Weekend Update

It's been another whirlwind weekend for the W. family. It will almost be a relief to go back to work tomorrow. That is, of course, assuming I get to work. I'm still fighting a nasty cold and sore throat, Wesley has a really rotten cold (his nose is running a mile a minute and he's so stuffy, his eyes are tearing) and Ryan has a cold and slight fever. So work is not exactly a "gimme" tomorrow.

Anyhow, despite the plague at our house, we had a good weekend. I went shopping with Aunt Susan on Friday night. What a treat that was! Just me and my sister-in-law. No kids, no hubbys, just the girls. It was so much fun - and I got some GREAT deals. I think we'll have to make shopping together a habit.

Yesterday we went to two holiday parties. The first was Duane's company party at noon. It was "no kids" so the two of us put on some semi-nice clothes and partied with the grownups. The snow was starting to come down and things looked beautiful. I was really in the Christmas spirit. That changed to the spirit of Scrooge by the time we were headed to our second party.

At 5:00 we loaded the kids into the van and set off into the snow for a small town about a 40 minute drive from us for Aunt Buzzy's tree trimming party. The trip took us a little more than an hour to make - not too bad considering the fact that an inch of snow tried to shut down the city. We passed accident after accident on the freeways - in fact the back country roads were MUCH better traveling. Still, there are probably a few fingernail marks in the seats of the van from my nervous white knuckles.

Buzzy's party was sparsely attended, but that gave Wesley and Ryan the chance to be the stars. One of Duane's cousins kids (BTW Duane has something like 24 first cousins) named Olivia was completely taken with Ryan. Some of you loyal reader may remember Olivia from the pictures of this years hog roast. She was the one running around with the hog head on her hand. Anyhow, she asked to hold Ryan and that's the last we saw of him all night.

Wesley took a little while to warm up to everyone, but before too long he was the center of attention. He took over decorating the tree for Buzzy. She ended up with a whole lot of ornaments right at Wesley height. He did manage to break one, and even though no one was the least bit upset about it, he was mortified and refused to have anything to do with the tree for at least half and hour. But then Amy entered the picture.

Amy is the wife of one of Duane's army of cousins. She's a little bit younger than me and is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Apparently Wesley agrees with me because once Amy started decorating the tree, Wesley was back in the game. He'd tell her where to hang the ornaments, then turn to the rest of the people in the room and declare, "Let's all work together! It's the best Christmas decoration EVER!" Amy thought this was really cute and before long Wesley was talking her ear off about everything under the sun. She was probably a little relieved when we left. Wesley was heartbroken though. When we got into the car he announced that "Amy is my girlfriend." But did I get any pictures of them together? No. Hope she's at the family Christmas party in a couple of weeks.

The drive home in the snow was much better. I think traffic was lighter and the salt trucks had been out. Unfortunately, salt trucks don't take care of our back walk. As I was carrying Wesley in from the car, I tripped and fell flat on my face. Wesley hit his head on the snow covered sidewalk and Bear slid a little ways. Was Wesley upset about his head or the snow all over his pajamas? NO! He was upset there was snow on Bear! Duane shook the snow off the stinky one and all was better. Well, better might be stretching it since Wesley was up past midnight with a nasty cough.

Still, we made it to church for Ryan's baptism today. Unfortunately, Slacker Mom did not take any pictures. Aunt Susan did though and I'll post some when I get them. We got home from the service and luncheon only to discover that Ryan was running a fever. So we've all been kind of vegging out in the front room this evening. Thank goodness tomorrow is Monday!