The Saturday 7

Sorry I missed last week. Have you seen this meme going around?

We got C two days after Christmas. More on that later . . .

1. Christmas was lovely as usual. We had our family Christmas on Christmas Eve. Lena and Levi had a sleepover in Lena's room and they were awake from 5:00 on, but I made them stay in their room until 8:30. We hid stockings at home for the first time ever (we used to do it at Niki's, but everyone else has started doing it at home so we followed suit). Then we let them loose on the presents. I didn't take a ton of pictures, because I was living in the moment. Go me.

She asked for a mannequin head to practice hairstyles on. 🤷

2. We had a nice day just hanging out at home, playing with our new gifts, then headed to the Christmas Eve service at church  . . .

Then it was off to Niki's house for games and snacks.

Cup flipping tic-tac-toe

Discussing strategy

On to scooping marshmallows with solo cup mittens

Then we broke out Cards Against Humanity (Family Edition). Because it's geared toward kids, there are a lot of poop and fart related cards. Nash almost died from fits of laughter. 😂😂😂

That night, some of us slept over. 

3. And then it was on to another day of fun! We all gathered back at Niki's on Christmas morning. Per tradition, we had caramel rolls and egg casserole for breakfast, then Dad coordinated an activity for the kids.

This year was the Cousins Christmas Choir with Conductor Grandpa (peep the hymnal by his knees - we're good Baptists)

Away in the Manger

Obligatory cousin Christmas pic 💗

Lena had spent the past two months crocheting something for each of her cousins, and it was so fun to watch them all open their gifts from her. 

Cap with his Lions ball. 

Checking out the Lions trading cards

It was warm enough for the kids to play baseball for a long time!

Lots of card games all day

Kids had game time too!

Our lives are not perfect, and neither are our relationships, but man do we love each other. And we enjoy being together. I pray that my kids will have close relationships with their siblings, and that they get to know the joy of raising kids together like I've had the privilege to do with my brother and sisters. 

4. We spent the day after Christmas at home playing with our toys. The kids' big present this year was a Nex Playground - it's kind of a next gen Wii - but you use your body instead of remotes. It's been hilarious to watch them play tennis and baseball and all kinds of random jumping games. I played tennis with them on New Year's Eve, and my arm is still sore. 😅 And then we got the stomach flu. Levi started throwing up around 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Justin was throwing up by Saturday morning, and I started to come down with it by Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, I never threw up (although at times I wanted to). I just had stomach pain/nausea and horrendous body aches. The three of us spent all day Saturday moaning and groaning on the couch or in bed. Somehow the girls never got it, and Justin, Levi, and I were fine within 24 hours! Whew!

5. Since then, we've been living in that weird Christmas-break limbo where all we eat is sugar and cheese and we're never quite sure what day it is. We celebrated New Year's Eve at home, watching football, playing Monopoly Go, and watching the ball drop.

6. Yesterday, we celebrated Niki's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. 😆

This is how they do security checks now. You take a selfie with your kids, and they check the selfie when you leave. 

It will be good to get back to our routine next week, even though I'll really miss staying up 'til 1 a.m. watching White Collar, and sleeping 'til 10 every morning. 😆

7. Pics and Memes

The kids decided to remake this picture all on their own. They totally nailed it. 😂

Justin and I went to a wedding today, and I successfully curled my hair - a major feat for me. Of course it took me a solid 55 minutes. I'd love to wear my hair like this every day, but ain't nobody got time for that!

Lots of memes after a week of laziness . . .

Whyyyyyyyy