Merry Christmas

Our Christmases seem to always be up and down each year. This year was no different... Ash started out the evening of Dec 22 with lots of vomiting! I had to take care of her since Nick needed his sleep to work the next day. 830am was the last time she puked (yay!), but because of her being "sick" we had to skip the Cousins Christmas Party at my mom and dad's house on the 23rd! (Waaah!) My parents were nice enough though to come over and give the kids the gifts and crafts that they didn't get since they missed the party! Ash got a Beads/art kit, and Preston got a really cool car that scratches--like a DJ does with a record--it has a tiny little record on the back of the car and you can turn it and the music "scratches"...does that make sense? They got lots of other little things like mugs with baby Jesus on it, coloring things, and a craft project for them to do as their gift to us--an ornament of their hands to put on the tree. We're looking forward to doing that next week while Ash is out of school! :) The kids Played with their toys the rest of the day! They loved it! It was nice to visit for a few minutes as well.

Both kids were totally fine on the 24th so we went to the Call's for Christmas eve dinner...boy oh boy was there a LOT of food!!! We had Egg rolls, taquitos, pot stickers, 7 layer dip, Spinach & Artichoke dip, Rice, Chicken wings, veggies and ranch dip, Lil Smokies, Caramel corn, Brownies, cookies, Punch, etc.....LOTS of food!!! Thankfully, none of us really ate much during the day so dinner was a welcome sight and yummy on our tummies! :)

After dinner Gma and Gpa Call gave Ash and Preston their Christmas gifts--they got a few gifts each, but the last gifts they got were a tea set and an IKEA train set (both of which were intended to be put in the new playroom!)...and then....they got to go upstairs to the playroom in gma and gpa's house....Juli and Randy have spent hours and hours over the last month or two transforming their playroom in their new house. It looks AMAZING! I am shocked by the transformation! It feels like a little piece of heaven up there with the clouds and the tree swing, etc. It's got a little bit of everything for each kid to enjoy. I stole These pictures from Juli's blog of the transformation ....wow! I hadn't seen it at all along the way, so it was complete surprise to me as well....my emotions took over and I burst in to tears! What an amazing thing to do for my kids! What a special, wonderful gift that they will remember and enjoy for MANY years to come! I was so touched and impressed!

Unfortunately, about 20 min after we got the kids to bed on Christmas eve, Preston woke up throwing up...all over his bed...ick!! Thankfully, Nick was able to clean all that up and I took care of my sad little boy. He proceeded to puke about every 15-30 min for the next 3 hours! That was SOOO tiring! But, he stopped throwing up around 1am (but continued to dry-heave until 4am) and we finally got a little sleep!

Christmas day arrived (yay!) and the kids let us sleep until 7am. (ugh!) Then we made them wait until 8am! Preston was bouncing off the walls and seemed totally fine! (Yay!) Ash, however, seemed to have gotten a cold (waah!) Why can't our kids just be HEALTHY during Christmas!??!! We opened presents, and had French Toast for breakfast and then Nick went and took a nap since he got less sleep than I did the night before! Then we went to the Call's again (Toni and J came too!) for Christmas dinner. (My favorite) Ham, ham sauce, gma Lowe's potatoes, etc...YUM! And we played some games. By the time dinner was done it looked like Preston was coming down with a cold too! (grrr...)

Overall, we had a great time and the kids loved ALL their gifts, which was most important anyway...that THEY had a great Christmas! And they did!

Merry Christmas to you ALL.

(More pictures to come, once I download them!)