Crazy December

Our December has been a crazy one.....it seems as if everything happen all at once. I'll start with Senecas first Birthday party with her friends. We held her party at the Bowling Alley on December 16th. She had 5 of her friends there. They ate pizza, cake, opened presents and then bowled one game. It was fun!! As you can see below.....she got lots of presents and this was only the beginning!! On Monday, Pierre Street Dance where she takes dance lessons had a Holiday Open House where the parents can come see their kids lesson. Seneca did much better this year than last year. Last year, if you recall, she didn't want anything to do with dancing in front of people but this year was a much better year!!

Wednesday night at Wednesday School, the Wednesday school kids held their Christmas Program. They told the story of the Birth of Jesus with songs and scripture. It was a beautiful program and Seneca did so well singing the songs.

Thursday morning, bright and early, we headed to Kansas for Senecas birthday and Christmas. We packed a cooler of food and drove straight through except for potty breaks. 9 hours later, we arrived at Dads house. For the most part, the roads were good. There was some fog here and there which got a little scary at times, but no ice, thankfully. Once in Kansas, we listened carefully for the upcoming forcast on Saturday (Senecas birthday) because the plan was to head into Kansas City to get Senecas ears pierced. She had been asking for 6 months now to get her ears pierced so we thought it would be a good thing to do for her 5th birthday.

The forecast wasn't sounding very promising for Saturday but the more we listened, we figured if we got in there right when they opened (8 am) and then headed home, we could beat the forecasted ice and snow storm that was to hit. So off to Libby Lu in the Oak Park Mall we headed to get Senecas ears pierced. When I told the girl what we were there for, she said, "I am the only one who is here to pierce until 9 am so we will have to do one ear at a time." "No problem", I said, "She has been wanting this for awhile, so she should be OK." The girl then explained what she was going to do and told her, "If we do one ear, you HAVE to do both because only boys have one earring." So we started the process.

The picture is of the first ear........can you see the fear? After the first ear, we could tell, she did NOT like this whole idea, but she was a trooper and did BOTH ears. I went to hug her afterwords and she just started crying. I felt so bad for her. She wouldn't look in the mirror at her ears or talk about it. She didn't even respond to her ears until hours later, and now, she loves them!! Paul did tell me that later that morning she said, "the only reason I did both ears was because I didn't want to look like a boy". So thank goodness for the girl telling her that story!!

We had planned a party for Seneca Saturday night with Jeff, Jennifer and the Girls (LouAnns son and family) and Mitch, Anne and Gabe (Pauls cousins family) but with the ice that started shortly after noon (right when we arrived home from our ear piercing excursion) and the snow that followed into the evening we decided we would STILL have her party, just Dad, LouAnn, Paul, I and Seneca and then save the rest of the party for the next day when everyone could come and join us.

So after a little celebration on Saturday night, the rest joined us on Sunday for dinner, cake (we just ate a little cake on Saturday), ice cream and presents.

(Mitch, Anne and Gabe)

Christmas followed on Tuesday with the arrival of Santa and lots more presents. I think one of Senecas favorite gifts was her "pink guitar". She has been practicing (I think it is time for lessons) and singing with her Hannah Montana CD's. She definately is very musical.......

Thursday morning we headed back to South Dakota to end our week long vacation. Besides some fog, the roads were good until we hit Iowa. After seeing several cars in the ditch and many Highway Patrol Cars, and backed up traffic, we realized that we hit black ice. So we slowed it down despite the many truckers who just kept speeding by us HOPING that we would keep ourselves out of the ditch. With many prayers, we made it home safely!!

So after a few days of rearranging toys, putting some away that she has outgrown, and trying to find room for all the new stuff, I think we are about back to normal. Four more days of vacation for me and then I will be headed back to work again. I always enjoy my time off at Christmas, but it is always so hard to head back to work after the New Year!