Holiday Happenings

December seems to be busier and busier each year now that Lily is getting older. The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year literally flew by in a flash. I finished off Thanksgiving weekend with a nice bout of bronchitis (viral - no need for an antibiotic of course). My "virus" turned into a full blown sinus infection coupled with the flu and I spent four days in bed with a fever never dropping below 101 - missing an entire week of work, trip to Dallas and had to ship my kid off to Grandma's. After trying three different antibiotics, we finally found one that I wasn't allergic to and my body actually wanted to respond to. And the really crappy part is that I'm still coughing...and could be for awhile according to the doctor. But KNOCK ON WOOD Lily and Mike have yet to catch any of this awful stuff that seems to be running through everyone.

When I was finally back on my feet, Christmas was literally upon us. Lily's Christmas party and program at school snuck up on us pretty quick. The school party was crazy and the program was so fun to watch. My child wasn't the screamer this year and she actually stayed on stage the entire time. She even got back up on stage with the entire school to sing "We wish you a Merry Christmas". And we've gotten to listen to her sing and dance to the "Dancing Christmas Tree" over and over and over and over.

"Jingle Little Bell"

"Dancing Christmas Tree"

Where's Waldo? Behind the left microphone between t
wo kiddos that have at least 6 inches on her.

And in case you DON'T know the "Dancing Christmas Tree" song....you'll never get it out of your head after you watch this!

We rounded out the week with the annual BDO holiday party. I still wasn't at 100% so Mike took it upon himself to have my share of the cocktails. We got all fancied up and didn't even manage to get a picture of us together.

The following morning, complete with hangover, Mike and I hopped in the car and headed to Indianapolis for the Hoy family Christmas. We met up with Grandma, Grandpa, and Lily on the road and blew into Indy early Friday afternoon. The kids had a blast playing together, decorating cookies, and opening all their gifts. And the adults had a blast drinking cocktails (even Grandma got in on that action), cooking (way too much food), fixing clogged sinks and empty water softeners, cleaning up puke (from a kid...), putting together new toys, and just plain hanging out together.

More butter?

Everyone unclogs their sink with a plunger right?

Cooking outside in a light fleece - in December.

She was so patient waiting her turn to unwrap.

Like father like daughter

I don't ever remember a Christmas this warm without snow.

And when your house has been under construction and mom has been sick, that means there's a million things left on the to-do list. Thankfully our wonderful new cleaning lady was able to come scrub down our house before my family came over to celebrate (unfortunately not before Mike put new can lights in and dirtied up my clean house). So we spent Christmas Eve Eve at one of our favorite places - Home Depot - and Christmas Eve morning at Lowe's crossing off some to-dos. A big one? Our Christmas tree! I was afraid that the price of a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve was going to be inflated but instead it was 75% off. Best deal ever.

It's a little big...hey it was $10

Eh...the fireplace is still a work in progress.

Watching the Santa tracker

How many elves does it take to put together a race track?

Turns out we just needed the engineer.

Santa came!

Brayden's first ever cup with his name spelled right

With all these new toys...
the basement may need a remodel ASAP

I think this is one of the first times that on Christmas night, we weren't loading up our car and driving an hour or more back to our house. When most of the dishes were done and my glass of wine had been refilled, we put our feet up and snuggled on the couch watching Christmas movies. It was the perfect end to a long, exhausting couple of weeks.