A memorable 1st Christmas in our new house

I wasn't sure where to start with my blog catch-up, so I decided to start with today. This sleeping beauty was up the majority of last night with a painful ear infection. It was a rough night and awful for a couple reasons--awful to see/hear her in so much pain and awful to be kept awake while desperately needing/wanting sleep. I got her into the doctor early this morning and have already started antibiotics, so she should be better in a day or two (really hoping tonight is better!).

I've been waiting to blog until I was certain the stomach flu was finished at our house. (We went from stomach flu to colds, hence the ear infection. It's just that time of year, I guess!) It's been 8 days since anyone puked, so I *think* we're in the clear. I was the only one who escaped the nasty bug. Not sure how that happened, but I'm thankful. I felt sick for 10 days and worried every night that I'd wake up sick, but I woke up every morning feeling fine! It started the Wednesday before Christmas with Aubrey, then moved to Grant two days later, then Greg 12 hours after Grant (Christmas Eve), and then Joel a day later (Christmas Day). As you can imagine, this flu put quite a damper on our Christmas. I tried to not let it ruin everything and tried to have a joyful attitude in the midst of unfortunate circumstances (the wonderful story of Jesus coming to earth as a baby to save us from our sins didn't change or become less wonderful just because our family was sick...), but I'm not sure how much I succeeded in being joyful. I counted my blessings and reminded myself that this was all temporary, but I was still sad on Christmas Eve when Greg was in bed literally all day and night, and I realized this was going to affect our plans. My parents and Blake were very gracious and told us to come anyway Christmas Eve since the rest of us were well, so the kids and I went over to the my parents' for dinner. We did Jesus' birthday cake, and Kari read the Christmas story aloud for us.

That night Joel got sick. Grant was up for hours that night, too. Thankfully, Greg was feeling better by then (it was a violent but fairly quick bug), and he was able to help. By morning, Joel was doing better, but we'd gotten very little sleep and the mood was not exactly celebratory. We tried, for the kids' sake, to put on a happy face and opened stockings together.

We had our Hungarian coffee cake breakfast together(those of us who could eat), and then Grant puked all over the carpet upstairs. It was totally curdled milk (TMI?), so I think his system just wasn't quite ready for his beloved milk after being sick the days before. We got him in the tub, and that's when I lost it. I put my head down on the edge of the tub and cried/sobbed from utter disappointment and pure exhaustion. Greg and the girls got ready to go to church (the kids were all supposed to be in the Christmas program), and I pulled myself together, got Grant cleaned up and dressed, and we went back downstairs to open presents. The kids all enjoyed their gifts, and it was fun watch their eyes light up as they opened them, but it just didn't feel very Christmasy.

Joel, Grant, and I stayed home while the others went to church. Mom and Dad M. took pictures and videoed for me, so I got to watch the program later. (Thank you for doing that! I enjoyed watching it later.) I spent the morning deep cleaning bathrooms (again) and disinfecting every surface (again)--never done that on Christmas day before!

My parents and Blake salvaged Christmas for us and told us to come over after church anyway. They'd already been exposed the day before when we didn't know Joel was going to be next. We had a really good time with them, and I was grateful we got to celebrate Christmas and Mom's birthday together, but it came at a price...for them. All three of them went down later in the week.

We thought we were in the clear Tuesday evening after we'd had over 48 hours of wellness and kept our plans to celebrate and exchange gifts with Brian, Emily, and Russell, and then we spent the day with Ryan and Michelle and Mom and Dad M. on Wednesday--went bowling and had dinner. It'd been three days with no one else sick. Unfortunately, we still weren't "in the clear." Kari got sick Wednesday night, and so did Emily and Russell. It just seemed never-ending! It did finally come to an end for us, though, 10 days after it started, but not before we got one more person sick--Lorelai was the last casualty, but she's well now and no one else is sick.

We celebrated Christmas with the Moffats on the 30th and had a good time with them all. It was fun to have all the cousins together again and good to catch up with everyone. The kids acted out a very loose interpretation of the Christmas story. I'm sure it will get more sophisticated as the years go by. :)

Grandma read a Christmas book to the kids. It was about children putting on a Christmas pageant and, as it turns out, a very appropriate story for this year's Christmas, as one of the kids in the story pukes all over. She bought the book a while ago, so it was not hand-picked for our situation, but it sure was ironic!

Working on painting projects

All ten cousins on the couch

While it was kind of a bummer of a Christmas for us, we did get to spend a lot of time together at home as a family. Greg had scheduled vacation days to be home with us between Christmas and New Year's, and even though we spent a lot of it being sick, we did have some good times while we were quarantined in the house. We played some games, watched some movies, and worked on some house projects (more on the garage re-org later). The kids really like their new card game, "There's a Moose in the House," and we played many rounds. On New Year's Eve morning, we went to Safari Sam's, an indoor play place we'd never been to before, and we had a blast! It's big enough for parents to go through the jungle gym area, too, and we all had a really good time together. We weren't ready yet when it came time for the kids to go back to school and Greg back to work, but life goes on. We'll have more vacations and holidays together, Lord-willing. :)