We drove to Ohio on Saturday, and Dan and Melinda drove all day Sunday (literally--16 hours!). Dan and Melinda had both gotten the flu the week before, so we were so thankful they were well enough to make that long drive. Poor Melinda was still recovering!
Monday was a happy day as the 5 girl cousins were reunited! Much giggling and playing abounded! Monday night, however, Elia started running a fever. Dan and Melinda got up and took her to urgent care Tuesday morning, where she was diagnosed with the flu (even though she had gotten a flu shot, as did Melinda!). She received the Tamiflu shot, and it worked wonders! We thought she would be too sick to go to the Christmas Eve service, but she appeared upstairs, ready to go, when it was time to leave, and she was totally recovered!
We went to the Christmas Eve service at the base chapel, which was just lovely. We were even early!
After the service, Don, one of our friends from way back, took a picture of all of us. Some people (*cough* Faith *cough*) were very grumpy, but it was a great picture of all those who were more cooperative!
Christmas morning the kids opened stockings (including Elia--not sure why she didn't make the picture), and then presents. Even though we as well as Dan's family, had exchanged our own family gifts before coming, there were still plenty of presents to be opened!
Nathan and Luke's present to me wasn't going to get to our house in time, so they sent it on to my parents' house. I was told it was "epic", so I could hardly wait to open it! It was Star Wars family figure decals for the back of our vans (plural--enough for both the big van and the minivan!)--I will definitely have to take a picture when we get them all up there!
The kids got lots of fun, fun presents, and the good thing is that all the kids can enjoy everyone else's presents too! Here Nathan is modeling the Superman cape and breastpiece given to Micah by Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim--a gift that was quite popular among all the male members of the household!
Then we had a delicious Christmas dinner featuring ham, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, green beans with almonds, and cranberry sauce! Drew loved it, as you can see by how he is wearing it, if not by his actual expression. And we finished off our celebration with a birthday party for Jesus, complete with chocolate cake. Truth be told--Bob, Drew, and I missed the party! Drew and Micah were both up a lot the night before with a cough, and we were so tired! We put Drew down for a nap and laid down ourselves . . . "just for a minute". Well, we didn't wake back up for quite some time, so the party went on without us! The nap was really nice though--a wonderful Christmas present! And then we thought to get out the vaporizer to put in our room, which really helped the boys and their coughs, so we slept better the rest of the time!
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