Deedee's poor mouth is finally getting better. The trip to the emergency room on Wednesday because her poor lips had cracked, bleeding all over her pillow resulted in getting medication for her. We've had to be smart to get it down her and it's been hiding in all sorts of concoctions such as chocolate milk, ginger ale, juice, cocoa, etc. At least she's never complained about the taste. The biggest factor was getting to drink anything period because it hurt her so much and she finally consented to use a straw. We were given some ointment to put on her lips, and that's a real pain holding her down for that. James never was this bad and I'm concerned that it has gotten this way for her. It's just an oral herpes and the doc said most small children her age pick it up and it's rare that it happens to a teenage or even an adult. Kitty did have some signs of the early stages, but nothing else has come of it, and Charles hasn't been down at all. In fact, I learned more often than not, there are no signs at all.

Church was interesting this morning. We got there a bit early since the first Christmas Bazaar was happening and I was hoping to find some X-mas gifts. I do have my eye on a couple of items, unfortunately most of it was out of our budget. During the service, I was horrified to realize that I had just knitted several rows backwards. I was working on the left side of Deedee's coat (yes, I know, I'm horribly behind) only to realize that I had managed to knit a replica of the right. :*( I finally get the energy and the motivation to work on it again, and I had to go and do that. It's enough to make one scream. There was a newcomers luncheon afterwards which was interesting since due to the scheduling snafu (the Bazaar was already in the basement and there wasn't room for the luncheon) it was upstairs in the sanctuary. Instead of the large meal that was usually served, it was more of a snack buffet. Lots of cheese, crackers, bread, spreads, fruit & veggies, desserts, etc. The one hot dish was a lovely scalloped potatoes? that I really liked and I'd meant to ask for the recipe, but we had to leave early because of the kids. I enjoyed meeting new people and talked to several of them. I took a small plate heaped with stuff downstairs for the kidlets since they were still in the nursery but wound up leaving it with the kids for a few minutes before I had a chance to portion it up. I had forgotten to bring down a piece of the spice cake for Kitty so took her up with me to find a small one. I was delayed with introductions and it was several minutes before I'd gotten back downstairs. Not only had the children passed around the napkins I'd brought with the plate, but they'd also already divided the plate amongst themselves. It wasn't perfectly even, as I had planned but they were satisfied with what they had, so I let it stand. At first I thought one of the nursery girls had done but I was told that they'd done it themselves.

When we came out of the Church, it was cloudy but not snowing. By the time we walked one block, it was snowing lightly. By the time we had gotten the kidlets divested of their coats and buckled in, the flakes had turned very thick, and the wind was really whipping things around and by the time we made it to the mall two miles away, visibility was nill. :( We made a quick stop at Carey's parents first to weigh Deedee. The other night at the doctors she weighed in at 27 lbs. and the doc told me that if she lost more than two lbs. that she had to come back. The good news is that she's still 27! Good. That means that although she's probably slightly dehydrated, she's not overly so and there's nothing to worry about except for her poor mouth.

The kids were excited to see Santa at the mall. Charles waved to him and yelled Merry Christmas right back to him. They also behaved very well. We didn't have to say anything much to them, until towards the end of our 2 hour stay. Deedee kept her hand on the cart and we rarely had to remind her about it. The kids asked to look at the toys in Ross while we waited for their father and they we were warned that as soon as he got back, they were get to go back to the carts without complaining and they did just that. They didn't even whine. I was quite impressed and told them so. James got two new pairs of pants since 90% of what he has is either too short or full of holes (mostly both). Carey picked up some new pillows since he's been having neck problems. He's hoping that a firmer, plumper surface will help with that. I also got my hands on a few more small Christmas gifts. Our favorite purchase of the day, something definitely not needed, was the knight light that I had seen last night. He just called out to come home with us and it has now found a home on our shelf in the hall.

Although it was dark when we got home, the kidlets insisted on going sledding with the cool new saucers that Gramma Sue picked up for them. My friend Karen had just given me a snow suit yesterday that fits Deedee well (plus it's purple, so she's pleased) so all of the kids, including Kitty, got suited up. There was a bit of an upset when it was realized that both of the boys' suits were size 4 but the one I gave to James ran big so it fit him just fine. Someone had built a little snow ramp, so after a few goes at it, it had gotten quite slick and there was a nice trail started. I loved hearing Charles screech out the giggles as he flew down. Poor James never did get the hang of it and kept flopping out halfway down. Except for once, and that time he went really far. Carey went down a lot, taking Deedee with him a few times, even Kitty once. I also took a quick trip down and had a lot of fun. I haven't done that in years. Unfortunately, that was the end of it for me. Kitty had gotten sat down in one of the saucers, and got bumped so off she went. (I wonder how much help she got.) I heard everyone yelling and turned around just in time to snag her by her snowsuit as the saucer flew over the little bank of snow and finally came to a stop a few feet away. She wasn't hurt, but she got a face full of snow so she was cold, and pissed. Deedee was also complaining of being cold, so I took the girls in while the guys stayed out a little longer. It was nice to see them come in happy, and they even cooperated as they took their snow clothes off and then hauled the suits upstairs to dry in the bathroom. Bleh.... two of the feet for my quilt hanger would get left in storage, and I had planned on using it to line dry mittens, hats, socks, snow suits, etc. Sigh... Of course, they all clamored to watch Totoro again, and have hot cocoa (in that order).

We were running a bit late so dinner wasn't quite done when I had to leave for Pagan Soul. I shouldn't have bothered going. Not only did I slide into a curb on the way there (there was nothing I could do, the van insisted on sliding sideways and if I'd fought it, I would have probably hit the other rigs in the parking lot) but no one was there! I waited for 20 minutes before someone showed up just in the off chance that someone had showed up since it had been cancelled. Apparently, phone calls had gone around, and emails had gone out, neither of which I received. I'm a bit peeved about that. The only email I received in relation was a couple letting us know they wouldn't be coming since the roads were too bad. That in no way inferred that things had been cancelled although, I'd pretty much come to that conclusion by the time Kelly knocked on my window. :(

So home I went, just in time to barely beat a Subway delivery to the door. Apparently my wonderful husband had, without thinking, poured a bunch of salt in the ham soup that he was reheating for dinner. The rat had done it without tasting it first. He decided that it was too salty so ordered himself a meatball sub. Never mind that the kids were eating it just fine and that it tasted fine to me when I tried it. So he was using it as an excuse. He tried to save his bacon by saying it was for me and that he'd ordered one for himself, but he got caught out. Pretty much when I figured out that he'd ordered the sub just for himself and had had no inclination to be sharing with the kids (and that it came too quickly upon my arrival home when I'd barely called him 5 minutes before to let him know I was on my way home). He's the one that messed up his soup and he had to deal with it. In the end, he had to eat a bowl of soup before he was allowed to touch half of the sub that arrived with me. Some of it was also shared with the kids. The second sandwich he'd ordered didn't come in for another full hour. He'd ordered it just before I got home and I'd been home not quite an hour when Carey called to ask where it was. It had just been loaded up for delivery! That's just outrageous and he should have complained. They super sized his drink for free, but that certainly didn't make up for it. On a nasty night like this, I doubt they were that busy.

After a few chores were done (and the kiddies in bed) we played a hidden pictures computer game, one of our favorite past times. It was a really cheesey, hokey Christmas themed one. We were a private detective trying to find out why Santa had disappeared. Bleh. I was glad when the demo was over. Recently, I bought Madame Fate and I'm looking forward to playing that one with him but he just wanted to do a demo tonight. We had also planned on playing a Ravensberger game I picked up a couple of months ago. The only thing preventing us from playing up to now was that the instructions were in German. They'd mostly been translated, with little notes in the margins. However, I hadn't realized that not all of it had been done. So we only had about half of the rules. Neither of us felt like spending the next couple of hours typing stuff into translators and trying to make sense of the garbled mess that invariably comes back.