Merry Christmas!

(This year’s Christmas card photo)

Despite the nasty weather (rain, sleet, AND snow), we’ve been having a lovely Christmas celebration. The girls opened their Santa presents this morning – a portable basketball hoop and ball for Bee, and the Fisher Price “Swan Palace” for Cakes. I bought both of these items online, and by combining a variety of strategies, I got free shipping, avoided store craziness, and saved 40% off retail price. YAY!

We never buy presents for Pumpkin, but he doesn’t care. He likes the packaging best anyway.

Today we ate too much Christmas candy, drank a couple bottles of sparkling red grape juice (in fancy glasses), and the girls played for hours with their presents. As my husband said, the advantage of having a budget and setting a present limit is that the kids really seem to appreciate and enjoy the presents they receive, because they aren’t overwhelmed by a mountain of gifts.

For supper we’re making a big pot of creamy chicken and wild rice soup. It’s very similar to Panera Bread’s recipe, which the girls love. Tomorrow we’ll have Christmas with my parents, and we’ll visit my husband’s family on Sunday. I’ll probably spend the entire time in a semi-reclining position, to help with my pain, and I’ll have to bring the nebulizer along. I’m just the life of the party these days…look out for me!

The only thing missing from our holiday is church. It feels strange and empty to not attend a church service on Christmas, but the weather has been so awful that many churches cancelled services. Even if the weather was nice, we still couldn’t go, because I’m too sick. This is my 13th day of illness, and while I don’t have the respiratory distress that I had previously, I still cough non-stop, and have almost no speaking voice left. My peak flows are poor, even though I do my nebulizer treatments religously every 4 hours, and my rib pain is so excruciating (it’s made much worse by coughing), that I can’t sit upright for more than a few minutes.

Honestly, my only Christmas wish is to feel better. The coughing is starting to exhaust me, and I’m worried about going into labor. I imagine it’s pretty tough to breathe through contractions while puffing on a nebulizer…but enough of my whining! It’s Christmas!

I sincerely hope that your holiday has been safe, warm and happy. Merry Christmas Friends!