christmas recap

For your reading enjoyment, our Christmas in convenient and easy to read random bullets.

So as it turns out Maya got the chicken pox just days before Christmas. The pox has been roaming around our school and our neighbourhood, so you would think it was only a matter of time before mine got it, but mine have been vaccinated against the pox. I have no interest in turning this into a debate on vaccinations, but please know the decision to vaccinate against chicken pox was made with the kids doctor as the best thing for them when factoring in the other health concerns they have dealt with in their short lives. And now moving on.... because she was vaccinated it was a very mild case, she had about 10 smallish spots on her and no fever, but she was horribly out of sorts and clingy.

Mike and I both worked Christmas Eve and then went grocery shopping right after. Sounds crazy, right? Actually it was the best time to go. Everyone else had long since headed for home and we shopped the store in complete peace.

Christmas Eve we spent at church. I had a feeling I should let Abby and Mike go and stay home with the little one and I should have gone with it. Maya couldn't find a spot she was willing to sit in for longer than a moment or two. There were too many people she didn't know and the noise that a large crowd of people can generate was overwhelming for her. At one point she was sitting on ML's lap with ML covering her ears and Maya with her hand over her eyes. We headed for home not long after that.

Christmas morning they were up early, well not early for Abby, She's my early riser, but early enough. The girls (with help from Papa) got Mike and I a new breadmaker. That means family pizza night is back on the docket. There was much rejoicing. There were books and boardgames under the tree for the girls. Abby got a new Wii game that we popped in right away. The rest of the day we spent lounging around until dinner at Papa & Grandma Linda's.

Dinner was a delicious affair, as always. Maya ran hot and cold with her mood for most of the evening. They came home with the new Night at the Museum movie, some clothes and some Little Pets. I scored a shopping trip to Michaels (who wants to shop with me?) thanks to a gift card and we've got a dinner or two at a real restaurant in our future.

Boxing Day was dinner here with Grandma Sandi and the crew. Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel arrived in the early afternoon for their three day visit. Since we were having three Christmas dinners in a row I opted for lasagna and it turned out to be the best decision. It was a great meal with minimal work, gave me lots of time to relax and hang out with my family. Also great this year all the helping hands I had with the after dinenr clean up. Thanks guys, I appreciate it more than you know. Abby got the Tag reading system, which she's been playing with ever since. She's logged almost 4 hours with The Cat in The Hat. I love I track her progress by downloading info from the pen. Very cool for a struggling reader and the struggling reader's Mom. There was moon sand and pladoh and jammies too. Oh and Up, which watched the next day. Super great movie. Mike and I have shopping sprees at Wally in our future too thanks to gift cards. I always feel so much pressure when I have a gift card to make the right choice. Anybody else, or is this particular psychosis all mine?

Maya came down with a dry hacking cough Christmas night and had been sleeping poorly on top of getting over the pox, by the 27th and dinner at my Mom's she had just about had it. Falling asleep on the trip down didn't help either. She pretty much crawled under the blanket on the couch when we got to my Mom's and stayed there through dinner. The girls scored a two screen dvd player for the car, which Abby thought was a laptop (oh I wish sweetheart!). Maya got the Uno Moo game that she's been asking for for the past 3 months or so. Mike got an itunes gift card that he has generously offered to share with me. Of course he says that now, but once I start downloading Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum songs he may change his mind. Mom stocked us right up with various hot drinks for our Tassimo machine. I got a deluxe dvd copy of Gone With The Wind and a little folding money.

So all in all it was a great Christmas. Uncle Dave and Aunt Mel have headed back home. Mike's back at work and the girls and I are here trying to return the household to some semblance of normal. Maya finally had everything catch up with her and she passed out at about 5 this afternoon only to wake up an hour later completely hysterical. Thankfully Mike managed to calm her down and coax her back into bed. Abby appears to be having an insomnia night. We still have to hook up with my Robin, but other than than I call Christmas done for another year. Well this turned out to be longer than I had planned, but we had a lot of Christmas to get through.

Feel free to check out all the photographic evidence on flickr.