The happy new

It has been a little rough here. Every single day for two and a half weeks now, at least one person in the family has had a fever and other symptoms of viral nuisance. I started it, then a few days later Harper was stricken, then Helena, then Hudson, and now the husband is down for the count. I think he slept 22 hours on Tuesday. Also the weather has been gray and cold and damp. We have watched many movies. ("Bambi" was my favorite. The kids had never seen it. We watched it on video using my parents' VCR! I was wistful at how sweet Bambi is compared to modern animation. No irony, no potty humor, no disrespect...)  We attempted a 1000 piece puzzle that was too hard and kept getting jostled on the coffee table (I hate puzzles. Always have. I can't help but think I would rather be reading.) We have played many, many rounds of UNO (which Helena calls UnA and the other two go nuts correcting her) and also Jenga and Mancala, which Harper got for Christmas. We still have two days left in our Advent book. We will get to you yet, Joseph and Bethlehem. We finally finished our Jesse Tree ornaments. That deserves an entire post.

On New Year's Eve, the poor sick husband was in bed around 5:15, and the kids looked at the calendar and realized it was December 31. Harper asked which night it was that we were supposed to stay up until midnight. I confessed it was this night. We ate a very subpar leftovery sort of dinner, then it was dark and the fireworks started booming, because the people in our neighborhood LOVE the fireworks more than any people group I have ever encountered. The kids and I decided to go take a walk and watch them. Helena and I were still wearing our pajamas from the previous night. She was also wearing a pair of pink sandals from 2 summers ago, and I was wearing my house slippers. I nestled the dog into my coat where she shivered miserably the entire time with the cold and also the apparent shelling we were receiving from the enemy. We ended up at our neighborhood park, and Harper declared we would stay until midnight so she could shout HAPPY NEW YEAR.  It was around 6:45 at this point, and 45 degrees, so I told her probably not.

I did not send out Christmas cards this year for the first time in five, maybe six? years. I really hope no one decides to stop sending me their cards because of this because I would be DEEPLY GRIEVED. It all started when we didn't take a family picture over Thanksgiving, which was generally my launch point. I also didn't make photo calendars this year for the grandparents. Being sick for most of December really cut into my general merriment and productivity.

Here they are before our Christmas Eve service. Both Helena and Hudson had fevers, which I did not realize until hours later.