Merry Christmas

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas. We were able to really enjoy it this year. I truly realize that this is the best time right now with the ages the kids are. I feel like we celebrated the whole month of December and really got into the Christmas spirit. On Christmas Eve, we started with the kids 3 presents from us, then baked cookies for Santa, put Jesus in the manger, sprinkled the reindeer food, and checked Santa' s progress on Norad Santa. Then we headed to Grammy and Bumpa's for an early dinner and presents. Uncle CJ was so wonderful--he gave each kid their own air horn!!! HOW FUN!!!! We all went to mass and Drew, Dawsyn, and Delaney sang in the children's choir. Then we went back to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Carl's for dessert and more presents. It was so fun to watch Caroline get into the spirit of things this year. We made it home in time to get one last check on Santa and get to bed!

In the morning, Santa had left a huge tent set up in the living room, inside it was full of presents for the kids. Some highlights for Drew were: Hogwarts Express Lego set, Beyblades, DS and Wii games. Dawsyn loved her Cotton candy maker, her elf doll, and her snowglobe. Delaney was excited about her skates, her Dippin Dots maker, and her barbie doll. Dax was all about his train sets, and Drake really just got into Christmas morning breakfast, but did seem to like his toys to! We spent the day with family coming for dinner, watching movies like Toy Story 3, and the Little House on the Prairie shows that the kids got. We also played some fun board games and worked on a puzzle. We spent the day after Christmas spending the night at Grammy and Bumpa's house and playing games. Today, the kids are spending the night at Shawn's parents. This is a first and they are really excited about it. So,it feels like it has been a week-long celebration of Jesus' birth--which is probably exactly as it should be. And, even though my house looks like it will never be back in presentable shape with toys scattered from one end of the living room to the other...I wouldn't want it any other way.

Fun Christmas Weekend!

Once again this year, we were involved in the Annual Christmas Cantata. It is a bunch of local churches who get together and put on a choir performance to celebrate Christmas. Shawn, Dawsyn, Drew, Shawn's parents, and my mom all sang in it and I narrated the concert. Drew played "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" for a piano solo.

Dawsyn sang her first public solo--"Where are you Christmas?". She decided to do it acapella and did really well.

Yes, that is Grandpa in pink and teal women's pajamas on the Polar Express! We took a trip on the local "Polar Express" train on Friday night. It was a wonderful event for the kids (minus Grandpa's confusing pajamas :)) because our good friends, Angie, Chad, and Lance, along with all 4 grandparents, and Aunt Emily, Uncle Kyle, Caroline, and Natalie, and their Grandma Linda were all on board as well!

Here we are getting ready for the train ride to start. Yes, we are all in matching pajamas! These pajamas say "nice" on the front and "naughty" on the back. Dax, quite appropriately, was the only one who chose to wear his backwards! One of the conductors stopped and told us that we were the best family he had ever seen on the train with our matching pajamas and personalized santa hats! I asked if that meant we got a free ride on the train, but he said it just meant that we got to hear him say that we were the best family to ever ride on the train! Oh well, I tried!

We are on the countdown to Christmas at our house! We are all getting so excited to spend a few days at home as a family.

Another weekend...Another Victory

Life is definitely a game sometimes, and when we make it through a weekend like the one we just had, it feels like a small victory! Somehow, in the last three days, we managed the following: a sleepover with 12 "Queens" ranging in age from 5 to 16, my Hands on History Class, Shawn having to be in the office from 8PM to 8 AM Friday into Saturday, 4 birthday parties, 2 Basketball games, 2 basketball practices, Choir practice, Church, Sunday School, Art class, Kindermusik, and a First Reconciliation all while dodging the stomach flu that our own little "Typhoid Mary", aka "Delaney" started running through the family on Wednesday night! Now, I must admit that we had A LOT of help, aka Aunt Cassie and Grammy, and a few cancellations due to snow and the stomach flu that did help our weekend go a little more smoothly!
In the end, we survived and ended the weekend on smiles--which is always a victory in our house. I was hoping for a snow day today, but we only got a two hour delay--I guess we take what we can get!
For my children's future viewing and for those who wonder why I never call, here is what the last week has been like:
Wednesday:
Delaney wakes up around 11:00 PM throwing up. She continued to throw up every half hour until 4 in the morning which is when I get up for school.

Thursday:
Shawn stays home with kids but starts to feel ill himself. I take kids to choir practice after school where I begin to feel ill. I manage to get the older two home and pick up Dax to attend his parent participation basketball, all the time feeling like I could puke at any minute, but, hey, he scored his first basket so totally worth it! By the time I get home, I am VERY sick and Shawn and I spend the rest of the evening lieing on the couch hoping the 5 children can fend for themselves. The plus side to all of this was that I finally got an evening to lay on the couch and watch Christmas specials!

Friday:
Since I hadn't thrown up in a few hours, I head off to work and kids go to school. When I get out of school, I go volunteer in Drew's class, then head home to get ready for the Queens sleepover. Shawn heads to work for the night after he picks Dawsyn up from party #1 and the three boys go to Mom's to spend the night.

Saturday:
All 12 girls leave by 8:00, Aunt Cassie comes to get the girls and I head to my class in Columbus just as Shawn is getting home. Aunt Cassie takes Drew and Dawsyn to their art class at 10, drops Dax at his Kindermusik at 11, goes back to get Drew when he starts getting sick at the art class, picks Dax up and heads back home with the 4th person in our house to get the stomach bug. Shawn head to mom's, picks up 4 healthy kids and heads to basketball practice for Dawsyn and then to Birthday party #2, I leave my class and meet them there. We leave birthday party #2, to head to party #3. We would have had to leave that party early to get to Drew's game, but since he was home sick, we got to stay a little longer, then we headed home to get Drew.

Sunday:
We all head to choir practice at 8:30, SUnday School at 9:30, church at 11:15, we leave church to head to Dawsyn basketball game, but find out it is cancelled because of snow so we turn around and head home (YAY!!!--real lunch and no McDonalds today!). We leave for Cantata practice at 3:00, and then head to church again for Dawsyn's First Reconciliation at 5. (We cancelled out on birthday party #4 since we had all been sick, but we still got the gift to the child--which is probably the most important part anyway! :)

So, today we are back to the work week and hoping that somehow the last 3 family member have dodge the "flu bullet". Time will tell...