I am not so good at the no-flash photo taking in the low light. I used a tripod, but I think when you have wiggly children, all bets are just off. However, they are cute little blurs, so they get blogged.

Here is what’s up at my house:

1. I am a little shocked at the number of entrants for the Cosmo Contest! Holy cow! You should see my e-mail inbox! I mean really, WOW.

2. Maggie has come down with a stomach bug, and it has hit her violently. It seems to be short, but she’s pretty wiped out and went to bed at 5 o’clock this evening. Poor thing. Now I’m just hoping it skips the rest of us.

3. Some jerk uploaded a bunch of nasty code to the military base internet server where Chris is stationed and crashed the whole system. No news on whether this was a terrorist or a stupid military person, but it has messed over any e-mail communication for our family (and many others) for Christmas. No pictures, no messages. And now everyone is clamoring to use the phone, so that is a trickier option as well. Bummer, and so sad for the holidays.

4. I ordered curtains, and they sent the wrong ones. It took 3 calls to the 1-800 number, a mall visit on the Saturday before Christmas, 2 managers, 1 associate and 35 minutes at the store counter with a growing mob of irritated shoppers behind me before they could properly refund me and re-order the correct items. Seriously. And they ended up refunding me in 4 different increments and charging me again with one charge, so now I have to watch for 5 items to go through on my bank statement and hope they didn’t mess it all up and screw up my finances. I’m worried. And without curtains.

5. I wrapped my gifts today. It feels really good to have that done. I had to lock myself in an upstairs bedroom and let Jonas stay up way too late watching a Christmas movie to pull it off, but I got it done! Woo!

6. It hit me today that it is only 4 days until Christmas. . .and I have baked nothing. Usually at this point in the year I have quite the goody stash and I’ve taken plates to all of our friends. I don’t think that will be happening this year. Between the move, the croup, Maggie’s party, work and now this tummy bug- I’m scrambling. I’m hoping to bake one thing each day between now and Christmas.

7. Do you remember those crocheted Christmas trees that you put over styrofoam or cone shaped paper? My mother sent one in our Christmas box this year, and both of my children are convinced it is an elf hat. I found Jonas fast asleep like this the other night!

8. If you expect to get a Christmas card from me, expect to get it late. I’m just sayin’ - I tried. I really did try. But only 2 or 3 are filled out and I think it is going to be one of those years where I just send to grandparents who lack internet. Christmas has caught up with me big time. For the rest of my family, may I direct you to my flickr account where you can see what we look like? Hi, Merry, merry, Ho, ho, ho, Christ the Savior is born, so get rejoicing. This is your Christmas card.

For those who sent me cards, thank you. Really. All the cool mail has been the highlight of my kids’ days.

9. Holy Cow I’m Having A Baby! I have been so BUSY I kind of forgot that I’m huge for a reason. This is great because it means that I have been feeling incredibly healthy, but with everything going on, and all of the things to do, it really hit me over the past few days that if this little guy shows up early like the other two, I could have a baby in 6 weeks! 6 weeks is not very long! This is the first time I’ve ever been pregnant and thought, “Oh that’s ok, we can just leave him in longer”. I’m a little overwhelmed. The baby has 5 cloth diapers and 2 outfits. January is going to be baby month, I guess!

10. Chris’ orders changed to where he is now supposed to be home in about a month! This is GREAT as it means he’ll be home for the birth, which is HUGE! However, it has also gotten my hopes really high, and the military likes to change their minds, so now if they do change it up again, I’m going to be really bummed and need your hugs and friendship and Godiva chocolates to get me through. You can’t mess with my expectations, it really screws with me. Tell me we’re doing something the hard way, and I’m saying, “BRING IT!” But tell me we get to do things the way I want to do things and then jerk me around in the last few seconds and you’ll make me cry. So now I’m all excited but worried and slightly neurotic at the same time. Nice. It will all be over soon, either way. Breathe. Right?