T'was The Week Before Christmas.....

... and the little ones were full of hope.

See, Ginger doesn't always look like she hates us!

Most of the time, yes, but on that rare occasion.....

My children are ill. Both of them - hit right upside the head by the flu. First L fell and fell hard. We weren't sure if it was a cold or strep. I took him to the doctor when he said he felt horrible. L doesn't complain a whole lot and when he does you really have to listen. So, off we went to the doctor to hear he had the flu and a temperature. He kind of went into hibernation mode, nursing a bottle of Gatorade. He still sounds like he could cough a lung up, but he is getting better every single day. I think I detected a wee bit of cabin fever yesterday. It's been a little over a week now, so I am glad to see little signs of improvement every single day. R was going to stay well. We got her going on Vitamin C and lots and lots of hopes and prayers that she wouldn't fall next. Boy, did she ever fall - and hard! That kid has been knocked on her butt! We have found NyQuil and DayQuil and sing praises! She slept last night for the first time without coughing all night long.

Before she fell, she made these beautiful snowflakes. They are hanging now in the living room from the ceiling. Ginger had NO idea what to think when she first saw them twirling around. They are nice. A little understated than the paper chains we had last year, but understated is a good thing! A very good thing!

Before both of them fell, RL had a party at work and volunteered cupcakes. I don't know what he had in mind, but I had seen some cupcakes online somewhere that looked good. I couldn't find the red and white striped cupcake cups they had used in the original picture I saw, so I settled for these.
We made chocolate cupcakes and iced them with our regular homemade icing with just a touch of peppermint. Then R came into the kitchen and suggested we add a little bit of pink in the icing bag so the icing would come out looking sort of airbrushed. I think it turned out very nice! We then crushed candy canes and sprinkled that on top.

They were very good and refreshing. How do I know? Do you think I'm going to let something that looks this good go out the door without trying it? You know me better than that!

Since everybody is feeling puny, we have decided to wait on fixing all the Christmas goodies until they actually feel up to eating them. Sore throats are getting in the way of that right now. I think fudge without nuts would be fairly easy to get down, don't you?

In the meantime - you better be good because Santa's watching you! Or maybe some of his elves are....you just never know!