Christmas 2009

I hope this past Christmas was a blessed one for you and your family! One filled with peace, love, joy and celebration of our greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

I've enjoyed reading on some of your blogs how you spent the holidays. I wish that I could write something amazingly profound and fun that we did over Christmas, but the truth is that I had the flu. To say it was a bummer would be a bit of an understatement!

Last Monday night, Ebe and her husband, Chris, came over for dinner. We really enjoyed them being here. The girls were great entertainment, especially when they did the "Cupid Shuffle". Chris and I even did it with them once while Gib and Ebe watched. Great entertainment for them, I'm sure! I just had a tiny, hacky cough which felt like my throat was dry but otherwise felt fine. Luckily I'm a great hand washer and coughed into my shoulder. I've been so worried that Ebe would get sick, but so far I think she's fine (at least from being around me). She's pregnant (hop over to her blog and see what she's having!), and I would feel terrible if I got her sick. Especially with what I had. Let me tell you, it was some BAD stuff!

I woke up Tuesday not feeling so great, but the girls had looked forward to going to a Stone Mountain Christmas since Thanksgiving. I couldn't disappoint them, so off we went. I somehow made it through the day, feeling worse as the day progressed. When we got home my fever was 101. The next day, Wednesday, I thought I would surely die. My head and face felt like they would explode off of my body at any given moment. Christmas Eve I was a little better, and on Christmas Day, I thought I might live.

Praise God, I'm MUCH better and no one else in my family seems to have gotten sick from me. So many things were out of the norm for us this Christmas but the girls took it in stride and understood. We didn't get to make our famous brownies to pass out to our neighbors. We didn't get to go to the BIG Christmas Eve service that our old church was hosting at the Gwinnett Arena (I had really been looking forward to that!). We didn't get to have my family over for our traditional Christmas breakfast of biscuits and homemade chocolate syrup, with other stuff of course. We didn't get to have Gib's parents come over Christmas evening for dinner. But Gib did take the girls to my brother's house to see their family on Christmas evening, so at least they got to see some family and have a yummy Christmas meal (and I have to say they brought me a plate home, too, which I was able to enjoy since I was feeling a bit better).

Santa brought the girls a Wii and they've had a great time playing it. Jessica is the best at most of the games so far. She and Gib had very sore arms the day after Christmas from all the boxing and baseball they played. I played it for the first time yesterday and it is a lot of fun! I want us to save our money to get Band Hero to go with it...I'll be the drummer.

Ahem.

Since I'm finally feeling better, I'm going to try to catch up on some housework today. The girls were so sweet when I was sick to do some laundry, including washing and drying TWO pairs of Gib's work pants that are dry clean only. OOPS! I'm taking the girls to the doctor this afternoon because they've had coughs for too long. The doctor told me their coughs could last up to two weeks but its been a month or longer. Time to see what else we can do. And before I go, I just want to say a little something to my sweet husband...

Dear Gib,

Thank you SO MUCH for being so sweet to me when I was sick and taking such good care of me. I so appreciate you taking the girls AND Buddy to your parents on Wednesday so I could rest. Thank you for making sure I had ice water to drink and frequently checking to see if I needed anything. Thank you for taking care of and entertaining the girls, cooking for them and keeping them happy and quiet. Thank you for assuming total care of Buddy (I think it was good for your bonding *wink*). Thank you for going to get Grady's stocking and the reindeer plate for Christmas morning. Thank you for making me chicken noodle soup. Thank you for going to Waffle House on Christmas Day to get me hashbrowns because I thought they sounded good. I'm so thankful to have you as my husband and love the way you loved me when I was sick!

Love,
T

Here are some pics from Christmas and Stone Mountain.

In front of the mountain.



Mailing letters to Santa.





Just a cute picture.



On the train freezing our hineys off.



Some pretty lights.




This is the closest we came to seeing Santa (other than the parade). The girls didn't want to wait in line to sit on his lap.



The girls opened one present on Christmas Eve from Mommy and Daddy (new pj's) and saved the rest for Christmas Day.




Christmas morning.






Christmas day.




And please pray for my dear, sweet friend, A. She had her baby yesterday but labor didn't go as planned. She ended up with an emergency c-section. Baby seems to be doing okay, praise the Lord, but her recovery is going very slowly. Thank you.

Love,
Tonya