Christmas Flu

On the last day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....one diagnosis of the Flu B.

The flu has hit St. George's hard this winter. I thought we escaped all of that sickness until the evening of the 23rd. Evan announced around 9pm that he was going to bed. I can count on ONE hand the number of times Evan has said he wants to go to bed. He mentioned not feeling good, but we chalked it up to a busy day playing outside and running around.

About 1:30am he appeared in our room saying he was sick. With one cheek against his forever, the mom check for fever, I knew we were in for a rough Christmas.

Christmas Eve morning we were at the doctor's office first thing. I was convinced and fervently praying, it was strep. I knew with strep, we'd only be down 24 hours and our trip to CA would still be on. With the flu, I had my doubts. We tested him for both and left before the results came in. The doctor said he'd call with either prescription. 

I got a call about an hour later it was the flu. I went to get the Tamiflu along with all the things to disinfect the house while making all the phone calls. Cancelling Christmas Eve, warning our family about Christmas day, and possibly making alternate plans for our trip to California. I was in total go mode.

Sadly, the Tamiflu made Evan sick....like bad sick. I have some amazing friends in the medical field who were able to hook me up with a different flu drug. We gave it to him and kept our fingers crossed.

Nonna and Pop still planned their trip on Christmas Eve saying germs weren't going to keep them away, so we were able to celebrate with them. Luke and I went over the Gran and Jed to celebrate with them. 

Evan was able to get up Christmas morning and open presents! He even wanted to eat pancakes! He may have needed a two hour nap after all that excitement, but it was nice he could come downstairs!

Luke was so surprised with a letter from Joey, his elf!

After Evan's nap, he felt good enough to go to Janice's. He had been fever free all morning! It was a Christmas miracle!!

But again, after about 2 hours, he needed some rest time. I spent the rest of Christmas packing for San Francisco, still praying he'd wake up fever free so he wouldn't be contagious anymore! Thankfully that 5am alarm went off and Evan was ready to fly!

The yearly blue v-neck sweater

I LOVE CHRISTMAS CARDS!

I have almost a decade of Christmas cards saved. I love displaying them every year. The boys and I will go through them and talk about how much they have changed and how much our friends and family have changed. 

Something no one else will notice is the progression of the blue v-neck sweater. For the past 7 years, one of my boys has worn a blue v-neck sweater. For 5 of those 7 years, it was the same blue v-neck sweater passed from oldest to youngest. It has almost become a challenge to make sure one child has on a blue v-neck. It doesn't hurt that they both look great in blue. 

But my favorite part is the outtakes and the hardest part is picking the picture! Add a cute puppy to the mix and it becomes even better, yet harder!!

The last last year of the cotta

So it really just hit me that no one will ever be wearing a cotta again. You see, I didn't get the whole cotta thing at first. But then my youngest put one on and I totally understood.

This year would be our last.

Luke's played on bells on Up on the Housetop. We sang that song all season long! 

These were taken during dress rehearsal, so no cottas.

Of course Luke had a great cheering section. Our kiddos don't know how blessed they are!

Coins for Carson

Each year, St. George's raises money for St. Jude in memory of Carson Head and honor of Adam Cruthirds who has raised 1 million dollars for St. Jude. Carson was a student at St. George's when she was diagnosed with cancer.  Each kid makes a piggy bank because Carson's wish was for all her friends to donate the money in their piggy bank to find a cure for childhood cancer. We have a chapel at the end of the fundraiser where all kids bring their piggybanks. This chapel is always one of my favorites. To see the labor of love all the kids have put forth to raise money makes my heart sing.

Paula and Michael Head with Connie Cruthirds

In 2016, Luke and his two friends (and neighbors!!) worked together to have a bake stand to raise money. We decided to do that again this year!

These kiddos worked hard on the signs while the moms worked hard on the cookies and treats. 

We had a lot of neighbors and some sweet family come to visit and buy our goods. 

After 2 hours we were SOLD OUT! They raised $150 for the kids at St. Jude!

Rockin' Around the Botanic Gardens....

Evan attended Reindeer Rockout with his friends this year. This is an annual dance for a chosen charity. It raises money for a great cause and the kids have a blast!

When I picked him up he told me he hit his head. He was still bouncing around smiling this huge goofy grin, so I knew it couldn't have been that bad. 

Evan: Hey mom! I hit my head! It was great. I had fun! (all said in one breath)

Me: Wait...what? How did you hit your head?

Evan: Doing a cartwheel?

Me: At a dance?? 

Evan: Yup!

Me: Why were you doing cartwheels at a dance?

Evan: I dunno...it was fun. We were also hurdling people.

Me: What...what? What does that even mean?

Evan: Where one person stands still with their head looking down, and the other person runs and jumps over their head!

Me: Was this before or after you hit your head? (under my breath - cause you must have hit it hard to think this was a good idea...)

Evan: before! 

Me: Was this a dance or a gymnastics meet??

Evan: A dance! It was great.

Me: Great....great.

The whole crew!

The gentlemen

Let's go!

Thanksgiving

As I might have mentioned before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. 

I do love everything about it The family, the food, the parade, the cooking, all of it. Our holiday has changed over the years. The kids are bigger, our family has gotten a little smaller, but the celebration still remains.

Our dinner is always a huge highlight of the day. Grandmom (John's mom) and Charlie go to great lengths to make the yummiest meal of all! Everyone is in a turkey coma after!

Thankfully Gran (Amanda's mom) brought some Thanksgiving riddles!

Thanksgiving weekend always ends with Christmas lights and Elf, our favorite holiday movie! This year was no exception!

Halloween

Halloween this year was really fun and surprisingly very very easy. 

I was so secretly happy that Evan didn't even blink at wanting to trick or treat again. It was very much a 'well duh. How am I going to get candy if I don't?" moment. For me it was a "please stay little just a little bit longer" moment. 

There was also no hesitation in what each boy wanted to be! Evan picked out his costume from Amazon almost instantly. Luke wanted a Spider-Man costume that wasn't a mask but covered his whole face. I think he's been Spider-Man 3 out of his 9 years. He's a fan. :)

And there was NO way Poppy wasn't dressing up! Don't you just want to EAT her up?!

This year, the school decided to let the kids dress up for Halloween. Some of us teachers decided to get in on the fun. While sitting in a meeting, someone threw out the suggestion of The Wizard of Oz. I immediately called the Wicked Witch (because type casting is real). Our Dorothy suggested she carry around Poppy all day as her Toto!! OMG....it was by far the cutest thing I have ever seen!

And then to make my night EVEN easier, the boys went by themselves trick or treating! I sat in my warm house eating handing out candy to all the adorable trick or treaters while the boys canvased the neighborhood in the freezing cold. This was a WIN WIN!

It was a great day that ended in a great night!