A week ago, we put up our Christmas tree, as small and pathetic as it is, and Connell had a lot of fun helping me decorate it. I don't think I dare put any Christmas presents under the tree until Christmas Eve, though, because he is sooo excited to unwrap anything he can find! Christmas morning will be a blast with him this year! I have a video of Connell helping me decorate the tree, but I'm having problems getting it to load. I'll have to keep trying. Here's a picture of him playing with the manger scene. He loves it and plays with it for hours at a time.



Last week was a pretty bad luck week. It seems like one thing after another went wrong. Our paycheck was really messed up, so we're trying to get that fixed. Our phone bill was over $500, which was a shock, but we were able to get it fixed, thank goodness! We definitely don't talk on the phone that much! (Good old AT&T.) It seems like everyone is making huge mistakes in how much money we owe. Just in time for Christmas! So it's a good thing we decided not to travel to Idaho for Christmas, because we definitely do not have the money to. We sold some of our un-used electronics, so we're still going to be able to have an okay Christmas celebration, but it's not about the gifts anyway, right? I'm thankful that as long as we pay our tithing, we're always taken care of. We somehow seem to be getting by.

Then, on Wednesday night while I was making dinner, I stumbled over the garbage bag sitting in the kitchen and stepped on the ceramic lid Connell had broken the day before. I cut my foot pretty bad, so we went to the emergency room and I had to get stitches. I had to use crutches for a couple days, but now I'm almost walking normal again. I've been in a lot of pain, but thankfully our bodies were made to heal quickly. JayC has been very sweet and surprisingly helpful through this ordeal. Poor Connell had a hard time understanding why I was always laying on the couch with my foot propped up. When we were at the hospital, he saw the huge cut on my foot and put both hands on his cheeks and said, "Oh no!" He looked so worried! We just had to laugh! He's such a sweet boy. And then he kept saying "Ouch!" whenever he'd look at it. Pretty funny!

So, it's been a crazy week, but I'm glad it's over and that we survived! The weather has been crazy here. It actually snowed a couple inches last week, and it's been in the 30's and 40's during the day, which is quite the change! It's actually feeling like Christmas! But it's supposed to warm up again soon, hopefully. We're spoiled now! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and that your Christmas preparations are joyful! :) Here's a couple more pictures of Connell in the winter hats and gloves he found in the closet. He insisted on wearing all 3 hats at once!