8 days: Staying in touch

We had decided not to send Christmas cards this year; we thought that cutting out this tradition would be a great way to save both money and time. Bah humbug.

It didn't take much to change our minds. As December marched on and we received a loving bounty of cards we started to realize how much the tradition really meant to us. Calvin loves going to the mailbox and opening the cards we receive and we love reading the messages and catching up with people. We feel very loved when we receive greetings from our friends and family, and we want to send them the same joy in an envelope as well. And then there's the decorating aspect—for as long as I can remember my mom has decorated her kitchen walls with the cards received in the mail that year, a tradition that I have continued now with my own family.

So our cards are late this year, but they're on their way.

9 days: picture (almost) perfect

The Christmas cards have not yet been sent, and as we were addressing them last nght we realized that we were without our annual family photo. Now how did we let that happen? So this morning, with breakfast in the toaster and sleep still in our eyes, we snapped a quick few before Jon left for work. Calvin is still wearing his pajamas, in fact, they're just under his photo-op clothes.

10 days: getting crafty

Christmas and crafts: if they don't go hand in hand, the stores sure seem to think that they do. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, as Christmas nears, we find ourselves more chained to indoor activities than we have been previously, and the store think tanks desire to help us spend our time productively. More likely, they just know how to make money. I, for one, was unable to pass by the mulititude of fun foam activities staring me in the face at our local store without buying at least two of them. Thankfully, they are affordable, and the fun they have provided was entirely worth the $3.75 spent.

11 days: the halls are decked

Most of our decorations were up before Sinterklaasavond, but a few stragglers were finally put up this past week. Now we're ready, bring on the holiday!

12 days: Healthy for the holidays?

The countdown has begun; there are now 12 days separating us from that joy of all joys that is Christmas morning. With all the things to be done and all the fun to be had, this is most certainly not the time to be sick. Thankfully all of our shopping is done, because instead of heading out to brave the hopefully crowded stores we are staying in, nursing a pitifully sick little boy. I can count on one hand the number of times that Calvin has been under the weather (runny nose, congestion, etc.) in his life, and can specifically remember the one and only other time he has ever run a fever (back when he was about 9 months old), but this is probably the first time that he has ever been sick in a capital sort of way, and certainly this is the longest he's ever been symptomatic. Luckily the worst seems to be past; he had the 102 plus fever on Friday, accompanied by aches and lethargy, then some light chest congestion and lethargy on Saturday, and today rather serious congestion with painful coughing, but the fever is gone, and some of his energy is back. The hardest bit of this affair has been watching his misery; since he really hasn't been sick before the poor kid doesn't seem to understand what hit him, and I keep comforting him with the reassurance that he will, eventually, get better. Let's just hope that happens before Christmas, and that the other two thirds of us can keep the enemy germs at bay.