A new tradition

I decided to start a new tradition this year. We get lots of fun Christmas cards and I thought it would be fun to decide which was our favorite for the year and give the card sender an award.

A major award.

I put together this little certificate and got a gift card to Cold Stone.




The First Annual Best Christmas Card winner is....

The Snow Family of Douglasville, Georgia.

(the captions above their heads are hilarious)

The pressure is on folks...better make next year awesome and maybe, just maybe, you'll be the winner of "The Weinreb's Present..."

Let the games begin!

Christmas 2010

This post is a bit late...

We had our family Christmas Eve dinner at Annie & Jeremy's house and they did a great job as hosts.

The kitchen events



Most of these people are playing Angry Birds...nothing says Christmas like Angry Birds.

Annie's beautiful dining room
(this is the first time she's ever eaten in the dining room and she's lived there for like 4+ years)

The "kids table"
(to include Jeremy, Todd & Lisa)

We played a rousing game of White Elephant

Lisa got the Justin Bieber doll

Judy got the autographed photo of Dr. Phil

Annie & Jeremy ended up with the most backwoods gift of the night
camo hats (minus the flowers on top, that was just a great photo angle) and shotgun shell lights.

Christmas Eve night, Abby put out reindeer food

Christmas morning!

The kids woke us up around 7:30am and we found these notes...

A letter from the elves and a little gift for Abby

Santa enjoyed his "Brown Cow" treat

Christmas morning at Gma & Gpa's

Jennifer & Claudia

the gang

Sam & Cricket

Abby and her Tiffany charm

Shock and Awe
Beautiful Kate Spade coat

Judy got a new iPad

Typical Christmas breakfast of bagels & lox. Mahzel Tov!

We got all the kids matching Snoopy Christmas pj bottoms

One of my gifts from the kids & Todd, a big set of Le Crueset
(which I returned-only needed one pot)

And for those who mocked my Wal-Mart phone, Todd got me a real cell phone.

We ended the day with snow
A real white Christmas in Georgia! It's been over 100 years since it snowed on Christmas in Georgia.
(sorry it's so big but I loved the photo)

The mess!

Sam testing out his new putter

The next day we played in the snow with our neighbors, the Taylor's.

What a wonderful Christmas weekend we had!

I better watch what I say...

A while back, Todd and I were watching Glee. In this episode, the character Emma Pillsbury was wearing a darling coat.

I said, "That coat is so cute. I just love that coat."

I don't know how many times I said it, I think just one but it was enough to get Todd's mind a thinking.

Here's a photo of the coat from Glee. Super cute, right?




Fast forward to Christmas Day...

Judy handed me a Kate Spade box and I assumed it was a purse.

It wasn't.

It was this...

Can you hardly stand it?!

It will look much better sans the skeleton Christmas pjs, unwashed hair and pink slippers.

Todd emailed his mom & sister-in-law, Kattia to inquire about the coat. There is a website soley dedicated to the clothes that Emma Pillsbury wears on Glee:

What Would Emma Wear

And they found it on there. And now I've got it.

Shocked. Dumbfounded. Pleasantly surprised.

Just a few things to describe how it was for me.

Thanks J & D for a fantastic Christmas surprise!

xoxo

2010 Christmas Letter

Here is the Christmas letter & photo I sent this year:

Hello Dear Family and Friends!
Is the year really over? Where did it go?
Our time was spent running to and fro
Time to slow down and enjoy December
Here’s what we did, if I can remember...

Abby got to stay up late to ring in the new year
Kim was called as a Primary Teacher
A “real” snow day here in Georgia
basketball games
Soccer
Piano Recital
Spring Baseball
Home runs
Special Pops Tennis
Spring Break in Amelia Island
Ice-skating
Hiking
Service Sundays
School performances
Riding bikes and the neighborhood “Bike Club”
Dance recital
Silver Medal at the Special Olympics
Homemade ice cream
Spending time with cousins
Honoring a soldier who gave his life
Autism Walk
Swimming
The end of school!!
Canoeing at Sweetwater Creek
Cheap backyard swimming pool
Trip to Pine Mountain, Georgia with family
Summer trip to Amelia Island
Abby got braces!!
Abby’s trip to Wyoming to stay with Grandma and Grandpa
Summer camps
Cousin Micah was born
Girl’s Weekend at the beach
Ice cream adventures
Todd’s golf trip to Jackson Hole
Abby’s birthday and baptism
Grandpa Max and Tutu’s visit
Guitar lessons
Halloween
Thanksgiving
A wonderful year spent as a family!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Love, The Weinrebs

Visiting Teaching Brunch

For the last 2 years, I have hosted a Visiting Teaching Brunch for the ladies that I visit teach from the ward. I figure this is a good way to have them come to me!

My companion, (former..boo hoo!) Diana, and I had a breakfast casserole, cranberry salad, OJ and hot cocoa on the menu.

I had totally different table decor the night before and I didn't like it so I ran to Target to get the turquoise place mats. I put glittered snowflakes under the plates, which are clear, and it looked much better.



Sadly, only two out of 6 sisters could join us but we had fun. We ate, we had an interactive lesson, found here, and enjoyed an hour together.

I think I may also do an Easter Visiting Teaching Brunch in the spring of 2011.
You really can't go wrong with brunchy food.

Elfin Magic-Part 2

I found my elf photos on another sd card so here's proof of the Elf Mischief:

Harold put Buddy in the freezer

Margaret causing trouble upon her arrival. Not a good way to make friends.

Buddy's view

The end...hopefully!

Service Sunday (in reality-Service Monday & Wednesday)

For December's Service Sunday, we "adopted" a mom & her twins for Christmas. The entire Share House is already "adopted" by Cox Enterprises, which just happens to be Todd's company. Small world.

I met one of the moms, T, and she is young and has twins, a boy & a girl. After meeting her at the Share House (read that post here) during our September Service Sunday, I often run into her at her place of employment and get a few minutes to chat with her. We wanted to do something for someone at the Share House and we felt like T and her kids could use some extra Christmas spirit.

For FHE on Monday, we hit Wal-mart (at 5pm-what were we thinking!?) and did some shopping. We got each baby 2 toys, a book, 2 outfits and some pjs. We got T a gift card to a restaurant and a gas gift card.

Here are the toys & clothes we picked out. It's been a long time since we bought stuff for babies.



The Share House Office

Delivering our gifts to the office

Doesn't Abby look well? All 3 of us are sick!

Merry Christmas!!

The Trials of Parenthood

Damn seizures!!



A good day can go downhill very quickly...

I took Sam & Abby to the doctor for their cold symptoms. Abby had a virus and since Sam's been coughing for about 3 months, they put him on albuterol.

We filled our prescriptions & came home. At that time I administered his first dose. It seemed to really be working as he was coughing more, trying to get the junk out of his lungs. However, he just kept trying to clear his throat, it was non-stop for the rest of the night.

I put the kids to bed around 9pm and around 10pm, Sam told me he had a headache so I gave him some ibuprofen. I checked on him a bit later and he was still awake and looking just a little off. He was swallowing a lot but he said he was ok. About 10 minutes later, I checked on him again and this time it was apparent that he was having a seizure; rapid eye movement, very fast heart rate, dancing (horitzonally) to music that wasn't playing, seeing things that weren't there. He was also chewing his tongue and the insides of his cheeks.

It was time for the big guns: Diastat
(rectal valium)

We sat with him for about 20 minutes, checking his heart rate and keeping an eye on him. At one point he said as he looked at his clock, "It's midnight, you guys need to go to bed." Why? "So you can get some rest." Too sweet.

Unfortunatley, the med wasn't really working as fast as it has in the past and so I decided it was time to go to the ER. I left the house at 1:04am and I gave Sam a washcloth to chew on because I couldn't get him to stop. By the time we got to Scottish Rite, he had blood on his shirt and a piece of a tooth stuck to his shirt. What the...?

Luckily (I guess), we get in pretty quick due to Sam's history. The meds had finally kicked in around 2am and he was a bit hard to get in & out of the wheelchair and up into the bed. We saw the MD and there wasn't much to be done but they did do a CT, shunt series and a dental x-ray to check on the missing tooth.

We were home in our own bed by 6am.

We wonder if it was the albuterol that triggered the seizure, needless to say we are not giving him any more! Sam seems to go about 6 months between seizures and when I looked back at his last one, it was 6 months and 1 day. Weird.

Needless to say, it was just one of those awesome parenting moments. As I sat in the hospital for 3+ hours, I counted my blessings that we would be able to go home that night whereas some of the kids & parents that were there have spent days, weeks or months in the hospital.

I can't complain.

Elfin Magic

Life around here has been very hectic on the elf front. It's actually exhausting!

The new elf, Harold (he's black you know), has been giving Buddy a hard time




I don't think Todd was being very nice in helping Harold

Abby has been quite diligent in keeping H & B fed
Abby read the letter below and broke out into tears worrying that the elves wouldn't be back in time for "Elf Day" at school. Real tears! Sobbing!

So, Abby did the only thing there was to do, write a letter expressing her wishes that they return in time for one of them to go to school with her.

Next up, Todd swears he saw some movement near our mail box so
Abby ran out and found this letter:

Who in the heck is Margaret?
After putting the clues together, Todd and Abby drove to Buckhead to G'ma Judy's condo
and into her massive closet to find this note and a new elf. Yes, your calculations are correct, we now have THREE elves turning our world upside down!

Upon their return, they found Harold sitting on top of the fridge in the basement
and Buddy was in the freezer.
(I have no idea where that photo ended up)

Here is some more mischief

Next up, Abby's selection method:

Harold: a self portrait

Buddy's gift rendition

Margaret's artistry

Next question?

No one likes to tell how old they are...

Luckily, the North Pole has good record keeping skills

The last few days have been quiet...thankfully. I'm not too sure that I am going to miss these little creatures. I want my pre-elf life back!!