On the sixth-through-tenth days of Christmas, my mom and dad made me...

Sixth (Wednesday) - Nate read Gingerbread Friends to Max. Max's cold/flu started getting worse. We packed up everything in the house while watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and The Holiday.

Seventh (Thursday) - Nate worked that day which made packing difficult, but we got mostly everything done by the time Mike, Nate, and Sam came over to help us load up the Uhaul. I think this was the least "Christmasy" day yet. At the very most, we might have sung Silent Night to Max while putting him down for bed. I started getting a cough and losing my voice... so if we did sing that day, I'm guessing it wasn't good.

Eighth (Friday) - We packed up our mattress that morning and cleaned the now empty house. Sam helped Nate move everything from the truck into the garage of our new home. Nate and I spent the rest of the evening putting things in the correct rooms. We ate some assorted chocolates and caramels that Mike and Cecilia gave us.

Ninth (Saturday) - We spent the morning setting up house before we went to Ikea to get some shelving units, a rug that I LOVE, and some cinnamon rolls (surprisingly good) as early Christmas presents to ourselves. While alphabetizing our DVD's and stacking them on the shelves, I started to get a fever. At this point, my voice was at 25%. I sucked on cough drops all night. Bleugh. I say that to the cotton mouth, not the cough drops. They, on the other hand, were quite good... and they work. I'd like to take this moment to give a shout out to Young Living for making my sickness more bearable. Without the cough drops and the Thieves oil diffused into my bedroom night air, I wouldn't have gotten any sleep this holiday season. So, thank you.

Tenth (Sunday) - We decorated the Christmas tree again and put out all the presents and other decorations. I made chicken, potatoes, and crusty bread for dinner (first homemade meal in our new house!). I made the bread using another early Christmas present from Nate - a Food Network 7 quart cast iron dutch oven in red. We used the place mats my mom sent for Christmas, too.

The twelve days of Christmas were mostly to help us keep Christmas present in our minds while we underwent yet another move this year, but it turns out that moving into our new house has not only made this Christmas one of the best for both of us, but it has kept us grateful. We are so excited to have a home with a place for everything and space for Max to grow. Ha. That made it sound like he was going to grow so big by the age of four that he would fill a room like Alice does after she eats the cookie. Speaking of cookies... look at this delicious morsel.