Christmas Recap

Ah, the whirlwind of the holidays. Our first trek the weekend prior to Christmas included a quick stop at my sister's, then on to my Dad's family gathering, then to Brent's sister's for a couple of days where we got to see his mother and niece (who is preciously preggie!!) and nephew. An attempt to visit friends didn't work out. Then it was a quick stop at Aunt Carol's.
What I left out was that apparently we got the GI bug that was floating around my sister's house in the short 3 hrs we were there. It hit Brent pretty hard 2 days later. It also got Bennett and Vay, but with Vay it was just a tad more humerous bc as we walked into Aunt Carol's house she proceeded through the kitchen and barfed on the floor -- just like she did 2 yrs ago. lol. We hunkered down for a few hours trying to recuperate (I was convinced that my headache was a brain aneurysm bc it didn't respond to advil) and finally loaded up and headed home. Also during this time we were dealing with some potty issues with Bish, so that just added to the chaos. Once home, we continued to feel better and could go on with our holiday week.

my kids and my sister's kids

can you pick which belong where?

and this picture is for any of you who say to me that you think I really don't have a sister bc you've never seen her - here she is.

On to Christmas Eve... We have what seems to be a nice tradition of having Christmas Eve dinner with our neighbors. It started our first year here when we returned at 6pm on Christmas Eve from an elongated time home for the funeral of Brent's dad. Our neighbors were SO sweet to invite us last minute. There were a couple of years we missed out due to our renovation and having other plans, but we absolutely LOVE this evening with our neighbors. So, this year we offered to host.

After a wonderful meal and a quick clean-up, it was time to bake cookies for Santa and open our traditional Christmas Eve gift - jammies. Bish needed to wear his dragon boots with his new jammies.

Christmas morning. These kids must have been good bc Santa brought all kinds of stuff.

I'll have to ask his criteria for determining who is naught or nice bc I remember several days through out the year that would have negated all of these gifts. : )

Santa is not only cool, he helps decorate.

This wall sticker will go great in the boys' StarWars themed room and it alleviates the need for other wall art.

more StarWars

we created this new sweatshirt for Emma from a BugsBunny skit.
You may remember the one -- Yosemite Sam is riding the camel in the desert and the line is, "Whoa, camel! When I says 'Whoa,' I means 'Whoa!'"

Vay is all ready for more snow

generalized chaos of the 2+ hours we spent opening gifts from Santa and one another.

here is the pile of boxes from the kids' gifts- staggering.

Then was the second trek that included my mom's family gathering and a couple of days with my sister and her kids with a day trip to my dad's thrown in so the kids could see the baby lambs. Still having issues with Bish and the potty, so as I was dealing with that hours before we were to head home "something" happened in the kitchen that resulted in Bennett gashing open his chin. De and I tried to glue it, but it wouldn't take. Luckily they live very near the hospital, so after a couple of phone calls we headed to the convenient care. They couldn't handle the size or depth or location and suggested we go to the ER. More phone calls and a decision to just head home and get him stitched at home in our insurance network. We hit the road to get about 20 minutes away and stuck on a 2 lane road due to a wreck. After sitting for 45+ minutes we were finally on our way. Then 2 days later Em and I got that same GI bug from my sister's house!

Then a new start with a new year - thank goodness!