As the Year Winds Down...

I know, I know...I've been off in blogging...AGAIN! Life has been so busy and I've been neglectful. I have so much to say, but haven't taken the time to say it. Soooo...here's a recap of the last 17 days in photos and words:

It was no small miracle that the trees and decorations got put up. It's such a process at our house and this year, it was in the midst of a very busy schedule.

Things were up just in time for DS 1 to come home and enjoy a moment under the tree with DS 3 and LG.
We had a day in Tampa to take pics with family. This is a picture that DS 3 took of my DH and Me.

And here's one of our family.

My Mom gave us tickets to spend one day at Busch Gardens before the holiday. I took DSs 2, 3, and 4 and LG and some of their friends for a day up there. It was a nice day and we had a blast! DS 4 even rode his first roller coaster.

DS 3, LG and I went out one night to look at holiday lights. We found this display at a local church where the lights are synchronized to music. They had hot chocolate and cookies after you walked through their huge display.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve Service and a quiet celebration at my in-laws. Grandma was quite creative in her gift giving this year! The boys and LG loved opening each of their presents that were filled with so much LOVE!

Once again the boys indulged me and let me get them all Christmas PJ's. It is always a fun thing for me to shop for them. This year it was a little difficult because I had to also find something that would work for LG. Still...she had a blast in the mix of all these guys!

We spent Christmas Day at my Dad's house. As always it's filled with laughter, great food, and family fun!

At the beginning of this week, we loaded up DS2 and what remained of DS 1's stuff and moved them to Gainesville. Here is DH and his co-pilot LG ready to drive the truck!

DSs 1 and 2 got a very nice apartment and will be living together this semester. They seem excited to take this venture. I am reminded of when they were little...they told me they'd never be able to be apart because they were used to sharing a room. So...here they are moved in and once again, sharing living space! I'm glad they're such good friends.
After we dropped them off, DH, DS 3, LG and I went to Orlando for a couple of days. We enjoyed the Ice! Exhibit at the Gaylord Hotel. It's such an amazing thing to see and LG was simply fun to take through it!

Shoot, it was fun just having her at the hotel. She'd never been on an escalator and was THRILLED with that experience! Then, we did the glass elevator which amazed her.

While in Orlando, we met DH's brother and his family for dinner (and to pick up DS 4 who stayed with Grandma and Grandpa a couple of days). It was a lovely visit.

Yesterday, we took the family to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. It was JAM PACKED and we ended up leaving early. There's no sense trying to get it all in when you're a Floridian and you can get up there in a non-peak season. Sooo...we dropped off my niece, had a nice dinner and headed home.

Knowing she'd never been on an escalator, you can imagine that the moving sidewalks at Universal were also a novelty for her!

That pretty much brings us here...to New Year's Eve. I had good intentions of getting Christmas completely down today, but I didn't. I have enjoyed a nap. I enjoyed the quiet. I enjoyed doing pretty much nothing.

There's no question that this has been a busy few weeks. Heck...it's been a busy life! My goal for 2010 is to learn to sit still and just enjoy some quiet moments.

I hope your December has been just as memorable and that your New Year is filled with much love and joy!!

Christmas 2008 Revisited...Toward Christmas Eve

It may seem like I fell off the face of the blogging Earth after DS 1 got home one week ago. And, in many ways, I guess I did. So much has happened that I want to recount, however. Soooo...I figure there's no time like the present to start. This first post will revisit our week up to Christmas Eve.

We've had a great time visiting with DS 1 and our friends and family over the past week. Of course, there was shopping to do. And baking. And wrapping. And all the other "stuff" that goes along with preparing for the "big day".

Just a short 24 hours after DS 1 was home, he broke his front tooth skateboarding with DS 4. I have to tell you it was so cool how it all worked out. DS 2 came home about the same time with his friend C, who's stepdad and stepGrandfather have a dentist practice. DS 1 knew to put the tooth in milk. C's Stepdad told us to meet him down there on a Saturday. Both men met us down there along with the hygenist. They were able to rebond the tooth (thanks to the milk). AND...they didn't charge a cent for the visit! He told DS 1 that he is so thankful for the job that service men and women do that it was the least he could do. What a blessing it was!

On Sunday, we had a fabulous service at church where we created gift bags for employees at the mall. We created 450 bags of prewrapped snacks and treats. We left and went in teams to the mall to distribute the bags to employees throughout the mall as our way of saying thanks for giving through the holidays. It was SO COOL! Employees were simply blown away that we thought of them.

DSs 3 and 4 and I went to Busch Gardens for a day on Tuesday. DS 3's GF went with us. DS 1 and his friends also went---although we only saw them one time all day. We are thankful for Gram giving us tickets to go to the park. Christmas Eve was SO neat this year for us. As you might remember, our church meets in one of the local schools. Since we only get one day a week, we made the decision to host Christmas Eve "service" at our house. We spent time visiting and eating (of course). Then, about half way through, we got out the guitars and several people got out percussion instruments so we could share some carols.

Now, here's the neatest part. DS 3's GF and her family came. Her family is not involved in church. Her Dad is a Jehovah's Witness. And she has a step Grandmother who is Christian Scientist and a Grandfather who converted to Mormon.

And DS 4's friends were here as well. They are Jewish and in the middle of Hannukah right now. Yet, they took part in the percussion section for the evening.

And, there we were singing, "Oh, HOLY Night" and "O Come Let Us Adore Him"! All I could think was, "Wow, this must be similar to the stable on that first Christmas so long ago." I mean can you imagine people from all different backgrounds at all stages of the journey gathering to worship the Newborn King? And NO ONE was judged...it was simply a time of pure joy!

For me, THIS was a PERFECT night!

A Glimpse of our Weekend...

We had a very busy weekend. DS 4 and I spent the weekend in Tampa with my Mom. He had a soccer tournament up there with two games on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Sunday's game was early in the morning, so we spent the rest of our day at Busch Gardens. Here's DS 4 having probably the most fun he had all day:

In the photo above, he's standing on the bridge waiting for the boat to come down the giant hill and splash everyone. Here comes the water......

And MORE WATER...

And a little more spray for good measure....
This was definitely DS 4's favorite ride....that he DIDN'T ride!