December 23rd-The End Of The Year {the condensed version}...

Okay, who am I trying to kid?  I'll do my {New Year's best} to condense this.

Thursday.  I ran around the house like a crazy lady preparing for Christmas Eve.  Apparently the stress missed Keith and Kyle.  They put on a mini concert.  A little Survivor and The Outfield both got top billing.

Friday. Christmas Eve.  No work. {for me}  Had to drive to town to get something to Andrew and then made my way to the Hyde Park neighborhood to deliver a few treats.  All in my pjs.  In the evening we celebrated at my parents' house.  Great food.  Great gifts.  Great time. {it won't take much to notice I "forgot" my eyebrows...and lipstick.  yikes, girl.}

The church service changed to 10:00 and that is a bit of exciting news.  It was awesome as always.  None of us could wait to get home, however, to get to bed.  Kyle fell asleep on the way home so Andrew took care of business.  He sprinkled the reindeer food and put carrots out for the reindeer, set up a plate of leftover treats and a bottle of water for Santa, as well as a note for him too.  On the back of a used envelope.  Classy.  We crossed our fingers that Santa was milk-and-cookied out and would welcome the other.  We must have been right because one of the elves wrote back saying Santa did appreciate it as well as the elves because Santa shared with them!  Bingo.  Keith and I fell asleep on the couch and went to bed at 1:20.  Andrew said he woke up at 3:23, found Santa's presents and slept the rest of the night on the couch.  Caleb said he woke up at 3:03 and although he didn't pay too close attention, he didn't notice the presents under the tree yet.  So in case you weren't watching the radar, Santa stopped by our neighborhood just after 3 a.m.

Saturday.  Christmas.  The sweet boys let us sleep in until after 8 sometime.  It was funny because I could feel Andrew hovering over me, watching me.  It happens every other year when the boys are with us.  I finally told him that he didn't have to creep.  He could just wake us up.  I got the typical shriek of excitement.  Cute.  First we went through our stockings.  This year Santa remembered me.  The year he didn't was quite something.  And hard to explain to the kids when I didn't know the answer myself.  Anyway, after that we opened all the gifts from the kids.  Sweet things.  They were very thoughtful with their choices.  Next they opened all their gifts from us, then from Santa and then as they went off to play, Keith and I opened our gifts from each other.  I don't know when we got into that habit but we do it so we can watch the boys open all their gifts.  Snoopy pants {Caleb} ended up a lucky boy because when he went through my texts and found what I wanted to buy him for Christmas, I told him to forget it.  In the end, I gave each boy $50 toward "Legos" for Andrew, "Black Ops" for Caleb and "whatever" for Kyle and like I said, Caleb ended up lucky because a) I caved with the money and b) Santa brought Black Ops.  Now everyone had money for our trip.

 After the morning exchange, the boys went to their dad's for the day and then came back to do an evening exchange with the Stratton clan.  More fun.  More food.  More gifts.  Yowza.  We are definitely spoiled children.  All of us.

Sunday. Headed to Illinois for our trip.  Andrew woke up feeling lousy.  Headache and sore throat.  He told me he was still up for the trip though.  The boys got ready and I drove them to church.  Andrew had sermon notes due and when he had gone with me two weeks prior, the church was out of sermon note papers.  It kind of put us off schedule but it needed to be done.  I packed up the van while Keith picked the boys up and then we were off.  We didn't do too bad.  Somehow we made it to our destination like 45 minutes early but lost time on the way home and I'm not talking about the time change.  We missed our first toll booth and then panicked for about 15 minutes because we didn't know where we were.  Thankfully Jo was just a text away. {or 7 texts away}  Basically, we went to the mall, {where the rest of Illinois was}Caleb stood in the Hollister line for almost an hour, ate at Rainforest Cafe, swam in the hotel pool and watched tv...on 3 different tvs.  Anytime we weren't moving, Andrew slept.  In the van.  At Hollister in a chair.  At dinner.  At the hotel watching tv.  This was the pattern the entire trip.  Poor buddy.  He slept with me.  Caleb slept with Keith.  kyle slept on the couch.  He had his own tv so he was on cloud nine.

Monday.  Got up and ready for breakfast.  Promptly headed to Legoland Discovery Zone.  Totally intended for Andrew.  Being the middle, he constantly feels left out.  This was for him, but we knew it would be enjoyed by Kyle  and Caleb, if he opened his mind to it.  There was an amazing set up of Chicago, followed by a jungle and Indiana Jones.  Some super heroes were built for picture purposes.  There was a ride, kind of like the ones at Disney in the "It's a Small World" park, and a factory setting to show how legos are made.  Andrew and Kyle each received a special edition lego made only at the discovery zone.  Pretty cool.  We watched a 4D movie, which was pretty cool, and apparently missed another one.  We also built a replica of the Sears Tower which we could have purchased but the boys didn't want to.  We ate lunch, received more legos, and played in the building zone.  After leaving, I was dropped off at IKEA and the boys headed to a massive Dick's store.  I called them to pick me up, with purchases in tow, and we headed back to the mall for dinner.  Jo met up with us for dinner and some shopping.  It was nice to see that sweet face in a far away land. ☺Andrew hadn't found what he wanted at Legoland so we stopped at the lego store.  He bought something but still saved most of his money for an online lego purchase.  We went back to the hotel, which by the way was really nice, {thanks so much Kelley for hooking us up} and hit the pool again before tv time and sleep.

Tuesday.  I woke up feeling like total crap.  Headache, sore throat, swollen glands, achy body.  You name it.  Ate breakfast, pool and packing.  Hit The Container Store and Home Goods before heading out.  I really wanted to shop but I really didn't.  I felt miserable.  The ride home was a bit different than the ride to.  Lots of semi trucks.  Missed our first toll booth again.  Thankfully you can pay online.  I originally noticed that my map quest directions were a mile off from one direction to the other but never gave it a second thought.  Following them on the way home, however, we soon realized we were taking a totally different route home.  It was like the scene form European Vacation...Big Ben, Parliament...I wasn't sure we'd ever make it home.  But we did.  Thankfully.  I spent the rest of the day and the next 5 days {minus New Year's EVE} on the couch.  Miserable.  Wrapped up in my new Christmas blankies.  Never knew they'd come in handy sooo soon.

Wednesday.  Thursday.  Friday.  I don't remember much.  Keith spent his days away from home.  On purpose.  He left me alone so he wouldn't get sick.  He even slept downstairs on the pull-out every night.  Friday I finally loaded myself up consistently with Motrin so by about 4pm I was feeling okay.  I decided to party it up with my friends and all the kids.  Okay, by party it up I really mean I ate a little, drank zilch, and laughed and coughed a ton.  The cough was new.  It only happened when I talked.  Or laughed.  No Dirty Minds this year.  Instead it was LRC and Bullshit.  It's comical how good of a player one can be at Bullshit when one is the only ONE sober. Charades wasn't a drinking game.  It happened after the ball dropped and after people were attempting to sober up.  It was, however, fun while it lasted.  Happy New Year, peeps!

Saturday.  So I texted Christine at about five minute til 6 a.m. when we got home Saturday morning.  My sickness came back full force and I didn't get up from the couch again all day.  Blah.  Kyle had lots of time to play with all his new toys and PS3 because his parents were worthless and his brothers were at their dad's. 

Sunday.  I think Sunday was pretty much like Saturday.

Technically I went beyond the rest of the year and technically I didn't condense as well as I had hoped.  And I don't usually post this many pics so I had to resort to the school Christmas party order of business and collage the heck out of my photos. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a super great New Year.