the one about some Christmas happenings

Holy crap. I am so sorry to all of my faithful blog fans that I haven't posted in 2 1/2 weeks. I think that is the longest it has ever been in between posts. I am super sorry. I have been so busy. Like so busy in fact, that I have barely had time to stalk all of you. So now that I have spent a few days catching up on all of your lives, I can catch you up on mine.

Quayd had his first grade Christmas program last week. It was so cute! All of the classes sang some songs together, but then each class did something alone. They were able to perform and make it more personal. Quayd's class did a puppet show to the 12 Days of Christmas. They went through the whole song with their puppets and it was SO CUTE! I don't want you to have to watch the whole thing, so here it is starting at 12 and going down. Quayd is "4 calling birds."

The crazy kid at the end is Quayd's buddy Rylan. He is a nut!!! We love him!

We also had Quayd's class party. I love to help with the parties and stuff, so thanks to my rockin' boss, I was able to leave work for awhile and go help.




Another big event was the Holiday Inn Christmas party. Of course, Tara and I planned it. We wouldn't have had a party otherwise. Tara and I pushed for it, therefore got stuck with it. It was ok though. We had lots of fun. We played BINGO and we even had some sweet prizes. Tara and I went to tons of local businesses and worked out some trades. They gave us gift certificates, we gave them a free night stay. That worked out awesome! We also did a white elephant gift exchange, pot luck, and an ugly Christmas outfit contest. There were only like 5 people that dressed up. Brett and I were 2 of them. I am sorry for the obscenity. Brett "grabbed something" right before the picture was taken, and that was the only picture we got. Yes, we are wearing sequined berets. This is Spencer's hot outfit. He totally won, by the way.
And here are a few more random pictures of the party.



We also had the Galley Christmas party the other night. It was fun, as usual. Santa came and brought all of the kids pajamas. It is always fun to see all of the Galley's and it is such a treat to have the Gardiner's come from Castledale. Poor Amy. She had some weird allergic reaction to something and started swelling and itching everywhere. Rhonda actually had to take her to the hospital and she had to stay over night. It was totally weird. Poor girl. If it is going to happen to someone though, it would be her!!!! Love ya Amy!!!

I don't want to go into details because my heart is totally broken over this, as well as Quayd's heart, but we no longer have Itty Bitty Kitty. She just couldn't get over the peeing on the bed thing. It actually got way worse. We tried EVERYTHING!! Anyway, I don't really want to talk about it so I never will again. Please don't ask. And DON'T bring it up to Quayd!!!!!! End of story. I do want to share these cute pictures of cute little Itty with her brother Winston at the Galley's house when I was helping Tara decorate her trees.



A couple of weeks ago, I was over at Aunt Debbie's decorating her tree. Quayd noticed a picture of Brett's dad. I just watched him, to see how he would react. He stood there staring for a few minutes, in silence. He didn't say a word, but went on playing. I didn't bring it up, but on our way home, he said, "Mom, can we go up to the cemetery and decorate Papa's grave?" Of course I said yes. We had bought some things to take up there, so we came home, got the stuff and headed to the cemetery. I am always so amazed at Quayd's reverence there. He gets it. He is such a special kid. We worked hard to decorate it just how Quayd wanted it. Whenever we go there, and its time to leave, Quayd always kneels down and tells Papa that he loves him. Its so awesome. This is our work. Obviously this was a couple of weeks ago because now we have almost 6" of snow on the ground! Our flags are still there from Veteran's Day. I am so glad that Quayd remembers his Papa. He was 1 day away from being 5 when Mike died, so really, he could have gone either way. I don't think it is coincidence that he remembers him so well. He even remembers a lot about the funeral. We talked about it in the car on the way home that day. So amazing. What a great kid. How in the world did I ever deserve him? Even though there are SO many differences between Mary and I, I always think of her at this time of year and how lucky she must have felt to be the mother of the savior. What a sacrifice she made. Being a mom is the greatest blessing ever, and like Mary, I was blessed with the sweetest, kindest most beautiful son ever.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!