I had the lucky fortune of managing to contract pink eye. I woke up on Tuesday and my eye was swollen. I figured I had poked myself in the eye during the night without noticing or I was having a weird allergic reaction to something, even though I have no known allergies… Well, on Wednesday it was still swollen (and probably more so) and Sam & friends at work convinced me to go to the doctor. I manage to get an appt with my primary care doctor, which is nothing short of a miracle, for the same day. Turns out I haven’t been there since July 2010 – we had a lot to catch up on – like the pregnancy and birth of a second Rumer child! He’s a nice guy – I like him a lot. Which is why I decided not to be mad at him when he told me I had the highly contagious version of pink eye. So, I go back to the office to tell the manager and off to Target (no fun – long wait) for my prescription eye drops. I stayed out on Thursday just to make sure I didn’t give any one at work pink eye, I wasn’t terribly bothered by it… Lucky for me, the swelling was gone in a couple days and I don’t think any Christmas pictures were ruined.
Bill and Becky had the foresight to check the forecast for Christmas day, and it was going to be rainy and ugly all day. This would not work for their Christmas gift plans for William, so Friday after I got off work we went over to their house for dinner. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and William got to open his big gift early…….a battery driven tractor with cart. It is insane. The expression on his face when he sees it is priceless. And he picked up the driving process pretty quickly, pushing the pedal, turning the wheel – I’m fairly impressed. Of course, he didn’t want to get off of it. He rode it until it was dark and we made him come in. He is such a cool kid. We let him spend the night over at B&B’s, so then he rode it again all morning before breakfast and Bill says he became very proficient.
After Saturday Chick-fil-A breakfast, we headed over to the mall to finally get pictures made with Santa. I know I know… who leaves that to the last moment?! We do apparently. We changed William’s clothes in the car, while I fed Patrick in the front seat. Turns out that at 10am on Christmas Eve is a pretty good time to go. There was basically no line and Santa was still in a smiley happy good mood!! Which was good for us – because yet again – William wanted nothing to do with him. So we have some awesome red faced Santa pictures again. Patrick didn’t mind being held my Mr Christmas at all – but he doesn’t mind too much of anything. Ooh – but we were upset – in years past we have been able to take our own pictures of Santa. This year, we were not allowed to stand on the red carpet and take pictures – so Sam had to stand outside the fence and off to the side to take pictures. Frustrating. And the cheapest package they had was $23!! For ONE picture!!! Sam says he is going to write a letter to Peachtree Mall to let them know how displeased we are. I doubt it will make a difference… but it will surely make us feel better…
That night we had church. I love Christmas Eve service at St. Paul. There is no nursery, so the kids were with us, and that made us a little nervous just because William is so full of energy ALL the TIME, but he did really well – we were pleasantly surprised. Patrick fell asleep as soon as the first song was played and he slept until right at the end. We always take communion on Christmas Eve and William thought he wanted to be cool like his parents and do it too. I’m not sure why the associate pastor gave him a cracker – but he did – and then when William discovered it tasted like cardboard… he promptly spit it out. Awesome… My favorite part is at the end – they turn off the lights, we light candles and sing Silent Night. It’s kinda magical.
Church is always followed by the whole family going to someone’s house – this year Bill & Becky’s house (we used to host it but now our house is much too small…) – to eat homemade vegetable soup and cornbread. I think this has always been the tradition, but certainly as long as I have been with Sam. It’s nice. William ran around like a crazy man. Literally running in circles and telling me to “get out the way” and giving high fives to Grandaddy R on each lap. And he loved being “swung” by Aunt Laura and Aunt Tasha. He has such good aunts & uncles on both sides – such a lucky little boy to have so many people willing to horse around him. Of course, we let him stay up way too late and didn’t think to get a picture early in the evening – so he in no way wanted to cooperate and take a Christmas Eve family picture in front of the tree… yay for being two. We left around 8:30, got the boys in bed, and prepped for Santa.
Sam has decided that he has found his calling in staging Santa and I was happy to let him to do that without any input from me. I sat on the sofa, fed the baby and happily watched Bravo. This year was more fun than years past obviously – there were toys to put out!! Lots of toys!! Ok, well, not lots – but we knew that William would die when he walked in the living room – so that made it even more fun. I think we probably stayed up way past our, or atleast my, bedtime getting ready for all the morning fun. Totally, 100% worth it. We are such suckers. Haha!
William was a wonderful child and chose to sleep until 6am, which was glorious, and then I changed his diaper and Sam grabbed the video camera. Patrick was still asleep, so we got to spend an hour by ourselves with William, while he played with everything. There was so much for him to see – but the biggest and best toy by far was the train table that Sam built. William was in love and barely stopped playing with it all weekend. We both just sat on the sofa watching him, trying to figure out what in the world was going through his head as he moved trains from here to there, changing the order and moving around the track. Kids are truly amazing.
Patrick woke up an hour later at 7, and we did the same thing all over again. Patrick’s big gift was actually something we received from the wonderful peeps I work with at the shower, but he is just now big enough for it – so it worked out perfectly… He got a jumperoo and it is the coolest thing ever. He’s still a bit short – but we put a pillow underneath him and he just smiled at all the activities around him and he LOVES when it bounces! He also got some clothes and some little toys – the kid is totally set – and he was an absolute joy. I love his baby smiles. We have the greatest boys.
After church, it’s back over to Bill & Becky’s for big Rumer Christmas. They let William open his presents before his nap, still not exactly sure why, but it seemed like a good idea. Probably because he saw all the gifts and wanted to rip open some paper and they were afraid he would do it on his own… Who knows?! We opened stockings for the boys and our stockings (great gift cards!! Thanks “Santa”!) and then William went upstairs to nap. We ate appetizers, drank bloody mary’s, and waited for our aunts and uncles to show up. Presents were opened – our family received a portable dvd player with two screens for the car – yay!! Long trips will no longer be punctuated with “mommy mommy mommy” and instead all we will hear is the CARS soundtrack- which is much preferable. Haha!!
Patrick of course, wanted to eat during dinner. He always does. He has impeccable timing when it comes to that. Apparently, William has his Daddy’s love of deviled eggs because he put away atleast two and wanted more. Which may not sound like a lot, but the kid barely eats anything at all… he wishes he could survive on cheez-its alone. I finally make it to the table and get ham. I love ham. And this ham was smoked and might be the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. And we got leftovers!! Yummy yummy lunch for Meghan!! Guess it’s a good thing we are playing Biggest Loser at work in the new year again – because I ate more than enough – and we all wanted a nap.
After dinner we played Just Dance 3 on the Wii – Tasha had gotten it for Christmas. And wow – it’s fun!! And quite the workout!! William even got in on the action and had a big time. There are very few things cuter than a two year old dancing – love it. And I just have to mention that I beat Sam by 3400 points when we did “Take on Me”. Just saying. I had the game’s all time high score for the day. Boo-yah!! Haha!!!! The video never needs to see the light of day though. Or we are just going to have to figure out how to crop me out so all you see is William dancing…. It was a good time though.
We had Christmas totally packed up and in the attic by 2:00pm on Monday afternoon. The house was getting to the point where we couldn’t take it anymore with things EVERYWHERE and my Daddy & Sara were headed in – so we really needed things put away and in their place by the time they got there. I think they were a little surprised that there wasn’t a tree up – but otherwise we wouldn’t have had enough places to sit in the living room…. Oops! They played with William and loved on the baby. We watched a movie and went to bed much too late. I heart my parents. They’re the best. And they came down to pick up William for the week. Bless them! Life is going to seem so easy with only one…
So – basically – we had a wonderful Christmas. I honestly can’t believe how quickly it went by this year. We are so blessed with wonderful families and I couldn’t ask for sweeter boys. Even Sam surprised me with very thoughtful and beautiful gifts – I am so lucky.
Loves.
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