Let's just start off by talking about Nic's teachers' Christmas presents. It seems like that is all I have been doing/thinking of for the last week. I started by "thinking" of buying the both teachers a cute decorative box and having Nic put a personal note in each... which is what I should have stuck with. I was talking to my cousin, and we came up with this idea about going to Michaels and buying a wood box of some sort and having Nic paint it. Great idea right? Well, I took Nic to Michaels and let him pick two "cigar" boxes. Then, I had to track down an employee to ask a dozen questions about what to do next. I should have known to end it right then. I bought the supplies, and the next day we started. Nic wanted to color each side a solid color (I thought he would do something a little more fancy) so he did. At one point I went to open the box and it was painted(dried) shut. When I pulled hard enough, it broke into pieces...Jack is gone all week....so here I am with a glue gun and Nic saying "it will be fine". I didnt know you had to do layer after layer of paint. The glue job was not good at all. The project started Saturday and we finished it on Thursday. I took him to school this morning with the boxes tucked nicely in gift bags. They were finally out of the house. I feel like I can relax now, and its nice seeing my counters without paint, newspaper, brushes, and rags. I attached a picture to show the final master piece. I always say, if we all could just attach a note to each present telling of the journey of how the gift came to be.

Still dealing with "the sick" over here. Cassidy has been running a fever since Sunday... so back to no sleep. Over the weekend, when everyone was well, we went to the pennisula to a yacht club for a Christmas parade with boats decorated for Christmas. Jack and I were walking the pier and thought; we could never be doing this, in December, back in Wisconsin. Santa came in floating on his big yacht, standing at the front waving. I thought it was so funny, who would ever think they would see Santa coming to town on a boat? When he came up the pier, he was lifting the kids up to say hello. Nic was hiding behind me and Cassidy was in Jack's arms saying, "Scared, No Santa".... so again (I thought) another year with no Santa pictures. I had a plan to hold Cassidy and stand by Santa for a picture, but when I went up to him, Santa tried to grab Cassidy and she totally went crazy trying to get away, screaming. A second later, Jack was able to get the shot which is pictured here. You would never guess all the drama, by looking at the picture. At least one kid had a Santa shot this year.

Hope every one's Thanksgiving Day went well, we had an excellent time with Carla and Dave visiting. I made way too much food but it lasted us all week. Jack was very proud of his Turkey, (always scared those feathers will come out again for the holidays). We had a babysitter come for some time each day so we could enjoy some of North Carolina's sites. Grand Father Mountain was our first stop for the weekend and there were some beautiful views. Jack and Carla missed out on amazing cliff side views (since they are scared of heights). You can see from the pictures I was literally on the edge of the cliff. Saturday, we thought we would tour local winery's around and catch some great views. Nic got pretty sick while they were here with cough and fever so we were dealing with no sleep each night. Took him into the doctor to find out he has Bronchitis and Sinus infection so we had to keep him home from school today and we will see what tonight/tomorrow brings. Always something going on preventing us from sleeping through the night lets just hope it will end soon. Carla and Dave are not going to miss the puking/coughing/crying issues but we all will certainly miss them! We are so blessed to have family and friends that are willing to visit us, our hearts are so happy and blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.