Growing Our Family: stuck indoors and Christmas...

one week before Christmas c started running a low grade fever...the first time he has been over 100 degrees F. his grouchy attitude alerted us to how poorly he was feeling. the only positive part of his not feeling well was all the time i could spend snuggling with him -- where he wasn't squirming around or jumping on and off my lap every few minutes. as you may have guessed, e.b. was soon under the weather too. her fever did not reach as high, but she held on to it for about 4 days. at first she seemed to be her normal little self but soon she was feeling the effects of the constant coughing and runny nose and let it be known often and loudly. thankfully they were both doing much better by the morning of the 24th and have been doing well since. during the time when they were not feeling well we stayed pretty close to home even as Christmas approached. marshall did all the last minute grocery shopping for me as well as handling a trip to sams. phew! on Christmas eve we prepared and enjoyed a yummy (if we do say so ourselves) dinner of korean dishes. we also managed to set off our fire alarm while grilling the bulgogi! thankfully it smelled wonderful and added a slight bit of excitement to our celebration. Christmas day the kids slept past 7am! i think that was their gift to us as it was so nice for us to be able to stay in bed that late into the morning. finally around 8am we headed downstairs with the kids and enjoyed watching them see the tree surrounded by gifts while Christmas music played in the background. c remembered exactly what to do and opened his few gifts with lightening speed. miss e.b. figured it out pretty quickly too but seemed to savor each gift. we had several gifts for them to share and while c wanted to open these before e.b. was finished with her gifts, he did wait and they opened them together. i do not believe though that they understand the idea of a shared gift. e.b. thinks they are hers and c thinks they are his. we spent the day eating, playing, laughing, singing, preparing our Christmas dinner and being thankful...for the reason we celebrate and for the blessing of being together as a family of four this Christmas.