Christmas & Croup

By now most of you have your Christmas tree up and decorated, you are in the swing of baking for Christmas, and have sent all your cards, right? For several years we've put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving weekend or the next week, depending on when we had Natalie's birthday party. This year things haven't worked that way.

The girls have officially decorated 2 Christmas trees (with their grandmothers) and had one party. We have strung one strand of outside lights & put 1 set of net lights on our jasmine ground cover. We put up a sign that's supposed to be lit at night, but we've lost the spotlight that came with it. 2 of the posts won't stand up. Is anyone hearing Linus giving his speech about how the tree needs a little love? Our decorations need a little love!

I have been busy with craft fair things through last Saturday, then this week was:

• Monday--Christmas party at Girl Scouts, which involved Sunday making ornaments that should have been done weeks ago, shopping for cookies to take and cookie dough to bake, and making cookies for said party.
  
• Tuesday---co-op day----always busy
• Wednesday---went to wrap gifts for Elf Louise, a local program that provides gifts for children who might otherwise have none on Christmas.
  
• Thursday---actually stayed home & spent the day trying to gain some sense of beginning to organize the house. Amazing how when mom is busy things don't get done. And mom isn't organized naturally, so things just really go awry.
  
• Friday----blood draw for me (routine), dr. appt. for Natalie (read below), Wal-Mart (which isn't nearly as crowded at 1 pm as it is at 4:30 or so when we typically end up going), then home to try to work on this pig sty to create space for the Christmas tree.
  
• Saturday---STAYED HOME!!! My folks came by & picked up some things I'd been working on for mom and left a computer and camera for Phil to try to install a program to make the 2 work together. More cleaning and finally cutting fabric for MY family.
  

Natalie has croup. She's had a horrible cough this week. It started as a dry cough & progressed into the barking seal cough. I think she is coughing in her sleep now. I may have to wake her & prop her head so she can sleep better. She has no fever & feels just fine. She's out of ADHD meds & we are going round with insurance about doctor issues for that. Needless to say she's been quite animated (ahem).

I am trying to remind myself that the decorations don't matter (though I do still want them up), the Charlie Brown house surrounded by House Beautiful displays doesn't matter, even the baking for Christmas doesn't matter (granted, knowing I can't eat all the yummy cookies makes this part easier). What matters is celebrating our Lord & Savior coming to earth as a baby and growing up to die for our sins. That's something I can do even in a messy house with no decorations and no special cookies!

***This blog post was interrupted by a mom running to her child's room when the barking cough seemed out of control. She's been re-medicated & had a puff of the inhaler. Poor thing! Please pray this goes away with no infection added to it.