Fa-la-la-la-la-la-ka-ching!

I regret to say that we have spent a lot of money on presents this Christmas. It is kind of hard not to when you have a kid to buy for, it makes shopping more fun. But I'm thinking that next year we're going to definitely make cutbacks in our Christmas spending. This Christmas has just been weird. It doesn't feel much like Christmas because my entire life Christmas has been associated with final exams, snow, and crazy shoppers. And growing up, my mom always did some fun traditions that always made it feel like Christmas: decorating sugar cookies, caroling, driving around to look at holiday lights, etc. This year there is no snow, no final exams, and less crazy shoppers because I think Utah has more than Arizona. Also I'm not making sugar cookies because I would be too tempted to eat them, no caroling because we don't really know the neighbors, and no driving around to look at lights because we're all recovering from our bajillionth cold this year.

Which brings me to this weekend. It was supposed to be a great weekend. We had decided to celebrate our own Christmas in Arizona so we wouldn't have to lug as many gifts up to Utah and so we could enjoy them a little bit since we'll be up there for two weeks. I was excited to do our own little Christmas Eve, and spent the whole day on Friday preparing for it. I made a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, and a pistachio pudding/cream cheese dessert. Unfortunately, Aaron came home from school at 5 and collapsed on the couch, feeling like death. Will had also come down with a cough and runny nose. I still felt good, though. That is, until I spent the weekend taking care of two sickies, cooking the Christmas Eve dinner, cleaning the trashed house, and running all my errands. I came down with a mild cold on Saturday night but felt much worse on Sunday. Aaron and Will were worse than I, however, and were quarantined at home. We had to start giving Will the albuterol again (the medicine that makes him incredibly hyper and have insomnia) to get rid of his cough and while it has helped his cough go away, last night he woke up at 2 and then again at 3 and wouldn't go back to bed. So I was playing with my baby at 3 am last night. Let's just say it was a rough night. And now that he's almost better, I'm not giving him any more meds so maybe we'll have a normal night tonight.

Back to "Christmas Eve." The dinner wasn't ready until 7, so Aaron gave Will a bath and put him to bed while I finished cooking. I wanted Will to be there for the dinner, but he was not in a good mood and it just made our lives easier. The dinner tasted pretty good, but Aaron's taste buds were weird since he was sick. But I have to say it was a really good chicken recipe. We were going to read from the scriptures and watch Christmas movies while we finished wrapping presents, but we just were so exhausted that I think we just ended up watching "Home Alone" and went to bed. So it wasn't a very exciting Christmas morning, because we slept in late and hadn't filled our stockings or anything. I'm hoping that maybe next year will run more smoothly. But we still did take a few minutes to help Will open some of his presents. And Aaron gave me some clothes (that I bought myself) and a surprise: the AE Pride and Prejudice, which as any fan knows, is the best one. But we're saving most of our gift-giving for Utah.Will's favorite part was the wrapping paper, as you can tell from the video.



So now that we're starting to feel better, we have decided to limit our social outings to the absolutely necessary ones until we're past this. I guess moving to a new state makes you catch all the new viruses that are there, so hopefully we won't be as sick next year. But I have to say, being sick actually has made it feel more like winter here!