The dust begins to settle

Dear James, Daniel and Emily

3 days after Christmas things are slowly settling down, with out of town visitors returning to their homes. Sorry we didn't get as much time together, although the boys got some fun time with Aunt Elizabeth. We have a dinner over at Phyllis & Alan's today, which is a kind of make up Christmas dinner. But otherwise nothing else really planned.

Holiday thoughts and comments

It's been a strange holiday season for me, because I haven't seen nearly as much of my family as I normally do. The big reason was consideration for Connie, it was kind of rough. She was pretty good until she opened the picture of her and Manny from my Mom, then she broke down for a little while. Which I think was good, she needs to have some moments where she doesn't act so strong. But because of that we have been pretty focused on spending time with Kim's family over the holiday season.

The biggest thing, in retrospect, is that we usually have our Christmas Eve party so we could see people from both families. Well most of my family pulled a no show. All with good reason, it's just that we need to change up how we do things in the future so we don't run into this again.

Emily news

Emily came down with another ear infection, took her to the Dr. yesterday. It's a mild one, so hopefully we caught it early enough to nip it in the bud. The thing is, in observing Daniel lately I think it is clear he has had some hearing loss. There is nothing wrong with his cognitive functions, he is just fine doing anything that doesn't require listening, it's when he has to listen close that he has a problem. But because of that, we are extra vigilant and cautious when Emily shows signs of an ear infection.

Projects

Kim and I went out and spent our Christmas money yesterday and bought some blinds for the living room, kitchen and our bedroom. That should help with energy savings, and improve the look of those rooms. Which gives us our project for today and tomorrow. I had thought maybe, if we were motivated enough, we could tackle painting the kitchen. But Kim decided she wanted to relax more in these days off.

More teaching moments

Friday night I spent a good couple of hours putting together James' new Lego knockoff spaceship, which was a real pain in the neck. Then last night Austin spent the night and broke it apart completely. I was pretty upset, and I told James that I am done assembling his lego toys for a while. He was pretty sad, but I think he understood.