Back to Christmas

"Did you have a good Christmas?"

That's a question I noticed people asked a lot in the two weeks after Christmas.  It was usually random, a little bit of small talk, but it got in my head and swirled around a bit.  What exactly makes a "good Christmas?"

Is it being with family?  A bunch of mine were sick so our Christmas was disjointed and delayed.  It seemed like everybody was sick.  Thankfully it was all temporary, nobody was really sick.

Some people might classify having a good Christmas by getting everything you wanted.  We could make this a lot easier on us all and just omit presents as far as I'm concerned.  I have a long want list and it is rather expensive.  It's the want list of a lifetime.  Christmas is more than getting stuff anyway, as we all know.

Could you qualify a good Christmas by the amount of activities or traditions that put you in the Christmas spirit?  I made a list last year before Christmas and added to it during the month of December of all the things that made me feel Christmasy.  I felt like it helped me focus on the things I really wanted/needed to do instead of try to do every thing.  On my list there are foody things like baking cookies and cinnamon rolls, drinking apple cider, hot chocolate, and eggnog; watching Elf and Christmas Vacation; seeing the choir sing and watching the children's program at church; giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering; and packing a shoebox in November for Operation Christmas Child.  This year a lot of things on my Christmas To Do list were unchecked.

People were sick, my first world wish list remains, and I wasn't able to do all the things that make me feel like Christmas so that sounds like I would be one who might answer "No," but I never considered the possibility of not having a good Christmas.  Life is good.  What would you consider to be a "good Christmas?"  If you didn't have a good Christmas, care to explain?

Christmas for New Year's

 Part of our Christmas was postponed a bit due to the flu and fear of spreading bad, nasty germs and sickness.  Oh, well.  You can almost have Christmas anytime between September and the second week of January, right?

 

 

Mayhem and my dad feeding cows with the tractor.

 

 

Mayhem and Mameha cracking eggs for banana nut bread 

 

 

 

 

 

"Pour!" he says!

 

 

He loves to stir

 

 

I thought it was cute the way he held her arm while she held the bowl.

 

 

Reading

 

 

He passed out five minutes into our hour and half ride home. 

 

Feeding Bite 

Mayhem in December

December, of course, has been super, crazy busy, but fun.  Here's a little, long post of pictures to catch us up.

 

 

I love watching him sleep. 

 

 

I'm a little obsessed.

 

 

We watched a Christmas parade in 60 degree weather. 

 

 

Mayhem really enjoyed all the beads and candy thrown at him.  He throws the beads around the house yelling, "Throw!  Beads!" 

 

 

We taped our Jesse tree ornaments on the fridge. 

 

 

He's such a goofball.  He refused to take a serious picture in front of the tree.  I don't know how many mornings I tried to get one.  They're all silly faces or him running away.

 

 

He looks like such a teenager!

 

 

 

This was breakfast one morning.

 

 

This was that night at the ER.  I picked him up from the nursery after church, he cried all the way home until he threw up.  He cried and screamed at home for two hours, grabbing his ears, "Hurt!  Hurt!"  We decided we were not going to live until morning so we packed up and hauled off to the hospital.  ER doc said no ear infection, just uncomfortable from a cold.

 

 

Not having a good night at all.

 

 

He didn't seem too sick at the doctor's office the next morning, did he? 

 

 

Silly boy flopping around on the paper.

 

His doctor declared that he did have an ear infection.  We got meds and an invitation to bring him back in two weeks.

 

 

Uncle or not, a man in a Santa suit is just not cool! 

 

 

But he's easier to handle from a bit of a distance!

 

 

Another parade- more beads, more candy, more cold!

 

 

A few days later he got a cold, complete with 12 hour fever that took me back to holding him as a little baby.  He's not real cuddly these days because he's too busy playing and running around so it was a nice change even if I was covered in snot and baby sweat.

 

 

He felt better before too long though, bouncing and flopping all over the couch like some wild animal.

 

 

One night he decided he really needed to try on Daddy's boots.  I thought this might be a good indication of his possible excitement over the boots we were giving him for Christmas...no.

 

 

He saw this cow at Chik Fil A and just jumped up there like he knew what to do even though the seat was at head-height.  The girl at the table behind him was a little nervous and she appointed herself his spotter.  Getting him down was a little difficult...

 

 

His eyes look HUGE first thing in the morning.

 

 

 

 

Meet "Bite," Mayhem's Christmas fish!  I have him on video when he first saw the fish and yelled, "Bite!" so we kinda figured that should be his name. 

 

I'm worried about Bite.  There have been attempts to feed him carpet fuzz and broken chips and pour juice down the food hole.  I just don't know if he's gonna make it...

 

 

Opening presents Christmas morning was so much fun!  Mayhem is the world's slowest present opener, pulling off about a square inch of paper at a time, which gets stuck to his sticky fingers, so then he is flopping his hands around trying to get it off before moving on to the next square inch and repeat until somebody feels the need to tear a big piece for him to speed this show up a little.

 

 

 

 

The boots...  That face says it all.  It probably took us ten minutes to get his feet squished in them, he wouldn't point his toes to slide them on.  Then he wouldn't walk.  Not quite the reaction I expected.

 

 

 

 

Later that day he decided he might as well wear them, but he walked around like an old broke down cowboy for a little while.  He pulls them off every time we're in the car, but he did that with his other pair of shoes, too.

 

 

The morning after Christmas we went back to the doctor for our scheduled recheck of his ears.  I heard him hollering, "Whoa!  Whoa!" while I was getting ready and I knew the fish was poured out on the floor, gasping for air.  Thankfully, it was just a foot stuck in a wagon handle.

 

 

On the cow again (wearing the same outfit!) after breakfast at Chik Fil A.

 

 

Clowning, waiting to see the doctor.

 

 

We finally completed our Jesse tree, two days late, but he doesn't know, right?

 

More Christmas Pictures

These were collected from various people and their phones, including my own, and I have to share them so I won't feel like I've left anything out.  (Also, no particular order.  Ain't nobody got time for that!)