Elli was so excited about Christmas and her parties at school Friday that she would not sleep Thursday night. We finally moved her out into the family room at 1:30am so that at least the rest of us could get some sleep. She woke back up at 6am, so we bundled her off to school with a plea not to let her sleep there. At all. And we didn't tell the kids that we were planning to let them open presents from us the next morning, lest none of them sleep Friday night!
Fortunately, Scott was off Friday so he came to Sam's "Jesus' Birthday Party" at preschool with us that morning. Sam was the best cow ever to grace a preschool manger scene. And the eleventh-hour cow costume Scott and I whipped together the night before turned out pretty well!Friday night we had some excitement with Anna. She has been sick for a few weeks now, and that afternoon I took her to the doctor because she suddenly spiked a fever and her cough got worse. They put her on a strong antibiotic. We're not sure if the antibiotic did it, or if she had a 12-hour flu, but she started vomiting around 11pm and didn't fall back to sleep until 1am. So we started the weekend on a severe sleep deficit. She woke up right as the rain the next morning and no-one else got it, much our to our relief!
Despite the physical challenges of sick kids and little sleep, "Christmas morning" was a lot of fun for us. We set up this teepee and tunnel set we got the kids for the basement and tossed in these Winnie-the-Pooh pillows we got for each child (Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet). Sam and Anna have really enjoyed crawling through the tunnels and playing in the tent and teepee.I bought this toy both for our kids and for the kids who will be coming over every Wednesday night starting next week. We're
hosting a midweek prayer and fellowship night and the kids will be playing in the basement while the adults pray together upstairs.As I predicted, Sam claimed Tigger and Anna claimed Pooh, so Elli has Piglet.
Elli's favorite gift was the computer we bought her with some help from Mamaw, Papaw, and the county. We set it up and loaded some games for her the night before. She was delighted, and asks to play it every day now. In fact, she was torn between staying home to play games and leaving the computer to go to Mamaw and Papaw's house. Normally, either grandparents' house is the hands-down winner!
All three kids are excited about the computer games, as you can see. They were captivated by "Blue's Room" and Sam is quite a good helper for Elli.This concludes part one. I'll have to post the rest of our Christmas in two more parts as I have time. We're still laboring under an onslaught of germs. Anna and I both are still getting over a nasty cough, and last night Elli launched into a new cold. So far no signs of lice or chicken pox, though!
