First, Isla started puking on Christmas Eve. I have written about this before, but I cannot handle vomit. Obviously no one likes vomit, but I seriously have a real fear and major anxiety about it. It is completely irrational and even the threat of vomit will turn me into a nervous wreck. So to have a child vomiting on Christmas was a BIG bummer. The good news is that the rest of us have stayed well. Knock on wood.
Audrey woke up at 4:30 on Christmas morning eager to open presents. She didn't go back to sleep but we made her wait until 7:00 to open any presents.
First, stockings!
Isla didn't even want to sit up to open her stocking, though we got a little excitement out of her when she opened this Minnie Mouse puzzle. Shortly after, she vomited again. Fortunately that was the last time she vomited, so the whole vomiting spell only lasted about 24 hours. But that was a LONG 24 hours. =)
The girls each got one gift from Santa. Audrey asked Santa for one thing for Christmas: a Brave doll. She has a collection of Disney Princess Barbie dolls, and Merida from Brave is the one princess she doesn't have. So that's what she wanted for Christmas. And that was a very easy (and cheap!) present for Santa to get for her!
Santa got Isla a Peter Pan doll. Isla loves Peter Pan after seeing the show at the Muni last summer. She gets so excited every time she sees anything that has do to with Peter Pan. But in her sick state the most excitement she could muster was to give Peter Pan a sad hug.
From us, Audrey got dance lessons. To open on Christmas, she got a new bag which held her new tap shoes, ballet shoes, leotard and tights. I wasn't sure how she would react to this present since it wasn't a toy. And she wasn't quite sure how to react either. But once she tried on the shows, she got pretty excited. She is a big fan of those tap shoes and all the loud noise that they make.
We were supposed to drive to Daniel's parents' house in Indiana Christmas afternoon, but we had to wait a day since Isla was sick. His family's Christmas celebration was scheduled for the evening of the 26th, so we were still able to make it in time for that.
I didn't take too many pictures in Indiana, but we managed to get one of all the cousins together...even though Isla was not too happy about it.
The other sad thing about this Christmas was that Daniel's dad was in the hospital and unable to celebrate with us all. Also, my brother in law was not able to be with us either, because he is also in the hospital, recovering from some serious burns from an accident a couple of months ago. We knew this was the plan, so it wasn't unexpected. But still it's just a bummer for everyone that they couldn't be there with us.
Then while we were opening presents, we got a call from the hospital that Daniel's dad had fallen and hit his head. This added some extra tension and concern to our evening, but thankfully it looks like he is going to be okay from the fall...just a little beat up looking.
And then at the end of our Christmas celebration, I got news that my aunt Lorri had suddenly died that day. It was very unexpected and shocking for our family. She was only 48. I am especially sad for her husband, whose dad just died (also unexpectedly) on December 17. To lose both his dad and his wife so suddenly and so close together and so near Christmas, it is just devastating. It definitely makes my heart heavy and sad this Christmas.
So, we are headed to the St. Louis area tomorrow for my aunt's visitation and funeral. We will have the girls with us, so it should be interesting. We will be staying at a hotel and going swimming, so the girls think this is going to be the best trip ever. It's hard even for Audrey to grasp the idea of death, as she has never had anyone close to her die before. She understands what it means, but I don't think she is able yet to grasp the impact that it has on us.
After the funeral, we will head to Iowa to celebrate Christmas (and New Year's) with my mom!
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