I was feeling pretty proud of myself, probably what brought it all on, because of how on top of everything I was. Shopping was done. Cards were mailed. Even Damon being gone with really simple this time. That should have been my clue.
Damon came home late and sick from Taiwan. He missed both the Christmas concerts that I sang in. That was ok. When I got home from one he said, "Hey, the floor is really hot over here. Have you noticed it?" Well I hadn't, but hot floors aren't normal so red flags started going off in my head. Sure enough... slab leak. While we were examining that problem Damon found another problem. We have a meter leak. Gallons of water have been seeping out of there for days and days. This is on top of all the other problems we had with my car last month.
Morale of the story.... If you are prepared mayhem may get you down, but not stress you out. I know there will be chaos over the next week while we get these problems taken care of, but since I'm not stressed about everything else I can manage that too. I refuse to loose my Christmas Spirit.
On a happier note, we had our church's Christmas party last weekend and the boys sang a song while Damon played the Uke.
The week was hard without dad being around. The kids and I missed him a lot during the week. On Thursday we decided to take a break from the normal routine of school and we drove up to Disneyland for the whole day. We had lots of fun. It was a tad bit more crowded than I liked, but we still managed to have a great time. We danced in snow on Main Street, sang along with Small World, screamed our brains out on Space Mountain, climbed through caves on Pirates Lair, and were mesmerized by the fireworks display that night. It was a great day and the best way to fill the rest of the week until dad got home.
If you never have been to Disneyland during the Christmas Holiday you should do it at least once in your life. Here is a little taste of it.
The holidays are in full swing at the Afualo household. We got our tree, decorated it and the house. The cards are ordered. The Advent calendar was actually put up on time this year and we are having a lot of fun with it. We got a smaller tree this year to avoid some of the craziness that comes with a tall tree. Well, the smaller tree brought the same issues. We ended up having to get a bigger tree stand and it was still a pain to get in the house and set up. Every year we tell ourselves we are going to get a fake tree and every year we end up with a real one. We just love them and their pine smell. 
Time to get baking.
We left Monday morning to drive to St. George to spend our Thanksgiving Holiday with Damon's family. We had a nice drive. We stopped in Las Vegas to visit the M&M store. It was Lily's idea. We also noticed how fast the temperature was dropping the closer we got to our destination.
Tuesday we celebrated Damon's birthday. He was well taken care of by his parents. He had cake, got to golf, relax, and go out to dinner. It was a good day for him. My sister and BIL also stopped by that day on their way to Vegas.
Wednesday we took the kids to go see Tangled. It was a cute movie although Lily was bawling at the end because she thought the fake mother was really mean and that Flynn had died. I can't take that girl anywhere without her getting emotional now a days. She must get that from her dad. Auntie Dara and Uncle Brian came that night and the kids just love spending time with them. Damon and I were also able to go to the St. George Temple. We had a nice time there.
Thanksgiving morning Dara and I started the day out right with a good run... inside, not out. It was in the 20's*F. We drove to Las Vegas to have dinner with some extended family members. The kids got to meet some more cousins and enjoyed their time there.
This week was rough for the most part. The kids were all moderately sick. I didn't have a car and school was a week of half days. Good times. I had parent teach conferences for all 3 of them and they got glowing reports. Yea! I am proud of them.
We got our car back on Wednesday and in honor of celebrating and breaking in the new parts we decided to drive up to Disneyland. It was just the kids and I since Damon is super busy at work. We had so much fun just hanging out and relaxing. We watched the Christmas parade and the fireworks, went on some of our favorite rides and took pictures with lots of characters. My favorite line of the day was from Lily. "Mom, this is the best day of my life." So sweet. It was fun to watch their faces as we watched the fireworks. I really wish I could capture that on video.
We came home tired, but happy and we Friday morning arrived we were a little slow to get up, but we made it to school on time. Yea! 
Last week's field trip we went to the beach. It was 93*F here. We had a fun time. The kids loved being there. I loved being there. Yea for summer weather in November.
