Early December: Sickness and Pre-Christmas Festivities

In December we were struck with the plague. It was some terrible flu-type illness that lasted forever and hit pretty much all of us, I believe, at one time or another. We thought we were better for a second, but then we got sick again. Seemed as if we were sick most of the winter. The littles went down first, and they spent days sleeping around the house.

Meanwhile Ever found creative ways to wear her clothes while she practiced piano.

This must have been the day that Jim took her golf ball hunting in the rain. They were gone for hours and returned filthy, with 75 golf balls.

Our ward Christmas party was on December 7, and I was dying of the plague by that time. I had signed up to help set up but begged out of that. I had also signed up to take food and was hoping to be let off the hook, but the organizer did not release me. So I went in jammmies, looking super nasty, to drop my stuff off at the beginning of the party, and then I took my germs home. Apparently the party was amazing, but the two girls who headed it up were bitter that they didn't get any help. Not my fault!

Ever participated in the North County Children's Choir (by Coastal Music Studios) this fall. Amy Thompson told us about it because she signed up Lelei, and Ever jumped on that bandwagon. I thought it would be good for her because she loves singing. They rehearsed 6:10-7:30 P.M. every Monday from the end of September to mid-December. Ever's Girl Scout troop meets every other Monday from 4:30 to 6:00 P.M., so on those days I had to rush her straight from Girl Scouts to choir. Rehearsal drop-off and pickup were the worst because there's no good parking. Other than that, it's a nice program, and it's free other than the cost of a t-shirt. 

The choir performed at Vista Winterfest. Jim stayed home so the littles could go to bed, and I braved the rain with Ever. I videotaped all their songs, but my phone doesn't work at night and the kids looked totally whited out. Ever was in the front row directly behind the microphone from my vantage point.   

Ever is slightly more visible in this photograph:

The following weekend, they performed at an event called Christmas 4 Kidz that raises money for various children's charities in the area. Call time was 1:00 P.M., and they weren't released until about 8:30 P.M. They performed at a matinee at 3:00 P.M. and an evening show at 6:30 P.M., and the studio fed them pizza between shows. It was a crazy long day, but Ever handled it fine. She was pretty over the whole choir thing, though, so she wasn't the most animated or engaged singer. We were told upfront that the kids had to practice and learn the lyrics at home, but she absolutely refused to. I liked the program, but she won't do it again. In any event, Christmas 4 Kidz included numbers by students who are taking singing, guitar, or piano lessons at Coastal Music Studios, as well as several dances by Cadence Dance Project (Ever's dance studio). Leela was in some of the dances, so that was fun. We took the whole family to the matinee, and then Jim went back by himself to the evening performance while I put the littles to bed. When we bought our tickets, I tried to tell him we really only needed to go to one performance, but he responded, "I love her. If she wants us at both, then I'll go to both."

Palmquist also had a Winter Wonderland where the kids sang Christmas songs. Jim went straight from work. I was late getting there with the girls and could not find parking. The place was a total zoo. By the time we got in, Ever's class had just finished. Whoops. The multi-purpose room was packed. It was too crazy. We may have to opt out of that event in the future. 

Meagan Bunnell agreed to take the littles all day December 12 so I could accompany Ever's class on a field trip to Annie at the Star Theater. The kids had not been told anything about the show beforehand, so I'm sure a lot of it was over their heads.  I did not remember that it's about the Great Depression, and there's even a song called "New Deal for Christmas" that really confused me. The other kids got really antsy in the second half of the show, and they lost their minds when Daddy Warbucks and his assistant/love interest kissed. Ever, however, was totally into it. She loved it, and I love that her attention span far exceeds that of her average peer and that she can appreciate things that bore her friends. Anna said later that Naomie and Leela were talking about parts they didn't like, and Ever totally defended the show: "It was so good. Every part was so good." 

Random picture of Wrenzy's inexplicable hair:

It's highly concerning when the rattiness is so bad that fuzzies are getting stuck in it.

The Rondos hosted a cookie-decorating party for neighborhood friends. It was very poorly attended because people were either sick or busy, so that was sad. Ever was with Leela and Naomie at Sea World (next post), and Jim stayed home. Wrenzy, Tiny, and I represented. Santa made a surprise appearance. He read the kids a story and let them sit on his lap.

Tiny tried to tell Santa that she wanted monsters for Christmas, and he couldn't understand.

Wrenzy was too scared to sit on his lap.

Then they decorated cookies.

Marc and Melanie Oddou always have a giant puzzle going over the holidays, and Jim thought that was a nice idea. He was also under the impression that Mamo and Pod gave us this 1,000-piece puzzle of a North Shore scene (actually given to me by a vendor at work), and he thought we needed to do it over Christmas when Mamo and Pod were with us. He got it started ahead of time, and Wrenzy helped him. Jim said she is a puzzle genius. He kept exclaiming about how she saw things he didn't and was amazing. 

For the first time, I attended the nativity play at Little Bugs without a younger sibling on my lap. Tiny was a shepherd. Wrenzy was Mary, and the boy who loves her, Briggs, was Joseph. 

Tiny's entrance:

Wrenzy's entrance:

Wrenzy spent almost the rest of the play trying to get her headdress back on. I tried to tell her just to take it off, but no could do.

Jim heard about this crispy-cookie company in a podcast, so he ordered a bunch of bags. They were not very good. In contrast, a patient gave him this mug, which I passionately loved:

JoAnn texted me this picture of my sweet little loves sleeping together on her sofa under a Santa blanket:

Ever and a friend from her class, Kailey, exchanged phone numbers. Kailey started texting Ever as if my phone were Ever's phone. At first I let Ever text her back a few times. But the texts kept coming, and it was bizarre and not acceptable to me. I told Ever they were not going to start having a text relationship. Without my knowledge, Ever sent her a text about how I didn't approve. I can't remember how she phrased it, but it was not ideal. I got an apologetic text back from Kailey's mom. It was super awkward, and they probably hate us. Ever and Kailey, before Kailey found out Ever's mom is crazy:

Some of the texts:

Mel sent this screenshot from Facebook of a tribute to Jim by Bret Davis, who used to live up the street and was one of Jim's counselors in Elder's Quorum. They moved away years ago for Bret's job, so it was really sweet to know he still thinks of and appreciates Jim. Jim was really good to them.