The Holidays

Wow, wow and wow. I don't even know where to start. It has been an amazing, crazy, eventful and wonderful two or three weeks.

Christmas vacation started right off the bat with an extra "guest" in my home. Someone you all know as Anakin, formally Anthony; my "step-son". How that came to be is quite a long story, however, that sweet boy whom we haven't seen in 7 months reunited with us for the majority of Christmas vacation and it was a wonderful reunion for he and his sisters. Anthony and I have had an interesting relationship for the majority of time we have known eachother (most of his life), but he seems to have formed a new appreciation and love for myself and his sisters after being separated from us for so long. It was difficult for him to leave us and return to the life he now knows and if it were up to him, he would reside with us on a permanent basis. I am not sure what is going to happen in the future with that situation, but please keep him in your prayers.

The Sunday before Christmas brought the arrival of all of the family on my dad's side. All of us who live here hosted various members of the family and I was lucky to host my cousin Teresa and her beautiful family as well as my cousin Karen. All in all, there were 11 people in my house (7 of those were children). While it was chaotic a lot of the time, it wash wonderful to have 4 extra adults in the house to lend a hand. Teresa's husband was great with the kids by helping with crafts, playing "monster" and generally keeping them occupied. Teresa has always been one of my favorite people in the world and my "partner in crime"....an infamous title we earned after an incident which I chronicled here.

The days were filled with various events such as sledding, skiing, shopping, etc...and the nights were spent in our church gym (the only place big enough to house so many people) where we all took turns preparing meals, playing and catching up. Several of us spent a day cross country skiing which was a great adventure. Here is a picture of myself and my partner in crime....(thanks, T, for the pic....hope you don't care if I ripped it off from your facebook!) ;-)

My Mom is doing a series on all of the adventures with the family and has posted some great pictures.

Following the departure of this group of family brought the arrival of my "MIL" and yet another week of adventures. A strange situation in and of itself, I won't go into great detail. But it was pleasant and chaotic as well.

As Teresa and her family left my home at about 4:00 a.m. their last morning here, she reminded me to please get on facebook so we could keep in touch better. I groggily promised her I would. And I did. This has added a whole new facet of internet obsession which I must get control over once classes start again. In one short week, I have connected with more people that I have missed over the years than I could even imagine. One of those people is my bestest friend from high school whom I completely lost touch with over the years and whom I have missed dearly. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to reunite with her. She lives less than an hour away and she came to my home, met my family and we got to go out to lunch together. She has invited me to a ski weekend in a couple of weeks and even has someone she wants to set me up with. Yikes. That afternoon left me feeling more alive than I have felt in years. I have missed her more than I could ever imagine and it was one of the best post-Christmas presents I could have received to get to spend time with her. And my girls absolutely adored her.

(P.S. I don't try to drink two coffee cups at a time....Katie was climbing up Laura's legs, so I had to take over her coffee cup!!)

I will definitely let you know how that weekend goes!

In baby news.....their last doctor's appointment was for their 9 month check up. At that time, their doctor was concerned about their lack of ability to sit up yet. They were technically at that point only 7 months old. He even uttered the words "cerebral paulsey" to me. Over the course of the past two weeks, those little stinkers have begun to sit up, crawl, pull up on furniture and can even sit up on their knees without assistance. Tonight, miss Kate pulled up on the big girls' Dora table and stood there for several minutes, only holding on with one hand. Hayley and Olivia are convinced she will be walking very soon. Their year check up is on Friday. I have decided that it is their New Year's Resolution to say, "Pooh on you" to their doctor and prove him completely wrong. I think they will be walking before my big girls were (at 14 months).

I love those girls more and more every day of their lives. They bring me more joy than I could even possibly fathom. And everytime I look at them and see their smiles when they see me, and see them reach out to me when they see me, hear them say "mamamama" (even if it is just baby babbling) and give me hugs, it just warms my heart a little more.

Raising those four little girls on my own is a full-time job. But I'll tell you what....the rewards far outweigh the challenges. After this holiday season (as crazy as it was), I feel like the luckiest person in the world.

I am counting on 2009 being the best year I have had in a looooong time!! I hope yours is, too!