The Gift That Keeps on Giving

We interrupt this Christmas to bring you . . . a stomach virus!  Ahhh, yes, the gift that keeps on giving!  And one that you can so generously share with those you love the most!

Our Christmas plans with both sides of the family were altered this year because of the dreaded stomach bug.  Millie came down with it the weekend before Christmas, which is when we were supposed to head to the lake to be with my side of the family.  So we ended up skipping that celebration and just invited my parents and niece to our house for Christmas Day instead.  Here are a few highlights.

Ready for bed on Christmas Eve.

 

The girls awoke to find a karaoke machine on Christmas morning.



They put on one heck of a concert!  (Fortunately we were able to find a karaoke CD with kids' music!)

Millie digging through her stocking.

Hannah digging through her stocking.

This was one of the sweetest moments of the day.  Hannah left her favorite Webkinz chihuahua, Gloria, at the park one day after co-op.  When we realized it was lost, we went back to look for it; but it was nowhere to be found.  When she opened up this present and saw a new Gloria, her face absolutely lit up!



She was so happy, she started to cry!  (There's a slight chance that this may have made her mama start crying, too!)



I'm not sure what Ashley is doing here, but if I had to guess, I'd say she's showing off the new bling on her left hand.  Her boyfriend proposed to her the night before!



Millie was super-excited to get her very own camera!

Karaoke isn't just for kids!  We also got an oldies CD, and Grandma kept us all . . . uh . . . entertained with it!  ;)



Ashley chose was forced to sing "Happy Birthday Jesus" for her mic time. 

Fast forward one week.  It's now time to celebrate Christmas with Greg's side of the family at his parents' house in Houston.  Two weeks had passed since Millie's stomach bug, and no one else ever got it, so we figured the rest of us somehow managed to escape it.  We figured wrong.

The next victim?  Yours truly.  My dear husband was kind enough to take this picture of me while I was sick in bed.  I think at this exact moment, my words were, "Truly?  Now???"

Unfortunately, I was sick in bed for my brother-in-law's 40th birthday celebration.  And when Mama is sick, Daddy does what he can to survive.  In this case, it meant throwing the girls in the tub with his brother's kids!

Here are the kids all dressed up and ready to go to Uncle Clark's surprise birthday party.  Each of these girls has her own look.  It always amazes me that they're all related!

Here are all the kids together on present night.  The girls are Meemaw and Kimpaw's grandchildren, the boys are their great-grandchildren, and every last one of them is as cute as cute can be!

I finally felt a little better by Day 3, and I was able to join the rest of the crew for a trip to the park by Aunt Steph's house.  Daddy pushed the kids on the merry-go-round.

They tried to return the favor, but somehow that didn't work out as well!

My beautiful niece, Shania.

My other beautiful niece, Aleeyah, with my sister-in-law Rossana.





These two were made for each other!

The kids found this adorable little dog.  He had tags, though, so we were able to return him to his owner.

And of course there was karaoke!

My brother-in-law Clark gave quite the performance!

Meemaw snuggled up with the three big girls and read them a bedtime story on our last night.

Treasured memories . . . germs and all!