulged in a piece of scarlet cake (okay, so it's called red velvet cake, but that's beside the point.) Over Thanksgiving Lee got sick and so did Shanna. They seemed to have the same sickness, but Shanna got a rash all over her body. A few days later Haley and Cal got the same sickness. Acetaminophen seemed to do the trick and they seemed healthy in a few days. I thought Clark and I were the lucky ones and had missed out in the illness. But one Sunday afternoon Clark told us that his throat hurt. Then later my throat hurt. I thought it might be a mental trick--kind of like when you read or hear about lice and your scalp starts itching. But no. My throat really sore. Thus far this school year, Clark has used up the maximum amount of unexcused absences. After missing two days of school I had Lee take Clark to the hospital purely on the basis of getting a dr.'s note excusing him from school because of illness. Bad reason, yes; but like I said my other kids seems to perk up in a reasonable amount of time so I wasn't worried about Clark. Turns out Clark and all of my kids had scarlet fever.

A few hours later Haley and I were at the hospital too getting checked out. I too had a form of strep. That night Lee and I were both on a Z-pack and the kids were on amoxicillin. I worried about giving four kids liquid medicine, but my fears were quickly calmed. They were all so excited to take it! Cal even guzzled at least 30 mils one morning (don't try and give 4 kids medicine all at once...do it one at a time.) Lee called the pharmacist about it and the pharmacist couldn't even find a lethal dosage of amoxicillin, so Cal just missed out on the evening serving. (WHEW!)

So one afternoon while all the kiddos were home we did a snowman craft--thanks for the idea Lois! I think Elden particularly enjoyed it!








The 11th of December we went up to the Lake of the Ozarks for a holiday family night. One reason for the trip was to go to a light display. With a coupon it was $8 a vehicle. There were some other light displays that were free, but were another half hour away AFTER an hour+ drive, so $8 sounded great. We drove into the park and stopped to hand over the money and coupon. To our surprise the guy there told us we were the 100th vehicle of the evening and we got to go through for free! It was awesome!

On the 12th we enjoyed going to the temple, doing some shopping and attending tithing settlement. We have an amazing Bishop!

On Sunday the 13th, I wanted to go to a live nativity that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (my church) was having in Springfield. They were also holding a crèche display. But after going to the Lake of the Ozarks and then St. Louis, we really didn't feel like driving again. We opted instead to go to a church in Crocker and check out their Journey to Bethlehem. It was really nice! We literally went on a little journey to find Joseph, Mary and the Holy Baby. We were stopped by Roman soldiers, visited relatives on the way, saw Kind Herod plotting his pointless evil deed to find and destroy the Holy Baby, went to Jerusalem for the census, and tried to find Mary and Joseph in the crowded inns. What a special moment it was entering the "stable" where Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus were. We definitely want to go next year.
















The next week I was busy with making pajama pants, Elden's stocking and doing Christmas cards. We also went to Lee's Christmas work party and on a different day had a great time caroling with friends. The week of Christmas we had a fun Family Home Evening with our friends the Cantrells, on what gifts our Savior has given us, then played Settlers of Catan. And of course there were the usual baking and cleaning days to prepare for the holiday guests!

The Seven Socks. It was hard to fit them into one picture!


It was nice hanging up the last stocking of our family. We love you baby Elden!




Guess we wiped out baby Elden!


Well, just a little


The kids manage to find things to do!






Wow, there is a little height difference going on!