Only two more days?!

It feels like since before Thanksgiving, there has hardly been a second to rest. It’s the fun kind of busy, with parties, visitors, and other Christmas festivities, but I do wish there had been more time to just sit back and enjoy the season, now that it’s almost over! Oh well. We have had a lot of fun. So, I better document it. Most of these things deserve their own post, but I’m thinking, with the Christmas hubbub about to be upon us, it isn’t going to happen unless I just do just one seasonal catch-up post.

In November, we went to Molly’s little boy’s baby blessing. He was darling, and we had a great time in Virginia catching up with our friends. We love our “family” reunions.

Every year the NICU has a Christmas party, and we always look forward to it. We only saw a couple familiar faces, but the kids made instant friends with some random kids running around. They are so sweet to give a little gift to each “graduate”.  When visiting the actual NICU, we stopped by the high risk unit to see if any of my nurses were there, and my favorite one just happed to walk out of a room as we were passing. It took her a while to recognize me (remember I was 65-70 lbs. heavier!), but then we had a great time catching up. I’m sad that we won’t be seeing these people in the coming years.

I remember being sad last year that we missed the Santa Fly-In at the aviation museum last year, so I made a point to go this year. It was a crazy busy day, but decided we could squeeze a couple hours of fun with the kids in. It was very crowded, which I hate, but we managed to have a good time at the craft tables and riding the elevator (the highlight, of course). I happened to catch a glimpse of Santa flying in, but it was way too crazy for the kids to see. They were happy to see the grounded airplanes anyway. Our Santa time slot wasn’t until a couple hours after we got there. We hadn’t planned on seeing him personally anyway, so we let that go, and headed home. I think I would’ve been fine to skip that venture, but at least we know what it was all about. And it tired the kids right out.

Since we didn’t go our big friend party this year, a friend of mine said she’d like to host one. It was awesome. The food, the company, and the gift exchange. Everything was just so fun and festive. We totally SCORED this year with our white elephants! I did a little strategizing to get those Rubbermaids. I stole KC’s gift (which was also awesome) and told him he HAD to steal those (or else!), making them ours to keep after 3 steals! Ha! Victory! But really, there were some great gift floating around. We may have brought the book Elise and Jeff won… Love our groups of friends. Oh, and I made these delicious and easy peppermint patties. Seriously, those are dangerous, especially if you dip them in extra dark Ghirardelli chocolate.

Grandma and Grandpa Robinson came to town! They are always such a help and a bursting with fun things for the kids to do. I was able to get a lot done, and take care of sick Bennett while they were able to entertain the others. I went to appointments, went grocery shopping, blogged, finished Christmas cards, and they helped us decorate the tree and we also saw the temple lights, and Watkins Park lights together. They were so sweet to let the kids play in their room day after day. Once they even took all the kids to ICE at the National Harbor, and feeling there were enough adults to hold things down (KC joined them), I decided to stay home and get things done. An empty house is so wonderful sometimes. But it was fun to hear about all their fun times when they came home.

Janice brought this awesome reusable gingerbread house. The kids were in heaven with all the snacks there to eat/decorate with. Such a great idea.

One particularly fun thing we did was see White Christmas at the Kennedy Center!! I was hoping and praying I’d find a way to see it, and when I asked if they’d want to go with us, it was decided that the four of us would go together. It was a great night. Perfect traffic, a beautiful theater, and a great show. Some thing just really put you in the Christmas spirit, and this was one of them. Thanks for all the fun, Grandparents!

Elise and I volunteered to do the Ward Christmas brunch this year. I haven’t had a calling for over three years (can you guess why?), and I felt like this was something I could do. We had a plan we thought would be fun so we just went for it. And guess what? It turned out exactly as we pictured. We have a small ward, so it didn’t take much, but we did a continental style buffet, and we have Costco to thank for doing most of the prep! We did do a little cutting and plating the night before while others were kind enough to set up tables. All it took was an hour and a half of setting up before the party, and it was all set. So easy, yet elegant enough, and it was so fun to do it with my little sister. We do work well together.

I was impressed with how nicely the kids watched the darling nativity the primary put on. Ruby even tried to sing with everyone at the end, even though she didn’t know the words.

The kids all took to Santa a little differently. Alex wanted to hang out with him all say, and just kept saying, “My name is Alex!” Ruby was indifferent, and Bennett was not wanting anything to do with him. A much different story than last year, when they all screamed their little heads off at the sight of him. A sweet member donated hand picked gifts for each child there! Individually wrapped with name tags that they received after visiting Santa. They have been playing with (and fighting  over) those gifts ever since. What a wonderful person, so be so giving. A great morning, and with everyone’s help,we were home before 1 pm!

We’ve already had a good amount of sickness around here. As I mentioned before, Bennett woke us up in the night while KC’s parents were here with an upset stomach but it ended with him thank goodness. But then the whole family got a mildish case of the stomach flu. Mildish because, a couple of the kids were pretty chipper and only had a couple hours of purging and then they were sleeping/bouncing off the walls like normal. I had it for a day, but never lost my lunch (only wished I would, ugh). But poor Alex went on for a good 8 hours. He was cranky for days. It took him forever to get his appetite back, but when he finally ate real food he was my happy little boy again. Phew! It was a long week. I’d say the recovery has been worse than they actually puking! So much laundry and sanitizing to do! Last winter was just so bad when they were younger. With them spacing it out like this was almost easy by comparison. Not that I’m wasn’t so exhausted I thought I would die, but it does get easier as they get older. Still, I hate that we have this to look forward to every winter. Isn’t there a vaccine yet?!

This probably isn’t the best thing to follow that paragraph with, but we also did some gingerbread cookie decorating! Well, first we cut and baked them, but I’m not so sure any of us have very fond memories of that process. I think we were all in need of a good rest, and there was a lot of whining, fighting, and frustration. One instance was both the boys wanted the A apron, but soon Alex, the peacemaker that he is, kindly gave it up to hysterical Bennett when he realized what was going on. (I’ll never forget that, my sweet buddy.) That was just one fire I had to put out that morning.  After our naps, I decided to give decorating a go, feeling like my nerves had had enough of a break, and even though they were making a complete mess, and eating a ton of straight sugar, it was much more fun than the morning baking. They made some awesome cookies, and the clean-up was a snap as I just rolled up the plastic tablecloth and threw it away. I think I have to have some those on hand forever. I did cut out a house frame for fun. We’ll see if we get around to that.

Christmas came way too fast this year. The music, cheesy made-for-TV movies, as well as a few great classic films (we ran out of time to watch all we wanted to!), the scent of pine, and never-ending excitement for lights and decorations have been filling our days, and it will be sad to say goodbye next week. But the fun isn’t over yet! Hope you’re enjoying Christmas time as much as we are!