This Christmas season went by faster than any year before, which is of course terrible, but it was a good one and I'm happy to be starting a new year.
Jude made this Christmas pretty awesome. He loved Santa, "Chismus tees", his stocking made by Grandma, the jingle bell I hang from the doorknob, the lights, the whole kit and caboodle. I also loved Graham's first Christmas; he is a duplicate of Jude at this age so I walked down memory lane a lot to Jude's first Christmas, plus Graham always plops a big dollop of jolly wherever he is.
Jeff and I had our 6th annual Christmas shopping trip. I love this. It's become especially fun since having kids because Jeff can't even help himself. He wants to get the kids eh-ver-ee-thing and I thoroughly enjoy being the voice of reason and prudence :). I didn't even think Graham needed any presents; he already has 5 times more toys to plow through than Jude did at his age, and 10-month-olds only care about eating wrapping paper. But skipping Graham presents was out of the question for Jeff, which was sweet.
Jude has been really into Duplos, and he got some from us, my parents, and Jeff's parents, so he's hooked up. I love watching him concocting all the time. He also got a basketball hoop. He always makes baskets when he's got his back to the hoop and is standing at a bad angle.
They both got some books, candy in their stockings, we totally spaced the oranges we had in the fridge, and trucks and cars. I got Jude a sweater but it's too small (very recent growth spurt) so today Grahamsky wore it. It fits.
Anyway here are some of my favorite little bites of the season:
- There was a delightful pile of "hallmark channel" type Christmas movies on hulu plus and Netflix so we watched a few after the kiddie bops went to bed. Jeff always predicted the end, details included, like "She's going to be wearing a Santa hat during the last scene" and was always right.
- We took the boys to see Santa at Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza. No line, they gave us a coupon for a free train ride going on a couple floors up, and neither of the boys had stranger danger.
- On the 22nd, Graham got the stomach flu. Projectile all over moi. Jude got it on the 23rd ("I don't like it, mommy, I don't like it!"), and I got it that night and into the morning of Christmas Eve. I did my usual Stomach Flu Shtick and slept on the couch downstairs with a bowl right next to me, with Christmas movies and Parks and Recreation reruns as my vomiting companions. The next morning I'll never forget the wonder and awe glowing in my heart as Jude tugged on my leg begging for juice while I barfed in the sink. After that I stumbled upstairs, mumbled something vaguely intelligible to Jeff about Graham wanting to be held and their diapers had been changed, collapsed in bed, and I got 2 hours of delicious, restorative napping in before Jeff had to got to work. Since I still felt really wobbly in my stomach and fairly blitzed energy-wise, I hired a lovely babysitter so I could run the last minute Yuletide errands that always seem to appear no matter how much you've tried to get it all done beforehand.
- Santa brought us a leak in the kitchen sink and a dead kitchen faucet, so Santa also summoned a plumber to replace it all. Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas, and thank goodness we were under budget on presents!
- Bummer: because of the stomach flu that raged across the western United States, and the Eatons, our Christmas Eve celebrations were cancelled. We sang Christmas songs, put the kids down, watched Four Christmases while wrapping presents, and went to sleep. It was fun, but weird to be missing more family.
- Christmas morning we opened most of the presents just the 4 of us, Jude always brought Graham a present to open too before opening his own (cute), and then my parents, Cameron, Katelyn, Sarah, Harry, and Baby Row came down for more partying. The flu threw some wrenches, but we were happy.
- The 26th we flew to Utah, and partied on. Family pictures, Duplos, all the grape juice Jude could ever drink, cousins galore (Jude would jump for joy when one of them approached), Litza's pizza, homemade ice cream, strolls in the snow, church, and Jude has been asking when we will see Grandma and Grandpa again.
- Back home for New Year's Eve, more stomach flu for me (I got the CA and the UT strain because I'm greedy like that), and now we're in 2014!
2 comments:
You have a pretty sweet attitude! You need to come spend Christmas at my house and kick the grinch out. We had too much sicko stuff here too and half of December was depressing with that... send me some of your positive attitude!
Love love love your kiddos and their cute Christmasy selves and hope we get to see you guys soon!
was that flu not the WORST??? i had it for 3 days while at home in idaho and ruined my parents' christmas. ho ho ho! if i ever get that sick again i think i'll just die. hopefully everyone is feeling better! i plan on coming to visit you and meg later this month, so get ready :)
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