sickness update

Emily, Benjamin, and M. are the only ones who haven't shown any signs of sickness. I am hoping the mild symtoms Jon and Charlotte had last week were it for them. Paul is coming around a bit....and I feel awful, but have not officially gotten sick yet. There are 12 of us still up, and it is relatively pleasantly in here...

We obvviously decided against doing a family picture today. And we opted not to have Ben bring home pizza and wings. Emily so nicely made a cream of potato soup....and M. made some rolls to go with it.

I lost my notebook that had all the presents listed in it, thankfully it is in code. The only problem with that is sometimes I can't remember for the life of me what some of it means....anyway, the list looks dismal. The kids are growing up, I can't just stock up on clearance toys and pass them out.....and the electronic stuff is so expensive. We did get a treadmill....that should count. It does get a lot of use. Today, Jonathan was so full of energy, he took a nice little run. It really helps. I am not getting alot for the older ones, like Emily, Abigail, Ben.....but M. has a list....Joe, he hasn't asked for much. ......Some of the older ones have gotten each of the kids a gift too. I know we will have a nice day, even if I don't go out and buy more stuff.

Emily the nurse has only two more days.....then, she leaves the day after Christmas. It is so so nice to have M. home. She brought a chocolate bible cookbook with her, with some big ideas. I think this year we will have lots of cookies after all. And Abigail will be done soon, it will be so nice to have her unattatched to homework and studying. She lives and breathes accounting.....

We have put away so many toys to fit the tree in, we could just have Christmas for the little ones by getting the toys back out.

One nice thing: Paul hooked up the water and ice cube dispenser on our refridgerator. I feel so rich and spoiled, just getting a cup of ice whenever I want it. It is great. The kids haven't abused it as much as I thought they would. I try not to flip out when the front of the 'fridge gets all streaked, and the floor in front of it all wet....we just throw a towel down.

Some of the older kids want to wrap presents tonight, but I just feel yucky. The tummy ache comes and goes, but is getting progressively worse. After last night of Camille waking up SEVEN times, I am not looking forward to going to bed tonight at all. We gave her a nice bottle of whole milk with a little bit of sugar in it, to see if we can fill her tummy a bit before bedtime. .....

Well, Charlotte Claire and Camille are still up, and I need to get them to bed.....