December Week #4!!!!

The following Monday we'd been planning to go to Kings Dominion, since the kids were out of school.  But enough kids were sick that we finally decided that wouldn't be a good idea after all.  I managed to get Colton in to see his ENT doctor, who confirmed that he definitely had an ear infection but said his tubes were working beautifully and to just keep using his ear drops like we were doing.  So that was good (but also, super gross: working tubes basically means you've got snot oozing out your ears.  BLURGH.  But better than staying stuck in your eardrums, I guess?)  And of course there was plenty We seemed to keep busy enough running out to stores and wrapping presents that this didn't feel like a huge loss (although I AM still hoping we can go soon, if everyone can just get healthy already!!!).

And suddenly it was Christmas Eve!  Some of our friends in our ward had planned a brunch and games at the church, so we had fun attending that:

Camille demonstrating her sweet ninja moves!

Kendra did a great job wrapping up Ryder!

I think I've mentioned this before, but IT IS SO FUN TO HAVE FRIENDS IN MY WARD FINALLY!!!

So that was a great morning (other than Colton still being under the weather).  Then we went home and I ran around doing my last cleaning before Craig's parents arrived and it was Christmas (because I am NOT doing laundry on Christmas!).  Craig worked on pies with his Mom and I worked on mashed potatoes.  I tried a new thing by cooking the potatoes in my instant pot, but alas, it did NOT work.  They were way more work, I made a way bigger mess, and then they didn't even taste good.  Utter fail.  But if that's the worst thing about your Christmas, that still isn't bad at all!

We had our usual pizza (YAY for pizza on Christmas Eve!) and then drove around looking at Christmas lights.  The tacky lights place that we've enjoyed visiting in the past is no more-- it's really sad, apparently the man who did it died of cancer.  But I had to drive by his place just in case and to our utter delight, his neighbors had put up a whole bunch of lights and decorations!  It felt like a (minor) Christmas miracle and I was so happy we'd driven by!

Then we sang hymns.  We didn't have any real pianists this year, but the kids each knew a couple Christmas songs and I could usually plunk out the melody at least, so we got by...

And then it was time to open Christmas jammies from my parents:

We've done this enough years that the kids knew exactly what to expect and even said, "When do we get to open our jammies???"

So it was kind of fun because this year we (sort of) tricked them: THEY GOT ROBES INSTEAD!

This shot is so blurry, but I love that you can see how excited Camille is!

So snuggly and matchy!  Perfect for Christmas Eve!

We got the kids to bed and then the hard part was waiting until they were asleep so we could get to work!  Tom wanted us to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert from last year when Kristen Chenoweth hosted it, but we couldn't get it to work at all-- YouTube was being so slow on our TV, it kept freezing after a couple minutes.  Then Craig flicked around on our channels and figured out it was being broadcast on PBS in an hour, so we just waited and watched it on regular TV like we were back in the 90s or something!  Crazy, huh?  But it was a lot of fun to watch!

And then we could finally do our thing:

The kids weren't allowed to get up until 7, and as you can imagine, they were right on time.  Just convincing them to give me a minute to use the bathroom before we let them go downstairs was like trying to hold back wild horses.

Can you feel the excitement?

Somehow Bentley beat everyone down the stairs without knocking anyone down!

Then Craig proceeded to take a whole lot of live photos, which are very fun, but I haven't figured out how to post those on this blog yet.  So I will not be sharing any of them!  But here's one of the still ones he took near the end of the craziness:

It was a lovely day!  Everyone seemed very happy with their gifts!  Craig's turkey was (once again) delicious, so hopefully no one cared too much that my mashed potatoes were gross.  (Seriously!  They were NOT GOOD.  How does that happen???)  I was exhausted and put myself to bed early.  So did Colton, actually, but that was mostly because he was sick.  (It's always so weird when your kid puts themselves down for a nap.  I can't decide if I'm sad because they're clearly unwell or just excited that they're napping!)

The next day he was STILL sick, so I took him in to see a pediatrician.  I thought maybe he needed oral antibiotics in addition to the ear drops, but the doctor said whatever he had was viral and there wasn't much to be done.  He tested him for flu and it was negative, so that was good.  He said we could go to Ohio as planned, but that the less he coughed all over everyone the better.  So we loaded up the van and drove to Ohio!

We'd been planning this for months: Leah was also stopping by Rachael's (on her way back to New York from Tennessee), so I'd get to see two sisters (and 4.5 cousins!) for the price of one short 5-hour drive!  What a deal!  Unfortunately, about ten minutes after Leah and family arrived, Colton threw up.  So then I felt terrible for dragging him all over and for exposing everyone else to his germs.  HE HADN'T BEEN THROWING UP BEFORE!!!!  Ugh, I hate moments like that when you feel like the worst parent ever.  (In my defense, no one else has thrown up-- I think it was really just brought on by a coughing fit.  But it's still gross.)

Anyway, we enjoyed everyone's company!  Craig got to see Rachael and Ian's beautiful new house and I gabbed with my sisters so much I lost my voice.

Colton and Theo enjoying all the mag-snaps!

Eliot and Camille together, Harrison, Rachael (and Baby #3!!!) and Craig in the background

Leah & Brian gave us a drone for Christmas and Craig LOVES flying it!

This is an AMAZING cousin shot!

So it was great seeing everyone, but unfortunately Colton didn't seem to be getting better and then Kendra was getting sick, too, and with my voice gone, I decided we should not stick around until Sunday as planned.  So we loaded up as headed home Saturday afternoon.  So it was a very quick trip, but still fun!

We got home no problem and have pretty much sat around coughing ever since.  It's been very sad.  I've never had all my kids so sick for so long.  My guess is they'll all feel better just in time to go back to school and then they'll be very bitter about it.  And who could blame them?

But at least Christmas was happy and they got to see lots of family.  It definitely could have been worse!