It's Official: I'm Old, and It's Christmas

Well, it's official! I'm old. I'll give you one guess who this is in Karl's flight suit and helmet, looking like he's nearly six feet tall. (Okay, so he IS 5'11", but that's beside the point.) I'm old.

And it is officially Christmas now. It just wouldn't be a holiday in our family without someone getting sick, would it? Garin is just as cheerful as always, and nothing seems to hurt him, but when Karl passed him to me this afternoon, he felt hot to me. I took his temperature, and it was 102.2! I gave him a lukewarm bath and a dose of Tylenol, and we're hoping it will all go away by morning.

Otherwise, all is well with us. We had a fairly easy time of it Wednesday night when we went to the airport to get Matt. Yesterday, we all went to the Wing Christmas party at lunchtime, had a simple but nice family dinner and just hung out all evening. Today was cold and rainy, so we stayed home. The boys watched movies and such. I cleaned up around the house and cooked for my fellas. I also made some caramel that I can hardly wait to get into. We're going to pull out a board game after dinner and once Garin goes to bed. Tomorrow we'll deliver candy and Christmas wishes to a few friends here on base and, if I get my wish, go bowling. Sunday, of course, is church. We're going to have a quiet Christmas Eve at home with chicken and dumplings, cider and egg nog. We'll read Luke 2 together, play Christmas music and play games. We're looking forward to it! Our Christmas Day menu will be a big breakfast; a lunch of ham, cornbread dressing, new potatoes, green beans, and rolls; and a dinner of leftovers. Our activities will likely revolve around opening presents from Santa, followed by the unwrapping of presents under the tree. I'm guessing there'll be lots of play time and couch time during the day. Matt's eager to open presents and keeps asking us if we can pretend it's Christmas today. I remember being the tortured child; now Matt thinks I'm the torturer.

I hope that you all have a wonderful, blessed Christmas. We miss you and will be thinking of you!