Here we are on 15 December -- so much is going on! I baked about a million cookies and sent them all out to various neighbors and relatives. I sat down and figured out that I made 16 different kinds of cookies, and sent out 30 boxes to various people. That is a lot of cookies! If I missed you, send me a request and I will mail some out to you when I bake again.

James and I were invited to a cookie decorating party last weekend. I ended up taking Benjamin along because he didn't want to go to the other guys' soccer games. Benjamin decorated at least 10 cookies; James decorated 3 cookies, but came home with one since he decided to eat the others. They had a terrific time and it was a fun morning.

The one exciting event we had last week was taking Benjamin to the Emergency Room. He is ok, let's just start with that. However, Thursday afternoon, Benjamin comes to see me in the kitchen and tells me that his lower belly is hurting a lot and then he starts crying. I found this very alarming since Benjamin doesn't do that kind of thing ever. I told him to go take a shower and go to the bathroom and we would see how he felt then (shades of my mother, don't you know). Well, after the shower, etc., I found him curled up on his bed crying from the pain. That was it for me. Thank God Brigid was on her way here, because as soon as she pulled into the driveway, I told her what was up, loaded Benjamin into the car and we went to the pediatric ER.

We got there and Benjamin was doubled over crying with pain. I was very upset at this point, and was sure that he was having an appendicitis. When we got checked in, he was still white knuckling the chair and it turned out that he had a low grade fever. At this point, Brigid arrived to keep us company, and then Benjamin was sent to x-ray to see what was up in his belly. Soon after the x-ray, he stopped complaining about the pain -- he said it had gone away. It was a bad two and a half hours though!

The pediatrician came in and said that Benjamin was having bowel spasms and that he needed to go #2 more often, and in more copious amounts... enough said. I have started giving Benjamin a laxative or two in the mornings, and we have to do that for 2 weeks. I was very surprised about this whole thing since Benjamin is my "natural man," -- you could set a clock by his internal workings. I am so grateful that it wasn't his appendix!

A neighbor stopped by today and dropped off cookies and a huge bag of tangerines from her tree. They smell so good! The cookies are quite impressive too -- filled cookies with raisins and apricot filling. The most exciting treats were the mice though. Here is a pictures of the mice and the tangerines -- the color was so beautiful I had to take a picture.