Christmas in a nutshell

"Help I'm in a nustshell!"

Wait, the year is over!?! But I still haven't blogged about Christmas and Henry's blessing and...Oh dear.

We'll go with Christmas for this post.

Christmas was a delightful affair. We ended up staying in Sandy Christmas Eve, since there was supposed to be a ferocious storm blowing out from Seattle to Utah. Tyler's parents are in town, and (oddly enough) we wanted to spend time with family over Christmas and not just be snowed in by ourselves...I mean, if family's in town you should live it up, right?

Earlier Christmas eve, the kids got to open presents from my family (since we couldn't haul everything up to Sandy and expect it to fit into Tyler's subaru to come home...). They didn't want to leave, not after opening such fun stuff! Sheridan was FURIOUS that we made her leave the Tupperware kids' set at home. The only thing that let her get past it? Promises of time with her cousin "Joshy" (as she dubbed him).

We had a delicious Italian-style pasta and seafood dinner (thanks, Pop!), enjoyed the reading of the Christmas story and some carols, and then shooed the kids off to bed. Then we had some basic construction to do (note to readers: when a box from wal-mart says "some assembly required" it may mean "everything is still in it's extruded plastic package and will need to be clipped out, smoothed off and screwed together before it resembles anything on the package...approximatedly 10000 plastic pieces are included which you will have to finish yourself"--fortunately we didn't have to solder together the electronic bits--thank you for your help, Jim!). We were in bed by midnight...only 3 of us 4 parents were up in the night to calm a crying child, soothe a puking child, or feed a very hungry infant. You can guess which one I did.

The kids were spoiled, Santa brought them a kitchen that was beautifully assembled (everything that's a different color from the base appears to be attached with some amazing elfin skill). He also brought Sheridan a Cinderella doll and Jack Mack from CARS. Sheridan ADORED opening presents and was so mad when she'd opened everything (and she got spoiled by Santa, her parents, and her grandparents!). Jack was just excited about everything...they were both really cute! Henry...well, he didn't appear to care one way or the other, although he was pretty stoked that Santa brought me some Lindor chocolates in my stocking. Seriously, if I had to stop nursing the child he might go into chocolate withdrawals.

We had a fantastic time with family--thank you, Jim and Rebecca, for hosting us! The turkey dinner was TO DIE FOR (Tyler's dad makes KILLER stuffing, the bird was delicious, and the company was fun) and we got to see Tyler's Grandparents too! We decided that we were exhausted and that the kids needed to sleep, so it was time to head home...Oh, but the storm which hadn't shown much more than flurried hit full-force that evening and we went from no snow on the ground to 3 inches in 1/2 and hour!!!!! What the..!?! I think we should have stayed that night instead! We got home safely and were all nicely tucked into be by 11. Phew!

Turns out it was fortunate, since Sheridan caught the stomach flu and it's much nicer to be sick in your own home! Poor little one!