Last night we decorated the tree and listened to Chipmunks' Christmas. It was fun watching all three kids dancing and singing. We also decorated Maxwell's little tree. Last year he asked Santa for his own Christmas tree. This year he was quite pushy for me to find his tree out of all of the decorations. For Christmas this year he wants tiny ball ornaments to go on his tree.

Maxwell went to a friend's birthday this weekend. He wanted to buy the friend a Christmas decoration. I first asked Max if his friend celebrates Christmas. Maxwell didn't know. I explained to him that not everyone celebrates Christmas. Max replied, "He lives in Gilbert. Don't most people in Gilbert celebrate Christmas?" It is pretty funny trying to explain to an incredulous 6 year old the reasons we cannot assume someone celebrates Christmas. Their school has a good mix of religions and non-religions including Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Atheists, and Christmas celebrating Christians. After our debate we settled on a Lego set. Max and Gavin were building that Lego set when I arrived to pick him up.

We would have done the decorating Thanksgiving weekend, but I decided to get sick that weekend. Jared has been a brat saying things like, "They are only children once." As if I got sick on purpose. It isn't my fault Thanksgiving came so late this year. We have had years where because of Xander's birthday party we haven't put up the decorations until after his birthday. And I am pretty sure that the kids can survive waiting a week for their Christmas decorations. If Jared wanted the decorations up so bad, he could have cleaned the house and put them up by himself. If he wanted my help, the he and everybody else had to wait until I was healthy enough.

Xander and Elijah have been home the last two days from school. Today they are going to drive me nuts. If it weren't for the fever rule I would have sent them back today. This morning Elijah was harassing and chasing Maxwell while Maxwell was trying to get ready for school on time. Yesterday Elijah and Xander were sick enough that they didn't really move at all and Elijah didn't read at all. Xander has missed an average of a day of school per week for the last 5 weeks. I don't think he has ever been completely healthy and he gets a fever again whenever he gets run down.

The boys only have 8 more days of school before their Winter Break. They don't go back until January 13th and then they have the 18th off for Martin Luther King Day. I am looking forward to Xander's baptism weekend.

I have almost managed to keep our birds alive for an entire year. That is quite an accomplishment for me.

We are looking forward to having Grandma and Grandpa Landon here for Xander's birthday weekend. Xander turns 8 on Friday. Holy Cow! Jared is excited to have a break from work and Scouts. Jared is taking off 2 weeks for Christmas this year. If we aren't packing we are planning to travel around Arizona and see the sights. I doubt we'll be packing though. It has been a slow few weeks for new houses (that fit our needs) to come on the market.