Focus on the Positive

I keep telling myself that...but I'll save my philosophizing for the annual end-of-the-year-post.  Let's just say the hits just keep on comin'.  But first, the good stuff.
We've pretty much abandoned the advent calendar this year.  It just hasn't been working out for us.  Maybe next year.  We've been trying to be festive, but truly our list of things that we have NOT done is much longer than what we have done this year I think.
On Saturday, spur of the moment after dinner, we took the kids up to Swanson's Nursery to check out the camel and, of course, the model train.  Jason did not even know that Swanson's existed, so he was intrigued.  The boys weren't terribly interested in the animals and wouldn't get close enough to them for me to photograph.  Austin loved the "YIGHTS! MO' YIGHTS!" and Nathan loved the train.  To Nathan, Christmas is all about trains.  On accident, we came across the giant koi pond near the little cafe and the bathroom.  This turned out to be the biggest hit of the night.  In fact, we were there so long, we didn't realize the nursery had closed and an employee had to come and shoo us out of the store.  The kids LOVED the giant fish - Nathan was even brave enough to touch one.

On Sunday we did not make a gingerbread house.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with all the candy I bought in which to make a gingerbread house.
On Monday I took the kids to pick out their annual Christmas ornament.  Hallmark seemed like an easy place so there we went.  Nathan walked by all of the cartoon characters, Santa Clauses and cute little animals and found this ornament.  He thought it was the greatest ornament ever made:

A replica of a Lionel model train Union Pacific Passenger Engine (he knows ALL about this train from the wonderful I Love Toy Trains movies).
Austin picked out a "HOT!"  I was fine with this because it seems like the Christmas tree of every house with little boys needs a red fire engine.

Wasn't it nice of Austin to cover Daddy up with "Beep?"

Today, Jason had planned to run up to the courthouse in Everett in the morning and then take the rest of the day off to take the boys out Christmas shopping.  I heard a sort of feeble "Hey, Danielle?" about 7:30am and walked into the living room to find Jason laying flat on his back, fully dressed, unable to move.  It turns out he ended up having back spasms and laid on the floor for about 5 hours before I took him to the doctor.  She didn't even have to touch his back to see what was going on.  He is doing much better with high-powered pain meds and muscle relaxers.  Invincible man that he is, he is still up and able to function even on that much medication - how is this possible?  So, even when we thought nothing else could happen to our little

family, it has!  Please let this year end before anything else terrible happens!  I was reading The Littlest Angel to Nathan tonight and when I got to the second paragraph, describing how the little boy was four years (and change) when he entered Heaven, my heart skipped a beat and I almost started to cry.  I love this book so much because it is about a sweet little boy.  I am SO glad that I was able to read this book with my own sweet little boy in my lap and not have to read it thinking of him as that angel.  These are the sorts of tender mercies that keep me grateful and not angry about all these crazy challenges we have gone through.

I am trying very hard not to lose my Christmas spirit, but at this point, I'm just seriously beat.  I still need to get going on my holiday baking.  That was my project for today that I never got to.  Tomorrow I hope to bake myself back into the holiday spirit and then enjoy our annual recreate-our-first-date-night with my dear, slightly-drugged husband.  We are going to our first-date restaurant again: Il Terazzo Carmine down in Pioneer Square and then to the Boys Choir Festival of Lessons and Carols.  I need a date night.  Shoot.  I need a vacation.