Since my last post...

Since my last post we have:
**Pulled romaine lettuce, green onions, sweet potatoes, the last of the green beans, and a few limes and lemons from the garden! The freezing temps a week or two ago killed the tomato plants sadly. But I suppose that is bound to happen, with it being winter and all- even in Las Vegas. (Note: all credit for this produce goes to my dad)

**We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, the first one I haven't worked on in the past few years, it was great to be home. I mastered a good roll recipe. We even used the sweet potatoes from the garden. We dubbed it the year of the pies, they were heavenly, trust me. I made a cranberry cheesecake and my sister's pumpkin cream was fabulous! We gave everyone in my family the Heritage Makers book that I made about my parents, the pictures in it are such a treasure and I had been so excited to share it with my siblings.

**I celebrated my 33rd birthday. Mark treated me to a night away, which was fabulous to sleep in til 9am. I think the 30's are treating me well, it's a good era. (Somehow my camera has no pictures of my birthday or Thanksgiving, hmmm)

**Michael celebrated his 5th birthday! Hard for me to believe, but it's true. He was pretty easy to please this year. I asked him if he wanted a friend party, and he said no, just a family party. I was more than happy to oblige! So we had all the aunts and uncles and cousins over for a "family party." He loves Pioneer Woman's sheet cake, so I made that for him and he was happy as a clam. The only thing I would change would be to have the party on the night of his birthday, rather than the night before, because all day on his birthday he wanted to know when he was going to have his party and was a bit put out that we'd already had it. He is such a smart, sweet, snuggly boy. I can't wait to see what he will grow into this year.
**We picked out our tree. We still go live, I'm not sure that we will ever go fake, I think real trees are connected too much in Mark's heart to his dad and the Forest Service. And eventhough I hate the dead needles, I do love the smell. We used to go out to the forest or to a tree farm and cut down our own when I was little. I remember one year, the tree we had cut down in the forest was so massive that it wouldn't stay up, my dad tried using fishing line connected to nails in the wall to keep it upright, but it still fell over. So eventually he nailed the stand to the floor.

**My tree is now decorated, but it feels like it's missing something, I haven't figured out what. I wrapped it with wide green ribbon this year, so maybe I'm just not used to it yet, or maybe it's because we had to make do with 3 strings of lights instead of 4 since one fritzed out. But I do love these cute little owl ornaments I made. Jacob wanted green and Michael blue, they insisted that I needed pink, and Mark wanted one that looked like a real owl. I think I delivered.

**Can you figure out what is wrong with this picture? Jacob has a funky double jointed thing going on, pretty sure your foot shouldn't point that direction. **Michael has taken to having bad dreams and getting up 5-10 times a night. Last night was the first night in a week that he only got up once. But we started a new routine at night, put up pictures by his bed to help him think of happy things as he falls to sleep, and added a small melatonin tonic before bed to help him get through this rough patch. I'm not completely sure that I am happy about giving him the supplement, all natural though it may be. But seriously, 10 times in one night?! That is worse than a newborn. Neither mom, dad, nor 5 year old can tolerate that for very long.

**I have been texting my brother in Qatar, and praying for his safety as he flies in and out of Iraq and Afganistan. He will miss the holidays but will be back home safe in Alaska after the new year. His Air National Guard duties normally take him to humanitarian clinics in Mongolia, but he is taking a turn in the middle east and I am so proud of him.

**And finally, today at work I was declared an angel! I gave a man on a ventilator his first ice chip in two months- no food, no water, no ice in that time. That is what makes my job awesome! I love giving people their first chance to talk while on a ventilator and see them say "I love you" to their spouse, or give them their first taste of food since going on the ventilator. It makes up for the really sad cases I see.

I think that about sums it up for now! Hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!