On the 5th Day of Christmas...

Today Ailey asked me if it was still Christmas. Our tree is still up and lit. All the decorations are still up. The lights are still on the house. We're not playing Christmas music, but only because we're playing CDs that we got for Christmas. And yet Ailey makes a fair point without even trying. We're not talking anymore about Santa coming, or about visiting the grandparents, or about presents we're giving. The hype of Christmas, especially in the eye of a child, is over ... or waning at least.

Our Christmas was more "hype" than planned this year, extended for sure. Instead of Christmas Eve with my parents and Christmas Day with Andy's parents, we stayed home-bound both days and only ventured out on the 26th and 27th. Both days were forecasted to have the worst weather thus far: snow, then rain, then freezing temps overnight. Our own roads were some of the worst around - apparently snow removal/road maintenance is not one of the City of Mukilteo's strengths. (I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need the two years experience as a Minnesota resident to know that a plow isn't supposed to push the snow to the center of the road.) The slush created by rain falling on several inches of packed snow was nasty. After it froze we felt like we were 4-bying across the rutted frozen slush.

Anyway, by Friday the roads, especially the roads we traveled after exiting our own streets, seemed more doable with three sick kids in a mini-van with 2-wheel-drive. So we had "Christmas Eve" on the 26th and celebrated "Christmas Day" on the 27th. All three kids were marginally better those days too (Ailey had punched a 104 degree temp a couple days before Christmas). Neither day felt any different, so the calendar could have said whatever it wanted - those were our Christmases because we were with our family those days, ate good food, talked good talks, and wished good wishes.

Here are a handful of pictures of our Christmas Day:

Watching the babies (not care at all about) opening presents.

Silje excited about the new musical toy.

Oh, she loves to dance!

Marin, happy Santa baby.

Ailey enjoying one of her new books.

The sick ones got good hard naps!

In answering Ailey's question I reminded her of one of her favorite Christmas songs, The 12 Days of Christmas, and told her today was only the 5th day of Christmas (Miss Piggy's "Fiiiiiiiiive Gooooooooooool-den Riiiiiiiiiiiiings!"). Perhaps the fact that the snow is finally (almost) gone had something to do with that feeling of it being over. But we're only about half way through the Christmas season. That's a difficult thing to remember when many people and places are de-Christmasing. We'll try to keep celebrating the best we can here! But still, on to the New Year. We'll be home New Year's Eve, but hopefully able to party a little with our neighbors who also have an almost-one-year-old.

I hope you all have festive New Years!