Checking In...Again

Hello all,
Just letting you know we are still alive and well. Kids are recovering over a nasty cold - even Kori was down and out with it. Rai is coming along slowly. He has stomach pain every day now from his enlarged kidney. His test day at CHEO (Jan 11) is coming very quickly, even though it sounded like it was a long wait when we first got the appointment.
I think today was the busiest day of the year for us. Kori said we did 20 errands today. We certainly did accomplish a lot. But we are exhausted. I am trying to be efficient in getting ready for Christmas. Next year, would someone please remind me to bake in early December and then freeze everything...PLEASE! I planned to bake this week. Yet this week seems like it's slipping away too fast. What a stupid plan that was!!
We enjoyed a great day on Sunday. We drove to the farm and celebrated Kori's bithday with the McCombs. Grandma once again outdid herself with the cake. They gave her some beautiful gifts. It was nice having her party early. Now she has time to enjoy her birthday gifts without having them all mashed in with her Christmas things. Funny enough, last week we put in a full size new-to-us desk in Kori's room. Grandma and Grandpa and Paul gave her a whole whack of drawing, colouring, writing and cartooning supplies. So her new desk is stocked with new supplies. I don't think I've seen her happier.
I'm trying to keep up with the housework. It's just about killing me, but for a week+ I've managed to keep in almost-ready-for-company shape. At any point, I've been ready to run the vacuum through and we'd be good for visitors. Not only that, but I have been consistently caught up on laundry. At any time, there's only about a load waiting to wash. That and the ironing. But I'm improving. I'm also off the coffee. It's just about killing me. I've been to Tim's (Tim Horton's for you uninitiated Americans) twice so far and have managed to stay away from the coffee. Ok, I was supervised, but in this case, that's a good thing.
No other great and exciting news to report. The mailman used our phone to call a cab the other day. That was different. But our door was open due to the lovely weather. So I suppose he knew we were home.
That's it for now. Still trying to get used to the new set-up since the update here. I'm finding it slow. I'll try to get around to my regular haunts and comment some...that would be neighbourly of me.