Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a lovely day celebrating our Savior’s birth. We opened gifts, then played games. I got the kids Old Maid, Go Fish, and Crazy Eights because the younger few had no idea how to play any of them. They’ve turned into big hits here this week. It’s been fun, silly, funny, and created a whole lot of laughs. We were invited to friends’ for supper on Christmas night. It was so very odd to not spend the day cooking. Sweet potatoes were my contribution. Ridiculously simple. We enjoyed food and fellowship with good friends. And come December 26, I mourned the fact that my fridge was not stuffed with leftovers. Fair enough trade, but sad nonetheless.

We were able to get passes to Silver Dollar City, a local amusement park of sorts, once more. A friend is an employee and graciously offered us her employee discount. It made the rest of the Christmas gifts quite minimal, which I far prefer anyway. I’m looking forward to using our passes in the new year. I’m dreading what the end of this pregnancy is going to do to me with the amount of walking required, but what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, right? I told the kids if all else fails they’ll be pushing me around in one of those rented wheelchairs. The hills of SDC will make that a roller coaster ride all its own. Just. Don’t Let. Go!

Liberty got all the grown up gifts. Jumper cables. Flashers. An neon vest to wear in case she has to change a tire on the highway. I got her wool socks just to soften the blow, so she could have something for herself. Welcome to adulthood, dear girl. My gift from Blaine: two fancy hot glue guns in two different sizes to replace the dying one I bought to make our wedding decorations almost 18 years ago, and a pair of slippers I ordered myself. His gift: A brake bleeder or some such tool that he picked out himself to make changing brakes on our vehicles easier. We’re living the big life, I tell you.

Today I took Liberty fabric shopping. She wants a super full, floor length skirt. Dear girl is 5’7″, 94 pounds, and every dress she owns is getting scandalously short really fast. Everything that fits her body is dreadfully short. We chose a circle skirt – basically, a 90″ circle with a 9″ diameter hole cut out of the middle of it, an elastic waist put in that circle, and the bottom hemmed. Super simple. But. That makes the circumference of the hem 25 feet. It. Took. Hours. The skirt is 40″ long. She’s at a youth group gathering tonight and hasn’t tried it on since I finished it. I’m praying it’s the perfect length and I don’t have to roll that hem and sew it once more. I might cry.

I’m 17 weeks along tomorrow. I have my anatomy ultrasound scheduled for mid-January, and I’m in an all out war with myself on whether I want to find out the gender of this child via ultrasound or if we wait until it’s born. I love being surprised, but I gave away all the baby clothes after Stellan. If I’m going to make some things, and find things thrifted, I need to start searching for things soon. But the surprise! I’m so torn. Baby is kicking more and more, heartbeat is in upper 160’s, and I’m measuring ahead a week or two. Five of mine have been 9+ pounds, and it would seem this one is going to join that chubby crowd. They’ve skipped the newborn size clothes and jumped straight into size 1 diapers.

The tree is down and ornaments put away, and my house was cleaned. (But it is no longer, since something like 24 hours have passed.) Blaine has a few more days off next week and then we head back into school again and life returns to normal. It’s been a lovely break.