Christmas Scrooge

I feel like Scrooge this year. It is hard to get into the Christmas festivities and I feel bad for the kids, but I don't think they are missing it. I think it was by pure luck that the tree and stockings got put up this year. I am just waiting for Ron, the neighbor, to call on us. I choose to put the tree up in the addition because there isn't enough room in the old house to put up the tree. For some reason, getting into the holidays is hard when so much is going on otherwise. I don't usually push much as in the way of tradition, but this year the kids are thinking Santa must be telepathic because we didn't even do letters to Santa. With no TV, I don't think the kids even know it is Christmas because we aren't bombarded with advertisements and other holiday specials. So we have to give thanks all our family who are picking up my lack of spirit this year.

I think the addition is sucking all the energy out of us and the kids are focused on getting into their own rooms, but I think Santa still has a few surprises up his sleeve. Jasmine surprised me last night by saying she didn't want any gifts; all she wanted was to get into her own room. She wanted to donate her gifts to the less fortunate (they have a giving tree at school). She is a sweet girl. I think she is onto something, hopefully we will in a position to do some of that next year.

Now that we are coming into the coldest months of the year, Chris has expressed his "excitement" to see the heating bill. I can feel the drafts coming through the front door and windows, and Tony's room is the ice box of the house. We have resorted to leaving his door open to allow the heat to come in through the night, but that has lead to some real early mornings for him. Luckily he has gone back to sleep, otherwise with the door closed he is a popsicle in the mornings with blue lips. Chris spent most of last night dialing in the upstairs wirsbo so now all the bedrooms should be equally heated and the downstairs shouldn't have hot spots in the floor. Yeah!!!

This Sunday, Tony (Erik's brother-in-law) is coming down to the house to measure for carpet. That will be wonderful to get another big project done, hopefully we are able to get the staircase done too so Tony can carpet them as well. Unfortunately, our back up electrician is either busy or laid up. On Tuesday, Justin fell outside his house and hit his head. There is a small window during the day when no one is home and he choose that moment to go out to his garage and fall. He called my mom who told him to call 911 and my father went over to his house. The EMTs came and took him to the hospital to check him out and the CAT scan came back fine. So now Justin just has to recover from sore bones and a golf ball size bump on his head. If that is all the mishap that goes on for all of us, I will be thankful.

So I am praying for everyone to stay healthy and safe this season.