'Tis the Season....to be Sniffling

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already! I was really excited for Asher's reaction this year, and he was indeed thrilled about finding all the presents under the tree. I think his exact words were, "Wow! Santa brought us lots of gifts! Woohoo! I'm SO excited!!" Asher was especially thrilled with his new keyboard piano (his main request) and Thomas & Friends Misty Island Rescue. He also got a doctor's kit from his grandparents, a tool set from the other grandparents (both were BIG hits), a harmonica, a matching game (which has already been played a lot), and some books. Ava got a little kitchen from Eric's parents that she loves (as does Asher), along with books (including Barack Obama's book to his girls that Chris and Nikki gave her, which is really neat!), and some really cute clothes. Talk about lots of cool stuff! Ava and her new kitchen

After opening all the presents, I made some gluten-free pancakes (that were actually quite delicious!), bacon, and mulled apple cider for breakfast. After playing with all the new toys for a while, it was time to get ready to head over to my parents' house. Right then, Eric got called in to work. Then there proceeded to be meltdowns over Asher not wanting to wear a certain shirt and then not being able to find his new harmonica to take with us. And Ava was crying because she was so tired. 'Tis the season to be jolly!

But we made finally made it out the door! Once we arrived at my parents' house, we entered Meltdown Phase 2 of the day, still sans daddy. Fa la la la la! Thank goodness, my dad kept trying to make Asher happy, and it finally worked! After about an hour, all had settled down, and everyone was happy. Hooray!

Amidst all of the festivities, both kids have had colds all week, and Ava had been up throughout the night hacking away. I thought Asher had gotten away easy, until he started coughing up a storm the other day. So now he's been the one up at night coughing up a lung. I swear, it seems like there's always someone sick in our house during a major holiday. Last Thanksgiving, we were all really sick, and that was no fun! Ah well, we survived and still had a good time!

I hardly took any pictures, but here are the two that I did get:This Christmas, I was especially thankful to be near all the family and to not have to travel!! The best gift ever!

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And, totally off-topic, a couple weeks ago, we headed to a local railroad park because they had some holiday lights going on. We knew that Asher would love to ride the train and see the lights. However, apparently half the city also thought this was a good idea! The line to ride the train was about a two hour wait! Asher really wanted to go on the train, so we took our place in line. After 40 minutes, we still had a loooong way to go, and Ava was getting tired and unhappy. We convinced Asher to take a rain check and promised to go back in a couple of weeks (thank you, Asher!). We still got some cute pictures though!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!