Christmas & New Year's Eve in Orange Grove

Well, as the week wore on, we were planning to go to Orange Grove on Friday to celebrate Christmas with the Seidel's and attend New Year's with the Powell's and their extended family, as we have done in other years. But, Everly was just not getting better. 2 weeks before Christmas, Atticus had a little strange stomach bug that involved bathroom issues (TMI I know). But, it lasted a couple of days and he was done. Then, a week later, Grace got the same thing but it lasted a day or so and then she was ok. Then, we went a few days longer and everyone was healthy so we went to Sanger for Christmas. Then, Christmas Eve came and Everly got sick. And she stayed sick. ALL WEEK LONG. Hers was an inconsistent combo of throwing up and having bathroom issues - really terrible ones. She was just sick. She spent the week on the couch trying to feel good but just sick and we really didn't know what to do to make her better. We washed lots of crib sheets, tried to keep her hydrated and just waited it out. With all of this happening, by Thursday, we decided to delay leaving by one day. And then, by Friday afternoon, we decided we could not all go to Orange Grove. We were not seeing an end in sight for this bug. So, Vic, Atticus and Grace went to Orange Grove Saturday morning. By Sunday, of course, we start seeing improvement in Everly and by the time they got back on January 1st, she was all better. While in Orange Grove, they opened presents, practiced shooting cans, picked satsumas, spent time with family and played with Keller, and went to the Brown's (Mandee's family's farm) and spent New Year's Eve and did fireworks. It was a good New Year's for them, but it would not have been fun having a sick Everly on the trip. So, I was glad to stay home with my little girls and get her better.

Other Fun December Memories

A few other things we did this month:

Watched our house make the "Best Lights of the Brazos Valley" list! Vic was so proud!

 Came full circle in life and took Everly to a birthday party for her friend, Luke, who is the son of Charley's best friend from A&M and whose wife, Amanda, is also in my MOPS group table.

 

Watched our Christmas decor also be a spot for My Little Ponies and play scenes from the manger, after Atticus and Grace played one afternoon. I know these will not always be our Christmas views, so I cherish them.

 

Played some Christmas Bingo more than once. 

Entertained ourselves with our baby Hazel! And see this video: https://youtu.be/emP0Z0fwWRI

And Everly spent lots of time pretending:  https://youtu.be/v1ZqA_i6MvU

We also went to Dani's house for a PJ / Cookie Decorating / Craft Making Christmas Party; Ellie, Christine, Ava, Maggie, Mia, Dani, Grace and Hailey.

 I love these two sweet girls!

 My PJ wearing girl after her party!

 We spent a lot of time on the floor with Hazel in front of the Christmas tree. She's the youngest baby we've had at Christmastime!

 Vic planned a night for us all to watch Home Alone, his very favorite Christmas Movie. This was my view, while nursing Hazel. OH my heart!

 And on this day, although I have no picture to show, our family was asked to light the Advent Candle and read at the beginning of the service on that Sunday. I was so proud because Atticus also read part of the reading. He did such a good job. And then I was even more proud, because Everly, who I had to hold in my arms because she could not be trusted to do her own thing up at the front of the church, did NOT succeed in blowing out the candle after it was lit (because in her life, candles are to be blown out for birthday cakes...so why not everywhere you go?)

 The cutest part was when she sat and read her Bible while we waited for the service to begin. Everly always goes to her nursery class and never in church during the service, so this was all new to her, but she was adamant about keeping that Bible open.

 Also, Vic and I had a shopping/date night and this sweet girl had to go with us. She looks pretty happy to be the star of our dinner show.

 We did some Christmas baking. 

And more baking. You can never have enough cookies.

 And we grinned and giggled a little while we chewed on Rudolph.

 And we had a Kindergarten Christmas Party at school!

 

And a 2nd grade party too!

 And then we walked out with Greer and Ellie to start Christmas break!!!

I will blog Christmas in Sanger and OG and CS separately, but here are the other things we did this month:

 Everly got a weeklong stomach bug starting on Christmas Eve. Poor girl!

 Atticus and Grace and Luc and Ellie had their very own garage sale. They did not sell a thing, despite riding bikes up and down the street all afternoon yelling "Garage Sale!". I love these kids!

 And, though I didn't get to it until after Christmas, I took some time for myself to decorate cute Christmas cookies!

 During our break, the kids spent a lot of time setting up and playing in their fort.

 And poor Everly continued a terrible stomach bug that lasted 6 long days of throwing up and diarrhea. Ironically, both Atticus and Grace had the 2 day version of this in the two weeks prior to Christmas.

 And Hazel practiced picking things up and throwing them off of the bumbo.

 And she spent lots of time chewing on her toes because that is just what you do at 4 months old.

 Slowly, we saw Everly get better and go back to her normal self..accessories included. 

 And then she was all better! Whew! It was a good December for the Seidel Six!

Christmas in Sanger

The kids got out of school early on Friday, the 21st, so we headed to Sanger that very day for Erwin Christmas. We arrived at Grandma and Pop's that afternoon and just hung out playing with Hazel and visiting. They had the Christmas tree up and Pop had put together his train to go around the Christmas Tree. It was really neat to see it setup. That evening, it was just us and Grandma and Pop. Pop convinced Grandma to get her guitar out and play some Christmas Carols for us to sing. It was such a fun and sweet night spending time together like that. The kids enjoyed it and we brought back one of our traditions from growing up. I always remember being in the car driving to Memaw's for Christmas and us all making up our own lyrics to The Twelve Days of Christmas. So, we did it again! The kids loved it too. I'll put our version of the song below.

 

Back at Thanksgiving, Grace made this turkey hat at church and then Everly brought it to Sanger for Thanksgiving and wore it all week. Well, she forgot it. However, as soon as she got to Sanger for Christmas, she found it and put it on right away!

" The Twelve Days of Christmas in 2018" (the final verse)

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

12 Fighting Aggies

11 Christmas Presents

10 Better Memories (we kept forgetting our own lyrics!)

9 Cowboys Riding

8 Bells A Ringing

7 Accountants Counting

6 Banjo Pickers

5 Texas Flags

4 Dairy Goats

3 Baseball Players

2 Saddle Makers

and 1 gooo-oood night of sleep!

*everyone got to pick the lyrics as we went...you can probably pick out who chose some!

The next day, around 10am, everyone came over to the house for Erwin Christmas.

First up, we visited and then played some games I planned for the group. We usually like to have an official Game Day, separate from our Christmas present opening day. But, we could only be in town for the weekend this year, so we just played a few group games. We played "Who Can Unwrap the Saran Ball and get the Hershey kiss first" game. See below:

https://youtu.be/BBXzD4PZzYU - Charley won!

Then, we played "Throw the Hershey Kiss into your partner's mouth". See below:

 I think Everly cheated. 

https://youtu.be/iwULDjYH1fY - Pop & Everly

https://youtu.be/E5DXDDgPmcg - Melbo & Pa

https://youtu.be/ZODIXa3eIX8 - Atticus & Charley

https://youtu.be/5mOQwAJ6Cu8 - Vic & Ana

https://youtu.be/Cvn3ImZC7FY - Grandma & Grace

Then, we played "Draw a song out of a bowl and hum it or use "do-do" to sound it out and let people guess".

https://youtu.be/IhXW-HWaWAo - Ana

https://youtu.be/1ugSxT3TJHA - Grandma

https://youtu.be/EWF8-HKtmEM - Atticus

https://youtu.be/KZZBJFmqhf4 - Melbo

https://youtu.be/eerTVl8eFq0 - Vic & Grace

Then, we played "Unwrap the box with oven mitts on your hands, but do it before someone rolls the dice on a certain number". This one was hard! 

https://youtu.be/73RSTlh7pFs

Then, we played "Draw the things I'm describing onto your plate on top of your head". It was pretty funny too!

I had a lot of fun planning the games! And we had everyone pitch in $7 a piece so I could buy gift cards to give as prizes. I think Ana & Charley took home the most gift card which was good because they said they had expensive formula to buy! haha!

Then, we opened presents. Everyone is always so generous and makes present gifting and opening a lot of fun! 

 

 We tried to get creative and we gave gift cards attached to the end of calculator tape that was folded accordion style into a Kleenex box. Then, it took them longer to open it. Atticus even wrote some notes and jokes on the paper.

We got some fabulous gifts! Here are a few off the top of my head: Atticus got a a Garmin watch to track his steps (he loves doing that!); Everly got lots of dress-up items and her own purse and an entire Mickey Mouse pizza/cake set; Grace got her own art kit and hatchimals; Hazel got some precious toys and clothes! And Vic and I were spoiled too with a wagon, jewelry, clothes, books, and more!

Then, we celebrated Charley's birthday and visited some more.

 Everly went through a lot of dress-up items throughout the day. She was so funny; she would just do her own thing and act like what she was wearing was completely appropriate. Pop decided she was Luna from Harry Potter. She is just her own sweet little self and we love her so much! She was Cat in the Hat, a superhero, a fairy, and so much more!

 After everyone left, our little Christmas Fairy needed to wring Pop's bell.

 And she was so exhausted by the end of the day, she fell asleep in Grandma's lap.

And then Grandma fell asleep too!

 We woke up the next morning, lounged and then headed back to College Station. It was a good weekend!