Week before Christmas

I had big plans for the week leading up to Christmas. There were lots of things I wanted to do with the kids but Virginia was sick the whole week so we stayed at home all week. We spent most days in our pajamas. This was a rare moment that she wasn’t being held.

We couldn’t be around my mom because her immune system is weak and we didn’t want her to pick up whatever Virginia had but by Thursday William was ready to get out the house and he was healthy so I dropped him off at my parents to spend the day with mom. They made a gingerbread train!

Christmas Party

William’s Christmas Party at school on the 21st.

After a yummy lunch the kids decorated cookies…

They also played some games, exchanged presents, and one of the mom’s read a cute Christmas book. William told me to put my camera away so I didn’t get to take many pictures.

Here are the kids presenting Ms. Ginny with her present.

Virginia was sick and didn’t make it to her party

My Birthday

My mom was so excited to finally be able to celebrate my birthday this year (Last year mom was in the hospital and the two years before that I think someone was sick). We had plans to meet my family out for breakfast Saturday morning. Friday afternoon I could tell William wasn’t himself and sure enough he woke up Saturday morning at 4:30 with a fever. We have to be very careful around mom so I called my parents to cancel breakfast. In the end we decided to celebrate anyway and I went on to meet everyone and left Ryan home with the kids. It wasn’t the same without them but I spent some great quality time with them over the next week. William’s fever went away with Tylenol and never came back but Virginia started running a fever Monday and was sick for the entire week!

I didn’t get any pictures at breakfast but I did get a few of the strawberry cake my mom made me!!!!

Mid December

A few pictures from mid December…

I still have hydrangeas!

The Polar Express

 

On December 9th we headed to Calera to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum and boarded the train. Our destination was the North Pole!

The kids were all dressed in their Christmas Pajamas.

William and Cooper excited and ready to board the train.

Spotted some of Santa’s Elves!

 

Arriving at the North Pole!

Santa and Mrs. Claus boarded the train and William is not so sure about it…

My kids wouldn’t go anywhere near them but I wanted to show a picture of how pretty Santa and Mrs. Claus were!

Sinta Klaas

On December 5 we gathered at my parents for dinner. We do it every year. It’s a Dutch tradition. Last year my mom had actually been preparing the dinner that morning when her aorta ruptured. What a year it has been! We were very grateful to be able to all celebrate together this year.

During dinner the kids heard a knock at the door!

 

Sint and Pete had brought a bag full of presents all the way from Holland!

We had also left our shoes out by the fireplace and they put all sorts of goodies in them! Each child gets a chocolate letter every year.

Sint writes a poem with each gift. Megan did a beautiful job reading the poems for all kids.

Oh Christmas Tree

William couldn’t wait to decorate the tree once we got it home. We woke up one morning to find that Buddy, our elf, had put a bunch of our ornaments on the tree while we were sleeping! He left a bowl of ornaments for William and Virginia to hang.