I was really impressed and excited about how into the nativity story they were this year. They absolutely loved our "family advent devos". We tried to do as many nights as we could. On Sunday evenings we'd read a portion of the Christmas story and then they would get to pick out the corresponding characters from their nativity set and set them up. They loved that! The other nights we'd read from a devotional I'd found. Their favorite part was still blowing out the candles though. But I was so happy to see them really responding to the story, learning the people, and being able to state it as the true meaning of Christmas. They did this mommy proud!
Some other fun Christmas activities: movie nights in jammies with popcorn and "warm" cocoa, decorating Christmas cookies with Nana, and evening Christmas light tours. Some of the tours were more successful than others. We saved Christmas in the Park as the grand finale. We planned ahead with an early dinner on a Sunday night and then loaded up for the 30 minute drive. We were trying to recreate last year when there was hardly a line and we got to loop through twice. Not so this year. We must have hit too close to Christmas because by the time we got there the line was insane! No go this year sadly.
We also visited Rudy the Train at Union Station. I feel like we went about the same time as last year, but it must be getting more popular because the line was once again pretty ridiculous. And the frustrating thing was that we had reservation tickets that were supposed to make it faster. It felt a little rushed this year, but it's still a fun family tradition.
We also did a visit to Santa at Bass Pro. The boys were kind of neutral about it overall and as I thought about it I decided I was fine with this. It further proved that Santa hadn't become too important of a figure at our house. They were excited for him to bring presents of course, but that's about it. Pierce was very friendly to him, but Blaine was not going to stand alone with him for a picture. So another family photo it was this year.
Christmas Eve we did our tradition of church and then lasagna at Nana and Papa's with the Rice side. The boys loved opening their gifts and then we headed home for bedtime. It didn't feel quite as Christmas-y or normal this year. I had to go up and feed Landry while the boys did cookies for Santa, but I made it down for the end and a quick advent devo.
The next morning things got even more "off". Blaine woke up acting really sick. At one point I looked out my room and saw him just laying in the hallway. I knew that was not good and immediately began trying to figure out what we were in for. Stomach flu, influenza, etc.? I knew it was more than an average cold. Unfortunately that sort of overshadowed the whole morning for me. We all came down to do stockings and Blaine very reluctantly went through his. It was really disappointing for me as I'd spend so much time thinking of and picking out gifts I knew they would love. And then Blaine, my most enthusiastic one, could barely sit up and care. We went to eat breakfast and before long he was throwing up on his egg at the table. Poor baby! That was it. I figured we were done for. He perked up a little after that, but I was so paranoid and distracted about making sure he was ok and worrying about the rest of us and Landry. (Truth be told, I've been extra paranoid about illness this year. I always go a little psychotic about winter illness, but this year as been exceptional.) I didn't know if we'd be able to go to my mom's for the family celebration or anything. We decided to play it by ear and get through our presents. As a result, every photo of Blaine opening presents has the bright red barf bowl next to him and there are really no pictures of Landry "opening" anything. I feel like I really screwed the pooch on her first Christmas, I know she doesn't care or know this year and I'm hoping in subsequent years she'll understand!
Anyway Blaine was a little warm and more tired the rest of the day, but other than that was fine. Thank goodness! It was a good day overall, albeit slightly weird and off, but I suppose that's how some years go.
