Maybe this is how it goes every year since, for us at least, the last couple months are so full of events and celebration, but for me, Christmas had kind of a tacked on at the end feeling this year. I blame The Virus. Sean and I were so weary by the time the Christmas travel came around, that I think we were just kind of getting through it.

Santa visited us a bit early in Texas

Maya’s final vomit of The Virus was on Friday, and our flight was on Sunday, so we got lucky there. This year, to save cash, we flew into Atlanta instead of Birmingham. Other than that airport being gigantic and occasionally confusing, our travel went fairly smoothly. We arrived at Lolli and Pop’s at a fairly reasonable time and the kids played for a while then went to bed without issue.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and Darci, Will, AP, and Steele were set to arrive. On their way down though, poor Steele started vomiting. They booked a hotel and asked if they should stay away, but of course, we wanted everyone to be together for Christmas, so Sean told them to come. Poor Steele was shot. And barfy.

Maya at Lolli and Pop’s house

Luckily the next day, everyone seemed to be feeling better and stockings were dug into with vigor and glee. We played Christmas games. We peeled, cooked, and ate shrimp. The kids played with their gifts and with each other. Maya watched Home Alone for the third or fourth time since we had introduced it to her just before we left town.

Ian made it through a good amount of the candy in his stocking before anyone really noticed

The next day was about playing and trying to relax a bit. The neighbors had a see-saw that the kids loved. Down the road a ways, another set of neighbors had a neat swing that the kids tried out. They walked and scootered and rode down the sidewalks.

Then on the 27th, we needed to travel from Alabama to Missouri. This was actually our worst travel day. The two and a half hour drive to Atlanta was fine, but on our way, we found out our flight was delayed. Then when we got there, we found out it was even more delayed. The bad announcements just kept coming, and by the time we finally took off it was three hours later than intended. Yet again, it was late at night when we rolled into Grammy and Grandpa’s house. We can’t seem to avoid it.

And then the next day, Maya vomited. Because that’s our life. Vomit. She spent the day feeling awful. Then the day after that, we all kind of waited around to see if this was the little one-day virus that Steele had had or if it was a recurrence of the monster that she and Ian had in Texas. She spent the whole next day feeling better and slowly getting back on a normal eating schedule.

There are a lot of us these days

Our Missouri visit was kind of compressed after that. We had spent two of our three days either sick or verifying the sickness had passed, so there wasn’t a ton of time left for anything else. Sean and I were battle weary.

She was SO EXCITED to see baby Paul

We celebrated Christmas with the whole family the next day. Carol prepared an insane amount of food. Maya and Ian got a turn holding “Baby Paul.” Leading up to the holidays, Maya in particular was obsessed with Baby Paul. She was thrilled to give him a toy octopus for one of his Christmas presents. She made periodic stops to talk to him throughout the day.

The next day, new year’s eve, was our travel day home. We had booked a very late flight because it was direct and relatively inexpensive and we didn’t have anywhere to be the next day. That morning, we visited Great Grandma Schmidt. The kids again enjoyed their visit. At this point, they know where the toys are stored and they look forward to Great Grandma’s treats and to watching her cuckoo clock. That evening, we met friends of ours in St Louis for pizza before heading to the airport.

They love Great Grandma

The flight was uneventful, as I recall. The best part was that as we were approaching Austin, it was coming up on midnight and from our airplane vantage point, we could see miniature bursts of fireworks here and there. We fetched our luggage and were just boarding the shuttle bus back to our parked car when the clock struck midnight. We even managed to notice in time to do a proper countdown. The bus driver armed the kids with little pretend Champagne poppers and party whistles, and we all counted down to the new year together. The kids enjoyed watching the fireworks occurring around us as we drove to the house.

Over the next few days, the packages we had shipped home from Missouri and Alabama arrived, and the kids were excited to get into their toys and other gifts. Sean and I have been happy to put our house back in order. The tree went down almost right away (it was DONE by the time we got back home.) The various boxes and packaging we had accumulated around the house were broken down and recycled. We fell back into our normal routines. “New year, new you” isn’t really a thing in our house, but after our rocky holiday season, it did not hurt my feelings to say goodbye to 2018.

Given Ian’s love of Frozen and of Elsa and Anna, I had the bright idea to hire an Elsa to come visit his house during his birthday party this past December. I was worried this would be a popular activity around the holidays, so I booked her really early. As little kids are wont to do, he drifted away from Frozen a bit after halloween. His new interests have revolved around Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom instead.

Ian and Maya were very worried she might lose control and accidentally freeze someone at the party.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really back out on our plans without losing money, so we went forward with it, and I’m so glad we did. Ian and a bunch of his friends and of course Maya donned their princess costumes and got ready to celebrate. Ian was already feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many people at his house who were mostly paying attention to him. When Else arrived, he was very shy. She was wonderful with him though, and helped coax Ian into interacting with her by offering him a light-up snowball. Elsa was nice, Elsa was pretty, Ian was hooked.

Ian’s birthday always comes complete with Christmas decorations.

The kids had a GREAT time. Elsa read a story to them, played games with them, sang with them. She posed for photos and even lead the group in singing happy birthday to Ian when it was time to cut the cake.

Icing transfers are a bad cake decorator’s dream.

About that cake … With Ian and Maya having taken turns being sick the couple weeks prior to the birthday celebration, I was woefully behind in my party prep. I baked the cake, cookies, and cupcakes all the night before the party. And it was a night that would never end. I don’t remember specifically, but I think it was around 3 in the morning when I finally crashed. It hurt to wake up the next day, but the party went well. People were fed, entertainment was provided, and best of all, Ian seemed to have a really great time.

This kid!

Had you told me when I first got pregnant that we would be having a princess party at our house, I’d have scoffed at the idea. If there’s anything this parenting gig has made clear though, it’s that I want to stay out of the way as much as possible and let our kids be who they are. At his birthday party at least, Ian was a princess.