Where's Winter?

The kids are out of school, anxious for Christmas, and wondering where all the snow is.

Hakan missed church last Sunday because he was up during the night coughing, and had a fever for part of it. He seemed to feel much better as Monday went on, so he was back in school Tuesday. Merritt came down with the cough, though, and he's also in recovery. Kira had a glimpse of the stuffy nose and achy throat, but it never got too bad for her. We hope that's all it's going to do this round. Maybe we can all be well for a Christmas.

I tried to get some work done in the mornings this week, though it was a challenge. Getting woken up by the boys a few nights in a row after a long semester has got me wiped out. Kira and I went Christmas shopping for some last gifts one of the mornings, and hope to be done, although Hakan has suddenly begun bringing up some small robot toy he heard about. We're hopeful that he'll be okay with a robot toy Avey picked out for him, along with his other gifts. We think we're pretty good on everything else.

Hannah passed her licensing test on Wednesday, taking a load off of her mind, and she now gets a nice break while school is out. She's still keeping busy with her other job and then giving what attention she has left to Merritt, who craves time with her constantly.

Kira spent Thursday volunteering for Christmas parties at the boys' school, while I tried to keep Merritt and Apollo from eating each other at home. Kira also has been helping with a Christmas party at church that took place today. That's been a surprisingly challenging task, with people who had volunteered to help or provide food dropping out, and Kira trying to pick up the slack. Yesterday, for example, she learned that the person who was bringing the ham had to take her husband to the Emergency Room, so Kira asked for someone to take it over, didn't hear anything, so bought ham to take herself. Naturally, then someone else said they would do the ham, so we needed to return the ones we bought.

The weather was very cold at the first part of the week, but there wasn't enough snow to get excited, and then things have been very pleasant since then. Today it's supposed to get to 50 degrees, and so we've given up on the chance of a white Christmas. It looks like there'll be no sledding or snowmen for the rest of the year.

Friday was a joyous day, as Carver had his best friend come over to play. He'd been looking forward to that for a while. Dillon is not in his class this year, so they just see each other at recess, mostly. They got along really well, and even let Hakan join in the fun the whole time. If only Apollo would get along with strangers, it would have been a better time, but we took him over to his doggie-friend's house for his own play date so that the boys could play in peace.

The next few days are sure to go by quickly, and we'll try to keep everyone occupied. If you didn't receive our yearly letter in your email, that means I don't have your email address. You can contact me through this site's homepage to give me your email, or if you have mine already, let me know.