Christmas '08

This Christmas was one I won't soon forget! Christmas Eve started out normal. We were going to my aunt and uncle's house for our traditional family white elephant gift exchange that we do every year on Christmas Eve. Mike had to work, and I wasn't watching my friends' baby that day, as I normally do, so I just had my 4 at home. I bathed everyone and got them ready to go so we could leave as soon as Mike got home. We headed out and were all feeling great and ready to have a good time with family. We got there and ate a TON of food (all yummy finger food) and the kids all went up to play in the playroom for a while.

Laney being goofy

My cousins little boy, Jono

My other cousins little boy, Trey

Scary

Cousins...

Jono's brother Zach

Chloe playing with a toy cat...

At around 8, we decided to start the white elephant fiasco, so we called all the kids down from the playroom. Elijah came down and was acting horribly cranky, so I held him for a while, and he started crying like he was in pain. My neice Autumn said that she saw him bump his head on the wall, and he kept saying his head hurt, so I'm freaking out thinking that we're gonna have to take him to the ER for a CAT scan or something. (I'm majorly paranoid, by the way) We gave him some tylenol, and I just held him on my lap for a while. After about half an hour, he got down and said that he wanted to play. That made me feel a little bit better, and I thought that maybe he just had a headache from bumping his head, and the tylenol was kicking in. The playing didn't last long...he started whining again and this time he was complaining that his stomach hurt. When we left and headed for home, he was still cranky, but hadn't thrown up or anything...yet. We got home and let the kids open their stockings, since they all had pj's in them that they could wear. We got Elijah some Mario pj's, because he loves playing Mario Kart, but when we tried to put them on him, he wasn't having any of it! He said he wanted to wear his superman (or supeyman, as he calls him :D) pajamas. I didn't get any pics of them opening their stockings because I was preoccupied with him. We put them all to bed, and Elijah continued to be fussy. He finally fell asleep after a few bouts of gagging and nothing coming up. He woke up crying a few times, so we eventually put him in our bed and I went to the couch. He slept pretty good after that, but that morning we slept in (after being up all night with him), and we were supposed to be at my mom's house at 9 for our annual Christmas breakfast. So instead of letting the kids open our gifts first, we decided to go there first and open ours when we got back. We just let them stay in their pajamas and off to Grandma's we went. Elijah threw up right after we got there, so we had to take him out of his clothes. We didn't have any clothes there to put on him...yet. I knew my mom had stuff for him to wear, but we hadn't opened presents yet. After we ate breakfast and listened to my nephew read the real Christmas story, we started opening presents.

Here's Elijah snuggling with my niece Mariah...this was before we had clothes on him ;)

He opened his Thomas train in one of the brief moments he was feeling okay.

Don't they all look thrilled?? :P

Isaac and the girls had a fun time at Grandma's!

Grandma helping Isaac open a present.

Chloe...who knows what she's doing...probably looking for another present to open

Laney and her new sweater

Oh my, the stuff we got from my mom was unreal. We literally came home with 3 trashbags full of stuff!!! I had to do 2 full loads of laundry to wash all the clothes she got us!!! We had a great time at my moms house with her, my grandma, and my sisters and their families.

We came home and both of the boys were out cold, so we let the girls open their stuff while the boys slept.

Chloe with her E-pet. I got her a duck because I always call her my little duckling, and she kept saying "Mom, this is what I always wanted!" :) She's such a sweetheart!

The girls and their drawing stuff.

Polly pockets

Laney has been wanting a journal for a long time. This one will only open for her because it recognizes her voice! She loves it!

Chloe and her Barbie carriage

After a while, Isaac woke up so we let him open his stuff.

He doesn't look too thrilled... He really was :) Mike just caught an off moment :)

See?

Then Eli woke up and we talked him into opening his gifts. He didn't really feel like it at first.

Poor thing, trying to muster up the strength to smile.

Opening his cars

And his awesome zero gravity car.

Although this Christmas didn't feel like it normally does, nothing about its meaning changed. We still rejoice in the fact that God sent His Son to earth to die for us, and we are so very thankful for that! There are way worse things than having a sick kid during Christmas. How blessed we are that God has even given us children to raise! God really has blessed us so much, and there aren't words to describe how thankful we really are!