Christmas Adam

The size box that Henry Box Brown used to escape slavery

The kids spent the day with their grandparents, which is always a very special treat. Paul went to work, but he had pizza for dinner at his parents' house, and Paul loves pizza so I'm sure he appreciated that. He's been downsized to two slices of pizza when we get a large pizza because Nadia now eats two slices, but I imagine he wasn't limited to two slices at his mom's house. Ian has started to request two slices, which means at some point one large pizza isn't going to be enough for one meal for all five of us. Although I really, really love being with my kids on a daily basis, every once in a blue moon I appreciate having a day to myself. Many times I try to get as many things accomplished as possible. I toyed with painting the basement walls with Drylok as that has been on my to do list for many months, but I opted to go for a pleasurable day instead of a "get lots of work done around the house" type of day. After I exercised on the elliptical, I met my friend, Cheri, for brunch at the Pine Barn Inn at 10:30; it's about 30 minutes from our house. I usually love to have a stay at home day, but it's a much rarer treat for me to have one-on-one time with a friend. Usually I only purchase food at a restaurant if we have a gift card, with the exception of a large take-out pizza, but I let her pick where we ate, and I "splurged" and paid about $9 including tip and tax for my delicious meal. There is a consignment shop near that restaurant, so I bought the kids some clothes for the future after brunch. Other errands included the bank, CVS, grocery

store, and picking up a Christmas gift Oliver left at AWANA on Wednesday night at the AWANA commander's house. The best part of my day was spending 2.5 hours talking with my friend.

It had been six months since I had nail polish on my fingernails, but I decided to buy myself a new bottle of nail polish at CVS with extra care bucks. I bought a Christmasy shade of green, which is a color I've never worn on my nails before, but I like it! I also used a coupon code for a free DVD rental from Redbox. I rented the movie "Overcomer" which I had heard many positive things about when it was in the theaters earlier this year. I love that they continue to make high quality Christian movies. I literally can go months without watching anything on a screen, but I watched two movies within three days! I enjoyed both "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (about Fred Rogers) at the theater on Saturday and "Overcomer" on DVD today.  I've turned into such an emotional sap that I actually cried happy tears during the movie.

I took this picture to show how Oliver has two rows of teeth like a shark. The baby teeth aren't the slightest bit loose!

I did the lion share of my Christmas shopping months ago, but today I made the last purchase as I realized I hadn't yet purchased a gift card for one nephew. We've been praying that the four kids we sponsor and their families will have a special Christmas, and we've also been praying for the three kids we sent boxes to with Operation Christmas Child. Our boxes this year went to Togo and Honduras.

I ate my dinner alone, which is certainly unusual. I had some leftover white chicken chili and pumpkin bread. We gave away nine loaves of pumpkin bread and two plates of sugar cookies from Wednesday through Sunday. Since it's Christmas this week, I am going to try to cook only foods that everyone likes such as rigatoni and meatballs, tuna noodle casserole, and bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. Last week Ian, Paul, and I enjoyed the chicken Caesar wraps, but Oliver and Nadia don't like them. Everyone but Ian liked the stuffed shells I made (similar to manicotti). The biggest fail recently as far as a new recipe was when I made sweet and sour meatballs with rice. I had to eat almost all of it myself. I hadn't eaten that dish in years, and I did think it turned out quite nicely, but I didn't exactly want to eat it for so many days in a row. My sister and her family will be joining us for dinner on Friday, Lord willing, but they also like pasta and meatballs so everyone should be happy with that choice. Since I made baked ziti when they were here for Jenna's birthday last month, I have a pretty good idea of how much pasta I should make for the fifteen of us. Because this Christmas is a bit of an emotional landmine as it's the first since my brother passed away, I am grateful for days like today when there are opportunities to take a little time for "pampering" type activities like lunch with a friend, painting my nails, and watching a good movie. I contemplated asking a friend if I could take a shower today at her house. That would have been the icing on the cake if I could have taken a shower today, but I opted to just wash my hair in the kitchen sink instead. I will probably take a shower at Paul's parents house on Wednesday. Now I'm ready for my kiddos to come home as my day is not complete with hugs from Ian and Oliver!!!