Christmas 2012

 

So I'm late in wishing you all a "Merry Christmas"...so instead...Happy New Year!  May it be the best year ever, filled with God's richest blessings and mercies!

 

 

As usual I am late with posting about our Christmas.  This year I have a legitimate reason.  We've been sick...at least everyone except me. 

 

On the 21st we opened a few little gifts.  Actually, we didn't "open" them.  Instead we followed a long standing family tradition of placing unwrapped gifts in bowls, and then having the kids line up...youngest to oldest...to make their way into the living room. 

 

This is a tradition both Martin and I grew up with.  Non of our gifts were wrapped.  Rather, on Christmas Eve each kid picked a bowl...the  biggest baking bowl we could find...and placed it in a specific spot in the living room.  Christmas morning would arrive and we would anxiously await being allowed into the living room.  At my home we first had to do all the chores, have breakfast, read the Christmas story, and recite our memorized Sunday School Christmas Concert verses.  Finally, we were allowed in to see our gifts.  Talk about torture!!!:)

 

We wrap most of our kids' gifts, but have carried on a bit of this tradition by placing candy, and small gifts into the bowl...similar to a stocking.  Normally, this would be the gifts the kids get on waking Christmas morning, but this year we opened them on the 21st, because we left for BC on the 22nd.

 

 

 

I have 3 brothers living in the Chilliwack/Abbotsford area and we were thrilled to spend our first ever "away from home" Christmas with them and their families.

 

The boys played Lego...

 

Ginelle and her friend graciously played dress up with Malia...

 

And Raina cuddled with Mommy, fighting a high fever.  Her fever began Sunday night.  For the next 3 days we fought to keep it under control.  She cried and cried, saying everything hurt and cuddled a lot.  Malia came down with a fever the following day.  The youngest 3 all had bad coughs and Martin and Alex were OK but not feeling the greatest for the better part of the week.  I spent one entire night sleeping...or trying to...on the floor beside Raina, who cried every half hour.  The other nights were spent consoling sick kids and listening to their coughs.  On our way home we ended up with one room...unfortunately!  We had booked a 2 bedroom suite...argg!...not sure how that was possible because there was not one 2 bedroom suite in the entire motel!  We did have 3 queen sized beds, which were comfortable, but it was one of "those" nights where someone was coughing from 2:30-7am!  By the time we arrived home the following Saturday, both girls had mostly recovered.  And I was exhausted!

 

 



 

 

Somehow we managed to still celebrate Christmas, open gifts and enjoy the wonderful hospitality.

Our kids exchanged gifts with their cousins and opened a few stocking stuffers from us.  We managed to capture some of the kids' incredible expressions this year...something that is hard to do when 4 kids are opening their gifts at the same time.  I am so incredibly tickled and thankful for these priceless photos!

 

The boys got a Boom Box...Morgun's expression says it all!

 



All it took to please Malia was a few inexpensive, brightly colored hair extensions!  lol!

 



Raina was mesmerized by her jewelry box!  She spent ages looking at it in awe!

 



The girls spent many hours watching Diego on Ginelle's IPhone (or anyone else's for that matter!)

 



 

 

And possibly the most hilarious thing of all...watching my brother Andrew and Martin arm wrestle!  Can you guess who won???  If  I had placed a bet I would have won...my "little" brother is "built" and it's all due to his line of work in construction...look at that muscle!  Yes, he did beat Martin, but had to work for it.  Fun to watch their expressions!  :)