Countdown to Christmas and other fun stuff...

The annual advent calendar at the McDowell house has begun!  This is our FIFTH year doing our countdown activities.

Day 1 -
Our advent activity on day 1 was to get donuts for breakfast.  I didn't take any pictures except for the boys opening the door.  See Charlie on top of our advent calendar?  He also came back to visit and ensure the boys were being good.

24 days until Christmas

Day 2 -
On the 2nd day of our calendar we went to the movies to see Wreck it Ralph.  Reid had an early hockey game (8:20a) and then we went to the 11a matinee when he was done.  $24 for all five of us to see the movie and popcorn for bringing in food for Harvesters.  The movie was pretty good - it kept Ryan and Ross' attention for about 75% of it but they just aren't movie watchers.  They can watch tv or a movie for 30 - 60 minutes and then they are ready to move on.

Pre-movie

Popcorn and drinks - check!  We were the first ones in the theater and the boys picked the very back row.

Day 3 -

I didn't get any pictures for day 3.  I adopted a family at work and the boys and I went shopping for Joshua, age 8.  He lives with his grandparents and they needed some help providing Christmas to him and his two siblings.  We talked to the boys a bit about why we were helping him out, etc and then we went shopping.  The boys did a great job picking out gifts for him and remembering that we weren't shopping or looking for themselves.  I was pretty proud of them.

Day 4 -

I had a business trip this week so dad is in charge of the advent calendar.  I left some suggestions for things to do.  Reid had hockey and the little guys had a sitter so Russ didn't have a whole lot of time.  He did baths and showers and made cookies for the boys.  It was a late night but cookies are always good!

Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

* Momma's Sick - On top of Russ' night already running late, he was managing text messages from me as I whined that I felt like crap.  I hadn't had lunch on Tuesday and my body was really hurting.  I wasn't even thinking that I was sick. I thought the body aches were all from my workout the day before as I knew my legs were sore from that.  Then when my stomach and ribs started hurting I thought it was because I hadn't eaten.  So, I had a dinner for work and managed to eat there.  On the way driving back to the hotel I started getting very nauseous and cold.  By the time I was in my hotel room I knew that I was sick.  I felt miserable and made sure and whined to Russ and anyone else that would listen.

Yep, bundled up in bed feeling HORRIBLE and shaky cold.

This is my BFF... she sent me silly pictures to make me laugh and feel better.  I LOVE HER!!!

I was up throwing up for most of the night.  When I stopped around 3:45 I turned off my phone and went to sleep.  I woke up at 8:30 to this picture:

LOVE them... so sweet of Russ to put together

Update - I'm feeling MUCH better today (noon).  My boss' boss dropped off Sierra Mist and saltines at my hotel and the hotel manager found me some advil.  I showered and ate some saltines and took the advil.  My back and body are starting to hurt again but I think I'm just tired.  Spending the day in my hotel room and hoping I'll be fine for my meetings tomorrow.

And while I'm bragging on how awesome Russ was this morning, check out what he did this weekend.  We had a metal sports cage that was always falling apart and overflowing... basically not functional anymore.  Russ bought the supplies and built a much larger sports cage for us and I LOVE it.  It holds EVERYTHING and it won't fall apart.

I love a good organizational project - and I can't believe he was able to complete it in one weekend with our busy schedules.  AWESOME!