Nolan's Winter Concert

Nolan had his very first school concert this past week and he did so well!  He has been practicing his songs for the last few weeks and as long as I didn't make a big deal about it, I got to hear little parts and pieces of "O Come Little Children," "Nice Not Naughty", and "I Want to be an Elf" as he absentmindedly sang them while playing.  What really surprised me about all this was how calm he was about performing in front of hundreds of people.  Nolan, my boy who panicked over sounds, especially singing, and required headphones at church a year ago, was completely cool, calm, and collected about this particular task.  It was quite amazing to see his confidence.  He was the first kid on stage and he marched fearlessly onto the risers holding the hand of his beloved music teacher.  Though his classmate standing next to him bawled the ENTIRE time, Nolan never seemed phased by any of it.  He was also chosen to play the jingle stick for "Nice not Naughty" and every time they sang the word, "naughty," he jingled his little heart out.  He took his job very seriously.  

Grandma Patti, Great Grandma Ruby, Daddy, Livi, and I all came to cheer him on and were so very proud of him.  He is getting so very grown up, which is bittersweet, but I love to see his confidence and bravery.  Great job, buddy!

Christmas Recital

On Monday night, my fantastic lesson students presented a beautiful recital.  Every single one of them has grown tremendously throughout the last year.  Most of these girls have played in their churches or at their schools and their skills are improving rapidly.  I even have an adult student this year!  Eric's Aunt Sandy started in September and is doing beautifully!  It has been fun to watch all of their successes - it makes me a proud teacher!

Lessons continue to be a blessing for my family.  It has allowed me the ability to earn some extra income, while still being able to be home with my kids.  But, my lesson families have enriched our lives in more ways than that - we have made lifelong friendships with most of these families.  We have wonderful babysitters in this group that know and love our kids.  We go to church with some of these families.  Within this group of students and their families, we have found a community.  And for that, we are most thankful.

Dad's Birthday Weekend

For the past several years, my parents have come up over Dad's birthday weekend to celebrate with him, make Christmas cookies, and watch the kids while Eric and I attend the work Christmas party.  This year was no exception.  Because of the demands of their ill parents, my parents haven't been here as much as usual.  In fact, aside from Nolan and Livi's birthday party weekends, they haven't stayed at our house since we moved here back in July!  Needless to say, the kids were over-the-moon excited to have them come to visit.  We tried to pace ourselves in terms of the cookie making, only making a few kinds, mostly to use for my upcoming piano recital.  Nolan helped Grandma Marcia roll out the cut-outs and both kids really got into helping decorate with sprinkles.  It's a fun (but messy) job.  

Later that night, Eric and I headed to the work Christmas party at Holiday Acres.  It is always nice to have a night out without the kids.  They don't happen very often!  The food was delicious and everybody had fun playing the White Elephant gift exchange.  We came home with some nice gifts and a few gift cards.

Sunday was the day to celebrate my Dad's birthday.  He requested his favorite - roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, candied carrots, and lemon meringue pie.  Steve and Patti came to celebrate with us, which was great.  (Have I mentioned how awesome it is that our parents get along beautifully?! It really is the best!)  Most of all, we celebrated my Dad, whom we love so much!  Happy 58th Birthday, Dad!

Library Holiday Storytime

Our library offers so many wonderful opportunities.  The kids have been to Holiday themed storytime, activity day, and Santa even came to visit this morning.  I was really proud of Nolan, because even though he was nervous, he was willing to go sit next to Santa (with Mom close by) and tell him what he wanted for Christmas this year.  (a tablet...) He has grown up so much in the past year.  We are thankful for the amazing library staff who all work so hard to know each child by name and offer wonderful opportunities for the community throughout the entire year.  

Preparing for Christmas

Being housebound for a week definitely helped me get going on decorating for Christmas.  It was fun to be in a new house, and find new places for all our special decorations.  We've had a pretty heavy focus on Advent this year, and have been lighting our Advent wreath weekly and the kids have several different daily Advent calendar countdowns.  One that we made at church has little prayers to pull out of an envelope each day.  This one made me laugh because Nolan's prayer was: "Jesus, the best part of today was playing Mario and the worst part of today was pooping my pants. Thank you for being with me in both. Amen."  He was still suffering the effects of the stomach flu, but that prayer was so funny because it reminded me exactly of a prayer his dad would say. ;) A chip off the ole' block.

We decorated two Christmas trees this year - one upstairs and one downstairs.  The kids were good helpers and they really enjoyed looking at the wide array of the different glittery, funny, and homemade ornaments that adorn our trees.  Livi really took a liking to a kitchen ornament and I catch her playing with it constantly.  When I tell her to stop, she makes a ridiculous monster face at me and tells me she's "making breakfast!"

I love having the house all decked out in its Christmas beauty.  There's not much more relaxing than curling up under a blanket and watching a Christmas movie with the soft glow of the Christmas tree lights gleaming nearby.  I love this time of year, especially with how magical it is for my kids.  The big day will be here before we know it!

Stomach Flu

The night that we got back from Eau Claire, I was so proud.  I finished all of the laundry from our weekend away before bedtime that night.  I knew there were many errands to run on Monday and I wanted a jump start to what would be a busy week.  At about 1 in the morning, Livi came into my room saying she was all wet.  Figuring she spilled some water on her from a leaky sippy cup, I walked back to her room with her to help get her settled and back to sleep.  The second I walked in her room, I knew what she was "all wet" from. The smell of vomit was putrid and it was all over her bed.  I got to work quickly, pulling off layer by layer of her bedding, taking it straight to the washer.  I got new sheets on her bed, got her tucked back in, and went back to sleep.  It wasn't ten minutes before she came back to get me and the process started over again.  I ended up "sleeping" in her bed with her, and the poor little thing puked every 20 minutes for most of the rest of the night.  I felt so bad for her.  The next morning she slept in until 9 and seemed to be feeling better.  By lunchtime, she was ready to eat and seemed to have no lingering effects.  I canceled all of my lessons and we stayed in the house all day, to make sure we didn't spread this awful germ to anyone else.  

But...Wednesday morning I woke up feeling quite nauseous.  Within a few hours I was puking and so weak that I couldn't get out of bed to take care of Livi.  (Nolan was at school.) Eric had to come home to help  and I laid in bed and didn't eat a thing all day.  By about 8:00 that night, I figured I should try to get up for a minute, so I came out to sit on the couch and watch some TV with Eric.  Within a half hour, he was running to the bathroom and making some of the most horrifying/ridiculous sounds I have ever heard anyone make.  While Eric was vomiting and miserable, I heard a cry from Nolan's room - "Mommy!"  I walked in to see Nolan laying on the floor and his entire bed was absolutely coated in vomit.  I got him set up on the couch with a bucket and went to work to get all his bedding stripped off his bed and put in the washing machine.  My poor little son puked every 15 minutes for four hours straight, and then several more times before morning.  I felt so bad for him.  Needless to say, neither of us got any sleep.  

The great mercy in this whole mess is that by the time Eric and Nolan got sick, I was at least able to be upright to help.  I don't know what we would have done if they got it at the same time I did.  It was unbelievably awful.  For the next 5 days, our family could barely get off the couch.  Too much activity resulted in extreme nausea and exhaustion.  None of us was able to eat more than a few bites of "white food" - rice krispies, plain noodles, "cold toast" (Nolan's phrase for bread and butter), or mashed potatoes for many days.  It was absolutely miserable.  I was so glad when we finally started feeling normal again and we could get out of the house.  Being cooped up for a week straight is terrible!

Visit to Eau Claire

Black Friday morning, we got up bright and early and headed out to Eau Claire for the weekend.  It was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day and we took advantage by getting to spend a little  time with the horses at Grandpa Jim and Grandma Marcia's house.  Nolan was super eager to go for a ride, so Auntie Annalyse saddled up Jazz and they went on a "trail ride" around the property.  He grinned from ear to ear the whole time, and even agreed to show in leadline at the horse show next summer.  He also spent some time with Uncle Luke practicing casting with his fly fishing rod.  I think Uncle Luke may have an over-eager, reckless with a fishing pole, kind of fishing buddy next spring!

On Saturday, we made the trek down to Grandpa Arnie's Whitetail Christmas Tree Farm.  Though Grandpa doesn't sell trees commercially anymore, there are still a plethora of beautiful, slightly wild looking Frasier Fir and Balsam trees to cut and adorn the houses of nearly all the Weisenbecks during the Christmas season.  I remember well the many Decembers our family spent working on the Christmas tree farm.  Grandma Edie had their little camper parked there, which was kept toasty warm with the propane heater and we would sip hot chocolate and pass out candy canes to the many people who came to pick their perfect Christmas tree.  Grandpa was outside directing people where to go, using the tractor's special shaker attachment to shake all the dead needles out of the tree, and baling up each family's perfect pick for easier hauling back to their home.  As we got older, Lucas and some of the other cousins began helping with the shearing and  painting of the trees during the summers so they would be ready for the Christmastime harvest.  They used sharp machetes to take off the out of place branches and trim them into the perfect Christmas tree shape.  Also, the Scotch pine and White Pine trees often were painted in order to make  their green color more vibrant.  Through the years, our family always had a beautiful Whitetail Farm tree that was made extra special because of the land on which we got it.  Later on in college, Grandpa donated a huge, beautiful Christmas tree to St. Mary's University to be lit up in the plaza for the Christmas Light Service.  Grandpa's farm also provided my very own first Christmas tree in my apartment in Long Prairie.  Nolan and I have both discovered that we have a bit of an allergy to the pine in the house, so  we use a artificial tree now.  But, it was fun to spend some time at this special place, helping Grandpa Jim and Grandma Marcia pick out their perfect tree for the season.

Since we were already most of the way there, we decided  to continue on a little bit farther and head to Lark's Toys in Kellogg, MN.  We've often heard about what a neat toy store it is, with it's handmade wooden toys, huge selection, and indoor carousel  and it didn't disappoint. Nolan saw all the cool animal figurines, loaded up his arms, and asked us where he could find a bag.  They both enjoyed playing with the displays, puppets, and though they were nervous at first, they ended up loving the ride on the carousel.  

Unfortunately, because we were still a bit under the weather, we ended up not getting to visit our great grandparents.  We did NOT want to pass along any of our germs and made things any more difficult for them.  But, we had a great time spending the weekend with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Marcia and look forward to our next visit!

Eric thought he was going to throw up.