Christmas 2010--belated. Don't judge.

Sighhhhhh, I love Christmas. Here are some memories from Christmas 2010:

Our ward Christmas party began with small-group carolling to some of the less-active members or to those who have a hard time getting out to church. It was so much fun!

We also got to meet Santa. When I told Cadence that she would meet Santa at the church party, she excitedly asked, "Mom, you mean I'm going to get to hang out with Santa!?!" They COULD NOT wait.

Here Cadence tells Santa all about the picture she colored just for him:

campbell and santa

layla and santa
I felt so bad! But I had to try.

The week before Christmas-week, I had spent a lot of time baking, making homemade gifts, and dipping pretzels, and thank goodness I had. Because the Flu was our only Christmas visitor. Spencer seemed to be sick for a few days, but he toughed it out pretty well. Cadence and I got it, too, but the babies never did (thank goodness). Cadence ran a fever on and off for three days and was very fatigued and had a head ache and other aches and pains going on. She was miserable.

Christmas Eve came and we thought we'd seen the worst of her symptoms, but instead she got worse.

That evening, just as we were setting up for our "Shepherds' Dinner" (dress up like shepherds and wisemen and eat hummus, couscous, pita bread, etc.) old Murphy put his law to work. (Dang you, Murphy!)

It was a peaceful, serene moment, something that never happens at our house. I was playing on the floor with Cam and Layla and looked up to see Cadence shivering on the couch, her eyes a little glazed. I got up on the couch and held her on my lap, trying to warm her. Spencer was building a cozy little fire in our fireplace. Just then, Cadence started to spew! All over me! Remember that I hadn't been feeling well myself, so I was doing my best not to chain-react. I yelled at Spencer to quickly find something forher to barf into, and up he jumped. As he ran to the kitchen, and Cadence continued to decorate me with her unhappy stomach contents, I miraculously noticed that Layla had climbed up onto the fireplace and was inches away from the fire. "LAYLA STOP!!" I yelled (looking back, I think I was literally paralyzed with puke), which gave her pause enough to buy Spencer enough time to run back and get her before she climbed into the fire. Meanwhile, "Old Faithful" was faithfully outdoing herself, and so Spencer ran back to the kitchen, Layla under arm, and grabbed a pie tin. Somewhere in all the chaos Spencer noticed that the house was filling up with smoke and that he had forgotten to open the vent (is it called a "flue"?) in the chimney. Well, we're new to this home-owner thing and have no implements for our fire, like a poker stick. So as he checks back in the kitchen to see that Layla is still safely distracted, he runs to grab his work gloves, comes back, singes the hair off his arms and burns his thumb but is able to open the "flue", and manages to get a few pictures of Cadence and I, sitting shocked and disturbed on the couch.

It took a few minutes to get myself to move. It was gross.

Here's the Shepherd's dinner, a few minutes later than scheduled, due to barf and shower.

Layla got to dress as an angel for the Shepherd's dinner, and she found great joy in this. The rest of the costumes didn't make it to dinner, for fear that they would be barfed on.

That night Cadence received a priesthood blessing from her daddy and Bishop Chandler. By Christmas morning, she was herself again! I kept trying to tell her to "pace yourself" and to rest frequently so that she wouldn't hit a wall (which I had done repeatedly the last few days), but she never did listen, and she never did hit any walls. Thank goodness for the priesthood.

This Christmas was the most fun yet for Spencer and I. As the kids get older and are able to share excitement over it all, it becomes such a hay day for us!

Here, Cadence sits on her "sick bed" and wonders what lies beneath the sheets that Santa borrowed to cover the goods. Campbell gets her first glimpse of Santa's offerings:

.

We await the big reveal

And this is what's waiting for us:

There were several gifts that halted the present-opening process. Some of the gifts that they just had to play with first were the 4-wheelers, the legos, dressups, lace-up cards (from Mammaw and Gramps), Rapunzel book with music player (from Grandma and Grandpa O), and the zhu-zhu pets

Layla loved her Bullseye (Toy Story) rocking horse,

and had mixed feelings about her Rex (also from Toy Story), which she got from Mammaw. The Rex toy is about 60% of her height and when you squeeze it it makes a strange duck-like roar, which Layla is perfectly able to mimic. It frightens and fascinates her all at once. She is so interested in it, yet it makes her scramble for something safe to cling to whenever she hears it's "roar". She talks to it like it's a person, which is not normal for her to do with toys. She touches it's nose and even tries to hug it, but then recoils in fear. She's slowly getting over her trust issues, but meanwhile Spencer and I are entertained and yet nervous at how similar the relationship is to one of abusive boyfriend/needy girlfriend. Spencer and Layla have a moment with Rex:




Layla also couldn't move beyond this card from Mammaw that was inside one of her gifts.

It's like the Fairy Godmother came: All dressed and ready for their new ride.

We had a great day. We played and played and played! That evening we had planned to have several families over for dinner, but had to postpone until Sunday because of the illness we'd had. So Spencer and I thought, what is the most exciting dinner to Cadence and Campbell? BREAKFAST! So Breakfast for dinner it was. Including bacon, which I almost never allow into my home (it's like little sticks of heart-attack, the way I see it. Seems a little pointless to pay to bring that home).

The next day we had our belated Christmas dinner with some of our great friends here in AR: The Brooksbys, Dragoviches, Flemings, Gibbs, Halls, Johansens, and the Shephards. 16 adults, 23 kids, an 18-lb turkey (not cooked by me, thank you, Dragoviches), chicken ala king, tons of yummy potatoes, rolls, stuffing, fruit, veggies, and desserts, among other things, and a whole lotta holiday fun! We had so much fun. And I always love a good reason to clean the whole house. Seriously.

We missed our families this year, but we sure enjoyed hearing from them via phone and thinking of them and the fun times we had with them earlier in the year. Admittedly, it's hard to be so far from family at this time of year. We love our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins all very much, but we did enjoy being with our little family that is growing and changing so much.

I hope every Christmas is this magical....

And here's one more picture: