Wernet as crazy as we seem: The holidays

Here we are again - time to sit down and turn out a holiday blog post. As usual, I was too busy living to write about living. This year had the added bonus Christmas day flu thrown in. Nellie came home from the Christmas party at school with a fever, and it kind of went downhill from there. At one point, I was making waffles for 14 people with a 102 degree fever. But that was the low point. All in all, there was a lot of merry-making!

The weekend before Christmas, Kevin and I went up north half to celebrate our ninth anniversary and half as an excuse for Kevin to go hunting. Of course, I can't actually say where we went, because that would break some sort of hunter's wife rule, but it was a cozy little motel/cabin and we pretty much spent two days hiking in much deeper snow than we had downstate, eating at local pubs with all the snowmobilers (including an end-of-the-world party on 12/21 where an Anheuser-Busch rep gave us free beer), watching cheesy Christmas specials on TV, talking, and sleeping...yada yada yada.

We made it back in time for the Wernet family party, then the next day was Christmas Eve! John and Genny were home by the time we got back and Pam came to stay, so it was a full house and we had lots of last-minute things to accomplish. But on Christmas morning, the candy canes were on the tree, the stockings were stuffed, and presents were wrapped under the tree. DJ got sick during the night, so he was tired and crabby for his first Christmas. It still seems funny to say that! He definitely had a strong presence last Christmas.

Kevin's family came for the Christmas waffle brunch and presents around noon, then it was off to my parents' for dinner and several more rounds of presents. The kids were, of course, wild with excitement. It's hard to pinpoint "best" presents, but I have to say, my favorite part of gift-giving this year was that we had the kids get gifts for each other and pick out gifts for us. Nellie very thoughtfully selected the Taylor Swift fragrance for me. I love it. :) And Nellie's favorite gift was the little kitten that wags its tail when you pet it that Annie picked for her. Annie's favorite is the purple Rapunzel blanket with her name on it. Genny passed down her Molly doll to Nellie, which has brought much joy to our American Girl-obsessed offspring.

Like I said, I came down with the flu in there, which was sad because we missed out on the post-Christmas fun with my family. It also made planning special birthday events for Kevin and DJ much less pleasant, though we still had a nice time. It was nice to celebrate our year with our fun little Donald! For the fourth or fifth year in a row, I made Kevin a pineapple upside-down cake, though as it happened I made it the next day for DJ's birthday. For the first time, it came out of the oven looking beautiful but when I went to invert it, the entire thing was liquid under the surface. Gross. We just served the crispy edges. Oh well, there's always next year! I really need to work on the whole "two birthdays right after Christmas" thing. I'll blame it on being sick, but the birthdays snuck up on me.

We had a great time with Dave and Laurel--it was nice to see them when we weren't: a) moving, b) having a baby, or c) on our way home from vacation. Kevin and I even got to spend a morning with them. They're the only people I know who don't bat an eye at the thought of going out for breakfast (where we consumed large amounts of coffee) and then going out for coffee after. That was a great day.

And then there was New Years Eve, when for the second year in a row I was asleep well before midnight. I think I woke up just in time to see the ball drop, kiss Kevin, see how annoying the NBC coverage was, and go back to sleep. Once again, there's always next year!

Nellie fell in love with the winter camp at Woldumar, so she stayed busy for the rest of her break from school. Annie, DJ, and I just tried to settle back into a routine and recover from being sick. There was (and is) plenty to do to get ready for a busy semester filled with gymnastics lessons, kindergarten, dissertation proposals, and teaching.

It seems like now that Nellie's in school and the kids are getting older (and, you know, there's more of them), the Christmas season is increasingly busy, noisy, and messy. And this year, there was the added sorrow over the school shootings in Connecticut and tension due to complicated family relationships, among other things. But I randomly heard a snippet of a radio sermon the Sunday before Christmas in which the pastor reminded me that Christmas is a time to celebrate that Christ came to fix messy situations and give us rest--okay, I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea. I took comfort in that message, and I think our family found great joy in the holidays.

And I end here. If you've been reading our blog for awhile, you'll know there's one holiday tradition I'd be happy to give up. Once we put away the Christmas decorations and the parties are over, the Wernet children start throwing up. In fact, Annie just threw up on the computer screen (seriously, don't ask me how it happened) five minutes ago. So it's best I move on to other things, like laundry. But here are some pictures.