Christmas festivities

Christmas eve was lot of fun yesterday. After I woke I got started on Christmas Eve dinner. Is started with the green bean casserole and then I started the sweet potatoes. I had to be very careful while making all the food because of my cold. I made sure that I kept everything as sanitary as possible, I even wore a mask to make sure I didn't spread the cold. There was no way to hide my cold as I lost my voice making it pretty hard to communicate.

Brit took Maia to go to the park which was fantastic because it allowed me to get quite a bit done before they got back. Maia had a good time at the park and so did Brit, meaning it was a success.
 

Kassia was a little fussy and I noticed she was starting to get a runny nose. Unfortunately I knew that meant that she was starting to get my cold. I was hoping I could keep it to my self but that didn't happen. 

Around 4:30 pm everyone started to show up and my dinner was just about done. I put the rolls, green beans and sweet potatoes in the oven and while the rolls cooked the rest of it wasn't heating up. Luckily i had some time to get the re organize the ovens. The ham was done and needed to sit for a few minutes which allowed the beans and potatoes to cook for a little bit longer. Luckily it all turned out well and I got it all on the table by 5.

 

It seamed like everyone enjoyed the meal and that made making the whole dinner worth it. With everything going on with my stomach it was a meal that I didn't even have one taste of. It is hard to make food with out tasting the seasoning and I'm glad grandma Gottfredson was willing to fix the gravey I made. It was a little on the thick side and she saved it. 

After dinner we all gathered around the christmas tree and James told us all the story of Jesus's birth and then Terry read the story from the bible. It was a sweet little moment. After that we opened our sibling gifts. It was fun to see James and Maia's excitement. At around 7ish Eric, Kathryn, James, and Julia left to go home and Maia was put to bed soon after. 

 

 

 

Luckily I only had a couple more gifts to wrap and then we could relax and get ready for the next morning. Unfortunately, Kassia seamed to have picked up my cold and was not very happy. She wasn't eating very well and she didn't want to sleep. Her cheaks became such a rosy red color and she just was grumpy. It really made for a long night. Brittany was so sweet and tried taking Kassia for part of the night but I guess she just cried and fussed the whole time she had her. She brought Kassia back into our room at around 2:30. Sean took over but unfortunatly, I couldn't sleep either. Between Kassia making noise and me throwing up and coughing, there wasn't much sleep going on in our room. It wasn't untill about 4 when I took Kassia from Sean, layed her on the bed and started rubbing her feel, back and stomach did she calm down enought to fall asleep. She ended up falling asleep in between my legs. I was going to even dare moving her to her crib as I was afraid she would wake up. but I couldn't leave her where she was on the bed or she could have rolled off. I ended up gently moving her just enough to allow me to sleep on the edge of the bed so she wouldn't be able to roll and that is how we stayed until about 8:30 when I woke up again to throw up and heard Maia's sweet voice up stairs. I decided it was probably time to get up and get christmas going. When I woke up I moved Kassia into her crib and she luckily went back to sleep. I felt only a little bad that we left her sleeping while we opened gifts but only a little since she didn't sleep all night.

We didn't actually get to opening chirstmas gifts untill about 9 or 9:30 (we had a hard time getting Sean up) but watching Maia open her gifts and everyone elses gift was sure fun. She was so sweet and every piece of wrapping paper she or anyone tore off, she wanted to put in the trash bag. It took a little longer to open gifts but at least the floor was clean.

She received a little toy computer from Grandma and Grandpa Dahlin, PJ's from aunt Brit, a Mickey Mouse and a bike from Sean and I and a few other things I can't remember.

Maia playing with grandpa before we started opening gifts.

She is posing in her fun owl pajamas from Aunt Brit.

Maia wanted to help open everyone's gifts.

Opening and playing with her new computer.

Maia played Santa and handed out the gifts too.

She was pretty excited about the Mickey.

Sean got a new phone for Christmas from his parents. I am totally going to benefit from it as well and it also came with a Bluetooth speaker.

Kassia woke up just in time to open her gifts and Maia was there willing to help.

Merry first Christmas Kassia!!

Maia helped her open her bouncy seat.

Maia was really excited to ride her bike!

Sean was so cute with her and it was a prime example of fatherhood.

Kassia exploring her bouncy seat.

Maia received plastic utensils from Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Eric and she loves them! She started getting creative and put them on the blinds. It actually really cute to see her creativity.  

 

After gift opening, Sean made breakfast sandwiches for everyone and they had the traditional grapefruit.

 

For me Christmas always seams to be hit or miss for me. I have had really good Christmases and some really bad ones and this year I had a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit so it was a huge blessing that this year's Christmas was just right. Other then having a cold and still vomiting the rest was perfect and to top it all off this is what we woke up to...

 

 

A white Christmas.