Christmas

Christmas came and went so fast this year. I love the holidays even though it makes life so busy and crazy. We were planning to travel to Utah on Christmas, but our plans were foiled because Jackson came down with RSV. I knew he was pretty sick, but I had no idea how sick he was. We were planning to leave on Christmas day to drive and be with my family that night. Jackson had a cold that started like a week prior and it got worse, not better. It was a fever and a nasty raspy cough. There were a few nights that he didn't sleep except in my arms. It was pretty exhausting, but during the day he was just so sweet and nice...so I though he was just having a hard time breathing laying down because of the cold. But the day before Christmas Jon finally convinced me to go to the doctor and get him looked at, since we were to be traveling and such. I took him in, and the doctor was really worried about his breathing and the oxygen levels. RSV rapid test came back positive and he had a double ear infection. Poor kid! He really is such a nice baby, I had no idea he was so sick because he just smiled through it all.



This is him on one of his worst days, sweetest little sick boy ever.

Anyways, she told us she really didn't want him traveling that far. We started him on breathing treatments every 3-4 hours (even when he was sleeping) and an antibiotic. So we still didn't get much sleep for the next few days, but we were able to have a wonderful very low key Christmas here at home. And it was lovely. We focused on the Savior and his birth and the magic of Christmas. I love having young kids and creating traditions and experiences that they will remember forever.

Christmas eve Jon's aunt came and joined us. She is a ball of fun herself and so the kids were in heaven. I love that she encourages my kids to be creative and praises them in this. She kept telling Addie how beautiful she was arranging the food and Addie really played off that. She was so excited about her creations. I need to remember to do that more often. I always think things need to be just so, and try to teach my kids how to do things my way. MaryAnne reminds me to let kids create and have fun with life. Oh and she is a wiz at making balloon creations.

We did our traditional Shepherd's dinner, where we pretend we are the shepherds that were in Bethlehem the night of the Savior's birth.


We eat on the floor (my kids favorite part) and we eat things that we think they may have eaten that night (pita bread, hummus, veggies, fruit, nuts, grape juice etc). We have added in a twist because we live in Arizona and it was Jon's family tradition growing up to have Tamales on Christmas Eve, we allow Tamales in our Shepherd's dinner. Then we talk about how important the Shepherds were and how they must have been righteous people to see angels and be chosen to be some of the first to go welcome the Christ child to the earth. After that we do Addie's favorite tradition (that Aunt Beth helped us start last year) which is that everyone picks one piece of one of our nativity sets and each person gets to talk about why that particular person was/is important. Grace's favorite thing this year was sprinkling the "reindeer food" (oats and glitter) outside before she went to bed. Don't worry it was the first thing she checked on after we opened presents, she came back in and reported, "the reindeer got their food!"
Christmas morning was very low key and fun. We had taken a trip to Disneyland with Jon's family earlier in the month that was supposed to be our Christmas present. But we still seemed to end up with lots of presents on Christmas day. Jon spoiled me especially. He bought me a signed and numbered painting of the Salt Lake Temple. It is amazing. It is my favorite painting of the temple because it is a rainy day one, with the sun coming out...just like on our wedding day.



We played at the park in the afternoon and enjoyed the sunshine, the best part of an Arizona Christmas. What is wonderful about where we live though is that two days before Christmas it started randomly snowing for about 20 minutes. The girls and I ran out and played in it and then it stopped and melted. It was kind of magical. The girls declared it a Christmas miracle. I am just pretty much in love with the weather here. One magical snow a year that melts the same day, I will take it. Sunshine almost every other day, I will take that too.

                                                    Playing at the park on Christmas day.

Christmas night we went and saw the cute little show that some random former Disneyland light show employee has put up on his lawn. It is kind of spectacular for our little town.
Jackson went back to the doctor on the day after Christmas and because of my diligent breathing treatments his oxygen was up and he was wheezing less. We were all happy about that. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Picture overload of Christmas. Yes I know I took way too many of Jackson, but he is a cute baby I tell you, and also my favoritest gift I received all year.

Yep, that is the best one I got of the three of them in age order before they went down to open presents. Pathetic, and I took like 15. 

Sorry for the snotty nose picture, but you gotta remember the details of real life you know. 

Matching ties for my boys!

 

 Ballet shoes and lessons were a favorite present for the girls, especially Grace!

Jon's amazing holiday wear, for his work party. The "fireplace" on his chest had his tablet behind it and looked like a real fire burning complete with crackling noises, hilarious.

We cut down our own tree this year, quite the adventure. It was a cute little desert tree, but very crooked. One day I came home to this disaster, tree tipped on the floor. Cleaned it up and put the tree up and ornaments, that weren't broken back on and not 30 minutes later it fell again. I almost cancelled Christmas. 

Gingerbread houses of course, luckily my friend had us over to do them at her house, I didn't get to a lot of things on my list this year for some reason. Addie made a candy garden sounds like a delicious garden to me.