I am sitting at the dining room table - sipping a potent holiday Rum 'N Egg Nog - while the kids eat a special treat of Kraft Dinner. Special because there are no peas or broccoli contained within. Also, special because Sebastian made tonight's dinner! Yes, I managed the stove and heat but Seb poured in the noodles, stirred them, melted the butter, added the milk, then mixed in the cheese all by himself. (With some coaching and coaxing from yours truly - and Tess encouraging, of course.) For dessert the kids busted into one of the two gingerbread houses we made - thanks to Tess' forethought - just before Christmas.
Now, why good riddance? For the last seven to eight days - not counting the mild colds of the last month - one or more of us has been sick. You'll know from Tess' blog it started with her, jumped to me (turbo charged by jet lag), then to the kids. Now the bug seems to have morphed into a cold that's trying to take down Tess, Sela, Carys and me. JJ and Seb seem okay for the moment but that might only be because JJ has had such a bad case of the sniffles the last month that his nose goop finally turned dark British racing green. That's when he went on antibiotics to rid him of whatever had a grip on him. Needless to say we - especially Tess and I - are very, very tired. De is in the Philippines. Yes, we could ask Lita or the fill-in helper to assist, but they desperately need rest so we're coping on our own. And as for the Holiday Spirit, despite my sermon it's been hard to be present to the true meaning of Christmas... focused on it, yes, present to it, no.
The kids have been spinning all holiday. Each one of the trips is nasty naughty in their own little way. Sela and Carys refuse to do poopers on the toilet, then within 2 - 3 minutes of being put down for their naps - like clockwork - they fill their nappies. We have a new routine... pull that trick at naptime = no stuffed animals at bedtime. Today they went into angry orbit upon filling their nappies and hearing the sentence. But at bedtime there was no complaining. They knew the writing was on the wall. We've had a few successes on the toilet, but not many other than wee wees.
Jasper on the other hand is about 99.9% reliable with the potty. Today, with Sela and Carys unwell, only he and Seb came to church with me... I didn't even bother bringing any back-up clothes. I knew he'd be okay and sure enough he was. But JJ has a nasty little sassy attitude of (1) saying "NO" and (2) blatantly disregarding or ignoring authority. That created a number of clashes today and many other days, too.
As for Christmas, yes it was wonderful. The triplets are not quite there with understanding the "kids" excitement of the whole thing, but Sebastian certainly is. All in all, they were well behaved and in line. Hard to share on Christmas Day, though, when you're a kid who knows a present is YOURS, but in the end everyone compromised and got along just fine. All the kids love to sing, and we had some fun moments during the holidays when Sebastian "put on a show" for Tess and I. Another time all four of the kids were singing and dancing as pictured here. Each one would take turns singing a different song then finally they all joined in to sing a cover version of "Little Rabbit Foo Foo Away in the Manger."
During the holidays there was lots of fun time with friends but not quite enough. Christmas Day we had three families over for dinner - including ourselves we totalled eight adults and eight kids. Yes, at times it was insane, especially when someone broke out the noise makers. An LCD machine projecting Buzz Lightyear and Veggie Tales 1.5 metres tall on a wall helped calm the second half of the night so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately that was the day the GI bug hit me, so I wasn't a very good host nor did I eat any of the Christmas dinner.
Tonight, despite being invited to a New Year's Eve party, it will be a classic Tess & Charles NYE... kids in bed as we munch something while watching a movie on TV. Chances are we'll be asleep before midnight. Alright, time for me to go... Sebastian is procrastinating going to bed. He THINKS he can put if off until next year. (Also Sela just woke-up crying. Me thinks it might be a long night if her cold gets worse.) We wish all our friends and family a Happy Holiday and a Wonderful New Year. I promise that in the coming weeks I'll post lots of pics and video from the holidays. Stay tuned.
