Catching up again...

Once again I'm getting behind, it's been a muddled couple of days. We got Greg's car back on Tuesday ($850.00 later, ouch!). Wednesday my car failed inspection, needing 2 new tires. It's been a very expensive week and not in a good way! At any rate, the countdown continued regardless, here's how the end of the week went...

Thursday, 19 days until Christmas:
make treats for our kitty friends

We ended up spending a good portion of the afternoon at the mechanic getting our new tires so this activity was actually pushed to Friday. Ian's friend Ollie was over so the boys pulled two chairs over to the counter to help put the treats together. If I had really thought out the entire preparation of these treats, I don't know if we would have done them. The first step was to take cooked chicken, an egg and some chicken broth and put it in a blender to puree. This resulted in a rather disgusting looking (and smelling) pink tinged concoction. I poured it out into a bowl while I gathered the other ingredients. I think Ian made a comment about the stuff looking like vomit and giggling. When I came back to the counter, Ollie looked at me and said I don't think I want to do this, it's giving me a tummy ache (Ollie and his brother are well known as chain vomiters, they have very sensitive gag reflexes and once one goes the other does so I gladly excused him from the activity!). So down jumped Ian too, giggling and making puking sounds. So I was left standing with the bowl of "vomit". I must admit, I didn't want to finish either! I added the flour and corn meal the recipe called for and put the dough in the refrigerator where it needed to stay for two hours. It still happens to be sitting in the same spot. I never covered it so it's all dried out and I'm now facing having to start over. I don't think I can stomach the puree again, I think the kitties may be getting cans of Pounce this year!

Friday, 18 days until Christmas
Christmas movie night

We settled in together to watch a Christmas movie and have pizza, popcorn and chocolate chip cookies (we made them after the kitty treat fiasco) on Friday night. Greg put in Rudolph's Shiny New Year, to which I protested that it wasn't a Christmas movie! His response was "well, it has Rudolph in it!", ugh. Have you watched this one? Not my favorite by far. Anyways, the DVD started to skip and I ended up getting my way to watch what happens to be my favorite, A Year Without A Santa Claus. It was a nice relaxing night and Ian thoroughly enjoyed getting to stay up late!

Saturday, 17 days until Christmas
Christmas with the Rowells

Ever since I was very young, our family and our neighbors family would get together for a Christmas party. It holds many fond memories for me and is a nice way to catch up on each other's lives since we don't see them very often. Each year holds a new ornament hand made by Charlene and this year Ana received her first one. It means so much to me that she has been so accepted by everyone even before she is legally ours. To me, it shows that everyone is confident that she will be coming home to us. So hopefully the next Rowell Christmas party will include two more children as Nate has announced that they are expecting baby number two in June. Maybe my brother and sister-in-law will make it three?! What do you think guys? Thank you everyone for such a wonderful day, it was so nice to see you and catch up!

Sunday, 16 days until Christmas
Go to a Christmas Concert

Tonight we'll be attending my brother and sister-in-law's church where they will be singing in the choir for a Christmas Concert. I'm excited to not only hear them sing, but to meet all the people I have heard so much about. My brother has mentioned in church that we are adopting and they are asked every week about how it is going. They have prayed for us and have sent well wishes, I just can't wait to meet these people and express how much it means to have so many good thoughts sent our way.

Oh, before I go I wanted to share an accomplishment. I finally completed a blanket I started crocheting for Ian a few months ago. I am the type of person to start a lot of projects and get bored and never finish them. I am so proud that I actually completed this one in a decent amount of time! Ian picked the color, and says he doesn't like it, he loves it! Next I get to make a girlie one!