A belated Merry Christmas to friends and family.
Christmas Eve - Both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are a bit difficult for the children. There are no relatives to visit and all of the kids' good friends are out visiting their nearby family. Thanks to Stu and Paula, we started what may become an annual tradition for Christmas eves that we celebrate in NH. We went to Chuck E Cheese. Stu and Paula had given us gift cards for credit there. We can tell you first hand that going to Chuck E Cheese on Christmas eve is like going to an amusement park on Christmas day. The place was nearly empty. It was easy to keep an eye on the kids and there was little competition to use the games. The past few times we had thought about taking the kids there, it was swamped and had a waiting period to be seated so we skipped it. We stayed for about 2-3 hours and the kids really enjoyed it. Besides the games, the kids got a kick out of the bluescreen effect that they had available for inserting yourself into the videos.
Christmas Day - The kids were dressed for Mass and had eaten breakfast by 6:45am on Christmas day. Unfortunately Mass wasn't until 8:30am so we broke down and let them open their presents before Mass. Timothy loved his new keyboard. The twins got enough GeoTrax — about a dozen boxes worth — to make me think I should have stock in Fisher-Price. The girls got lots of nice stuff and we topped it off by opening the fifth bedroom and showing them their new desks. Alyssa and Tom, I loved the kids' t-shirts, especially the boys' ones!
As we predicted, it was hard to get cooperation from the boys afterwards to go to Mass. They didn't want to leave the house now that they just got all that stuff. We could tell as we were walking into church that we were going to sit back in the foyer as the twins were started their passive aggressive behavior. By consecration time I had Daniel sit outside to literally "chill out". The rest of the day was spent prepping toys and getting the girls' room rearranged to accommodate their desks. In the evening the girls and I played a round of Mario Party 7.
Unfortunately Michelle and I didn't get much sleep the night after Christmas. Starting around 11pm and repeating roughly every half hour, poor Michelle would rush to the bathroom and get sick. By Monday morning she was exhausted but still didn't have much of an appetite. No, she's not pregnant. Around 5:30am I got up to try and get things ready for when the kids woke up. Within a few hours it became obvious that whatever Michelle ate that didn't agree with her also affected Abby.
Day after Christmas - Monday was one of the only times I can ever remember Michelle making an emergency call for a substitute step instructor. Ordinarily she's quite a martyr in that regard. "No, I'll be okay," would be something she'd say. You know it must have drained her if she was willing to call for a sub!
Abby spent most of the day on a blanket and pillow watching television and in general feeling awful. Claire went to visit her friend Shannon for the day. I spend more time putting things together for the boys. Unfortunately the weather was awful. It rained all day long. In late December. In New Hampshire. The same state that had a snowstorm on Thanksgiving. Go figya!
Tuesday - This morning most everyone seems okay. Michelle and Abby have recovered and have their appetites back. I can hear the kids downstairs watching Little Einsteins. It's a recent favorite of Abby and the boys. If all goes well today, I hope to take Claire, Abby, and a few of their friends to go and see Narnia. By now the initial crowds must have died down. If I get any free time, I'll put up a few pictures and a video of Mighty Timbo with his keyboard.
P.S. - I'm watching this tree at Overstock.com to see if it has an after-Christmas price drop. Can you get much geekier than this: an artificial tree with fiber optic lights driven by LEDs with a built in MP3 player for playing Christmas music! Unfortunately, as of this writing, it's still $170.