Oh...Christmas. We thought this would be our first Christmas in our new home. A country Christmas. Fate had us fooled.
The night before Christmas Eve, Dan and I had been up throughout the night with Hank and a terrible croup cough. On Christmas Eve morning, my ears were so sore that my neck ached, and I had the worst pink eye I've ever had...both eyes. So we set Lola and Mac up to make brownies for Santa with Rachael and James and headed off with Hank to Urgent Care. A few hours later, a steroid treatment for Hank and antibiotics for me, we headed home to get a few last minute things ready before heading to mass. Kiddos were all taking a nap and I headed to the kitchen to get things ready for Christmas morning breakfast...when the power went out. I remained calm but quickly called Dan to let him know what was going on. A few minutes later, he informed me that he called the power company and we should not expect to get power back until at LEAST the 27th.
Off to Nana & Bub's we went, packing up presents, stockings, Christmas jammies, food for breakfast and dinner, and all the antibiotics, etc. The kids were thrilled to have another Christmas at Nana & Bub's...thank goodness for them an their positive, youthful energy!
We ate dinner in Christmas jammies, read books with Nana and Robin, then Mac and Lola exchanged their gifts to each other. In the morning, the kids were thrilled that Santa found us! He brought a bow and arrow for Mac, and Bubble Tape and a new robe for Lola.
Favorite gifts this year were the Robin Hood costume we gave Mac, and passing on my American Girl Molly doll to Lola.
The next few days, we remained at Nana & Bub's, and Lola got the stomach flu, then right before we got power back and headed home, Mac caught the stomach bug. It was a hard Chrsitmas, and it was Hank's first Christmas. It seemed all about survival to me. There were moments that I cherished and felt very present for, but most of it seemed like work. I'm very grateful for my family of five, so thankful we had a loving, warm house to stay at, and now that we are all healthy, I'm working on being more present with my beautiful little people who are growing much too fast.
