A Belated December Wrap-up

I have a hard time getting on the computer when my husband is home on vacation. That's a good thing, of course, but it means I get behind on various computer projects.

We experienced what was my second ever white Christmas. The first was in Norway, which makes sense, but the second being in Texas? That's unheard of! Wouldn't you know, I failed to take a single picture of it. When I take a blogging break, apparently I take a break from the camera, too.

I had multiple birthday celebrations, although this year's weren't as good as they should have been. The first was with friends, and that one was great. My friend Sandy made this gorgeous cake that had white chocolate ganache, raspberries, butter cream icing... Divinity on a plate!



Birthday celebrations with my family were part of the not-so-great. We were supposed to go out to dinner with my parents on the 18th, but I got sick. Really just wanted to lie on the couch all night, so I wasn't too disappointed when my mom said I sounded awful and we'd postpone dinner. My sweet husband picked up a quart of crawfish bisque from Pappadeaux, so all was not lost.

On the 19th Steven and I had tickets to see 101 Dalmations Musical at Fair Park in Dallas. We'd had the tickets for weeks, and it was my main birthday present from him. I was so excited about seeing this. But I wound up being so sick. We still went because those tickets were expensive, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have if I'd been well. I plied myself with lots of Tylenol and various sinus drugs, and packed my purse with Kleenex and cough drops. I did my best not to seem sick to those around me. But then, they were eating cookies, drinking water, and wearing jeans throughout the performance, so I wasn't too worried about my lack of decorum in occasionally blowing my nose.



Christmas Day, which is my actual birthday, started off well. We met our friends Stan and Michelle for our annual Christmas Day Brunch at IHOP. I received some sweet Happy Birthday phone calls from people after we were back home. Then I napped for a bit and woke up with a sick stomach and a fever. *sigh* We wound up missing Christmas dinner with the family. We went over there later because my dad phoned and woke me up to ask if we were coming, or should they just go ahead and cut into my birthday cake? Oops. Again, I plied myself with Tylenol, and we went to my parents house.

While there, my husband was suddenly hit hard with cold symptoms... Yeah, this was one fun Christmas.

The Monday after Christmas, we headed to Wichita Falls to visit Steven's grandmother in her nursing home. We hadn't been in a while, so it was time. His grandma was thrilled to see us, which was nice. It was a good little visit, although a tad disappointing for her, as she'd hoped we'd take her out somewhere. That had been the original plan, but when we got up there, there was so much snow and ice on the ground from the week before that it just wasn't safe to try taking her out.



While we were there, a minister named Reverend Carr was there for his weekly service for the old folks. My MIL, who was with us, proudly told him that Steven is a youth minister, so at the end of his service, he asked Steven to come up and say something. I'd have been at a loss for words with such an impromptu invitation, but Steven had no problem with it. I'm pretty proud of him, too.