Hi everyone. I wanted to check in and give an update.
The hatchlings and I had a good holiday. Hard of course being the first without dad and brother but overall it was good.
My mom isn't doing well. She's just so grief stricken that she said she didn't want to do Christmas (English or Epiphony, ie Ukrainian Christmas).
The kids, my youngest brother and I conspired to make Christmas wonderful for her. I planned out and precooked Christmas dinner the night before. Kids and I opened all the secret Santa gifts on the 24th (omg our secret Santa went all out, we were truely blessed). Then we opened the gifts we got eachother Christmas morning...early. packed up and headed to mom's. Brother distracted her while we snuck into the house, set up all the gifts and food and then surprised her.
It was great! The kids made Baba hug sweaters a week before. Then we had Baba do hug sweaters for all of us. If you don't know, you paint your hands and arms then hug the person wearing the sweater. Omg that was a fun day for the kids and I. Paint everywhere! And since it was a surprise for Baba we had to stuff the sweaters and really take our time positioning the hugs. Each kids picked a different colour of paint. And ya know, my kitchen floor looked so fun with all the drips of colour lol
We also made one for my brother. He loved it.
For Epiphany, my brother put out a call to all of our family friends, his friends, my other brothers friends and our extended family that we were holding a non traditional potluck over the weekend. There was perogies and Cabbage rolls as well. We had 30+ people come. It was great other than the weather. Snow squall warnings made it so some people left early. At my mom's the weather wasn't bad so i thought it would be an easy drive home. Wrong!
My drive home was horrible! The moment we entered our region, seriously the weather went from clear roads to snow covered and squalls as we passed the sign!!!
I knew the back road I take home wouldn't be plowed so I chose to take the "bigger highway". Huge mistake. It wasn't plowed either and the open fields made for total white out conditions. We just should have stayed at mom's for the night!
Long story short we made it home then waited for my brother and dd to arrive. He had picked up dd then picked up her boyfriend for the party. He drove bf home then was to drop off dd then head home. When he got here I convinced him to stay the night. His windshield kept freezing up and it was just safer.
New Years eve the kids and I watched movies, had snacks and ice cream floats and then watched the ball drop online.
It was a great holiday!
The kids and I did ornament crafts and made new stockings. They received so much art and craft stuff from secret Santa that I'm jealous lol. At least they won't be taking my stuff anymore lol.
I'm pretty sure I told ya'all about dd getting an allergy test and being allergic to everything. Well that also includes the cold. Yep a Canadian allergic to cold. If she doesn't bundle up really well by the time she walks from the bus to the house she's broken out in hives. She can't wash her hands in cold water. She has to be careful about cold food and drinks. Tell that to a kid who loves ice cream. Luckily she's good about wearing layers, hat, scarf, gloves, winter coat, boots. It's just snow pants. Why don't teens like snow pants???? So I've gotten her thermals and thick fuzzy tights and fleese lined pants.
Ds is becoming an amazing young man. He's happy and really enjoying high school. Little M has entered into the Stitch phase. Everything must be Stitch. Bedding, stuffies, lego lol. She went for a good period of no sleep walking but is back at it. Big D is still all about Godzilla, dinosaurs and Venom. He's reading so much I can't keep up with getting him new books. He's getting a library card!
I'm still not sleeping well. I think that's just going to be my normal. I am doing things for me and trying to take better care of myself.
So overall we are doing well. How wad everyone's holiday? Did you do anything exciting?
