December 22nd

Up-and-at'em this morning! No rest for the weary. Things to do, places to go . . . Brad's mom arrived today for Christmas. We had to get the house clean and do some shopping before her plane landed.

I got up and ready to go. The kids had done a good job yesterday of cleaning their rooms and their bathroom. I had picked up most of the downstairs. Brad cleaned our room and bathroom this morning. Originally our plan was to go out and do some shopping together but we decided to go solo, one at a time, so Miranda wouldn't have to hold down the fort by herself for so long.

There were just a few more things on our list of things to get. Instead of heading to major shopping centers, I went to the outlets, Birches Habitat, and Safeway in North Bend. I like to try to stay local and support our area businesses. We have a picture for Brad's mom of her three kids together this summer so I bought a frame for that. At the outlets, I picked up a couple of last-minute items for Brad and chocolate-covered gummy bears that Krish and Lina like. At Safeway, candy and a few stocking stuffers.

When I got home, Brad left to do his shopping. The kids and I finished picking things up and working on getting gifts organized. We wrapped some things and put them under the tree. Amazon dropped off five big packages. The boys helped me take them up to my bedroom. I kept the laundry going.

Kori dropped off Lucky for Miranda to babysit for about an hour. He was so happy and cute! He is about 15 months old and at that age where he mimics sounds. He would copy the kids' laugh. Megan came over about 4:30pm. She wanted to see the kids before she heads back to college in January. We had arranged for her to come over while we went to pick up Brad's mom. The kids were very excited to see Megan. She gave them "Arthur's Christmas" for a gift and they watched that with her after eating dinner.

Brad and I headed down to the airport. We picked up his mom and were planning to take her to dinner. But since Brad had booked her flight, she had his status to fly and was bumped up to First Class. She was fed dinner on the plane and wasn't hungry. But we were! The traffic to Southcenter was crazy so we decided just to go to Issaquah and stop there. Brad chose Five Guys. Man, they have good burgers. I'm really not a burger fan, but I do like a good burger :)  His mom wanted to get some things for the kids for Christmas so we stopped at Target. Then she wanted to go to Trader Joe's, too, to get some treats for the kids.

When we got home, the kids were thrilled to see Nana. Megan stayed for a bit and we visited with her, too. I'm so glad she is going back to college. It's hard for her because she gets very homesick. But I know she has a good time at college. The kids ate Nana's treats and then we rounded them all up for bed. After all were tucked in tight, I went through the gifts and wrapped one thing for each of the kids. I discovered a couple of mistakes! I forgot to get the 6th book in the How To Train Your Dragon series for Krish. So he'll get 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Oh well! And I thought I had ordered the Captain Underpants series for Bird--but apparently I didn't. It wasn't in the Scholastic bag order with Miranda's Found series. Thankfully I do have the Turkey Bowl book and a Calvin & Hobbes book for Bird.

My plan is to wrap one gift for each of them tonight and then tomorrow I'll just have one for each to wrap and be done. Santa leaves his gifts unwrapped :)  I think he is leaving two things for each of the kids.

Each year I make a photo calendar for my parents for Christmas. It's not done yet--sorry, Mom! I'll try to get it done by January 1st. I told Brad I would do one for his mom, too, and I haven't even started. Maybe I'll have time tomorrow after church to work on them.