I might have had dreams of matching outfits and freshly fallen snow for our little Christmas card, but they were dashed over and over and over in December as sickness upon sickness set in and then frankly, it just got too cold outside to go for it. So, as a joke I captured this little treat. My pasty white kids with dark circles under their eyes who haven't been bathed in I don't know how long. And don't ask me the last time I ran a brush through their hair! The real Burnahms right here. On the upside, we got through the worst of our many bouts of various sicknesses before the holidays kicked off. Well. Everyone but Jane. She decided she wanted to ask for a million teeth all at once for Christmas. She literally had "Christmas Fever."
For Christmas Eve we decided to go skating again, except we were wimps and did indoor skating. I think if Jane were a little older it could have been more manageable outside, but we played the "simplify" card and had a great time. I was trying to capture our family doing a skating-train, and as you can see we nailed it. I think the funnest part of our skate was when Joe and I tried to go on a romantic "skate-date" without the kids, and Jackson and Noah kept trying to break us apart so we made them chase us. They were pretty darn fast!
Last year around this time I was pregnant with this little lump taking a "six-month-along" picture at this very rink. Oh man. It's a lot easier skating without a babe in your tummy. And a lot less achy.
We came home and read from the bible about Jesus birth while we all helped act out the Nativity and sing songs. This year Jackson, Noah and I each accompanied everyone with a hymn on the piano. This stage of life is kind of great. I love how much they get to participate and help plan now. I put Jackson and Noah in charge of costumes for everyone this year and it sure beat me trying to run around to find enough dishrags and bathrobes while trying to help Joe organize dinner at the same time!
And as per usual, it was a feast. Joe always tells me he's going to make less this year, and every year, he lies. But no complaints here! It was tasty! And we still have left overs!
And of course, Christmas PJs happened. I love the magic of Christmas. While the kids were getting the Nativity costumes organized, Jolly Holly put our Christmas PJ's under the tree and flew back to Santa in record time. The kids were amazed. For our Christmas movie, we watched "Polar Express." And maybe I cried at the end when the little boy said, "I believe! I believe!" and then hears the Christmas bell. After the movie all the kids started talking about how they believe too, and even though it's hard to believe something you can't see, he really is real. Like Jesus! It was so sweet. I know people get worried about breaking their kids hearts about Santa, but the Spirit of Santa is real. Santa is a symbol of charitable giving. I see him as a symbol of Christ. Plus, c'mon! Who doesn't love surprising their family with presents!
Me and Jane having a moment in the rocking chair on Christmas Eve before bed. She was going on day three of being fevered and snotty-nosed. Poor thing. Thankfully, we had a Christmas miracle and she was better the next day.
Christmas was on Sunday. And we had 9am church. Lucky us. One of my friends said that her favourite quote she heard on this particular day was "there's nothing like having to go to church to ruin the Christmas Spirit!" Hahaha! I'll admit it was a different kind of morning. And by different, I mean, not lazy. It was still a special day though. We let the kids open stockings, eat their sugar cereal and open one present from Jolly Holly. ...Boring ol' clothes! Haha! Well. The boys were pretty pumped about their jerseys but Ellie sure felt ripped off only getting a Christmas dress. Sheesh. She didn't even want to wear it to church. But, like the nice mom that I am, I made her. Once she was in it, she decided she felt pretty and was even mildly happy about it.
Our church service was nice. I sang in the choir and in a quartet. There's something lovely about singing music about the Saviour! I love it! And it really brought the Spirit of Christmas. Which was trashed the minute we got home. Back into PJs and the secular opening of gifts! Haha! Joe spoiled me, as per usual. Way too much chocolate (is there a thing?), a massager, a new Hymn book (mine was falling apart and I made a comment about it---he listened!). I have also been asking for Norwex rags for a long time. Is that a lame Christmas gift to receive from your husband? No. And then he told me that what's not under the tree is a weekend at a hotel and tickets to see the musical, "Kinky Boots." Um. Yes please! It's also a part-birthday gift. Makes me feel a little less bad for being such a crap gift giver. Joe told me exactly what he wanted for Christmas this year (a guys trip). Easy. But I felt bad that that was all I was giving him. Honestly, we had already spent so much money this Christmas, so instead of spending money I spent way too many hours recording Zoe singing "I Am a Child of God" and finding old pictures to put to a slideshow. I think I need to learn that Joe just likes gadgets. I mean. He was grateful (I think) but I think I need to learn lessons here. Just because I like receiving creative gifts doesn't mean that everyone else does. Anywho. At least I got to see him get misty-eyed over it. It was the birth of each one of our kids and at the end, I put "Men are that they might have joy." I know I cried a lot making it!
After spending some lazy time playing with toys and such, we packed up the van (to the MAX!) and headed to Lacombe for Christmas Dinner. It was nice to visit with family, but boy. I think everyone was pretty maxed out over such a big day! I was asleep by 9:30pm. It was amazing. The next morning we had continental breakfast and then I sat in bed reading my kindle while sipping on a herbal tea and eating turtles. It was amazing. I felt so spoiled! And this year was so nice because there was no throwing up! Yay! We went swimming everyday. And I'm proud of the Burnhams this year. We had one scheduled thing per day and we (mostly) stuck to it! Joe's parents rented out the Lacombe movie theatre and we watched the movie "SING" which was adorable. Jane's first movie experience. She sat on my lap and ate popcorn till she could eat no more, then fell asleep in her car seat. Couldn't have worked out better! We went bowling. We ate Chinese Buffet. We went sledding. And in our down time we played lots of boardgames (which are getting more fun as the kids are getting older), and video games (while I read or slept). Joe also encouraged me to go into Red Deer for some boxing day shopping by myself. Wow. What a treat.
I am in love with this picture of the girls!
Like Father, like daughter.
We sure felt the lack of Christie's presence this year. We were best friends when our fam lived in that basement so it was sad not to have her around! And Zoe sure felt Kwyncee's absence too, but it was kind of nice to see these two cousins connect the way they did.
We stayed in Lacombe until New Years day. And bless Tarilyn, each year she organizes an entire night of couple games. We all donate $20 bucks into the pot for a little incentive (fine. It's gambling!) and play a bunch of games against each other. I think the one that won our hearts this year was the skip-rope challenge. I don't know if it was late, or just the sound of Matt's laugh, but watching dad skip was hilarious! What wasn't hilarious is that he actually pulled a tendon and probably has to have surgery. Happy New Year? Also, I peed my pants. I made it up to 124 skips and literally had to stop because it was trailing down my leg. Sometimes being a woman is unfair....
Another fun challenge was the Marshmallow target game. Yes. Colette made each of us marshmallow guns!!! Haha! Even for all the grandkids too! We were supposed to have a war with them in the church gym, but the one day we were actually going to get off our lazy bums and do it, it was booked. So, I'm glad we got to use them for this! It was super fun! After shooting random targets around the house, Matt pulled off his shirt and sacrificed his body for a good laugh!
What was also super fun was winning. Hey-yoooo! We didn't get to Catan. We tried playing it. Twice actually. But it kept getting interrupted by kids. We did Pictionary again. Last year Joe and I stunk so I was a little nervous!! But this year we each had a chance to draw and we killed it! The first game, and prob my fav was we each had to write down one thing we liked, one thing we didn't like and something people wouldn't know about you. Mind you, you are trying to collect points as a couple, so we wanted to write down things only our spouse would know about us! Haha! It was so fun. Some of them were really hard to guess who said what and we certainly learned a lot about everyone in the room that night! Ha! But then there were some pretty obvious ones, too. No one (except Joe) guessed that I got hauled away in the back of a Police car for stealing. Maren isn't such a Molly Mormon NOW, is she! Haha! I was eight. And it was candy. And I cried about it in my room after seeing my Mom's disappointed face and haven't stolen anything since. Except for stealing the win that night! Thanks T for organizing another great year of fun couples games. Oh, and thanks for giving my hair a makeover.
And I would be super ungrateful if I didn't give a shout out to Joe's parents for spoiling the heck out of us by feeding us, letting us come and trash their place all week with not a moment's peace and letting our family enjoy a weeklong stay in that beautiful hotel. Maybe there's a reason they insist we stay at a hotel.... We are more than happy to enjoy it!
I also want to talk about my awesome friends for a minute. Sarah's Joe lost his job weeks before Christmas which was a shock to them and terrible timing. Sarah said she had to really dial it back this Christmas and was returning a bunch of Christmas presents and not buying any treats because it was irresponsible to spend money on things that were not a necessity. I thought that was blasphemy! So I decided I would put together a treat basket for their family! I knew we couldn't give much, but I could do that. And then I thought, maybe if I include our "Mom Squad" friends, I could make the treat basket look a little less measly. I thought maybe I could raise $100 bucks or so and get some fancy things, maybe a gift card or two. I just know it was such a treat last year with our Secret Santa and Joe having lost his job right before Christmas too. I was feeling her pain and her stress. But I did not anticipate the response that came from our friends in full force. These ladies all came together in the name of wanting to boost Sarah's heart this Christmas and I managed to collect over $1700 dollars from them combined. With that I was able to buy most of the presents she returned (with the help of Jordana and Alysha) including the Oilers toque she had been saving up for, finally bought and then returned, gift cards, family games and puzzles, a wad of straight up cash and most importantly, treats galore. Oh man, my heart was bursting putting this together. Joe and I broke into their house when we knew that they'd be at the live Nativity pageant (they were actors in it and it was beautiful! We went and felt the Spirit so strongly right before heading over to Sarah's.... and then we broke the law in the name of Christmas!). It was a little stressful, so I'm glad Joe was there to help me. Haha! Sarah is a treasure in my heart. She is my best friend and I hated seeing her so sad and stressed out. I know this may not have solved any of their problems, but I know it sure lifted their Spirits. I think what I loved most about this experience was everyone's willingness to come together and show support and love for each other in this time of need. This is the heart of Christmas! Doesn't get much better than this. Merry Christmas!
