The Price of December - A few stray thoughts

December 2008 is one that has presented a few challenges for my family.  I am ready for Christmas (well, not totally ready), because it has to be an improvement over some of the stuff we have dealt with this month.

For example:

1. My wife and I both experienced a stomach virus (she had it worse than I did, which was compounded by the fact that she is five months pregnant).

2. My son's Nintendo DS case and all of his games were stolen from our van as we ate at one of our favorite restaurants in north Austin on December 11th, which was the day before his birthday.  Many of my ActiveRain and Twitter friends stepped in to help by sending money and games for him.  You can read my post here about that: How My Twitter/ActiveRain "Family" Made My Son's Difficult Day a Little Brighter

3. Six days after that theft, my daughter's actual DS was stolen from the TABLE at another restaurant when my wife took the kids to the bathroom.  Apparently, she left it sitting there for a couple of minutes.  When they returned, it was gone.  Elizabeth Golden went above and beyond by sending a second check for my daughter (she sent one for Brandon previously).

4. My wife accidentally backed into the vehicle of one of the maids who was cleaning our house.  Our car had damage - hers did not.  After that, while I was working upstairs, I overheard the maids using profanity (some in Spanish, some in English) while talking about my wife.  I made them leave my home immediately, and called the owner of the company, who is a longtime friend and a current client of mine.  Needless to say, they will never return.

5. Yesterday, our refrigerator decided die slowly.  We had to go out shopping for a new one, which answered the "what should we do today?" question.  It will be delivered tomorrow.  Tonight, thankfully, it is very cold (for Texas) outside, so much of our perishable food is sitting in boxes on our back porch.  It looks like we left it out for Santa so that he would have plenty to choose from.

In the midst of that, we had to get our house decorated, shop, plan for relatives who are going to visit soon, plan my son's birthday party, and keep our three children alive.  I also got two new contracts in place, thankfully.

Overall, it could be a lot worse.  I am blessed beyond belief. 

Thanks for listening to me whine for a minute. 

Truly, none of this stuff has put a damper on my Christmas spirit.  After all, it's just "stuff", right?