Memorable

Christams Day at Grandma and Grandpa's house was great.  The day after Christmas:

 

not so great.  

After throwing up five times in the night and tossing and turning in agony throughout the night, Joey fell asleep in the doorway of the kitchen the following morning. 

Despite our sad, sick little boy, we loaded up the car and headed to Grandma DeShon's house.  Unfortunately, upon arriving at her house, the remainder of our once healthy family all became sick over the next several days, landing us in bed, lethargic, throwing up and miserable for the duration of our visit.  We did manage to pull ourselves from bed on our final day of the visit to celebrate Christmas with Grandma, Uncle Josh, Aunt Tami and cousins Nick and Emma.  This is what the scene looked like:

lots of presents, lots of kids and lots of fun.

Tikvah and Joey

 Even when you're sick, opening a few presents has a way of perking one up.

Theia with new watercolors

Xandra with new jammies from Grandma D.

Tikvah in her newly knitted hat from Grandma D.

Emma and Tami

Joey's new jammies

Theia's new hat from Grandma D.

Xandra's new hat from Grandma D.

Joey's new hat from Grandma D.

boy dress up clothes!

 I don't know what NIck thought of this one at first, 

but he was happy in the end, I think.

By the end, we'd had a little too much excitement.

The next day we loaded up the car, sick kids and all, and headed back to Bismarck, but before we left, we made a little something for Grandma DeShon:  alphabet cookies.

It wasn't the most stellar Christmas or visit we've had with my family, but it was memorable.  Sickness has a way of producing that result.

Our trip home was a reflection of our visit. Not stellar, with a 9PM episode of throwing up in the far back of the van in the middle of South Dakota, where gas stations and rest stops are sparse, but certainly memorable.