Our family Christmas

The continuing saga of the mouth

 Ashlynn had to have braces to make room for a tooth that decided to stay up in the roof of her mouth.  The orthodontist has made room...yet the tooth is not moving all the way down...much to our disappointment!  We met with an oral surgeon and March 28 is the date for making a little window to attach a hook to for the Dr. to attach a chain and pull it into place.

 She was nervous.  I didn't want to be there at all.  Dad was our comic relief while stomping down the angst of all things financial.  OI!  And then the Dr. wants to take care of the wisdom teeth too.  "We may as well...I'll be in pain anyway."  What a trooper!

It is always great when health/dental professionals tell you that "we like to start braces much earlier..." blah, blah, blah.  There is so much about our life that they don't know that it aggravates me and I feel bad.  I appreciate Ted's support and reminders that we are the parents and we know what the best steps are for our kiddos...well, most of the time!

They still "like to go to Grandma's house for Christmas"

 We finished up last minute details and packing and headed to IL for Christmas...bearing gifts and sick germs!  "Sleep in heavenly peace..." was Ashlynn's goal as she battled a high fever.

 The only snow we had for Christmas this year was a small stretch in Indiana.

 We picked up Chica on Sunday afternoon.  She was all pretty and had no idea what was about to happen.

 Meeting the family was very exciting!

 Velle is not too sure or happy about this.

 Hmmm...maybe she will be fun to play with maybe not!

 Well....I like her toys when she is sleeping!

 Here we go...puppy naps, puppy food, puppy training...

It was a fail on many levels...

 I decided to be a sport and participate in the dessert contest for our staff party.  I found a yummy recipe and paid way more for the butter than I normally would think logical.  The batter looked great and fluffy till I added the eggs...one at a time...three in all.  The batter got runnier.  It smelled divine as I put it into the cake pans and cupcake pan.  It continued to smell good as it baked!

 And this is what I pulled out...I have never had this happen...but then again...I don't normally bake a cake totally from scratch.  It tasted good and there was no way I was throwing it away!  Plan B!

 I layered it into Gram's pretty bowl.

 Serve yourself...and it tasted good!  No one had to know!  Homemade salted caramel frosting whipped to fluffy goodness.

 Garnished with our cute gingerbread men...not even a runner up.  All that stress for nothing!  I have decided that I am not doing that again...I paid $5.99 for a pound of butter for a disappointment.

I decided that it is not worth it...no matter what anyone says!  The day of a K5 Christmas party following all the fa la la la la is not the time to add one more thing to your list.

I worked hard for Christmas break this year...we all did!