Simply Saturday
This is my busy time at work and I will be honest yesterday was very hard to focus! I could not wait to get home and start our Christmas Countdown. My Sweets is off until the new year! I am jealous. I go back for the three days next week. I am the only one in my department, which is usual for the week between Christmas and New Years.
While we celebrate advent all of December, our Countdown to Christmas starts the weekend before. We have a number of things that we do leading up to christmas eve. I have to recognize that the habits and things we do become tradition. The kids are old enough now to recognize these and have started asking if we are going to do this or that again.I know for me I have brought a lot of traditions that we had when I was a little and changed them up a bit to fit our family. Having the nod to the past while adding our own family touch has become important to me as the kids get older.
Our task today is to take the kids shopping so they can pick out a gift for each other. Stephen and I each take one and go shopping. This year they asked to do their shopping at Farm and Fleet Toy Land. It is always fun to see how they interpret the others interest.
Speaking of Farm and Fleet…. This morning I took out the trash and looked over in our flower bed and there was what looked like a credit card in laying there. To my surprise it was a Farm & Fleet Gift Card. It still has $10 on it. I am pretty sure it must have come from the previous owner. Neither Stephen nor I have had a gift card from there. But the odd thing is that I walked the beds just after we moved in and it was not there before…Wondering if the snow melting shifted some stuff around?
I am also going to attempt to grocery shop today. Y’all I know I must be crazy to think that is a good idea. I tell myself all the time not to do this but I still end up going close to the holiday. I leave the husband and kids at home because it too stressful to worry about the three of them while I try to maneuver through the craziness.
Christmas Eve this year I am changing it up a bit. Every year since I was a little girl we had Chinese take out. This tradition started back in the 80’s when my mom and dad was finishing counting kettles and handing out the last bit of toys to a family that had a fire and lost all of their Christmas. It was late by the time we left the church and the only thing open was a Chinese restaurant. Mom was so tired and it was so late she did not have the energy to cook her usual Christmas Eve fair. From that year on we ordered Chinese take out, bring it home and eat it on her good Christmas China while sitting around the Christmas Tree. It was her interpretation of formal yet casual.
This is something that Stephen and I have continued. It was great especially when the kids were still eating baby food but now that they are older and pickier Chinese take out seems to be more of a stressor than a joyous tradition. We do not have to eat as late as we did when I was a kid so we are thinking of ordering takeout from another restaurant. Living up North we do not have much in the way of good BBQ but we have found a little chain restaurant that makes some great BBQ. It’s not pretend…..Y’all they actually have a smoker. Best part, all four Davis’ love it.
Our boy Winston is on a slow and steady recovery . Doctor said at least 5 months of meds to get all the fungus out of his system. This has taking a toll on his body. I am glad that we were referred to Dogwood. They have been amazing walking us through this processes. Winston is on 5 meds each one doing a little something to get him well. The biggest achievement this week was getting his temp down to 100! 100 is a sweet spot for a big dog like Winston. His appetite fluctuates but he is starting to eat more. He even begged me for my cheeseburger last night. It has been at least 2 weeks since he has even acknowledged our food. He looked at me with those dark puppy eyes and that cheeseburger just went his way.
From Our Family to you and yours…. Merry Christmas!