Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas 2013!  Family photo taken a few weeks before Christmas.

Christmas this year was one for the books!  Jon had almost two full weeks off of work and we were planning to spend most of that in Minnesota with Jon's family sledding, ice-skating, going to dinner, movies, playing games, two-on-two volleyball games, etc.  Needless to say, we were SUPER excited!  On top of all that, we were most excited for Colton's Christmas.  He is finally to an age where he can understand things and get excited about Santa coming and he definitely was!  He was loving all the Christmas decorations and movies and kept asking about Santa and opening presents!  We were really excited to see his excitement Christmas morning. 

We got to MN on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday morning Katie woke up with a horrible cold.  It was seriously the worst colds I remember either of my kids ever having.  She sounded awful.  We worried it was maybe whooping cough or croup but after doing some more research and googling what those coughs sound like, we ruled out whooping cough and were less convinced about croup.  Still, it was awful.  She ended up being sick the whole break and is just now getting better.  Looking back, I'm pretty convinced it must have been croup.  I've never heard a baby hack so hard!  She struggled sleeping all week and was, understandably, cranky and stuffy and just didn't feel well!  Still, it was just a cold- and at least those are manageable...

Tuesday morning (Christmas Eve) Colton was sleeping in really late so at 9:00am, I went in to wake him up.  Immediately I though, "It reeks big time in here!! What is that?"  I turned on the light and had my answer.  Colton was sleeping in a huge puddle of puke, all over his blankets, pillow, face, hair, etc.  The poor kid!  We rushed him to the bath and got him and the bed all cleaned up.  We hoped he'd just had too much sugar the day before- both of us had been out shopping a lot of the day and weren't entirely sure what all he'd eaten.  But no, we weren't just bad parents, he puked again a couple hours later and was miserable all day- puking and crying and feeling awful.  Christmas morning he woke up puke free so we hoped it was over and just a 24 hour thing.  He was lethargic and sad through most of the present opening- and just laid on the floor (not the excitement we were hoping to see!).  About an hour after presents we found out why....he puked again.  All day Christmas was filled with pukes and the runs for Colton.  He was pretty miserable.  The next day as well.  Friday he didn't puke any more but still had the runs and didn't feel the best.  Finally Saturday he was back to 80% of himself and Sunday he was back to Colton!  We left for home Monday morning.  Needless to say, we didn't have the Christmas we were hoping for.  We spent almost all week on puke watch sitting at the house. 

We did have fun chatting with family and we were able to get out and do a few fun dinners and things with family.  Jon got me some good gifts and even surprised me with a Gel Nail machine!  We also had fun doing some after Christmas bargain shopping! 

When we got home we decided we'd do a second smaller Christmas for the kids, since we felt robbed of the excitement.  We had only brought about half of our gifts for each other to MN anyway and Santa felt bad Colton was sick so he decided to swing by again and bring another small gift or two for the kids.  That Christmas was a lot more fun :)  Colton was VERY excited by the giant crocodile Santa brought him to go with the giant shark, t-rex, and triceratops he'd gotten on the real Christmas.

Love our Christmas Tree!

New Years Eve Jon was feeling sick so we just rented Wolverine and stayed home.  The kids went to bed early and Jon fell asleep watching the movie just I just partied the night away by myself :)  Haha, here's to better luck with our holidays next year!!  Despite all the holiday mishaps, we had fun spending time together as a family and felt so grateful for the safety we had in our travels.  We both love the holiday season and the spirit of Christ in the air and look forward to next year!  We're both so grateful for the amazing family and friends and blessings from the Lord that made our 2013 a great year!