
well obviously i have NOT neglected my blog posting and reading to enjoy Christmas with my family, but now i'm back!
when i left you last, i was NOT looking forward to getting two teeth cut out. the oral surgery did NOT go great, with a little pain afterwards that has been easily remedied with advil. on Christmas Eve i did NOT slightly look like john mccain, due to swelling. and for the past three days? i have NOT had a bright yellow bruise on my cheek. but it is NOT so much better than super gluing my tooth!!
so speaking of Christmas... our plans for a lasagna dinner did NOT almost go up in flames. literally. while i was preparing said dinner, i did NOT place the box of lasagna noodles on the stove so that i could get my 9x13 pan out and i did NOT once again
turn on the wrong burner, thus burning the cardboard lasagna box. and one noodle inside. i did NOT fess up and tell ben so he could lecture me before he smelled the burnt box and lecture me anyway. he did NOT come up with the brilliant idea to take all burners except one out of the stove. sounds good to me—what a great excuse not to cook!
the highlight of our Christmas with ben's family was NOT a "blush brush" that my 12 year old niece got in her stocking. i will NOT let the pictures tell the rest of the story...



yesterday it was warm enough that samantha got to go out and play in the snow. so i got her snow pants out only to realize that they were NOT a size 4T. surprisingly she fit into them. however, they did NOT come about halfway up her shins. so i did NOT lengthen the shoulder straps with ribbon and safety pins and then pull the legs down so that she could still wear them!
one of samantha's Christmas presents was a girl's day out with only mom which included dinner and getting her ears pierced. so i took her tonight to get it done, and all the way there she was talking about how excited she was, but also how nervous she was at the same time. and then she did NOT say to me in her teenager voice, "mom? i
don't want a big audience there when i get my ears pierced, but i just wish dad and ryan could be there because they like just
support me sooooo much and i just wish i could have a little more support there with me." i did NOT try so hard to keep from bursting out in laughter. and thankfully i did NOT succeed!
she did NOT do great and i was NOT extremely proud of her bravery. oh, and she did NOT age about 10 years. because on the way home, she was NOT constantly talking about when she'll get her driver's license and how she just wishes she could drive right now.
oh boy...before—could she be any more excited?!

after—my brave girl!

happy monday!