Definitely A Christmas to Remember....

This Christmas started out like any other.

The church Christmas dinner with all of us having the sniffles.

That is where things just kind of went awry.  First, Hubster and I just started to feel run-down, but nothing major.  Chunk and Z had to be taken to the Dr. with a double ear infection (Z) and 'just the flu' (Chunk).  So we started drugging the poor babies and they perked up nicely.

Well, we were doing a live nativity for the Primary at church.  Joseph was playing Joseph and I was playing Mary.  I had a solo.  One of my greatest fears in life is singing solo in public, but it was a short little song, and I am determined to break this fear of mine so I (grudgingly) agreed to sing.  As 'Joseph' was standing next to 'Mary' who was actually not doing so bad, he knelt down mid song- where it was actually talking about "Joseph watching thru the night.." type thing.  Everyone thought it was a great dramatic effect.  And it was!  Well, as 'Mary' finished singing and the Wise Men started to make their way over to 'Mary and Joseph'.  'Joseph' leans into 'Mary' and says,

 "I think I might pass out.  Either that or throw up"

"WHAT?!?!"

(now keep in mind this is all being whispered out the sides of our mouths so not to interrupt the reading and the Wise Men)

"Oh gosh I think I might be sick!"

"NO!!  Not here!!  If you have to leave, LEAVE!"

And that is when 'Joseph' left 'Mary' at the manger.

Good news was that he did neither pass out or barf.  Bad news is he was visibly not well.  So his mommy took him home while I finished with the kids at church.

When I got home, I fed the kids, and got them down for naps and such and checked on him, and he was warm.  Super super warm.  So he was then given drugs, and some chicken noodle soup and made to sleep.

Now when all the Mabey family gets together, we have decided one family gets a meal a day while we are all together, it's awesome to get to try everybody's styles and such.  Well, Sunday night was our night, so after church I finished getting dinner ready for 18 people.  It was nice dinner and it was nice to be able to spend time with everyone- but poor Hubby was stuck in bed still sick.

Monday was an EXTREMELY busy day.  We had a great lunch of fried turkey at Mimi's house where Hubby thought he was well enough to go and hang out, (for the record I didn't think he should) and he shot some paintballs with the guys and stuff.  He was promptly wiped out and put back into bed shortly. It was then Christmas Eve.  I still had not wrapped one single gift.  Lets think about that fact for a minute.  Christmas presents for a family of 6 plus the extended family.

Not. one. single. thing. wrapped.

We had a good time though, we had the Mabey Cookie Family making with cousins!.

Monkey

Jacob

Chunk

Claire

(This Mr. Manly's that I made for him)

JellyBean

Z

And Me

Dinner was again over at my house because with the kids and stuff it's nice to send them upstairs and then be able to hang out with the grown-ups.

It was shortly discovered that under my sink was leaking.  A lot.  And remember my plumber is sick in bed, still running high temps, and slightly pathetic and understandably sad to be missing everything.  So I then had to empty out, and clean out under my sink.  Not. cool. on Christmas Eve.

After everyone left, and we did our Christmas Story reading sans Daddy, and everyone went to bed, I still had to clean everything.  That took about an hour and a half.  It is now about 10 pm and I can now start to wrap.

So I wrapped,

and wrapped,

and wrapped some more.

Poor Hubs was feeling awful about not being able to help.

I was up until about 2.

Soooooooo awesome.

At like 5 I had an excited little boy come down to see if we could open presents.

Since we didn't want to spread germs, and such I promptly took him upstairs and snuggled and 'slept' until about 6:30 where as then I had 3 VERY excited little boys up.  So downstairs we go to JellyBean's room to make them wait until I can get ready.

Poor Hub snuggled on the couch feeling absolutely awful (we figured it was a flu but everywhere was closed seeing as it was Christmas), and watched us all open the gifts.  It was a fun morning.  After seeing what Santa brought us, we had a great breakfast and then the fun began!

I love how Santa takes a bite out of everyone and leaves a note.  The kids love that too.  They always guess where he will bite them!

It was after all the hoopla I noticed I felt like poo.  And understandable so, but what did I expect not having gone to bed until 2am!  Right?!

After a bit we all headed over to Mimi and Paca Clint's house.  The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins and Paca Clint.

It was shortly after that we noticed it was snowing really REALLY hard and fast and boy howdy was Chunk excited (see THIS POST)  it was so great.

After getting everyone in bed, I crashed.  Hub was feeling a bit better but not 100%.  It was a 'nice flu'  High temps and sore eyes.  But there was no.... 'exploding' from either end (that was a different bug going around) and you still had your appetite!  So it wasn't totally horrible, but still miserable.

The next morning, he was feeling significantly better, but still was not totally well, so we decided to check the Dr. offices.  Well, at about 8:15 after I just got off the phone with them, (they were going to squeeze us in) the power goes out.  That is when we look outside and see 6 inches of heavy white stuff everywhere!!!  So we pile in my car that was not easy to scrape (at this point I am feeling worse) and we head back to Mimi and Paca Clints to find out that the Little House where Rachel (older sister) and her family (Clinton, Jacob, Claire, and Issac) doesn't have power either.  So they had 18 people in that house ages 12 to baby.  It was crazy.  I promptly took him to the Dr. (we tagged me onto the appointment- I figured he'd tell I had a cold and not to stay up till 2 am again).  We get there to find that Hubby is getting OVER the flu, and I am just starting it.  I also have Laryngitis.  Yuck.  We both get shots, and I get an RX for Tamiflu, and we head on our way.  It really hits me then.  I get light headed and weird.  We have to stop at the hardware store to get a gas heater, we can't fit all night at Laura's house.  When we get home- I bundle up on the couch while he installs the gas heater, and I stay toasty warm with my temp and all the layers.  Super Husband (who still should probably be in bed, but can't since I am loopy and heavily drugged and getting sicker) goes to help the other grown-ups with OUR kids that they've had ALL day.  (oops)

It then hits me that his other sister (Kelsey) and husband (Brandon) and 2 kids (Ethan and Jay) are coming in tonight- and their room isn't clean, at all, and my house looks HORRIBLE.  So another sister (Jessica) and Laura come to clean my house.  HOW GREAT IS THAT!!!!  I felt horrible!  Both physically and because of the fact I couldn't even take care of my sicky husband and my 4 darlings. It was rough.  Well, the power shortly came back on, and I was herded to bed when they got back.  I then had to stay there during all the festivities.  It was sad!

4 days later, everyone was gone, and I was better.  What a harsh week!

Afterwards, I was able to look back and see all those that helped and all those that served us in so many ways.  Between child care (lots of that) and meals (lots of those too) and helping with leaky sinks, and the cleaning, and the nice texts ("get well soon!  sorry you're sick stay away from me I don't want your germs!  lol  <3 a="" blame="" but="" don="" either.="" ep="" i="" nbsp="" p="" real="" t="" text="" that="" them="" was="" you="">

All in all it was a harsh but good Christmas if you ignore all sickness!

Here is to next year!  It can only get better!