Sigh

Remember how I planned to spend my time off making my way through this list of things to get paid for while I wasn't working?

Well, some of the cute kidlets were sick at Christmas Eve dinner...so I was sick two days later.  Strep throat is never fun, but at least it can be cured with a quick round of Zythromax, a comfy bed, and a stack of movies. 

So besides sniffling, drinking tea, taking meds and waiting to be less uncomfortable, here's what I actually accomplished over my break:

- Going to the temple with my Blake and having a Cafe Rio lunch with old friends
Yep. Did both of those things on Christmas Eve eve.  It was fun to see Scott & Kirby and fun to try the new Cafe Rio location in Arlington.  We even got a free meal, which is never a bad thing.

- Going to a pre-Christmas kickoff
We briefly made it out of our post-Cafe Rio food coma in time to head to a party hosted by some friends from church.  There must have been 30 kids there running around having a great time...and that made it all the more festive.

- Cooking and baking galore
I got a little bit carried away baking for Christmas eve dinner.  I made homemade oreos, a french lemon tart, spiral sugar cookies, chocolate chip meringues and chocolate and caramel dipped marshmallows.  I have a sugar hangover just thinking about it.

- Eating, eating and more eating
Check, check, and triple check.

- Wrapping and subsequently opening presents
Wrapping presents is one of my favorite things to do and I had a wonderful time doing it this year.  I treated myself to several different kinds of paper, ribbons and tags and had a grand old time listening to music, watching Christmas movies, and creating Christmas masterpieces.

- Watching my nieces and nephews perform the nativity
There was surprisingly little crying.  We even had a Joseph this year thanks to a flannel shirt and a quickly drawn beard on Sidney.  It was as cute as ever. 

- Celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Blake's family
Christmas is always so fun with kids.  We had a big dinner, presents and the nativity with all the nieces and nephews, then woke up late on Christmas, went to church and finally opened presents around 3:00 p.m.  My how things have changed since the early days of waking up at 5:30 to bother my parents into letting us open gifts.

- Sharing in the kids' anticipation of Santa
Most of them still believe.  And the ones who don't are still so excited for Christmas that it doesn't dampen the spirit of anticipation.

- Chatting with my family on the phone
The darn time difference makes this difficult, but we had a great time chatting.

- Watching multiple movies at home and at the theater
We saw Sherlock Holmes (two thumbs way down! super boring!) and MI4 (two thumbs, surprisingly, way up!) in the theaters, watched Midnight in Paris twice (Blake got it for me for Christmas) and filled in the other time with episodes of Castle, The Dead Zone, and rental movies.

- Painting my toenails (because it's vacation and I have time to be luxurious)
Didn't do this one.  Oh well.

- Picking out and installing a new bathroom light fixture (hopefully)
Check.  I'll post pictures soon.  The bathroom is a like-new, light-flooded, room.  I could hardly believe it!  And for less than $40.00!  It was definitely one of those things that made us both wonder why we'd waited so long to do it.

- Painting the guest bathroom, guest room and downstairs puppet theater
I painted the guest bathroom, but didn't get to either of the other two projects.  In my sickness-induced stupor it took me two loooong days of painting just to do the tiny bathroom.  I probably shouldn't have done that (hindsight is much clearer than strep-throat clouded sight), but it looks so good that I have no regrets.  Once we added the new light fixture and bought some bright white towels it looked like a brand new space.  We've definitely classed up the joint.

- Staying in my pajamas for a long as I want to
Sickness = pajamas.  End of story.  Poor Blake had to deal with seeing me only in PJs or painting clothes (which are worse...much worse) for a week straight.  I think he'd forgotten that I clean up ok.  In fact, I think I'd forgotten that I clean up ok. 

Now it's back to reality.  I've finished my round of antibiotics and Blake should be starting his today (I am feeling extremely guilty for sharing this particular Christmas gift with him).  Wish us luck.