A GREAT Improvement over last year

Last year, we had what I classified as a "Christmas From Hell."  It was full of not fun things associated with an entire family with a stomach virus. Zofran failed me. I had to deal with my aversion of all things barf related. Our families braved the contagion to come visit and give the babies their first Christmas gifts. Nate's parents had a lovely Christmas Day meal of Hardee's. I walked around Edwin Warner park by myself and cried. My life was so different and I felt like we were never going to have fun again. Every single holiday was ruined by sickness. I actually marked our December calendar with "Take Kids Out of Daycare!!" when I made it in January of this past year.

We decided to brave it and kept the kids in daycare the week before. (I know, tempting fate) Thankfully, we had a great holiday at both houses. Nate's family Christmas was wild as always and the kids had a great time hanging out with their cousins. He always makes time lapse videos. Here is this year's video:



All 16 grandkids were able to get in a picture with Pops and Squad:

WOW!!

Natalie decided to help Pops read the Christmas story

Townes with his awesome trucks

Uncle Ben with the girls

After opening presents and lunch, they took good 2 hour naps. I was worried and they surprised me by actually going to sleep away from home. I can't tell you how much it meant to have a normal Christmas especially after I was home with Caroline this Thanksgiving too.

On Christmas Day, my sister in law made an amazing dinner of Yorkshire Pudding and Beef for my families' celebration. The kids did great and enjoyed their food. They were a bit crankier with no naps, but we were able to have lots of fun opening up presents. They are spoiled to the hilt! Here is Natalie in her new Uggs:

Spoil me Aunt Christa!

With our new Poppers

New Melissa and Doug Puzzles- FUN
 

So many sad things have happened around us in the last few weeks that I know that having a "happy" Christmas is so small in the scheme of things. We are blessed to have a safe and healthy family. To have clothing and food. To have a roof over our head with heat and running water. I hope to never take these big things for granted when getting bent out of shape over a non napping child or gift that didn't make it to our house in time.