Holidays 2016

You guys.  This whole "having 3 kids" thing is seriously cutting into my blogging time.  I've got quite a bit to catch up on, so here goes.

We started a new holiday tradition.  Every year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the town holds a Tree Lighting Ceremony.  There's music, cookies and hot chocolate, fireworks, Santa, and they light the big tree by the police station.  In all the years we've lived here, this is the first time Scott and I have ever gone and we loved it!  We bundled the kids up and met up with some friends, and they had such a good time.  The kids got to shake Santa's hand, which was just pure magic for them, they danced and goofed around with their friends, and we watched the fireworks after the tree was lit.  I can't believe we haven't gone before, and we'll definitely be making it a tradition from now on.

Santa came to town!

Lincoln, Maddie, Bailey, Gerry, and Gavin

We shook Santa's hand!

More friends!  Chase and Addie were at the tree lighting!

We had all of our friends over for a Pajamas and Gingerbread Cookie Decorating party.  And the kids had a blast!  Everyone wore their jammies, I set out all kinds of cookie toppings, and the kids went to town.  It was messy but so much fun and I know we all loved getting together with some of our favorite people.

We decorated for Christmas.  And it looked fabulous...for less than a day.  Lincoln was a beast this year, so much worse about getting into things than Bailey and Gerry ever were, and he tore the tree up.  Everything he could get his hands on was fair game and by Christmas our beautiful tree looked like it had been attacked by some feral creature.  Which, I mean...I guess it was.

Bailey and Gerry were in a Christmas pageant at church.  Bailey was part of the Cherub Choir with her cousin Maddy, Gerry was an animal (he chose to be a donkey), and Karley played the Angel Gabriel (on Drew's shoulders).  It was adorable and they were so excited to be a part of it!

This was the best one I could get of Bailey...those cherubs move fast!

Gerry the donkey...blurry because he's never ever still.  ;-)

Karley as the Angel Gabriel.  And Drew underneath her gown holding her on his shoulders.  

We sat on Santa's lap.  And there were no tears!  Lincoln was completely, 110% uninterested in any of it, but Bailey and Gerry were in awe.  If you look closely, Bailey got to sit on Santa's knee and Gerry got to hold his magic keys!  They were so excited!

Their shirts say "Never naughty, always nice"

We were sick for Christmas.  Every last one of us caught a stomach bug this year, and it was awful.  Luckily, Lincoln caught it the day before Christmas Eve and it was fairly fast-moving, so he was okay for Christmas.  But...man...he threw up all night long and it was just the worst.  Scott and I got no sleep, I ended up covered in baby vomit multiple times, and Lincoln freaked out because he didn't know what the hell was going on and was choking on his own puke half the time.  Gerry was the next to get hit.  He woke up at 3am Christmas morning, came into our bedroom, and threw up on my shoulder.  Talk about a nice wake-up call.  The poor kid spent the next 24 hours puking in between opening presents and playing with his new toys.  Bailey and I were next, and it wasn't pretty.  We both got hit with it at the same time, which made for some pretty interesting bathroom trips.  We were both violently ill Christmas night and through the next day.  There came a point where Bailey was on the toilet and I was throwing up in the tub at the same time where I just laid my head down and though, "You know what?  I've lived a good life.  Bring on death!"  It was that bad.  The day after, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus.  I was so exhausted I couldn't even get out of bed and the one time I managed to drag my ass downstairs wore me out so much that all I could do was lay on the couch.  The kids were such troopers through it all, though.  There were no freak-outs, not much complaining.  They just went about their business in the midst of being sick, and I'm kind of in awe of how well they all handled it.  It was definitely not the greatest holiday we've ever had.  But, we were together and Scott and I got to watch our kids' eyes light up when they saw their presents under the tree Christmas morning, and Lincoln had a pretty decent first Christmas.  Not half bad.  :-)

Now that Christmas is over, I'm in the depressed funk that I go through every year at this time and I'm just trying to power through it.  New Year's is in a few days, and I'm hoping that 2017 is good to us.  I know 2016 has been.  Here's to family and good fortune!