It was Christmas

Mary, Larry and David all joined us for Christmas again this year - which was awesome as usual.



There were lots of hugs and overwhelmed two year olds on Christmas morning.



One of the favorite gifts - lacing beads. Ada and Margot mastered them right away.. they sure have a lot of Shingler blood in their veins.







Another super awesome favorite SURPRISE GIFT came all the way from Seattle. THE most amazing box of art supplies EVER. We can not WAIT to dig into it!!!



Grammy made us the cutest aprons on the planet.





Another mega favorite gift was a giant Strawberry Lip Smackers chapstick.



Ada made sure to moisturize her chin as well with each application.



Yet ANOTHER favorite gift was a stamp set of baby animals.



Anything hands on and creative is a big hit in this house. Or physical.. they got jump ropes too and have been hopping around the house ever since... they hopped as frogs and bunnies before.. now they have a clear purpose.

Christmas was a wonderful day. We enjoyed lots of good food the whole time we were together.. Grammy made her traditional cinnamon rolls and the most perfect sugar cookies (from great grandmother Shingler's family recipe). I wish I could just go on and on about what an amazing time we all had.. I mean I could.. but there was another side to this lovely holiday. It came in the form of the stomach flu. Holy Lord. Why the heck did we have to get the stomach flu at Christmas?! It struck Margot in the middle of the night Thursday.. then Stephen fell on Christmas Eve.. Christmas day was all good.. then Sunday afternoon it took David .. and I fell victim Sunday night while listening to David attempt to dislodge his liver on the other side of the wall.. mine came with a migraine and took me out for two days.. I didn't even get to hug everyone goodbye Tuesday morning. Sigh. SO.. while Christmas had it's magical moments.. even full days (Stephen and I even got to go on a date one day to lunch and a movie... Black Swan in case you are interested).. it was also filled with a lot of.. well.. sick.. lots of sick and lots of cleaning. Mary is my hero. She cleaned and cleaned and cleaned bathrooms, sinks... did laundry.. did everything really.. she and Stephen and Larry.. and I am sure David helped too.. and so did I for that matter when I was able.. sheesh. I sort of hate to admit it but I am really glad to see Christmas go this year. Ready to put it all behind us and start fresh with the New Year. The biggest thing I am thankful for is that we have the sort of family that can stay in the same (tiny) house for over a week and listen to each other get sick and clean up after each other and keep our sense of humor and still be looking forward to the next visit. Pretty stinkin' amazing.