Christmas 2012

Christmas has now come and gone and this year was definitely a mixed bag. The good news is that the boys had a great Christmas filled with friends, family and lots of Legos. Bruce limped through with a head cold that was less than ideal. I, on the other hand, got my butt kicked by a stomach bug on Christmas Eve and spent that miserable night and Christmas Day laid up. Thank goodness Jamma stuck around much of the day to keep me company after Bruce and the boys left to celebrate with the rest of the Moisions at the Becks’ house.

But lets back up to the good parts before my stomach rebelled. Bruce and I were fighting off the colds the boys had so lovingly passed along, but things were going fine. We’d finished shopping, I’d made dozens of Christmas cookies, and we were happily preparing for Christmas Eve with Jamma and the Bannings. The boys made place cards for the tables (Ezra insisted on a kids table); Finn did most of the pictures while Ezra wrote the words.

Finn drew something everyone likes on their place cards: Ruby has a horse, Chapin has a penguin, Rob and Bruce both have wood because they do the woodworking class. When he went to do Jamma’s he said, “You know, Jamma just really likes us,” so he drew himself. Then Ezra drew himself on mine since he wasn’t included on Jamma’s. Super cute.

Once Jamma got here we did the annual parade of new Christmas ornaments symbolizing our year: Finn got a No. 2 pencil since he started Kindergarten.

Ezra got a snorkeler.

Bruce got the very hard-to-find (can you say Ebay?) Curiosity rover which was such an exciting part of our lives when it successfully landed on Mars in August.

I got a wolf to remind me of my trip to Washington with my girlfriends. Jamma is so thoughtful!

Pretty soon the Bannings arrived and the kids all went crazy running around, eating cookies and generally having a great time. They settled down for dinner, but still had a good time.

We had a pretty good time at the adults table, too. And pretty soon the kids joined us with the prizes and jokes from the holiday crackers/poppers that Cari brought. Bruce’s crown was, as always, ill-fitting.

The kids also decorated cookies for Santa (thanks to Cari) and wow was that a fun and messy project!

Finn went pretty crazy with the sprinkles.

Ezra was a little more precise.

We opened a few presents — new pajamas for all the kids and books and gift cards — but by then I wasn’t feeling so hot so I didn’t have the energy to go get my camera. Luckily Bruce was a good host, doing a scavenger hunt for the kids and entertaining everyone. I fear I was not.

When it was time for the Bannings to go, we saw them off hoping they would have good luck getting their kids to sleep. Finn was very concerned about Santa coming and therefore went right to bed; Ezra, on the other hand, wandered around the house for at least an hour. I think he did it just to torture me.

Finally, with Bruce’s help the Santa gifts and stockings were prepared and placed by the fire and I crawled into bed miserable but still not anticipating the rotten night to come. By morning I was at least able to reach for my camera and take some pictures from my perch on the comfy brown chair. Finn tore open his stocking and anything else with his name on it.

Ezra was thrilled with the giant Lego set Santa brought. (“Mommy, now you don’t have to get this for my birthday! Santa brought it!”)

They couldn’t wait to show everything to Jamma.

And start building all those Lego sets.

Finn was pretty taken with the Furby that Santa brought him.

And that’s about as far as I got before I crawled back into bed. I send out a big thank you to Bruce and Jamma for entertaining the boys and managing to do some clean up, too. About noon Bruce and the boys headed out for the Becks’ house. He said they all had a good time and he even managed to take a few pictures.

It’s now the 27th and I’m up and about and on the road to recovery. And in the future I’d like to reclaim my title as the member the family who always manages to avoid the stomach bug.