Pre-Christmas Fun

December started off awesome! Kendrick had the first week off work and I was summoned for Jury duty for the first week of December so I had a week off of babysitting. I never actually had to report for duty though so we just hung out everyday and watched movies and went to lunch and he helped me finish Christmas shopping and even helped me wrap and hide everything. I had BIG plans for December. There was so much I wanted to do with the kids. And then I got sick. I think it was the flu. So I was down for the count by December 20th and just praying that I would feel good in time for the "big day". But by the big day I had fever and chills and could feel the flu getting worse. Turns out I had bronchitis and sinusitis. Up until that diagnosis we did have a lot of fun...

First we ventured out and braved the crowd to attend the Festival of Trees. I had not been since I was a little girl and we wanted to show support for my mom's quilt and a few friends who had trees there. It was amazing! I am so glad we went. Next year we will have to go earlier and make a day of it because I had no idea all the fun stuff there was to do there.

Then we spent a fun evening at Grandma Espinoza's house decorating homemade Gingerbread houses. She was so cute and put together homemade gingerbread houses complete with open doors and chimneys and shutters and everything. She also had loads of homemade frosting, candies, pastry scissors, tooth picks and mini gingerbread men cookies to decorate with. Grandma Espinoza does not mess around when it comes to decorating. When our houses were complete, she wrapped them in cellophane and tied cute ribbons on them. This is a tradition I would not mind sticking with. It was such a fun evening! When our houses were done she ordered us a bunch of pizzas and popped in A Miracle on 34th Street. We were all oozing with Christmas Spirit by the time the night was over.

This year, instead of a gift exchange with my side of the family, we decided to spend the money we would have spent on each others gifts and go do something together. We chose The Polar Express train ride. It was a lot of fun! Easton was the perfect age for it but next year the kids will all probably be "too cool" to participate. Myles got pretty embarrassed when they played Frozen songs and Jack chose not to participate in anything that struck him as too cheesy. So I am glad we did it while the kids are all still fairly young. Plus, I had never been on a real train so it was a neat experience for me as well. We were grateful for the unseasonably warm weather that night and it was fun a fun way to start a winter weekend.

When I was a kid, my brother and I used to choose a name off The Angel Tree and buy Christmas presents for a less fortunate child instead of buying and exchanging gifts with each other. The Christmas before we moved here I decided that if we ever had the chance, we were going to let our kids experience doing the same thing. This year we were finally in a position to do it and I was so happy! The kids chose a 6 year old girl and it was cute to see them get excited about choosing clothes and shoes for her. I took a picture of them with the cute stuff they got her just to put into perspective for them how very blessed and lucky (spoiled) they are. And honestly, I wish I could remember all the stuff we bought for the Angel Tree kids when I was little. I would love to remember what the popular toys were that kids were requesting at that time...

This year all 4 of our kids sang in the School Sing Along. It was crazy and chaotic and at one point I thought I might pass out from heat because our school's gym is like a sauna when the sun comes up and it's just too darn small to accommodate all the parents. A big thanks to my mom, who not only came to the Sing Along, but came early and got us good seats while I was in the Kindergarten helping, and then held Grace the entire time because I was burning up and holding a wiggly toddler made me feel like I was on fire. I'm pretty sure this was the day the flu started to take over. I attempted to get some decent videos of the kids. Normally Kendrick takes the school videos but this was the first year he had to miss it and he was pretty bummed. It's sad when he actually has to go to work at Christmas. We aren't used to that.

First up, Tay
She sang Feliz Navidad but I was super miserable when I posted this to YouTube so I labeled it Felix Navidad. I'm still working on differentiating between my x and z sounds apparently.

The twins
They sang Christmas in Hawaii

Easton
He sang Jingle Bells

I decided I wanted to do something festive with Dex. He is after all, "my 5th baby". But oh, I am a dreamer: I pictured us bonding over pasting candies onto gingerbread while Christmas music played quietly in the background and snow fell softly outside. I pictured Oly fast asleep and Easton at school and just the two of us sipping on hot cocoa and having a fun little Dexter and Desiree moment. Unfortunately it was anything but. I do think Dex enjoyed it. He loved eating handfuls of candy and he concentrated so hard on each part of the house he decorated. But I don't know what was up with Oly that day. He was just in a mood. He refused to take a nap and everything ticked him off. When he wasn't trying to destroy my Christmas tree he was trying to climb up on the kitchen table. At one point I looked away for a minute and he grabbed one of my favorite ceramic bowls off the table and chucked it across the kitchen. Yeah, it shattered. This is not normal Oly behavior so the only thing I can figure is that the ghost of Christmas Hell got into him and he had no control over his little body for the afternoon. Since I don't know any exorcists, I decided to just take deep breaths and remind myself that I survived having twin toddlers. Oly has nothing on 2 year old Jack and Myles. I tried to take lots of pictures and I even got a picture of Oly yelling at me when I refused to feed him anymore candy...
it wasn't exactly the memory I was going for, but it's still a fun memory. I'm grateful for Dex and Oly and I'm happy that we get to have them in our home.

I had such big plans for our kids at Christmas-time. I wanted to go sledding and drink hot chocolate and see the lights at Temple Square. I wanted to have a friend Christmas movie shin dig at our house. I wanted to follow the twins' scout troop around and take pictures of them caroling and handing out cookies...but none of that happened. Maybe I just put it off too long and shouldn't have waited to do all that when school was out. Maybe I did too much too soon and wore myself ragged. Lesson learned. But this year I am sure grateful for my health. I am a generally very healthy and strong person. I don't get "stuck in bed" sick...ever. To lay in bed half the day every day for 2 weeks was hard. I'm still not 100%. And I miss working out. I miss being able to breathe normal. I miss not coughing up a lung every time I lift a box, laugh, or carry a baby or a bag of groceries up the stairs. I know that this bronchitis shall pass, but it has really helped me put into perspective how lucky I am to have my health. I know a few moms who were not in good health this Christmas and who might not be around next Christmas. My heart goes out to them. I cannot imagine how agonizing it would be to know that I would never have another chance to make Christmas memories with my kids. Kiss your kids my friends! Even if they were expensive little buggers this year, and they fought all of Christmas break, and at times you wondered if they were in fact the most ungrateful humans you had ever met, kiss them! And just try to imagine the pain of not ever having another Christmas with them. I guarantee that thought will soften your heart.

I hope you all had a FUN Christmas Season!