I was a bit worried about how I was going to pull off Christmas this year with such a new baby. It went better than I expected and due in part to the fact that my boys are still pretty easy to please. The two days before Christmas I had been up almost all night with Stella. She caught the boys cold and couldn't sleep unless she was being held upright so she could breathe. I literally had 5 hrs of sleep in 48. I was not sure how I was even going to be awake enough to get a Christmas Eve dinner and try to read the scriptures. Then a friend called and invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner. It was such a blessing-I wanted to have a nice evening-something to make it special and different and I had no idea how that was going to come about when I could hardly see straight. (Ben would have told me not to worry about it because the boys wouldn't have cared but being mom, I cared, I wanted them to have a nice something that was not the norm. Ordering pizza wasn't what I had in mind but was about all I was going to pull off on my own.) Noah was thrilled since they have a girl in his grade that he has had a crush on since they were in the same kindergarten class. He even put on a collared shirt and combed his hair without being asked. This may not seem like much be if I ask him to put on a shirt that is not a t-shirt he whines that it is fancy and throws a fit. Noah claims that he and Maddy are going to get married. She can get him to do almost anything-they even danced in the kitchen after dinner. Noah was very good at leading and spinning her around. I have been tempted on more than once occasion to call her and offer to pay her if she'll ask Noah to do______. If she asked he'd do it without a complaint. In fact, he has a little love note she wrote him taped up on his wall as I type this. Anyhow, we had a wonderful evening visiting, the kids played with friends and we read the Christmas story and sang a few carols. It was just perfect and I don't think she'll ever know that she was an answer to my unspoken prayers.
Christmas morning was so much fun. Between what we got the boys and what Santa brought I was pretty excited to see their faces. We ended up having a weapons of war Christmas-bows and arrows, swords, nerf darts were the favorites and huge hits. It was a less-is-more kind of year but they loved what they got and that's what matters.
Sacrament meeting was the first week I was alone with all five kids. Ben needed to be on the stand since the Bishop was gone. It was a bit chaotic. Within five minutes the Mission President's wife leaned forward and said, 'If you need any help, please feel free to send one or two of them back here." The Mission President lives in our ward but as you can guess they don't come very often and they even had family of their own visiting. But about five min. after she offered I handed Stella back. She had woken up and just wanted to be held. When I handed her back I don't think Sister Bourne realized how little she was but she rocked her the entire meeting while I wrestled the other four, who were in fine form. President Bourne said to me at the end of the meeting "I haven't had so much fun as I have had watching your four boys in a long time. What wonderful kids they are!" I just about wanted to cry because they were all over the place, really worse than normal. Winston was loud and refused to stop talking the entire meeting. Noah and Owen were all over the place and trying to eat Liam's food. Liam was whining, and wanting to get on my lap then off then wanting to play with whatever anyone else had and started to holler if he didn't get it. Noah and Owen were not wanting to share and just give him the stuff so he'd be quiet and I was trying hard to give them and myself a chance to feel the spirit on Christmas Day. President Bourne was so kind when he could have been critical. I was critical of them and myself and was so grateful that instead of getting frustrated by the noise and distraction in the row in front of him he looked past that and saw the energetic wonderful boys they are. It was a good lesson to me that when I'm in his position I should do the same and offer to help out a mother who probably wants to just go home and quit wrestling kids by herself. Between our friends inviting us over on Christmas eve and the Bournes thoughtfulness Christmas turned out to be wonderful.
Christmas night Lauren, Jon and Eli came over and we had a meat and cheese fondue. They boys wanted mac-n-cheese from a box and I said fine. We were all be happy with our meals. The fondue turned out really good and it was just the touch of fancy I wanted. I didn't take many pictures so here are a few-enough to get the idea.
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| Most of the kids on Christmas Eve. |
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| Waiting to come down Christmas morning. |
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| The bow and arrow sets they all got. |
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| Swords that didn't leave their hands for 24hrs, except to go to church. |
