Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas only comes once a year!

Christmas is so great, we had to start our celebrations early! Nana and Bopa swung by and grabbed the kids on December 16th to start partying in Bend. Wish we could have joined them but Bopa survived a day with them on the slopes alone and Nana survived Urgent Care where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. :( Bad start. 
We joined back up a few days later - Daddy has a full two weeks off of work! So amazing! Of course I found out I had strep throat again. Nana and I made quite the pair! And Henry came with croup, which he then kindly shared with G and L... And of course the kids can't all smile nicely for a Christmas picture in their finest. Although, if I remember correctly, this one did turn out a lot better than last year's, even if G is chewing swimming goggles?
Ice skating! It's one of Ninnie's favorite things to do so we always try to when we we're together. J worked hard to learn how to glide backwards, M spent a lot of time on the wall trying to figure out how to skate on one foot, Dude got intimately acquainted with the ice, and G ... was G. Yes, she's doing snow angels. In the ice. And she tried to make snowballs. I'm not sure she really got what we were doing. 
Sick or not, ready or not, Christmas Eve arrived! And with it, the much-awaited, annual puppet show. It is pretty exciting.
And the traditional Christmas jammies. Thanks Nana and Bopa!
And everybody's up! All right, most are awake (G and L have been so sick - couldn't handle waking them when they were finally sleeping and breathing well). But one way or another, it is time. Can't keep everybody upstairs any longer. They were just all too eager to take the traditional Christmas morning on the stairs photo. Right?
Everybody was awake for the gingerbread man making though. We switched things up a bit (decorating cookies seemed easier for little hands than assembling full houses), but regardless, I think some people were still just in it for the candy! Not naming any names but there was that guy in green who puked rainbows shortly afterwards in the tub.
Pretty grateful for another wonderful, cozy Christmas with those we love. It was pretty much a miracle that it went as well as it did with all those germs that had been swimming around with all those people. It might've been a small miracle, but it was a tender mercy indeed.