Christmas crazies!!

I wanted to post about our Christmas season.  It started a little rough, the middle was hard but it all turned out awesome!  It all started after Thanksgiving.  I was getting orders like crazy and spent a lot of time baking and making sweets.  I had a "baking calendar" and didn't take more orders than I could handle.  I was trying really hard to have our Christmas stuff done by the time the boys were out of school on the 16th.  I tried.  But then Kirk realized the "present count" was really uneven.  I was focused on the amount of money spent not the numbers, but with my kids it's just better if you have around the same number of presents.  It isn't a selfish thing, it's just a kid thing.  Tayla was really short because she was getting a Leapster2 and I felt like that was a pretty big gift.  I had also bought her a new dress which she got early.  Long story short, I was shopping and Kirk was shopping and we ended up with some fun clearance deals from Home Depot and a few other places.  During this "gift crisis of 2011" I was getting a really bad toothache.  I knew this tooth needed some work because of a small cavity I've known about for a while, but I didn't realize how deep that cavity was.  I honestly was trying to wait to get it done until January when my insurance would help pay for some of it, but the pain was getting worse...So I had an emergency root canal on the 20th.  It. was. bad.  My entire left side of my face was in so much pain for two days and I lived on pain meds.  I had a huge infection which was treated with penicillin for 8 days.  It hurt to smile, it hurt really bad to talk.  I was really swollen and sore.  On top of that I had some big orders to fill-80 caramels, 30 divinity and 70 cake pops.  I also was trying to make treat plates for all of our friends and neighbors which consisted of caramel apples, cake pops, popcorn balls, caramels, divinity and rolo pretzels.  I was so grumpy about everything and having to pay full price for a root canal was not in my plans!!  While all of this was going on, we were using our garage as a refrigerator because ours was dying.  It was warm.  No matter what we did, it wouldn't work!!  This fridge came with our house, so it's really old.  We decided to just buy a used one, but it still cost $450.00!!!  I was having family over for dinner the same day our fridge was put in, so it was a really crazy day trying to get it set up.  Great timing, paying for a fridge and root canal.  So, that was my Merry Christmas!!  It all worked out though and we had a great time on Friday and Saturday before Christmas delivering goodies all over and visiting with friends.  I was asked to speak in church on Christmas and sing a solo, and I had a lot of help from the spirit with both of them.  I didn't have much time to prepare or practice with my crazy week, and with my mouth hurting so much singing was not easy, but I think they both turned out great.  If there's one thing I've learned in my life is there will always be opposition when good things are happening.  I just expect it.  Not in a negative way, but I use the opposition to strengthen my faith and know that I am on the right track.  (By the way, this always happens when I am doing family history too-computers crash, papers are "misplaced", web sites don't load, kids get hurt, etc...)

Here a few moments I wanted to remember from our Christmas....

It sure was a season to remember!!  It turned out to be a wonderful day and week after Christmas.  Nothing on my calendar and just a lot of playing and eating and hanging out with my kids.  Now they are all back in school and we are getting back on the routine. Joy!! Beth