I generally don't think of myself as having a busy social life or much reason to get out of the house generally, but the past several days have involved flying from one thing to another.

It began last Thursday when the kids and I built gingerbread houses with our homeschooling group after The Boy's Latin class. The next day the oldest girl had a Little Flowers meeting, followed by a grocery trip with all five children. When we arrived home there was a message on the phone inviting us to a dinner with people from our old church. Since we don't get to see these old friends all that often any more, we piled into the car and headed to that. And didn't get home until 10. Yikes!

Saturday I went to Recollections in the morning, got home around 1, headed back out with the rest of the family to meet up with my husband's siblings, and then came home and cooked dinner for friends.

Sunday we went to mass in the morning and spent the afternoon at a birthday party.

Monday evening we had an Advent program at church and didn't get home until late.

Tuesday the oldest and youngest had check ups at the doctor. The oldest is getting so big. I knew he'd had a growth spurt, but he's even shot up a bunch in the height percentiles -- still skinny though. The baby is staying on the same curve she was on a month ago. No huge weight gains, but no losses either so that's good news.

Wednesday the kids and I went to a belated celebration in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The kids acted out the story of Juan Diego, did some craft projects and ate quesadillas.

This morning the littlest had another doctor's appointment. This time with a dermatologist to confirm that the lump on her back is indeed a hemangioma. I guess it is good to know that it looks good and is unlikely to cause any problems, but that was an expensive 15 minutes, I'm sure.

Tomorrow evening we go to my husband's work Christmas party. It's a family party and always fun.

Saturday we have tickets to the Children's Symphony in the morning and agreed to go caroling with some friends that night.

As far as I know we only have mass scheduled for Sunday and next week doesn't look too busy (although we do, I hope, have some friends coming over on Tuesday and there is that whole, um, Christmas thing), but if you don't hear from me for a while, it is probably because I have barricaded myself in the house and refused to have any further contact with the outside world.