December 24

These Christmas and Christmas Eve posts are a few days late due to late nights, early mornings, and the exhaustion that comes with dealing with children who have had late nights and early mornings. Based on the shrieking I'm hearing right now, Caleb and Daisy are still suffering from a sleep deficit.

But. We had a lovely Christmas Eve. Chris had the day off work, and we spent the day lounging and playing. Sweet Lily came down with a random fever the night before, and at one point during the day her temp was up to 101.2. But I'm doing better at letting her ride the fever out, and she's a champ at fighting fevers now, so she was fine by afternoon. In other exciting news, she slept unswaddled, in her crib, for all of her naps that day. When we first started this transition, it took her forever to fall asleep and then she'd only nap for 45 minutes. But today she took a two-hour nap in her crib! Hooray!

When afternoon came around, we headed out for Christmas Eve service at our church. It was the first time that Caleb and Daisy could remember joining us in the big church service instead of going to Children's Church, and they did great! At the end of the service, we sang "Silent Night" and lit candles. Inspired by my dear friend Amber's recent blog post, I got candles for Caleb and Daisy. At first, they were both too afraid to light their candles. But when they saw that everyone was doing it and that it was really cool, they both asked to have theirs lit. They did great! I kept my hand over Daisy's the whole time, but they were quite responsible with them.

Then we headed to my mom's house for my family's Christmas celebration.

Happy first Christmas, Lily! You wouldn't know she had a fever a few hours earlier, huh?

Lily was fascinated by Jenny's long hair.

Oh! Caught in the act. Look at her trying to pretend she didn't do anything. "Who, me? I wasn't pulling her hair and trying to eat it! I would never do anything like that!"

We're getting our use out of this darling red dress: Daisy wore it to church Sunday, Christmas Eve tonight, and will wear it tomorrow, too. And it will probably fit her next year, and Lily the year after that!

Lily really enjoyed Jenny snuggles,

and Grandma snuggles, too! She also loved the lamb chew toy Grandma gave her.

Did I mention that poor Jace has RSV? He went to the Pediatric ER at a local hospital this afternoon to have a chest X-Ray. Luckily, his lungs were clear and - unlike most of the babies they see with RSV - they did not have to admit him for oxygen therapy. He's a strong little guy! Emily offered to stay home with Jace so that we didn't risk exposing our kids, but since they'd already been exposed when we celebrated her birthday on Sunday, and because I couldn't imagine Christmas without her, I insisted they come. She kept him away from everyone else, and it was great.

Grandma gave Caleb a globe for Christmas. He came up to me with it and asked, "Who do I look like, Mommy?"

I replied, "I don't know, buddy. You'll have to give me a clue."

"G... g... g..."

"God?"

"Yes! I've got the whole wooorld in my hands!"

He also got this red Darth Vader shirt from Mimi and her boys. It was a double win: it featured Darth Vader, and it was his favorite color!

Supervising my goofy children. But wait - where's Lily?

Oh, there! Chris wore her for much of the night.

Hi, Billy!

Jenny and Dad laughed about one of the gifts we gave Dad. It's a can of beer called "Phat Chance", and the label features the silhouette of a girl in a bikini. Chris and I upped the ante by taping a picture of my mom's face over the girl's face. It was pretty cute.

Photobomb by Max!

Emily was remarkably calm, considering how sick poor Jace was!

My mom got at least three gifts that made her head spin with delight. One was the fuzzy  blue half-robe she's wearing in this picture, another was this birdhouse hand-made by Ryan,

and a third was this wooden cross. My uncle's partner, Xavier, ornamented it with dozens of silver milagros just for her.

An un-labeled gift was mistakenly put in my dad's pile. It was definitely not for him.

But he rocked the look anyway!

Before the night was over, we had to remember the true reason for our celebration: Jesus' birthday. So we lit a candle, put it in a cupcake, and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

Then Daisy blew out the candle. Big girl!

By then, we were all enjoying our new gifts!

Merry Christmas!