Holidays and such

Mr. H's favorite gift from Santa, fake doggy poo. It sums up the last week pretty well. Our holiday started with my getting called to pick up Mr. H from the last day of school early as he had a temperature of 102.9. It only lasted 24 hours, now he has a cough and hives but the other two have had runny noses and phlegmy coughs the whole holiday. As a result no one wants to be around us. Mr. A and Mr. P. are both on antibiotics and Mr. A is negative for covid, Mr. P being too little to test. 

So, plans with my family were canceled.  My husband's brother from out of town didn't come as their daughter has tested positive for the second time. We did have a small Christmas eve with inlaws and then again for an hour or so on Christmas day. But it's mostly been just us for the last week. I'm not going to lie, I understand this is out of my control but I'm still feeling a little bitter about things.  I'm sad that my kids haven't had the big Christmases I had with family when I was little. And I'm sad that because they're growing up with Covid isolations they don't know the difference. 

They made all of the tree decorations this year.

And some other fun ones.

Mr. P is deeply in love with vaccum cleaners so Santa brought him his own. He vacuumed for the next 48 hours straight. Mr. A's favorite toy is a little whack a mole game.  It was a sweet Christmas day. 

Bee took a wall with me the other day. The weather has been rainy and cold. If we were having the same in the spring (below freezing at night, warm days) we would be getting our sap buckets ready. The kids and I can't wait to do this and I've been having them save fallen sticks in a pile for our fire.

These have arrived in the mail. This spring will be a chance to start from scratch with both the chickens and garden. We do enjoy having both but the last couple of years have been a disaster.  I have some things to think about.

Speaking of thinking, this card came from Malaysia this week:

There are so many questions here. This guy looks happy? What happened that he needs a sling AND a fire extinguisher? AND a hard hat with a head lamp?? 

Here is the back:

It's a good way of thinking and absolutely not American. In 2022 I'd like to start donating blood again.

Now it is dinner time. Homemade stuffed crust pizza just came out of the oven and it's time to pry the kids off the tv and make the middle one put some pants on.  Break time is over.