Christmas 2012

Let's just say we barely made it through Christmas. Steve & I were feeling better but had zero energy from fighting fevers for 3 days. Every single thing on my to-do list got thrown out the window. I'm so thankful our families are so wonderful and didn't leave despite the lack of table decorations or homemade desserts :)

The kids were super excited that Santa came. I had gone into the bathroom and heard a little boy jumping up and down in the living room yelling "yay! yay!" way before mama & daddy were up. Those two got marched back to Cole's room until we turned the tree on and got the cameras ready.

Santa was here!

Cole insisted on sleeping with his fireman's hat

making them wait

he was here!

 We opened stockings first and then moved on to presents. Cole was so happy he had cars in his stocking he didn't even care about the other presents.

 Everyone got so many wonderful things. We were very good and very spoiled with all our gifts. Cole got tons of cars, trucks, Duplos, tools, train set, clothes, books,  and Ava got American Girl outfits, legos, books, clothes, kitchen goodies, and leap pad games. I'm forgetting so much more. I got a pair of Uggs and a new Pandora charm, new Christmas dishes and lots of other goodies. Oh and a new mini van :)

the "pre-grandparents" damage

loves

we also got a new waffle maker for our special breakfasts

swoon

 

 The kids asked to take a nap, so they rested for a big while we cleaned up and got ready for dinner.

 We had tons of yummy food and were showered with even more presents. Everyone was way too generous as always.

 Ava went shopping on her own to pick out gifts for us. It was so sweet. She was so proud of everything she picked out---including the bottle of wine for daddy :) Ha!

We were so thankful everyone got to spend Christmas with us. It was a wonderful day with our families. Unfortunately the kiddos went downhill that night. Poor Cole woke up around 11ish with a horrible croupy cough. It's such a horrible sound and he was so upset. I brought him into the bathroom to give him motrin for his fever only to discover we were out of medicine. It had been so long since the kids had fevers we had infant tylenol and expired motrin. {parents of the year right here } The motrin was only expired for 3 weeks so I chose that and ran a steam shower for Cole.

And this is when we realized our heat was out.

I'm not even kidding.

I don't think I slept much at all that night between worrying about the heat and the kids and just feeling yucky. We made a midnight call to our oil company but they couldn't get there until 7. The kids were so warm they acted like little heaters in our bed and kept everyone warm. I'm so thankful our house never got too cold from the heat being on all day and cooking. I made a call to the doctor on call and she was so sweet. She said we were doing every single thing right for Cole & Ava and we just had to ride it out. Once their fevers were down, they were doing much better. The oil guy came right at 7 and fixed us all up and the kiddos definitely improved as the night went on. It was definitely a Christmas we won't forget :) Despite all the craziness, we had a wonderful day celebrating with our families.

Christmas Eve

So this horrible bout with bronchitis that hit me slowly started its way through our family. We did none of the usual fanfare for Santa and everyone was way too sick to notice. I don't think we've ever been that sick in our lives---we still are recovering. Poor Steve was hit hard on Christmas Eve and spent most of the day in bed. Cole started with his fever so that left me barely hanging on to finish getting ready with Ava. It was definitely not our top Christmas experience but despite the high fevers & illness we are so so lucky and so very blessed. So we didn't track Santa or make reindeer food, it was fine---Christmas still happened.

Aves and I headed to church for the Christmas Eve mass. We left a little early because I could feel my fever coming back. Ugh. We stopped by nana & papa's for some dinner and to bring some home to Steve. I was frantically texting him to hide the elves and find the pjs before we came home. Nothing like the last minute! 

We all had fevers that night so we just threw on the kiddos' pjs, read 'Twas and headed to bed. So not the usual Christmas Eve activities but it was fine. 

 we managed to set up some cookies for Santa and head to bed early---Santa was on his way!

one fever-filled cookie set up:)

cookie makers

There were a few magical moments where I had recovered from my illness enough to function and before the kiddies got hit---so we made cookies. The kids have gotten so good at rolling out the dough and stamping the cookies. Cole is so careful about using the cookie cutters and then would smush them all up as he transferred them to the cookie sheet. Ava loved it and was so careful making all her cookies. She made sure to use all the cookie cutters and not just a few of the favorites. Mmm they were yummy!

gingerbread house

We had to make our yearly gingerbread house. The first attempt didn't go so well. Ava was running into the playroom, slipped and came down on her chin right on the corner of the train table. Worst sound ever. She just screamed. Thankfully the doctor could see her so we buzzed over there and they glued her back together. She was pretty proud of her injury :)

We tried again a few days later. I realized I somehow bought the deluxe castle of gingerbread houses and they whole thing needed to be put together instead of the usual prefabricated one. Oops

um 4 pages of instructions plus all those extras you need? yikes!

 The thing kept falling apart so I let the kids focus on the roof while I tried to build the rest of it. They were so into this and insisted on plastering every piece of candy on there. Minus the 3 pounds Cole kept stuffing into his cheeks.

It ended up coming out really cute and the kiddos had fun which is all that mattered. I completely forgot to take a picture of the final product but just picture of pound of frosting and candy on top of a gingerbread house.