Christmas Re-cap

As seems typical for us, our Christmas "vacation" didn't quite turn out the way I thought it would. It started out with ZuZu having food poisoning and a viral throat infection; while the kids were healthy and we had a great Christmas Eve together, Moses was sick on Christmas day, and ZuZu screamed from the 26th until the 29th- when a blood test confirmed that she had walking pneumonia. K and I have been sick for the last 4 days; so, ALL of us are being treated for walking pneumonia. It's been FUN.


Looking back, I am SO GLAD I made the decision to stay home with the kids instead of going to the Christmas Eve service; it was so snowy and yucky that day, and there was no one in the nursery that night- so I thought it best to just keep them at home.


I had to post this picture; a couple at church bought each of the kids presents, and ZuZu thought it necessary to put it right in Hosanna's face. Poor Hosanna!


K read the Christmas story to the kids and then it was off to bed!





ZuZu wasn't quite sure what to do on Christmas morning:


But she soon got into the swing of things!




Hosanna's first Christmas morning (hard to believe that just a year ago we never expected her!):


Christmas day we headed to the Peoria area for Christmas with K's family. Every year, Grammy reads the grandkids a story. Note which child did not participate...


I LOVE this picture. It totally captures ZuZu's mischievous nature:



WHOA:



On Christmas night, we went over to my parents' house. I put ZuZu in the dress I wore 30 Christmases ago:



On the 26th, K had to go back home for the Sunday service, so my parents and the kids went up to visit my grandparents... by way of urgent care in Peoria. They diagnosed ZuZu with pink eye, which was TOTALLY wrong. Grrrrr.... Anyway, she was feeling pretty terrible. Just look how pathetic she looks!



But Moses was feeling better by then, and had a rousing game of- ???- with Granddad:


Later Ma read a story about Abe Lincoln to Moses:


On the 27th, ZuZu slept for the first time in 48 hours:



It was Hosanna's first visit to Ma & Granddad's!


On the 27th, "Uncle Jarrett" and "Aunt Emily" came from NYC; they bought ZuZu a turtle shell for Christmas. Just kidding. It's a bilibo, and true to the product's claims, it spurs a child's imagination. It's been a favorite among our kids this Christmas.



We are finally starting to feel a little better in our house... just in time for real life to start taking over again. *sigh* Maybe NEXT YEAR we will have a happy and healthy Christmas???

"GOOD MORNING! Can I open my presents?!"

Those were the first words out of Moses' mouth this morning. :)


We open presents on Christmas Even morning, and he has been counting down the days this week with such excitement. We travel to grandparents' houses over Christmas, so it is nice to open presents on Christmas Eve morning and actually have time to enjoy them (and each other).




Here are our three little monkeys before the wrapping paper started flying:







Moses was excited for each and every present he opened:

ZuZu... not so much. In addition to not being a very expressionful child, she's been sick this week. This was pretty much the face she had for every present:

UNTIL she got to the present Moses picked out (Moses' gifts to us were the BEST, as demonstrated below):

Hosanna actually took in the events of her First Christmas with interest:

First Christmas doll:

Moses picked out a Buzz Lightyear for her:

Moses loves it when I wear earrings, and the bigger the better. So I received the biggest pair of hoop earrings I have ever owned- and I love them!

Kurt got a DVD of "Mater's Car Toons":

ZuZu and I had a tea party together:

Can you tell she's seen her daddy play guitar?

I LOVE seeing her play with girl toys! Having both a boy and girls at Christmas is so much fun!

Moses trying out his GeoAir set:

As I am tying this, I heard Moses declare, "I LIKE MY PRESENTS!" Ah, it feels good!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...

Doesn't the smell of freshly-baked sugar cookies jump right outta the computer screen at you?

And aren't these the MOST BEAUTIFULLY decorated sugar cookies you have EVER seen? They taste pretty good, too...

And of course, someone special had quite a hand in making them:

Today the kids sang a few songs in church. This little guy sure makes my heart melt:

Goldilocks was there, too:

As was her sister:

There was a birthday party for Jesus following church. The kids had a lot of fun (*GREAT game idea: setting up a little mini-golf area with cotton balls... "herding sheep"! It was great!)

Just some recent happenings...

Once again, I've fallen behind. I feel like a broken record saying that...

So a little catch-up is in order. It was a busy week... preschool Christmas program, Christmas party, birthday party, and food poisoning. All but the last were really fun!

Moses and his buddies after the Christmas program:

Moses' Christmas party:

My stylish girls on their way to a birthday party:

ZuZu, sick after finding (and drinking) a sippie of yucky milk:

Today: Making sugar cookies with my son! Later this week: Seeing Santa at our mall, and driving through a local lights display. I LOVE Christmas!

He knows if you've been bad or good...

Over Thanksgiving, we took the kids to see Santa. (The REAL Santa. He spends some time in Central Illinois over the holidays, did you know? The rest of the Santas are all just his helpers).

I always love pictures with Santa- but no criers this year!

Moses listened to the story SO seriously:

Here, I think ZuZu was thinking, "Moses, is this guy for real?!"

This is the best picture, but they are all looking the wrong way!

Ah, the whole family:

And we couldn't leave without a picture of Hosanna with Santa for the first time:

The Christmas season has already been SO FUN this year. Moses is really getting into the spirit- he had so much fun helping us decorate the house (we did it while both girls were napping one day- it was some great one-on-one time with our little man!)

He loves "playing" Christmas carols on the piano. Yesterday, these were his lyrics:

Deck the halls with boughs and holly,

falalalala, lalalala

Jesus knows when you are sleeping and when you are awake

So be happy and he will bring you presents

Deck the halls with boughs and holly,

falalalala, lalalala...

Then he went right into "Joy to the World" and "Away in a Manger."

He surely puts us in a jolly Christmas mood!