On Friday, November 30th, E asked for some fruit snacks so I grabbed the glass jar from on top of the fridge. When I went to put it back, I accidentally dropped it and it landed on the stove. I heard a glass breaking sound and thought for sure the jar had shattered but I was wrong. The jar survived it was my glass stove top that was broken.

E quickly asked “What happened mom?” and I was glad he was not in the kitchen. I gave him his fruit snacks and went back to the kitchen and started to cry.

I texted Joey and asked him to bring dinner home since I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. When he got home I started crying again. He told me it was okay and we went shopping for a new stove that night. We decided to go to Sears and they didn’t have the stove we wanted in stock so we had to order it. It would be delivered on Friday, December 21st. 3 weeks without a stove?! I had no idea what I was going to do for meals. I needed to find recipes to make in the microwave, oven, pressure cooker or crock pot. When he got home Joey taped up the stove so we didn’t have any broken glass problems and I took all the knobs off that controlled the burners.

Here’s the meal list that I came up with to last 3 weeks

I was very pleased when I found out that my oven still worked. I don’t think I could have made it 3 weeks without an oven too. We did eat quite a few chicken nuggets and other easy frozen foods. We were able to have dinner at my parents house at least once a week which helped and only ate out a few times. As it was getting closer to getting a new stove, I was looking forward to boiling a pot of water or sauteing food again.

On Thursday, December 20th, we got a call saying the stove wouldn’t be delivered until Wednesday, December 26th. I was super bummed. I wanted to have family over for Christmas and cook them a nice meal.

Early Wednesday morning they delivered the new stove and I was excited to use it. They told me I needed to wait at least 4 hours before using it since it was freezing cold. When I tried to put all my pots and pans in the bottom drawer of the oven, they wouldn’t fit. The drawer is half the size of the old one. So, while E was busy playing with his new toys, I reorganized the kitchen. By the time he was down for his nap, I was ready to test the oven and the stove. The new oven also has a convection feature that I can turn on and off. I am excited to learn how to use it.

Here is a before and after picture

I will no longer be keeping heaving objects on top of the fridge that could possibly fall on top of my stove. I will also try to remember how nice it is to be able to boil a pot of water.

This is the family picture we used for our Christmas card this year

This year for Christmas we spent the day together as a family on Christmas Eve and went to a Christmas Eve service at our church. As we were getting ready to leave, E did not want to cooperate. I had a feeling that he was not going to do well in the service and I was right. He was terrible! He wouldn’t sit still, he was loud and he wanted to climb on the chairs. Joey and I took turns taking him out of the service. At first he didn’t like it but then I think it turned into a game going in and out. When I took him out of the service, I would put him on a set of stairs and tell him he needed to have a quiet mouth. He would scream at me and try to get off the stairs. Once he calmed down we went back in the service. At one point in the service he was banging an unlit candle stick on my head and using it as a sword to hit the other candle we had. This was near the end of the service and I put my head down and just started crying. Joey wasn’t sure what to do so he took E out until the service was over. I cried on the way home and E asked me what was wrong. I wasn’t quite sure how to answer him so I just told him I was sad. He then said “You’re too far away. Can you put your face over here so I can kiss you?”. I think I was crying because I didn’t know how to handle his behavior and it got the best of me. I was also worried about everyone around us the whole time so I missed half of what was said. AND I am 6 months pregnant. Hormones. Right? Joey told me that I shouldn’t be so hard on myself and that E really is a good kid.

When we got home from the service we opened presents from Grandma and Grandfather Day and then Joey spent some time playing Santa. We bought E a 100 piece train set and Joey made a fun tunnel box for him to play with

Christmas morning E was excited to play with his train. We went slow and let E play with things as he unwrapped them. It was a fun morning

After E’s nap we went to my parents house for dinner and more presents. He had a lot of presents to open and he wanted to play with everything like we did in the morning but we were able to convince him to keep unwrapping presents (I didn’t want to be there all night. hahaha).

The Christmas season this year was a lot of fun watching the small things that brought a smile to E’s face. He loved to look at Christmas lights on houses. At night he would say “Can you slow down?”. After several weeks of us telling him that we could not slow down because we were on a main rode, he would then say “Are you on a main rode? Can you slow down?”. Too funny.

He learned the words to Silent Night and Away in a Manger (among other Christmas songs) and every time Silent Night came on the radio, he would scream “IT’S SILENT AT NIGHT!”. He did that once while I was waiting to see my doctor and a lady in the waiting room said “that is the cutest thing”. He also liked to sing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and O Christmas Tree.

He loved to look at the live nativity scene on the way home from my parents house. We would pull over so he could see the donkey and horses. I tried passing it one night and he started crying and asked me to turn around.

Another fun memory from this season: one day at school in early December he asked his teacher where the manger was and asked why she didn’t have a baby Jesus.

Grandma Day made a fun 12 Days of Christmas activity box for E this year. Each day had a book that we would read and a activity that went with it.

Here’s pictures and videos of the activities:

Day 1: Recordable Ornament

EVERY TIME they said “We Love you Eli”. He would say “hi” like he was talking to them on the phone. It was funny.

Day 2: Felt tree with felt ornaments

I wanted to see if he would sing “O Christmas Tree” as he was decorating it and he did.

Day 3: Book read by Grandma & Grandfather

Day 4: Put felt snowman together

Day 5: Action Cards

It was fun to see him do the actions. The picture above shows “Twinkle like a star”. Some of them I would read the action, and he was able to do them on his own. This might have been my favorite activity to do with him.

Day 6: Glue cotton balls on Santa’s beard

Day 7: Matching shapes on a Christmas tree

(We may or may not have done this one on the same day as Day 6)

Day 8: Make cookies and decorate them

I have never made cookies with E before and he did a good job. Minus the licking the frosting off the knife part.

Day 9: Rudolf Poem

It was fun to watch him find the correct colors.

Day 10: I spy bottle

Sadly I have no pictures or video of this day.

Day 11: Coloring pages and stickers

Day 12: Hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy canes

E just wanted to eat all the marshmallows.

I really think E really enjoyed playing a new game from Grandma every day. They were quick and easy and perfect. I am definitely saving them for next year. Thanks Grandma Day!