Christmas 2011, one to remember

First I will tell you the good parts about our Christmas and then I'll tell you the part "to remember".

*I didn't have to travel this year!!!!!! This is the first year ever since I moved out of the house at 18 years old that I have not had to travel for Christmas. That means I've been traveling (mostly airports, which I hate) during the Holidays for 12 years! It was WONDERFUL to not have to step foot in an air port this year, wonderful I say!

*I think we did a good job of keeping the focus of Christmas on Christ this year. I know of some ways to improve but it was still so good.

*I made some yummy easy treats for J boy to pass out to teachers etc. at school and watching him get into the spirit of giving was so fun, he loved it!

*This year we kept it simple (at least on our end, my family seems spoil my kids) and it was nice. The kids got one "big present" a couple small ones and some jammies. I think it was perfect. The kids didn't even think much about it. Actually I lied, J boy did say after he opened his few presents "Is that all my presents?" luckily I could say "you'll get more at Grandmas" silly boy. Now, of course he has forgotten about his "so few" presents and is obsessing over his scooter (his "big" gift).

Look at our cute tree with just a small amount of presents (notice how some are not wrapped, I was sick on Christmas Eve okay!)

Enjoying their new scooters...

*My favorite reaction was from J boy. Daddy got him a batman mask (he's obsessed with Batman) and when he opened it, the look on his face was Priceless. He was so happy he was close to crying, it was cute. Then at Grandmas house my sister (who spoils him rotten) got him the bat cave toy he wanted so badly and he was so excited about that too, yet again another great reaction!

*All my siblings made it out as usual and that is always fun, crazy but fun! Again, it was great that this year they all came to me (and my parents) and I didn't have to go anywhere.

This was taken on our "girls" day my Mom planned for us.
My poor brother....at least he has some brother in-laws to hang with.

*We got a white Christmas! It wasn't as much snow as we wanted but enough to build a snowman or two!

*C picked up some more hours at work over the Holidays which was nice as he is only working part time right now and we needed the extra money around the holidays.


Now for the part to remember.......

I have taken for granted all those Christmas' that my family and I were relatively healthy and could enjoy doing the typical Christmas-y things.

This year our luck ran out and we suffered from the Stomach flu, ya know the barfing-diarrhea-gross-don't-even-want-to-talk-about-it kind of flu, yep that's what we had, ALL of us! We were lucky that for the most part it was only a 12-24 hour type of flu, with the exception of lulu.

It started in the wee hours of the early morning on Christmas Eve. Lulu woke up around 2am and began barfing every 10-20 minutes for the next 12 + hours. Then she continued to feel sick and upset tummy for the next 48 hours. We ended up Canceling our "sibling ski trip" on Christmas Even, we usually have one every year, because my Sister Kim was sick with the same flu that same night/early morning and so was my Mom (who was supposed to watch the kiddos) and C and I were starting to feel it coming on too.

Sick baby! Sipping on some Pedia-lite that I'm sure she barfed up two minutes later.

After witnessing and cleaning up and helping lulu barf a million and two times I began to feel "upset" in my tummy but it didn't hit me full force until the evening of Christmas Eve. E got it later that day too on Christmas Eve. J boy spent the day playing with all his Aunties over at G-Ma's house the whole day and C stayed home to take care of us sick ones. Thank Heavens C and I didn't get it at the same time, that would have been awful!

I had envisioned a wonderful Christmas Eve for my little Family this year. I made plans to start our own traditions. We never really had any of our own because we were always traveling and it wasn't worth the effort. But this year was supposed to be different. We were going to do Christmas Eve opening of Jammies and individual ornaments and hang them on our OWN tree! We were going to read the Christmas story in the Bible and then make cookies for Santa and then read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then go to bed early......I was all excited to do our own thing this year. The only thing we managed to do was go to bed early. ((Sigh)) There is always next year, there is always next year.....I just have to keep telling myself that.

Christmas Morning the kids seemed to be feeling better. Lulu had not barfed all night, which was a good sign. E was feeling much better and I was on the mend, still feeling a bit uneasy. Well I thought lulu was all better but she ended up barfing right after stockings and just before we opened our presents.

If this face doesn't say "I'm about to barf" I'm not sure what it says....

And Daddy cleaning it up so we can open our presents....
(Best yard sale find ever... carpet cleaner for $5, we replaced the broken tank for $30.
Cheapest Carpet cleaner ever!)

We ended up going over to G-ma and Papa's anyway on Christmas Morning after our little present opening at our house, hoping it was a fluke thing that lulu was still sick. She was doing ok most of the day but due to all the consumed junk food on Christmas (from stocking candy) and her still sensitive tummy, she ended up barfing a few more times over the next couple of days.

Just as I started feeling normal again Christmas evening, C got it and he got it WAY worse than I had it! Poor guy. I felt so bad for him. So Christmas Day/evening E went over to G-Ma and Papa's to play with all her Aunties all day, while C and then eventually J boy were the sickies, along with lulu who was still not fully recovered and I stayed home and played nurse-mama to all three.

And that is how we spent our Christmas, Sick or taking care of the sick. I told ya it was one to remember.

Christmas day, sickies. (yes, even Bat Man gets sick!)
Watching T.V. all day in Mom and Dads room can't be that bad,
if there was no throwing up involved it would be a kids dream come true.

J boy was still feeling yucky the Day after and so was C. Instead of hanging out with my family that day, we just stayed home and didn't do much, kept it pretty low key.


Out of Me and my little Family and my Parents and siblings and their families (a total of 17 people all together) there was a total of 10 of us that got this flu bug.

What a pathetic group of people we were this Holiday Season. Merry Christmas to us!

There's always next year.....