The Bits: December 19th Through December 31st

There are not many late-December Bits, because there were so many late-December events!

Adam is channeling his inner Buddy the Elf, while Zac channels his inner Neil for the youth Ugly Sweater Party!

Meanwhile, Ben and Josh were down for the entire first week of winter break battling Influenza A.  It sucked.

Zac and Nathan earned some muscle-dough moving 302 buckets of dirt each from my friend Kelli's mom's front yard to her backyard garden boxes.  The dirt had been sitting in the driveway for over a year, so, as a Christmas gift surprise, Kelli arranged to pay the boys for the work to get it where it needed to go.  The clincher was that reason Kelli's mom hadn't finished the job was because she didn't want to use a wheelbarrow and make ruts in the lawn, so...604 buckets later!!  Zac's shoulders were sore for days but it was worth it for some Christmas spending money.

Watching Ben and Josh battle the actual Flu, made me so grateful to live in a time with modern medicine.  I know it sounds silly, but something as simple as ibuprofen, something we take for granted every day, made such a difference.  For five days, the boys' fevers flared up to around 103* anytime we let their ibuprofen/acetaminophen regimen lapse.  I'm usually a "let it burn and do what your body is supposed to do" kind of mom, so long as they don't go over 102*.  But in the midst of this, I was waking up in the middle of the night to dose them, just so they wouldn't get too hot.  They were left drained and easily-fatigued once they started recovery.  It took nearly the whole break to feel back to themselves again energy-wise.  It really hit home how easily Influenza could be a fast killer, even of strong, healthy boys, if times were different.

Adam's Christmas chocolate-dipped salted caramels!

Ruby loves when her buddy Maggie visits.  Wait...so if she is my parent's fur-baby, and Ruby is ours, does that make Maggie Ruby's fur-aunt?

After Christmas, we used movie tickets from Auntie Al and Uncle Zach to see The Greatest Showman.  We LOVED it and can't stop listening to the soundtrack!

My parents are so cute!  And the money in my dad's case?  Haha!  Classic Dad joke....

We adults and the two oldest boys zipped home from the mountains for a night so Zac and Ben could go to the New Year's Eve Eve Youth Dance (since NYE was a Sunday night).  It is the best youth dance of the year, after all, so how could we say no?!

This kid....  He's pretty awesome.

We bought our tickets to France for Zac's Senior trip!  This is Adam and my first trip to Europe, too, so we are pretty crazy stoked around here!  We also kind of accidentally bought tickets to Iceland, so....  It could be Adam and my first AND second trips to Europe this year!