The kids actually slept pretty well the first few nights, even though Anna was coughing pretty bad and all three were sharing a room. Scott and I slept in the basement in a bedroom immediately under the kids, so we could hear if they needed anything. I use the term "slept" loosely however, as my cough was just as bad as Anna's and has gotten or kept me up every night for the past week and a half. I'm halfway through my second bottle of Robitussin and have yet to go 24 hours without needing at least one dose.
The kids enjoyed visiting Mamaw and Papaw's church, and the adults enjoyed not having to push to get everyone dressed and fed and out the door early -- they combined all their services into one an hour later than usual.
On Christmas Eve, my mother-in-law's family has always come over for a big shindig. This year they are grieving the sudden loss of her niece, my mother-in-law's sister's daughter. So the celebration was somewhat more muted than usual, but they did still come. We only gave gifts to the kids this year, instead of exchanging between siblings. All of us have had pretty significant financial challenges this year and agreed that we'd just buy for the nieces and nephews and of course, the parents. Despite all the excitement (Sam got the movie "Cars" which has been his dream since it came out this summer and Elli got quite a collection of My Little Ponies), the kids slept again. I will confess to not emphasizing the fact that that night was Christmas Eve and there would be more gifts in the morning.
Christmas morning Mamaw and Papaw, aka "Santa," gave their gifts to the kids and grandkids. This year Mamaw simplified things and gave each of us Visa gift cards in addition to a few smaller items. Scott and I immediately knew what we'd do -- the left side of our surround sound burned out a few weeks ago, so we went out and bought a new receiver the next day.
The hit gift for the kids was a drum set and guitar my niece received from her mom. All the kids enjoyed playing the instruments, forming an impromptu band in the dining room. It was cute enough that I almost thought about buying Anna drums for her 2nd birthday in a few months. Almost.The day after Christmas, Scott's mom volunteered to watch the kids so we could go out shopping and have some time alone. This hasn't happened in weeks and weeks because of the busyness of
the holidays and how sick everyone has been, so we jumped at the chance. We needed to make a few exchanges and wanted to find a receiver, so we took off after lunch and spent the evening shopping and had dinner out with Scott's sister. It was a much-needed break for us and we thoroughly enjoyed having an uninterrupted conversation early enough in the day that we could speak intelligently to one another!That evening, Elli took a brief, 20 minute catnap before dinner. That nap resulted in a two and a half hour battle of the wills over going to sleep for the night. We talked. We prayed. We spanked. We ignored. We used her Dynavox to find out what she wanted, which was the whole bedtime routine. We did the bedtime routine. We moved her out into the living room on an air mattress so the other two kids at least could sleep. Finally, at 1:30am, she finally gave it up and we staggered off to bed.
These nighttime battles with Elli are becoming more and more common. I really don't know why we can't seem to get through to her that even if she isn't tired (because I know we can't force someone to go to sleep short of tranquilizers), she must be quiet so everyone else can sleep. Maybe it's that she's 6 and just doesn't give a rip about anyone else. I don't know. But it's definitely our biggest challenge to date with her.
On a positive note, that was the worst part of the whole visit, so all in all, we had a great Christmas! I enjoyed the break from cooking and the extra sleep (sort of -- I got to sleep in anyway!), and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and spending time with their grandparents.
Part three of the holidays begins tomorrow when my parents arrive. We'll celebrate Christmas and New Years with them and my sister, and we're all looking forward to that. I just hope that we don't pass along a ton of germs -- Elli has a new cold and I feel like I'm getting a new one too. Nobody look -- I'm walking around the house with a tissue stuffed up my nose to catch the drips so I can function!
