For the past few days, there's been A Mood in the house. No one seems to be happy for long, Ella especially. She's had rough nights, too. She has a couple teeth coming in, so maybe that's contributing. I think the bigger thing for her, though, is just continuing to make big developmental leaps and trying to find autonomy throughout all of this. I've noticed that lately it's a lot more difficult to transition her from one thing to the next, particularly if we're leaving the house. That's always challenging with each child to find out how to do that smoothly, but we'll all work together to figure it out. Ella slept 14 hours last night and napped for an hour or so later this afternoon, so perhaps there's a little need for extra sleep mixed in there somewhere. It was a little easier today.

Cory's delivering pizzas tonight. The kids are watching Christmas specials or videos and playing with toys. I have to finish getting Christmas cards ready to send out - almost there. Then I have to concentrate on the baking I need to do for several things as well as wrapping presents. We have a few more presents to get, and then we'll be finished with that.

It looks as if Cory will get off the time he was asking for around Christmas, so we'll be leaving for Mankato next Thursday and staying there through Christmas morning. Then we'll drive to Lake Wilson and spend a day there before returning back to Yankton on the 26th. That will be a nice break from everything for a while. Until then, though, it'll be rather hectic.