2014 Christmas/New Years...

Aside from the fevers/chills that wouldn't end Christmas was very nice this year. First of all, the boys are way more into it than any previous year. I almost caved several times and let them open some presents. We did agree to let them open the ones from my parents/friends on Christmas Eve to appease them a little until the next morning.

Rima (Mike's sister) got to visit for Christmas with her husband and son this year which made it all the more special. We had dinner Christmas Eve and then Rima & Greg stepped out for Midnight Mass but because of all the waking up every night I was just too beat to go this year. We set out Santa presents and Rima set out all the things that she brought. We didn't make them wait too long that morning before they got to open the gifts.

We ended up sleeping in the same house for 3 nights which was very nice. We didn't have to worry about leaving and coming back, we could sit and watch movies as late as we wanted and wake up & have breakfast together the next day. We were able to get some nice family pictures too. The first time we tried to take a family picture, G wasn't there (which we didn't notice at first). Everyone came over to the stairs and we set up (I kept thinking there was something wrong) & I put the timer with 9 shots. I went to check on the pics and all of a sudden, G came from the dining room (he was busy playing his tablet in the kitchen and was oblivious to the commotion in foyer) and turned the corner and just looked at us sitting on the stairs. All of us broke into "Gaby!" and started laughing, not believing we did the pics without him.

The boys took a bath in grandma's bathtub (which they love) & afterwards J combed G's hair. As he was combing it he said "Gaby you have really curly hair."

New Years was very calm (especially compared to Christmas) but we were all okay with that. Mike's parents spent the night and we all toasted at midnight. The champagne we had on hand wasn't very good so we drank more of the sparkling grape juice the boys had :)

And just like that our Christmas break was over.

Out with the Old, in with the New & Old is back again...

The boys didn't go to school for most of December. Starting the first full weekend of December we went to daddy's work Christmas party for kids which entailed being at the Cineplex early Saturday morning to meet Santa and to watch The Penguins of Madagascar movie. They really enjoyed both but unfortunately afterwards we had to make a quick stop at the walk-in clinic for me. I had a throat infection which kept me from sleeping much the night before. Poor Elias and daddy were up with me after 5 a.m. I got meds and then we went to our yearly friend Christmas party that night. Unfortunately, Jacob developed a fever and cough and wasn't feeling nearly as perky as he should. Elias was a little jealous of the attention and tried pretending he was sick (pretended so much that on Monday he really did start coughing). From that day Monday on, Jacob did not go to school. The other 2 went to school for 3 days that week and then were off. Gaby came down with 5th disease (or slap in the face disease) because it looked like he got slapped in the face (one cheek was really red one day and then the rest of his face got pink/red). They kept getting mild fevers (100ish or below) so I couldn't send them to school the whole week after either. We went to school to give their teachers a gift on the last day & found out their main teacher was leaving and going to another school. We were very happy we could see her one last time before she took on her new job.

The weekend right before Christmas (Sunday/Monday morning) Gaby woke up with serious chills and kept telling me nothing was wrong. I got scared and took him the ER. Turns out he had just an ear infection but he kept getting the chills every night. Looking back, I wonder if he had the flu because the weekend after New Years Mike got a fever and it finally broke this past Wed. On Friday, I got a note from Jacob's teacher saying he was complaining of a headache and stomach ache & he really wouldn't eat much unless she sat beside him. He ended up getting a fever yesterday afternoon and still one today. I hope it's gone soon & not many others catch it. We are ready for everyone to be healthy!