christmas 2017...one for the books!

a week and a half ago i never would have imagined that we would be spending christmas in two different states, but best laid plans right? i shed my tears on the 23rd that our christmas would not look how i imagined. for the record, i was upset that we were sick and thatcher was half-way across the country, not because we would be spending christmas eve in minneapolis :) that would have been wonderful under normal circumstances. 

the morning of christmas eve i woke up feeling slightly better than the day before. woo hoo! i felt confident that we would be okay to fly on christmas day and thatcher booked our flight for us. having a plan made me feel so much more in control! the kids asked if santa would come to minneapolis or seattle and i told them seattle and they were okay with that ;) i nominated myself to go to the grocery store to get us some food to have for our little dinner. i picked up ready-made food from the deli (turkey, chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, and gravy) and breathed a sigh of relief that i didn't run into anyone i knew there because i looked like crap. ha! i got back and we settled in for another day in the house with the kids. i called my in-laws to see what they were up to and found out that they too were getting sick :( the flu is crazy contagious i have learned! i watched a movie with the kids in the afternoon, then we ate our dinner (the kids didn't want it so they ate their own random dinners. i did not care). then we popped another movie in while we waited for my brother to come back from the gathering at my aunt & uncle's. i told the kids they could open the gifts from my mom and brother when he got there, so they were excited! i really wanted the day to be special for them, but there wasn't much i could really do. he arrived at 9pm, and they were ready for action: 

after they giddily tore through a few gifts, we all headed to bed in anticipation of flying out in the morning. 

my brother spent the night and took us to the airport that morning for our 10am flight. we hugged my mom goodbye, and we were on our way! the airport was way busier than i was anticipated! i always thought people were busy celebrating with family on the 25th and not flying, but i was wrong! the flight itself went okay, but not as easy as the flight to minneapolis. for one, i was feeling much better than i had in days, but i was insanely fatigued which made everything feel like way more work than it really was. also, the airline put azalea in her own (middle) seat on the plane across the aisle from us. i thought about asking someone to switch, but we were seated just behind first class, so there was tons of leg room and it was easy for me to stand up and help her as needed. she sat between two young women and didn't seem to mind at all. my grown up girl! 

we were so excited to be reunited with thatcher at the airport. and i was relieved to have survived the flight ;) the other fun thing was seattle had a white christmas! it's only happened a few times in the last 50 years. it wasn't a ton of snow, but a few inches that was already starting to melt when we got there. when we arrived home from the airport, the kids bounded inside to see what santa brought them. i could barely grab the camera fast enough! azalea got the dragon kite she asked for, as well as a loom weaving kit, and goodies in her stocking. ashford got the dinosaurs he asked for, as well as a pretend play coffee set and goodies in his stocking too. 

after the santa excitement died down, we took a break for lunch before passing out the rest of the gifts. we all got really nice, thoughtful stuff from our families.

 the kids spent the rest of the day playing with their gifts and soaking up daddy time. i rested on the couch because i was so exhausted from flying. the fatigue that comes with this flu is no joke! i made sure to close my eyes and really savor the christmas day we got to have together. it was such a sweet reward after all the sick struggles the previous few days. we were just happy to be back together. thatcher even made a lasagna for dinner. and we enjoyed dessert and caught up on our lego advent calendar. i couldn't ask for anything else! 

i'm still in disbelief that christmas has come and gone. i'm never really ready to see it go. now we are making our way through week 2 of no school. i still have a little bit of lingering fatigue, so we've been spending a fair amount of time in the house, but starting to venture out. i took the kids to see "coco" yesterday. it's a disney pixar movie about dia de los muertos and it was so good! i might have enjoyed it more than the the kids, but they did too.