After Christmas with James's famiy, the next night we went to see the annual Christmas music program and my parents' church with our friends Steve and Laurie from our church. The kids had fun, but the next morning (Monday), Alli woke up with a fever and Madi had been really congested so James took them both into the doctor. He began treating them both for a sinus infection, but I don't think that was entirely Alli's problem because she continued to run fever until Thursday, which suggested a virus of some type because the antibiotic wasn't touching it. Madi didn't respond well to the antibiotic either and was really restless and irritable and began a five week hiatus from sleeping through the night...yippee for everyone! Alli finally got to go back to school on Friday, but she had missed a field trip, Christmas program at school and her class' Christmas party.
James and I had to work on Christmas Eve so the girls spent the day with Nana and Papa. As soon as were were both off work and packed up, we headed to Gatesville to have Christmas with my side of the family. It's a smaller group than James' family, and there are fewer kids. Our two are the youngest. The other two "kids" are in high school now so there's a pretty big age difference, but Madi and Alli somehow manage to provide entertainment for everyone. Madi received a ride on lion from Granny and some balls that are quite the hit. Actually, I think she liked everything she opened. She was getting pretty bored with the few things I had found leftover from Alli and was ready for something more interesting. After everyone had left for the evening, we each opened one gift and received our traditional Christmas pajamas. Alli and Madi's pajamas were matching fleece and had snowmen skiiing on them. We've had some cold nights where they came in pretty handy. Before we could go to bed, Alli had to make sure and sprinkle the reindeer food she had made at school and put out some milk and cookies for Santa.
The next morning, we got up to see what Santa had left behind. Among other things, Alli found a bike and Madi found a baby stroller made for babies/toddlers learning to walk. We had breakfast burritos and talked about the fact that it's Jesus' birthday. Typically, we try to have a birthday cake for Jesus as an additional illustration of the reason for the season, but we unfortunately failed to do that this year. It seems like it gets a little harder every year to keep things in perspective with regards to Christmas. Between trying to work full time, keep up with two kids and a house that has to always be ready for showing due to being for sale, Christmas shopping, birthday parties, and Christmas parties and events, the true meaning gets lost in all the shuffle. Don't get me wrong...I enjoy it all individually, but taken together in a high dose period of 2-3 weeks, it becomes overwhelming. Sometimes I just want to put a halt to everything, save the gift exchanges for after Christmas, and just spend time together and enjoy the season. We've managed to fill it so full, that it's lost the fun. When you dread Christmas and say you're not ready because you really mean that you haven't bought all the presents and done enough decorating, it's just too much. What am I going to do about it? I'm not sure...but I'm already strategizing to try and figure out how to meet the mandatory requirements while still making it slower paced next year...tune in to see how it goes :)
Anyway, now that I have taken a detour from my original story...the rest of Christmas day we just hung out around the house. James, Alli, Papa, and the dogs went for a walk while Alli rode her new bike, and I pretty much just slept, watched movies, and played with the girls and their toys some. In fact, I didn't get out of my new pajamas all day. I figure that I haven't gotten to do that in a very long time, and it will probably be a very long time before I get to do it again so I took advantage of it.
The day after Christmas, I went to have lunch with some good friends from high school that I don't get to see much, Lisa, Vonda, and Bridget. Now, I kind of have an excuse not to see Vonda much because she is living in London right now, and Lisa lives in Houston and doesn't come up to Central Texas much, but unfortunately Bridget and I only live 45 miles apart and only see each other a couple of times a year. Pitiful I know, but we both have had kids in the last year, and she's been building a house. I'm sure now that we're going to be building a house, the craziness and lack of time will just continue. Excuses, excuses...I must find a way to work those things into my schedule more. (I'll add that to my strategizing about Christmas.) Anyway, after that, the rest and relaxation was over. James and I headed back to Waco to buy boxes and packing tape. It was beginning to look like the house was really going to sell so it was time for us to begin packing to be able to move in a couple of weeks. Yikes! What a daunting task!
