twas the night before christmas...

... when a flu struck our house.

I could continue to do something rhyming and cutesy to the rest of The Night Before Christmas, but that sounds exhausting.  Basically, the Sunday before Christmas, Gus, Nora, and I all got some kind of bug that was going around that consisted of high fevers and cold-like symptoms that turned into a cough.  We missed Baabee's tree decorating party and hoped that was all we would have to miss.  Thank goodness Aunt Angie was in town to help Zach take care of all of us.  I am sure she didn't plan on spending her vacation as a nursemaid, but she was a good sport.  We felt privileged to have an almost doctor with us, but most of her responsibilities became making food and cleaning up.  We laid really low Monday and Tuesday in hopes that we could make it to Christmas Eve Mass.  We did make it but whether or not we should have is another question.  We all pulled ourselves together and looked nice, but the kids had runny noses and I was stifling my cough.  It was our first Christmas Mass at our new parish and it was very nice.  We got great seats without getting there ridiculously early and it wasn't over crowed.  My favorite priest said Mass and the music was beautiful. One of the plus sides was that sickie Gus is much more calm and easy to control during Mass (not fantastic, but better).  I was definitely trying to avoid the Sign of Peace, however, one lady quickly grabbed my hand while I was trying to say peace with a gesture.  She also insisted on playing with Nora and holding her cute little hands throughout mass.  Normally, I wouldn't care, but I feared that I was giving this sweet old lady the plague.  I contemplated telling her to wash her hands, but I thought that might just make her freak out so I just couldn't do it.  I started contemplating if I was only there for selfish reasons, but I do think my intentions were good.  Then again the road to hell is paved with those.    I did start getting chills towards the end of mass so we had to book it out with just a quick stop by to see the priest who was giving all the kids prayer cards.  Ultimately, I am happy that we went, but boy did it feel good to get home and relax with our family.  Dad, Erin, and Danny came over after for dinner.  We got one family shot, but Nora was still asleep in her carseat.  You might never guess we were sick here, but isn't that the lovely illusion of photography?

 Our tradition is supposed to be to open one present on Christmas Eve, but I have also gotten in the habit of getting them new religious Christmas books that they can take to mass.  After Mass, they also got to open jammies because that was the tradition in both the Weisse and Taber families growing up.  I hope I haven't set a two present precedent here.  That may need to stop.

 Nora woke up so that we could try on her Christmas shoes from Mimi and take cute pictures.

 Needless to say she is not lacking for attention with all these people around...

We had a fairly relaxing meal and the kids didn't get to bed too ridiculously late.  

Mom and Dad and the other hand had a few chores to do before bed so the night was hardly over. 

When I got to bed that night I was pretty thrilled.