Christmas

I am honestly not sure how it is almost February already. December and January absolutely flew by! This year we (which of course means just me) were anxious to start Elf on the Shelf. Jaris named his elf Wiggins, after Andrew Wiggins (shocker).  I had a lot of fun putting him all over the house, although some nights I would almost forget and have to throw something together quickly! The last few days I was really grasping at straws for good ideas but below are some of my favorites.

Jaris didn't really understand that Wiggins could "see" him where ever he was, which prompted the "he can't even see me" or "we aren't even at home" responses when I would tell him Wiggins isn't going to have a good report for Santa. That is until Wiggins had a note about his behavior from the night before and after that conversation he finally believed he could see him all the time! On his last night at our house Wiggins left JT a bell from Santa's Sleigh!

Every year I try to take pictures of how I decorate for Christmas, that way I have a reference for next year handy.

This year was Christmas with Brett's family and so we hosted.  I took about 3 days off the week before they arrived to deep clean every inch of the house. Got rid of a lot of stuff, donated toys, and it was so therapeutic to have my headphones on, dance, and singing at the top of my lungs. 3 days of that was actually a nice vacation for me, crazy huh?

Brett's dad got in town first and then Kelly, Brett, and the kids got in Christmas eve. Jaris was so excited to see the boys he could hardly stand it. I loved that although it had been about 8 months since we'd seen them, they acted like no time had gone by at all.

Can you find Maisy? :)

Christmas eve consisted of church and chicken noodle soup at our house. Granny read A Night Before Christmas and the kiddos headed off to sleep.

Christmas morning...

Long story short: Brett found out what he was getting before xmas morning...punk. That is why he has the "sarcastic surprise" look on his face.

Santa obviously can't forget Maisy!

We had an awesome Christmas dinner...prime rib, mashed potatoes, and all the other fixin's. *No picture of my pretty Christmas table setting this year...I forgot!*  We all went to the KU practice court to play a little b-ball and after the kids went to sleep we played a game of Apples to Apples and enjoyed really yummy pie and ice cream!

The day after Christmas we celebrated at my parents house!

The day after Christmas Brett's grandma took a turn for the worse. Everyone decided to stay in town for a few extra days to see if anything happened. After a few days nothing did so everyone went home.  New Years eve JT woke up with a cough and pretty high fever.  We gave him meds and headed to work but he only got worse and his fever got higher.  I'm not one to run off to the doctor but we were at the nursing home a lot and they did have a lot of the flu going around, however JT's doctors office was closed that day. So after talking to a family friend who is a PA she told us to head to the ER in case it was the flu.  We spent NYE in the ER getting chest x-rays and nose swabs to finally find out he indeed does have influenza A. Awesome.

That night and for the next 3 days he was completely done. Laid on the couch and watched a lot of movies and Tom & Jerry. Here's what I look like after taking care of, cleaning after visitors, sanitizing the entire house 75 times, laundry, changing sheets, cleaning toilets, showers, cleaning up vomit, etc. I also took down all my Christmas stuff and tried to get my house back to normal.

**And I promise that's just water in my hand!**

Brett's dad and aunt came back up to be with his grandma and unfortunately on the 6th of January, we lost her. She was an incredible woman and if I am half of the wife and mother she was, I'll be in good shape. We will miss her greatly. This time Brett's aunts family stayed with us so we had a house full again! The funeral was beautiful and everyone came over afterwards.  The next day everyone went back home.  I had been a crazy cleaning lady the entire time they were staying with us because I knew we were going to have people over after the funeral so once it was over I was finally able to relax...and then they all went home lol and I missed the craziness! We got a couple of basketball games in and a nice dinner with everyone!

The sweetest dog in the world...always where everyone is.

After everyone left on Saturday we went out that night with my sister in law and friends to watch the best 80s/90s cover band...the THUNDERKATS! It was exactly what I needed after such a long few weeks. My favorite music...drinks...and dancing. Perfect.

Love him.