8 Days in Dec--Day 5--Nathan is 3!!!

It was an added blessing that Nathan also had his third birthday during our 8 day visit. He had been talking about his Batman party for quite awhile and the day was finally here. I gave him his Batman mask first think in the morning and it stayed with him most of the day.

Our first appointment of the day was with Picture People at the Mall. Jen had the foresight to arrange this ahead of time so that we could get a picture of The Five cousins together.

sigh...

From the picture-taking session, we moved on down the mall to the food court and Build-a-Bear, and I'll have to say that I got the biggest kick out of just watching the bunch of us move along in the mall.

On to the party time:

Nathan dressed the part and the mask pretty much stayed on him continually even though he was a sweaty little boy underneath it.

Jen did manage to get the mask off of him at least once....

How can he be 3 already!!

Love this little cutie!

8 Days in Dec---Day 4

On day 4 we enjoyed a lot of relaxing and visiting. By evening, we headed over to the Vidals' to let the kids make a Gingerbread House together.

Yep, you guessed it. I was exhausted and ready to sit down by the time they were done. (One guess as to who sneaked the most candy into her mouth....  :))

Backtracking to Christmas Day

With all of the computer problems I've had in the past weeks, I never did finish the "Eight Days of Christmas" posts. So I will be trying to catch up so I have it all recorded.

Day 3: Merry Christmas!!

Stockings first!

How fun it was to have us all together again on Christmas morning! The traditional yummy Sticky Buns, oranges, and quiche were served for breakfast. Although, I'll have to admit that since I haven't been eating sugar and flour for over a year, my mouth was definitely longing for the Sticky Buns. In such instances, I have to remind myself that I don't like how I feel afterwards if I give in to the temptation. Sigh....

Present time! (and pictures!)

I just get such a kick out of trying to take pictures of these 5 cuties. If ever I post a good picture of all 5 at the same time, you'll know I probably took about 50 in order to get it!

"The Five" with Grandpa:

Christmas Night:                                                                    

Cousins and second cousins

By after dinner and the adults' gift exchange, the kids' energy was waning, but, of course, we had to get just a few more group pictures.

       

My Friend CPU

Finally I have my desktop pc up and running again. A few weeks ago we had a power outage and after several attempts and misses at it coming back on, I was left with a computer that wouldn't come back on even though it wasn't on at the time of the outage.  I've learned quite a bit about pcs since then. (I'm so grateful that my hubby got me a tablet for Christmas so I was still able to get online without having to work around finding time to get on his pc and read and read about what to do).

So here are a few of the tidbits of wisdom I've learned about pcs:

• When you have a power outage, it's best to unplug the pc from the surge strip because the surge isn't necessarily going to protect it
• Surge protectors don't last forever--who knew?? After a few surges through them, they are worthless and should be replaced, especially if you live in a thunderstorm area
• Putting off opening up the pc case to clean out the dust can be a huge mistake
• Symptoms of the Power Supply (CPU) needing to be replaced can be system slowing down, freezing up, and other irregularities. Mine was already showing signs and then I think the power surge did it in.
• Using an anti static wrist strap can alleviate a novice's worry about opening up the case and zapping the mother board and ruining everything
• After you disconnect everything from the modem, you should hold in the power  button for a few seconds to discharge any electricity that's left
• There are plenty of instructions and pictures online of how to work on your own pc
• The Holy Spirit gifted me with wisdom and discernment to remove the CPU from my last pc (yes I still have it sitting around, along with Mike's old one and my dad's...) and place it into the newly fried one!!! AND it worked!!!

My geeky father, who was in charge of the maintenance pc systems for Lockheed Martin in the 60's and 70's, preferred DOS to Windows, and who used to build pcs from scratch, would be smiling at my accomplishment. When he moved out of his house and Mike and I had to clean out everything to get the house ready to sell, I'm sure we threw away tons of pc parts that we had no idea what they were, along with every box that each of the parts came in "in case it needed to be returned".

I may still end up ordering a new Power Supply, but for now, this one is working and I will have no qualms about replacing it myself!

My friend, CPU

8 Days in Dec--Day 2

Day 2 is Christmas Eve! We spent the morning visiting and then went over to Nana's house for our get together with all of her children and spouses (7), grandchildren (11+8 spouses), and great-grandchildren (12). I think there were 14 that couldn't be there this year.
It was fun watching the little ones open their gifts.



Later that evening we went to church for the Christmas Eve service by the kids who presented the play called, Snowflake County. Cade and Sydney sangs songs with the Pre-K/Kdgn class; Isa was a tapdancing Wiseman and a Christmas tree; Cade was a raccoon who dashed across the stage a few times.

8 Days In December

The month of December seems to have passed so quickly, but oh, did I soak them in. We, family in California, had been talking about "When Jen and Steve and Amelia and Nathan come to visit..." for a few months. And then, all of a sudden, the time had come. Now it's already been 3 days since they went back to Iowa and the weather of a high of 17 and low of 5 degrees. Is it any wonder that I kept adding to my list of presents of blankets, socks, tights, hats and scarves?

Our 8 days together were such a blessing!

Day 1: They arrived on the 23rd, after a long trip by car on icy roads to Des Moines the day before, a 6 AM flight to Denver and then LAX, and then another drive to Bakersfield. That afternoon when we got the cousins together, Amelia and Sydney started playing dress-ups just like they had last July. And Nathan couldn't get enough of Cade's Nerf guns and action toys.



I also discovered that I would need to get sneakier about getting pictures of Amelia. She likes to step away or turn her face when she knows you are trying to take a picture!

 Then when Isa and Cade had to go to their last practice for the Christmas Eve program, Sydney came with us to go see Grandma Lue. They sang songs to her that were so sweet.  

Well, for some reason I can't get any more pictures to post, so I'll do Day 2 later!