Happy Festivus . . . for the Rest of Us!

Sorry - I had to blogjack Brook again for a special occassion.

As all of you know, today is December 23rd. Time to get out your aluminum poles (because tinsel is distracting), invite over your friends and celebrate Festivus. Please feel free to comment on the annual, beloved sharing of grievences and don't leave out any details on your family's feats of strength.




Enjoy it while you can . . . Soon enough it will be time to go back to work at Vandelay Industries.

Christmas Recital

My kids had their Christmas recital this last weekend. Ethan just started playing 4 months ago and I have been thrilled at his progress.

They both practiced a ton and I loved hearing Christmas songs being played in my home the last few weeks. They both got cold feet and had a few slip ups here and there but I was so proud of them. I especially loved seeing Ethan play a duet with his dad. It was so cute to see his little smile through the whole song.

It was another great year and I love to see the progress they are making. I am so proud of all their hard work.

The story of Fanta

To any of you out there that may not know just how competitive Charlie's brothers and sisters can be you must hear the story of how Fanta came to be. My sister-in-law recently put a picture up of their newly acquired Fanta and said that she would tell the story of him some day. I figured that each kid in the family has their own perspective and we needed to jump at the chance to get the TRUE story out for all posterity to read someday.

It all began many years ago when Diane hand painted this Santa as a Christmas decoration for their home. It was well loved by all the Carn children and a fond memory of Christmas past. As years went on Diane's taste changed and she filled her house with all sorts of new shiny decorations and poor Santa was left in a box for many years.

(Real Santa)

Charlie and I moved to Chicago and we were approached by Diane our first Christmas there wanting to know if we wanted Santa as she was going to throw him away. Charlie jumped at the offer. I not having the nostalgic value behind it actually thought it was kind of ugly and was not thrilled about having a beat up Santa placed front and center on our mantel each year. I since have grown to love Santa and look forward to taking him out at the start of the holiday season.

It wasn't until one of the brothers found out that we had Santa that the tales of unfairness and plotting ways to retrieve said Santa begun. The boys actually went to such great lengths that they stole our garage door opener out of our van, broke into our house and held Santa hostage. Literally, they put duct tape over his mouth and vowed that we would never see him again!

The game was on. Charlie and I were now on the hunt. We did not let anyone know that we noticed that Santa was missing. They all thought they were so sneaky. We did some breaking in of our own and finally found and rescued Santa from his brothers house and brought Santa home...where he belongs.

We since have kept Santa under close supervision. He is hidden so well in our house you would have to take the house apart board by board to ever be able to find him. As a joke a few years ago we said we were so tired of hearing about all the whining and complaining that we would bring Santa back with us and place a bet on the Bears game at Christmas, that whoever guessed closest to the final score would win the Santa. The kids were ecstatic to say the least.

Why anyone would believe that Charlie would actually give up willingly something his siblings were so jealous over is beyond me. The search was on to find a fake Santa...or as we like to call him...FANTA! We found an exact replica on EBAY. The only difference was the weight. The original Santa weighs a ton. Charlie spent hours painting the new Santa. We debated on filling it with plaster to make it heavy and trying to distress it to make it look older but in the end we knew that it would never pass for the real Santa and we were tired of spending anymore time on it. We packed up Fanta and headed for Chicago.

(Fanta and real Santa)

So we made our bets and at the end of the game guess who one.....CHARLIE. SURPRISE SURPRISE. So now we were stuck with real Santa AND Fanta. Now what were we going to do?

The Carn's had a huge family reunion this summer and we decided to offer once again to bring Santa as a bingo prize the final night. Tension ran high and the siblings have never before taken bingo so seriously. It ended up that my sister-in-law Bridget won it for her and Brad. Ahhhh...the moment of unveiling had finally come.

Fanta came out of his box and for a brief moment there was joy that Santa had finally been stripped away from us. It was not until closer examination that the betrayal had been discovered! Can I tell you I was more than a little worried for the safety of Charlie and myself.

So now Fanta resides with Brad and Bridget...and the drama continues over why Charlie the golden child was so unfairly bestowed with Santa. So there you have it. The true story of Santa and how Fanta came to be.

(Fanta in his new home)

Ross and Diane, I highly suggest if you have not put in the will yet who gets the advent calendar with the precious star, you might want to do that soon. The controversy over that one item alone may be enough to take out your entire family!

Naughty or Nice?

A few days ago we did one of our yearly Christmas traditions when we visited Santa at his magical house. It is beautifully decorated and I think I look forward to it just as much as the kids do.
We were smart this year and went early in the season when we did not have to wait outside in the freezing cold for 2 hours. We walked right in where it was warm and cozy and hopped in the sleigh for some pictures.

Then each of the kids got to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus and tell them what they wanted for Christmas this year. I was expecting Sam to cry but he did really well. We didn't get a shot of just Logan...maybe next year.

I am loving this time of year. I love that we have finally lived somewhere long enough that our kids have traditions that they will remember for the rest of their lives. We look forward to our stop this week at the world's largest Christmas store!

Change of title

This book was a classic in my home growing up. I have thought of this title many times over the last week and decided to make some changes to it to better describe what we have been through the last 7 days.

I will try to make a long story somewhat short. We now have made a new Thanksgiving tradition for ourselves. It's called the stomach flu...and I highly discourage anyone from following in our tradition. It seems that each year that I try to host Thanksgiving we all come down with the stomach flu.

It started this year with Charlie. He came home from turkey bowl and started to complain of an upset stomach. By the time we finally got the meal on the table he made himself a plate sat down and no sooner had he put his fork in his hand he ran from the table and spent the next 24 hours between the bed and the bathroom.

The clock was now ticking to see which of us was going to be the next lucky one. By Saturday Charlie was feeling a bit better and had taken some of the kids out to pick up some dinner. I got a phone call a few minutes later to come meet him at the car because Sam had thrown up all over.

The 5 days after that we all were hit one by one like an army being overtaken by the enemy. Next was Logan, then Abby, then Morgan and Ethan (they managed to both get sick literally 4 minutes apart).

So....I was the last soldier standing. How I was the last one since I have been the one to clean up all the stuff coming out of both ends and have not left the house in 6 days is beyond me. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach for more reasons than one. Charlie was leaving to go out of town. Yup, you heard me.

Sure enough he left at 4:00 this morning and I was left at home with not 1, not 2, not 3, BUT 5 sick kids home from school and the last soldier standing was finally brought to her knees (literally) at 8:00 this morning.

It has been a long day of survival mode. Thank heavens that Abby is doing well enough to give me a hand between bathroom breaks. I actually have about a 1 hour window between pit stops where I feel kind of ok'ish...thus how I am able to be writing this right now. I am sure I should be doing something better with my time, but I am sad and lonely and this is my only form of human contact. How lame is that?

This is a brief summary of my last 7 days:

Pots of homemade soup made: 1

Loads of laundry done: 18

Packages of wipes gone through: 4

Bottles of Pedialyte: 4

Loaves of bread eaten for toast: 4

Sleepless nights: 7

Times carpet cleaner used: 8

I have also been through an entire container or Clorox wipes and a whole bottle of bleach and have literally washed every sheet, pillow, and blanket that we own. Needless to say, I am tired and ready for Charlie to be home and have a house full of healthy happy children again.

Funny enough being sick during Thanksgiving does make you thankful for a lot of things. I am thankful for 5 normally healthy children. I am thankful for my own health and for that of my husband. I am thankful for disposable diapers. I am thankful for flushing toilets. I am thankful for a wonderful washer and dryer and an amazing carpet cleaner. I am thankful for my yummy twisted peppermint hand soap from bath and body works that has made all this hand washing a reminder of the holidays around the corner. I am thankful for prayer and the strength I have received from it over the last 12 hours. I am thankful for times of trial that let us reflect on all of our many blessings that we have.

Now if you will excuse me...I am off to visit my best friend the toilet!