Quiet Around Here?

Yes, things have been quiet on the Blogger front, but only because they've been anything but that on the Weinhardt front! Last week was a challenge with Christopher's burned hand, Mom and Dad's wonderful, but short, visit, my Watkins Open House and a million other things that all happen in a "normal" day. Let me catch you up with our lives.

First of all, thank the Lord, Christopher's hand is pretty much healed!! I wish you could have seen it. It was a nasty, nasty burn! We tried to put Petro Carbo on it and keep it wrapped up the first day and a half, but he sure didn't like that. He eventually ripped my hard gauze-wrapping work off of his hand and that was that! Today you can see only two little spots, but you wouldn't even know that they were burns. Thank you, Lord!!

Mom and Dad blessed us with a wonderful visit last week when they were here for their Thanksgiving vacation. We had a great time! The boys loved listening to stories, playing with them, showing off for them, etc. Mom and I spent just about all day on Saturday baking cookies for the Cookie Kitchen. It was a lot of work, but when was the last time I baked Christmas cookies with my mom?! It's been TOO long! We got all our cookies baked and even had time to visit while we were doing it. What a great day!

Last Friday I held a Watkins Open House. We had a nice turn out, although I had hoped for a few more people to come. I met my goals for this month which makes me happy. It was so nice to have Mom here helping me get things prepared. Prior to their arrival, I was fighting with Christopher. Every time I'd set something up, he'd come by and tear it down. It was a losing battle until Grandma and Grandpa showed up! It was a long and tiring night, but I'm thankful for the nice time that we had.

The Cookie Kitchen is taking off! We have had so many orders come in this week that it's caused us to scramble and whip up a few more batches of cookies! We're trying to stay ahead because we've been getting calls from people who are wanting platters the next day and we want to accommodate them as well. Surprisingly, the boys are not sick of these cookies yet! They still hover around to see if there are any broken ones that they can sample. Somehow Timothy can always find at least one that isn't up to par and needs to be removed "so we don't sell it by accident."

So, as you can see, only the blog entries have been quiet. Our house and our lives have not! We are enjoying the beginning of the Christmas season by listening to our Christmas music and putting up some decorations. My decorations have changed over the years. Now I only put out things that are out of the reach of children. I've had to say goodby to some of my favorite decorations the past few years and already this year because of curious little hands. Last night when we were going through my boxes of things, Stephen was just a real Mexican jumping bean watching as I pulled out different items. He even said at one point, "This is the best Christmas Eve ever!" We've been talking about how exciting it is for us to celebrate Jesus' birthday for so long before Christmas Day. Stephen said, too, that we're going to have to explain Christmas to Christopher because he was too little to learn about it last year. I'm going to make sure the boys have lots of opportunities to explain Christmas to their little brother! It's so cute to watch them at this age. I love it.

Ok. That paragraph was a real diversion. I got caught up in the Christmas spirit myself there. We want to do our best to keep Christmas simple enough that the real purpose and meaning behind this holiday is emphasized. The boys have been playing with the little wooden nativity sets and are such a joy to listen to while they tell their stories to each other. "Mary is looking out the window to make sure that there is nothing out there to scare the baby Jesus." "I want to put the kings close to the staple (not a misspelling) so that they can see over the shepherds." "If I put Jesus on top of the roof, then everyone will be able to find Him!"

This house is definitely not quiet. I love it!