Christmas!

This post should really be called, "I think this is what happened at Christmas." I had a little cough early in the week of Christmas and on Christmas Eve woke up with a fever and felt convinced I had the flu. So I headed straight to urgent care. They did not try to confirm flu, but gave a bazillion prescriptions (I could write a whole other post on that insanity, but anyway...). After getting home I felt a bit better and decided if it was the flu it was a mild case so I put my game face on and got ready for my parents, my in-laws, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law to arrive within hours. Since I wasn't 100%, I was so glad everyone was there to help Doug (the Christmas Eve chef, along with Nick) out. Doug missed it to stay home cooking but I went to church to see Gianna in the Christmas pageant. It was adorable. 

Oh, I almost forgot, literally all of these pictures were taken by my mom and I was in the haze of illness and  based on these pictures it is clear to me that I was too sick or too drugged to remember a lot of these details, so thank you Mom for capturing Christmas for me!

After church, everyone arrived  at the house and it was time for festivities to begin. Doug's boss and family were even there to join us, so it was quite a crowd.

Gianna playing elf to hand out Christmas gifts.

I never thought I'd have a dining room big enough to accomodate all these people. (14 adults and 9 children!)  It was glorious! Doug was in heaven, I think, it reminded him of his childhood at his grandmother's huge Christmas Eve table. So happy that we can create those memories for our kids too!

The amount of cookies made by all the people in this group was, well, gross but also delicious! The kids' eyes were bigger than their stomachs I think!

The kids exchanged gifts. Thank goodness! I think doing cousin/sibling/friend gifts on Christmas Eve takes the anticipation craziness down a little bit...maybe even helps them sleep better! (Although, sleep on Christmas Eve, especially for me, was at a premium!)

Gianna was too excited about her special gift she made at school to wait until Christmas morning to give it to me and Doug. It was a calendar with handprint artwork for each month and with our family's special dates included. It was beautiful and she was so proud to share it with us and the rest of the family. Brought some tears to our eyes for sure!

Finally, Christmas morning! (After just 3 hours sleep for me, Gianna up for a bit with a fever, and Joe crying for an hour we managed to get excited about all the gift giving (and receiving of course!). 

Santa must have known that we would all be sick during the Christmas holiday and would need something to do because he brought the kids a WiiU and we all had a fun time playing together! Doug and Gianna felt terrible on Christmas day and by the end of the next week just about everyone had gotten the awful virus! Despite illness and fatigue, it was a wonderful Christmas and we were so happy to celebrate in our new home for the first time with all our family around us. We are truly blessed beyond measure!