Whew!

It's been a while since I posted! That time just flew by, didn't it? Vicki has been doing a little blog-updating during the holidays, so at least there isn't a complete void of goings-on around here.

In a nutshell: Christmas was great. I got to go the midnight Mass, which is my favorite thing to do for Christmas, especially with my older boys as altar servers. Tyler and Kenzie even went with me this time around. Kenzie still doesn't believe in Santa, even though he gave her coal in her stocking for not believing. All the kids got just about everything they asked for, and were still grumpy from all sensory overload that comes this time of year. Around here, the gift-giving process took several days. We had Christmas morning at our house. Christmas afternoon my sister's (where my mother challenged me to fit all the stuff into the van; that van hasn't failed me yet, but it was tight this year). The day after with my in-laws. A day or two later, the in-laws again with stuff they forgot to bring to us the previous trip. A few days later, my mom again. She was bored and came to visit. This time she brought stuff I had forgotten, and left at my sister's house on Christmas day. We'll be seeing her again soon because she had to exchange a few things that were duplicates or broke.

New Year's Eve was fantastic. We spent it at a local church (I think Vicki wrote about it), not our own. Our church doesn't do the fun things other churches do. Well, that's not fair, I guess. They do fun things that are oriented toward an older crowd, not one whose average age is 14.25 years old, as it is in our house. Anyway, we got to see some great amateur entertainment and enjoy some wonderful Christian fellowship. Kenzie and Connor even played the piano as part of the talent show. They played four different times over the holidays for family, friends, and on stage. Tyler did, too, except for the talent show. He got shy, with the piano being up there on a stage.

Back to the grind today. Vicki went to work, I tried to do a little school (not the full load on the first day). Other than dealing with Tyler's mood this morning, it was a pretty good day. As you know, we were expecting this first day to be a real bear with Kearsyn. She has been refusing to drink from a bottle and her schedule, well, she doesn't have one. To my surprise, she slept 'til 10:30 am (from about midnight). She drank two ounces in ten minutes, then waited until the rest of us ate lunch before wanting more. Then, while I was helping Alex and Connor with math, Kenzie gave Kearsyn three more ounces with no trouble at all. She drank another ounce for me, and another for Alex, while I was taking the piano players to their lessons. I also took Bekah and Tay with me so Alex could focus on Kearsyn only, while I was out. By the time I got home, Alex had Kearsyn asleep again. I am assuming tomorrow I am going to pay for such a smooth day today. And it was a Tuesday, too!

I have more to say, but there are more important things to do right now. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to this soon.