Billiards & Barfing

(title courtesy of my brothers)

Barfing
Unfortunately, our Christmas story this year would be incomplete without a little recap of our stomache bug. Collin got real sick Wednesday morning (luckily not on his birthday), and after four hours of cleaning up puke, I was exhausted. But he took a good nap and seemed to be better, so we headed to St Louis on Thursday morning. I can't remember the details, but he threw up several more times while we were there, including once after a 48-hour respite at the dinner table with everyone present.

To make matters worse, Ryan and I both woke up ill on Christmas morning. Ryan seemed to get a milder form and rebounded rather quickly, but 36-week-pregnant me is still feeling ill effects almost a week later. I am so glad my mom was around to help with everything; I know I couldn't have taken care of Ryan, Collin and myself. It was awful, to say the least. I think this picture of Collin says it all. He spent the better part of a week in his pajamas. When both pairs were in the washer, he was in his swishy running pants. We spent a lot of time just laying around with bowls nearby. We were one tired, sick bunch. Luckily, it looks like we managed to keep the germs to our little family, and hopefully no one else will find whatever horrible thing Collin brought home.

Christmas
Christmas Eve was pretty mellow. Our family tradition is to listen to "The Tape" - now on CD - which tells "The True Story of Christmas." We turn off all the lights, light a fire, and sit around the Christmas tree and listen to the biblical account of Jesus' birth. I remember doing this each year for as long as I can remember.

Here are Collin and I listening. Can you tell I still felt well? After putting Collin to bed, we had appetizers, another family tradition. Little did we know it'd be our "last meal."

Despite the germs, Santa still braved the storm to visit us Christmas Eve. Collin received a tool bench and tools from Santa, a matchbox car parking garage set from Ryan and I, lots of fun stuff including a car beanbag chair from his 'Nello grandparents, and MegaBloks with a Caterpillar dump truck from his Nana & Papa Williams. It was quite the haul. Sadly, Collin was only awake 5 hours all of Christmas Day (Grandma woke him at 11am, napped him at 1:30, and put him to bed at 6pm), and I was far from interested in snapping photos of him playing. Hence, this blog has a vast shortage of photos. Sorry. He really did like his gifts, and he's still enjoying his "new toys" here at home.

Billiards
My parents have grown concerned that their house will become boring to visit, so this Christmas Santa brought them a new pool table. Until recently, they've had the missionaries living in their basement, so this area has never really been used. Now we can have hours of fun down there! Don't let my mom fool you; she creamed them all in a game the first night we were there. It was sweet. The table also came with a table tennis cover, so we can play ping-pong too. Ryan was in heaven.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. Enjoy the new year!