Countdown to Christmas

We had a great week before Christmas.  I got a lot done around the house, the girls went to daycare Monday-Wednesday for some of the day, and we got to see family and friends.

There were also some non-fun parts of this week, including vomiting with one child, and a heart-stopping scary choking incident and fever with the other child.  But, we won't elaborate on those. :(

On Thursday, Sydney and I attempted our second-annual gingerbread house.  Things were going well until we actually tried to stand the walls of the house up... that so wasn't going to happen!  So, we just had to improvise.  (note to self- next year, buy the kind that has the house already put together!)

Making the icing.

Decorating the walls.

Our 1 dimensional but super-sweet gingerbread village.

On Friday, my aunt, who lives in Florida, came up for Christmas.  The four of us went to my parents' house to see her (and my parents, of course) to spend some extra quality time with her. 

This year's Christmas festivities were going to be a little different.  My family was going up to Nashville on Christmas day to celebrate with my brother's family, and this was our year to spend it with Stephen's family.  But, we've made a little family rule that we will spend Christmas morning at our house, so the kids can always experience the tree and "Santa" at the same place each year.  We'll be venturing to see Stephen's family a little later.  So, because of that, my parents, aunt, and sister's family got together on Christmas Eve to exchange presents to each other.  We went to my sister's house in Gainesville Saturday morning, where we enjoyed brunch, gifts, and company.

That night, we had plans to go to church and to our neighbor's for our 3rd annual Christmas Eve dinner together.  But, Taylor spiked a fever that morning and wasn't acting like herself.  She had 3 shots 10 days before, and the doctor said to not be surprised if she got a fever in 10-12 days.  This was like clockwork.  However, her class the past week was hit by both the stomach flu and strep, so I didn't want to assume it wasn't contagious.  We didn't go to church, and Stephen and I took turns at dinner, keeping Taylor away from everyone else. :(

Merry Christmas Eve!

My favorite ornament, courtesy of my friend, Sara :)

Making a Santa face.

We left Santa some milk and cookies.  I asked Sydney how many cookies we should leave him, and she thought about it for a minute and said, "... ten!"

To be continued with our Christmas day fun...