Happy New Year!

Well it's just not a party with our family until somebody throws up! Ben and Sarah were throwing up all night Friday night. Keith got it Sunday night and I had it all day Monday. Apparently Mom & Dad got hit by it too. So much for our New Years Eve plans with our friends!

Despite the post-Christmas vomitting, we had a nice Christmas. We decided to torture ourselves and try to do it all again this year. We don't get to see the Columbus family very often and Keith's one aunt and cousins had never even met Sarah, so we decided we'd go there this year and still make it up to Michigan. Despite all the driving, it was a really nice day and we got to have Christmas morning at home for the first time ever which was extra special since this is the first year Ben really new what was going on. Keith and I got up early to get ready and the kids actually slept in. Keith finally woke them up at 8 and Ben was excited to see Santa had come and ate his cookies. We started opening our presents and the inlaws arrived a short time later. We finished opening all our presents including the ones Ben had bought for us at the school "Jingle Bell Shop" which had miscellaneous donated items the kids could buy and give as gifts. He'd brought them home the week before Christmas and was dying to open them. I helped him make a paper chain to count down the days and that seemed to help. Anyway, he bought me a handmade serving size bowl...light green with tiny little blue chickens painted on the inside of the bowl. He was so proud of it. He also bought me a gold tone picture frame with a country Christmas print. For Daddy, he bought a white with blue rim coffee mug....looks like one you'd see at a little hole-in-the-wall diner and a mug rug! The mug rug is tiny little woven grass green rug that actually says MUG RUG in white letters with a picture of a coffee cup in between the words! Too funny!! We also received a reindeer tree ornament they'd made in school with one of Daddy's old ties. It's really cute and will no doubt bring special memories as we hang it on our tree every year. He also made a palm-print Santa on a card and dictated this message:
"Dear Mommy and Daddy, We're going to make something that's chocolatey stuff with chocolate chips, some sugar...and Merry Christmas...we have a Christmas tree at our house."

Oh, and we took Ben to see Santa just before Christmas. As we were driving there, we told him we were on our way to see Santa. He said, "Are we driving to the North Pole?"