*whew!*

That's a relief!

I know it's been awhile... Some of you have even let me know that you miss my take on life. Thanks. So here's what's been happening at chez Braun.

Christmas is almost completely over!!! And I couldn't be more relieved!

Yesterday we hosted the big family meal for my family. I made a 20lb bird with all the trimmings and everything from scratch to feed 16 people. I've been stressing about this particular event for awhile - thus the primary reason you haven't heard from me. And while the main thing I was stressed about was what my mom was going to find fault with this year, and how I was going to handle it, the evening actually went off pretty well. Even Matt did alright with so much stimulation.

Today we celebrated Christmas with just us. It was a bit of a trying morning. My boys are in some ways polar opposites. While Matt just wanted to get the gifts open, Kelvin wanted to stop and examine each of his things before moving on. And he happens to be in a particularly independent phase right now, so he mostly just ignored me when I told him he needed to focus here, and how it's rude to keep people waiting. Doug told me not to be so mean to him.

Next weekend we head out on the (hopefully) open road to celebrate with Doug's family in Calgary. It should be a lot of fun in some ways, but I'm totally stressed about Matt's behaviour while we're there, and how his cousins will react to him. Kelvin will fit in like a dirty shirt. He always does. That kid can get along with just about anyone!

Last week we also had the boys' Christmas concerts. Nothing like adding more stuff into an already crowded season. They did well, though.

So...that's the main thing going on in our lives.

We've also made another rather significant, yet strangely innocuous change. We are now no longer a part of WCV. We have decided that the best thing for us is to join with Rob and Jude and create the kind of community that our family needs. We love WCV, but it just hasn't been able to be for us what we've needed, and I don't think that any church of that size could properly meet the needs of my kids, especially. While there are many ways to describe what we envision, one of my favorite ways is to say that we are creating an "extended family" for our kids, especially. We're providing them with positive adult interaction as well as time with other kids. But best of all, it's something we "do" as a family. No segregation. All inclusive. Warts, diapers, depression, FASD, and all. Cool.

There has been one other change, though. Yvonne got me on the weight watchers bandwagon. Yes, I blame it completely on her. Now I'm counting all my points and depriving myself of platefulls of 'taters and gravy. Unfortunately, I'm also telling everyone I see about it and causing Doug no end of embarrassment. I've lost 7 pounds in the last two weeks! (Well, I'll have to confirm that on Monday, but that's what it looks like so far.) Now.... if I can just calculate the points for pluma moos.....