On the second week of Christmas our annual guests, the Pukes, arrived. We never invite them, yet they always arrive just in time for the holidays. This year they also brought their stinkier southern cousins.
Sunday took out Bryce and Aubree. Mark went to church alone while we stayed home and had a pajama day. We had an advent activity planned for that evening, but had to cancel. That would be the theme for the rest of the week.
Monday morning I woke up sick. "Luckily" (for me, not Mark), Mark had woken up with a headache and hadn't left for work super early. He stayed home and took care of the kids while I pretty much slept until 4pm. When I emerged from slumber, I was feeling much better and the kids were able to decorate waffle cone Christmas trees for Family Home Evening (we'd had to cancel our planned combined FHE).
On Tuesday, I waited for Graham and Thane (the only ones who hadn't been sick yet) to succomb. They did not, but Bryce, who had felt fine the previous two days, got hit with round two. He threw up seven times over the course of the day and was just miserable. He kept asking, "How much longer will it last? I don't like this!"
By Wednesday, we were all pretty stir crazy. We'd been stuck at home for days. Mark worked from home to take care of Bryce (who was slowly improving), and I took the rest of the crew to teach at co-op. It was lovely to get out! I declared it a read-aloud day in Literature and the students all piled together on the couches to listen.
Thursday was the last day of co-op before the Christmas break. The students had planned another feast along with their Christmas party, so Aubree volunteered to make another apple pie. I think apple pies might be her favorite thing to make.
By this time, everyone was finally all healthy. Hallelujah! We had our regularly scheduled mini co-op and I was in charge of our kindergarten group. One of the activities I had for them was to build a "Christmas tree" out of cups. I expected them to spend 15 or 20 minutes on the activity, but they were entertained for over two hours.
One of our family traditions is that on their half birthdays, I get to take the kids out to eat. We're a bit (okay a lot) behind, but Bryce and I were able to go out to Panera Bread to celebrate his half birthday. We'd never been to that restaurant before but Bryce loved it. He thought the macaroni and cheese was especially fabulous. I was just glad to see him smiling and feeling well again.
We loved spending the evening with the birthday girl. Of course, we got her tons of owl items, but she was most excited to get an American Girl doll.
Nellie and Jordyn are especially fun to watch playing together. They adore each other.
Saturday evening was the party for our new ward. Everything was thrown together super quickly, so it was hard to know what to expect. We had another pajama party, but this time everyone was able to attend.
Aubree brought her violin and she and another young woman serenaded congregants as we stood in line for our food.
The main event of the evening was a sing along. Bishop invited everyone to bring and instruments they had, plus they had shakers for all of the kids. It was a lot of fun, although someone randomly came in a huge dinosaur costume which completely terrified Nellie.
Nellie went up to get a shaker and sing with the other kids, but then she saw the dinosaur, chucked her shaker, and went screaming to find me.
On the plus side, she was so scared of the T-Rex that suddenly Santa didn't seem nearly so terrible.
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