1200 POSTS BY CHRISTMAS 2009

[Mrs.Claus]

Jodie - I totally understand about life. I can't believe the number of meetings I have now that I'm the Chair of our School's Community Council. I'm loving it though. Especially when it comes to planning Christmas festivities.

[Noel+]

Hey Jodie!!!

It feels more like Christmas now that you're back at CAY! So glad all is well with you & yours. How is Ollie Dog?

[CandyKane]

It's so good to see you Jodie! Your a Christmas friend who has been missed!

[CandyKane]

Well it's another RAINY, DREARY day here. The weather man said if we can hold out til Friday night this system will finally be off us and the rain will be gone for a while. I hope he's right.

Hubby, dd and I all went and got our seasonal flu shots today. And after much debate, many, many prayers, and lots of questions we decided to get her the h1n1 vaccine as well. There are no shots here yet, only the nasal mists. I am so worried about her. I hope we are doing the right thing. There is just so much misinformation out there.It's so scary.

We went to the church last night to set up for the Fall Festival. It should be a lot of fun. It'll really feel like the Christmas Season after this weekend.

[mistletoe misfit]

CandyKane it is a difficult decision as a parent to make. We want to do what is right and what is best for our children. Each year we struggle with the decision to vaccinate or not.
Each year for the past 4 years we have taken our children for the seasonal flu vaccines.
Right now H1N1 vaccine here is only at the first phase so we are not even eligible yet. As for the regular vaccine I haven't heard when they will be having clinics for them.
We are fairly certain right now that the H1N1 is going through our school. Plenty of kids have been off sick. DD7 class alone has 5 of 19 children off sick. DD7 had a fever and felt awful for 24 hours then bounced right back. Not sure what that was.
Friends son had a high fever 4 days and now is fine, her daughter had a fever for about 36 hours and is fine. There is no vomitting involved just fevers and some with coughs. I guess no one will know for sure what we have going on here unless someone goes and has blood taken. So far everyone has been recovering on their own with no complications. Praying this continues to be so, this is a small community and whatever it is, it's spreading quickly.


Right now I sit here with the head phones on listening to Christmas tunes, playing is Little Drummer Boy.

[ksrjreed]

candy kane I know what you are going through, as the father of an autistic child I am not getting my son the h1n1 shots, mainly due to the local shots have all the additives in them, he did get his regular flu shot but that was given to him at Cincy Childrens Hospital where there shots were additive free. The only thing I can say to you is if you believe you did the right thing then thats the correct answer.

Anywho, just got back from taking the kids the the yearly begging night, I am not a huge halloween fan, never was as a child and not now, but I don't discourage my kids from doing liking it, also our town has already started putting up the Christmas lights on the telephone poles, nothing says Halloween like Frosty the Snowman , anyway for me Halloween is over and now on to more important holidays.

[Noel+]

IF there are doses available, I am giving my special needs child the H1N1 shot. Why? Because as a nurse I know these facts:

1. no anti-virus contains all elements [viruses mutate]
2. adverse effects are a very small % compared to the death rate
3. WHEN the virus mutates, atleast my child has some antibodies in their system to help fight the resistant strain

Here in Arizona, people have lied/cheated to get the shot leaving pregnant women & chronically ill people without their shots. It infuriates me! So any new does need to go those at highest risk. They may not have more doses til after Christmas.

As parents, we all make our best informed choice for our child praying we made the right one. I am delighted to know you all did your research and put a great deal of thought into your decisions. I commend you!

[Pretjah]

tomorrow nite our church is doing our fall festival/trunk treats - if you're not aware of trunk treats the adults bring their cars and decorate the back of them and the kids walk around the parking lot and get candy there instead of going to strangers houses.


so this year for a decoration theme i'm decorating the back of my truck with a christmas theme.

i bought some dora wrapping paper to line the back of my trunk bed

i have abunch of LARGE over a foot wide ornaments some battery operated window candle lights, a small tree with lights and ornaments and i'm handing out candy canes as the candy from a stocking!

[CandyKane]

Thanks everyone for your support and understanding. It means alot. I know that EVERY parent is struggling with this right now and it's so hard. I would have far prefered for her to get the shot, mostly because we've never used a nasal vaccine before. But she is doing just fine. No side effects at all. She takes the next dose the first week of December so I can only hope it will go as well.

It's raining again. Argh. This is really getting old. Since we can't do anything else hubby and I are working in the basement try to reorganize everything. He's going to help me plug in the Christmas lights to see what's working and what's not.

[CandyKane]

Pretjah--You will have to post a picture of your Christmas trunk. It sounds so neat. I will have to mention this idea to the people at our church. It is such a great idea to have trunks full of treats.

[Mrs.Claus]

Been working on the school fundraiser this week. We're doing a program called Cards By Me (http://www.cardsbyme.ca), where the kids design their own greeting cards and then have them professionally produced. So you can probably guess what Christmas cards those in the CAY Card Exchange will get (unless of course they decide to make birthday cards).

[mistletoe misfit]

Thanks Mrs. Claus for the the info and link for the cards by me.
I am going to suggest it for next year and forward the information to fellow members of our PAC. I would love to see the kids take part in it this year but we already have two Christmas fundraisers going on and I am not sure we can do another one right now. The kids would have a blast doing it that's for sure.

[mistletoe misfit]

I am still thawing out from spending three hours in the hockey arena.
Up until now we have just had practices. Starting Tuesday DS games begin. DD7 is in initiation program so her games don't start til January. It looks like many weeks the only days/ nights we wont be going to the arena are Monday and Wednesdays. Which is good because our youngest starts dance in a few weeks and it is on Wednesdays. So Mondays will be our free night
Today during the day I had no children in my care so part of it I spent grocery shopping and I made a trip to Walmart as well and bought two Christmas gifts, one for DD5 and one for DS.

[mistletoe misfit]

This afternoon we are taking DD5 to get her ears pierced. This is our belated birthday gift to her. They have two people working so she can have both ears done at the same time. Ever since her big sister had her ears pierced two years ago she has wanted hers done as well. We told her when she turned 5 she could have her ears pierced, and of course she never let us forget it.
Halloween tonight, I hope the pouring rain stops for the kiddies sake. DS is a masked, scary,ninja, dude(lol can't remember the actual name),DD7 is Sleeping Beauty and DD5 is Snow White.
After tonight the Christmas season officially is launched in our house. Well according to me anyhow, and DH did agree years ago that I could start to decorate November 1st. Hmmmm, perhaps he was not necessarily in agreement but instead was strongly persuasaded by me.

[CandyKane]

Just popping in to wish all my Christmas friends Happy Halloween. Hope everyone has a Fun and Safe night.

[Noel+]

Been working on the school fundraiser this week. We're doing a program called Cards By Me (http://www.cardsbyme.ca), where the kids design their own greeting cards and then have them professionally produced. So you can probably guess what Christmas cards those in the CAY Card Exchange will get (unless of course they decide to make birthday cards).

I love that idea, Mrs. C --- what a great Christmas idea!!!

[mistletoe misfit]

Happy Halloween!!!!!
We are leaving to take the children into our village for some trick or treating in about one hours time. Tonight Halloween, tomorrow the Christmas season begins!

[mistletoe misfit]

Oh, I forgot right now we are watching a Christmas movie called Blizzard. I had to purchase it this afternoon, had no choice when I saw it.
We know one of the actors in the movie.
No better way to start off Halloween evening then watching a Christmas movie.

[Noel+]

I agree, MM! We watched the 2 Chronicles of Narnia movies this afternoon!

[Noel+]

I agree, MM! We watched the 2 Chronicles of Narnia movies this afternoon!After a morning of The Birds, The Birds II, and Charlie Brown flicks, we needed a little Christmas with a pop in of Father Christmas!