A Couple other December Things

Julia still cleans once a week at my friend's salon.  For Christmas this year she got a balayage as her Christmas bonus.  It's super pretty!

There was enough snow for a little family of snowmen.  Meet Jeff.  Nicholas likes the name Jeff, he uses it often.

Then there was Frieda, which was the closest thing to the feminine for of Jeff we could find.  The other one had a name too but I've forgotten it.

 

Julia's Teeth

We've known for years Julia's adult upper canines would need to be surgically removed.  They developed way up by her nasal cavity, had little for roots and pointed forward, not down.  It finally came time to get it done when the braces weren't moving her teeth anymore because of the canines.  We have an old college acquaintance who is a periodontist, which it turned out was not what Julia needed, but he referred us to an oral surgeon we felt very comfortable with.  We decided after Christmas but still during break was the best time to do it.

Fr. Lee came over to give her anointing of the sick the day before.  He also gifted us this hard puzzle which everyone enjoyed doing.

Julia was not excited about the surgery.  Can you blame her?  Everything but the first try at the IV went smoothly though.  She was really ready to leave afterwards.  The first thing she said to me while still very groggy was "It over?" and then she tried to get up to leave.  The boys were disappointed to hear she did not do anything hilarious while coming out of anesthesia.  She just talked using only the most important words.  Thomas had wrestling so he, Philip and Jeremy went to that.  Nicholas stayed at my parents for a couple days so Julia and I went home to a quiet house with lots of soft food and a big juice stop drink.  We watched 9 episodes of Agent Carter that afternoon and by the next day she was feeling quite a bit better.  She had a little bruising and we kept her on advil and tylenol for a couple days and then she went back to life as normal sans a couple of weird teeth.

 

 

Carlson Christmas

We had a day and a half of Christmas fun at my parent's house.

All the cousins were there of course.

Sisters.

Brothers in law.  Philip and Nicholas gave Jeremy the shirt.  It was a hit.

All sorts of nice gifts.

And of course a cookie competition the next day.

Lots and lots of fun!

Christmas Morning

Since we went to Mass on Christmas Eve we were able to enjoy a slow Christmas morning.

Santa brought everyone nice things.

The siblings got presents for everyone so the piles were high.

And everyone was pleased with what they received!

 I enjoyed how Nicholas reused this bag but didn't take off the old tag.

Christmas Eve

We prepped our appetizers before heading to Mass in the evening.

Hmm, I'm not sure these are all pictures of appetizers but close enough.

Aha, here are the appetizers.

Merry Christmas!

Ready

The presents are wrapped.

The preparations are finished.

We're ready for Jesus!

Ballapalooza

Lynn and I got together to make oreo balls.  We made all the jokes you would expect two women who grew up in an all girl household and are now raising mostly boys to make.  We kept Beth in the loop via text.  

I made mint and plain with Lynn and then at home, cappuccino.  Lynn made peanut butter.  Lynn bought a fun dipping tool off Amazon that made it way easier than two forks and left a pretty swirl to boot.

Since this will of course now be a yearly thing, I got us two more dippers.

Here's to lots of year of ball jokes!