Christmas

 
We had a humble Christmas. After a really awful knee surgery, and a miserable flu making it's rounds, I was left pretty beaten down. I hired Cessie and Eden to go shopping for a nice Christmas Eve meal, and Christmas breakfast and linner, as well as stocking stuffers. They cooked a beautiful diner that we all sat down together to enjoy on Christmas Eve. In the morning, we had donuts in my room and then we opened presents. Stockings, to be more specific. 

 
We started with the youngest, and worked our way up opening stockings. 

 
And Cessie refused to be photographed.  :/

After stockings, we gave each kid a card that Steve and I wrote messages in, and $50 cash. That was the highlight for the kids probably. Then we had an interview with each kid, one at a time, where we talked about life and whatever they wanted to talk about, and also we talked about how they wanted to spend their money.  

 
And then we went to the Cinemark XD theater where we got to enjoy the recliner seats with our blankets. We watched "The Greatest Showman", which we all enjoyed.  It was a lovely day.

While mom was in bed...

While I was sick in bed, Charity surprised me with this video she made showing me all the cleaning she did around the house.

DNA Testing

 
I got a deal on a couple of DNA tests. Steve and I discussed who we should test and decided to test Andy and me. I wish we could do another test on Steve and Hana. I hope to do that at some point, because I found these results to be quite interesting for Andy! My results were a little less exciting because they were pretty much as I had expected knowing my family history. 

Snow in Georgetown

 
While Cessie and I were in Utah, it surprisingly snowed in Georgetown! We couldn't believe it. Snow in our area of Texas is quite rare. But the babies sure did seem to enjoy it. Steve texted me these photos. 

Utah & Knee Surgery

 
The first week of December Cessie and I flew to SLC Utah for me to get what is hopefully my final knee surgery.
As soon as we arrived, we had to eat at Cafe Rio in the airport. This restaurant is what one thing I miss about Utah.  
That night Cessie and I were able to spend a little time with family that was in town, and that was so nice. And we got to see Blythe perform a little dance recital. She was great.

 
My surgery, according to the doctor, was a success. This was my 6th knee surgery on this knee. He put in a new ACL, and he also beefed up my ALL. I had 5 incisions, 3 of which are fairly large. He also placed 4 large screws in my knee. The recovery has been BRUTAL this time around!!!!
I had some serious swelling and a great deal of pain. I also had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and just felt extremely doped up for a couple of days. It was not fun. I had planned to fly home a couple of days after the surgery, but ended up needing to extend it by a couple of days. And even then, it was super tough to make the trip home. But I was anxious to get in my own room and bed again.  

Drawings

I came home from work and found these cute notes from Charity and Sam glued to our bedroom door. I loved it and got a chuckle.

Jonah In Big Sur

 
Jonah and Steve went to Big Sur California last week. This is where my sister Molly and her sweet family live. They offered to have Jonah stay with them for a while and he was really keen on the idea. So Steve took him out there and they spent a couple of days together before Steve flew home and left Jonah there.
His return ticket is in 3 weeks, but if the situation is working well for Molly and her family and Jonah, then he may stay longer. We'll see! It is such a gorgeous place.  

Bishop Family Saunter

On the Ferris Wheel

Cessie/Hana/Andy/Eden get flipped. A lot.

Charity/Sam/Becca Kiddie Coaster

Bishop Family High Stakes Poker

A couple of randoms

 
After our Thanksgiving Day meal, we went to walk on the Riverwalk. Which was beautiful as always. And a lot less crowded. 

 
On the way home from our trip, I got this email from Georgetown Ballet advertising for Nutcracker tickets. So it was a bit of a surprise to see a photo of me in the email. Dancing. That was a lifetime ago. I miss it. 

Thanksgiving Part 3

 
On day three at Six Flags, Charity and Sam and Becca rode the swings twice in a row with me, then I got off, and they rode it another three times in a row. They loved the swings. And the nice employee didn't even make them got off in-between each of the five rides they took on the swings. 

 
On Wednesday night we taught the kids how to play Poker. Although, I realized that I didn't really understand how to play it that much myself either. But we used candy for money and it made the game fairly fun and interesting that way.  

 
This is us in front of our house we stayed in right before we ate our Thanksgiving Day meal. 

 
It really was beautiful weather all week! 

 
And the meal was good! Last year was the first year we ever did a traditional Thanksgiving type of meal at home as just our family. And this year we did it again, in our Airbnb house and it was awesome.  

Thanksgiving Part 2

 
Each day before we went into the theme park, Cessie had come up with a plan with some of the other kids about how we would maximize our time at the park. Sometimes we were all together, and sometimes we were in groups. These four spent a lot of time together. 

 
You can't tell too well in this photo, but Cessie's left foot lost a shoe on the first ride of the day on Tuesday. Andy was sitting next to her on Superman the ride, and he was screaming and freaking out, and he kicked off her shoe.  

 
Steve and Andy had to try the basketball carnival games. 

And we rode the Ferris Wheel again. :)

 
I have a crush on him.