A Years Worth in a Month

Well I shouldn’t have to remind anyone who knows us how busy a month December usually is. Of course it is plenty busy for most people, but we seem to step up our game every year. With decorations, shopping, multiple parties, celebrations, birthdays, visitors, family, friends, floats, furniture, multiple plagues and oh yeah Christmas. It starts off on the very first of the month and goes right to the end. This month was no different. In-fact, it literally started on Dec 1 and came to a crashing end on New Year’s Eve. Actually, it is still going on as I write this, but in the spirit of the New Year, anything that happens today on doesn’t count. I am not even sure how to organize this in such a way that I capture everything. A list of course!

Dec 1-2: After just coming to a screeching stop from our impromptu road trip to California for my grandma’s funeral, we decided we would attack this month head on and avoid nothing. Get as much done upfront and avoid last minute panics (amazingly, both things happened, all the upfront work AND last minute panics). This included getting a tree, getting down the decorations AND putting them up, putting out lights, welcoming Freddie (our Elf on the Shelf), and selecting, buying and mailing our Christmas cards. Usually this takes a solid few weeks...done in the first weekend...all while Katy was recovering from round 1 of the flu. (pictures).

Dec 6 - 15: Alright, so we got the house mostly ready to handle the holidays, and we are not too far off from being mentally prepared for it. No real gifts bought yet, no Spirit Party planned, no idea how many events there are going to be and when. But, we have done what we could. Next up was Caden’s Preschool Float for the Louisville Parade of Lights. This has become a tradition where we take the lead on the school float. This is the third year and with Caden moving out of preschool and Molly moving in this year, there is another three years coming. This really is a fun undertaking, but this time it came a week after the aforementioned impromptu road trip. So we made an executive decision to use a trailer we already had and use a “recycled” theme so nothing had to be bought and an idea could sort of evolve on its own. So on Thursday the 6th starting at 3pm, we had a few of the other JSP (that’s Jefferson PreSchool) dads over and we busted out a recycled robot in about 4 hours...not too bad. Also, today our first guests arrived, Karen and Mark came to visit in time for Caden’s parade and with plans to stay for the next 10 days to celebrate, most importantly, Jon’s 35th birthday on 12/12/12. And do some other things with those other people in this house. But back to the party. Jon decided last year that it was necessary to make a big deal out of his 35th birthday. Why? Because he never does, and he turned 35 on the magic day of 12/12/12 (the last time this will happen this millennium). Yes, that was a Wednesday. But Katy did it, she put together an AWESOME party at a local restaurant (Waterloo) and invited everyone. And everyone showed up, it was perfect. Including my dad, who flew from Haiti after working Habitat out there for a month...anything for a party! Before and after that, there was much lovely touring and site-seeing around the big CO. It was a good visit and a good week before the official festivities started. (pictures).

Dec 16 - Christmas: Okay so here we are ready or not. The events are planned and game is on. And it was all pretty great actually. We had another stellar Spirit Party even after some internal strife earlier in the month related to planning. Everyone had fun, everyone performed well and all are looking forward to it for years to come. Something new this year that I think will catch on as tradition for at least this family, breakfast at the aquarium with Santa! Way fun. Our aquarium in Denver also operates a nice restaurant in the same facility. They also do lots of events including holiday activities. So we got to enjoy a lovely buffet breakfast, had Santa visit us at our table, then got to watch him dive in the big tanks and swim with the fishes and sharks, really cool for us and above unbelievable for the kids. Not-to-mention there are mermaids swimming in the tanks (all the time, not just Xmas), and that just blows Molly’s mind. After that, we did gingerbread houses and a few dinners, cookie making and lots of get togethers. Christmas Eve had new PJs for all and a good dinner with everyone. Christmas Day brought lots of gifts for everyone lots of good surprises this year I think (iPad, Sphero, Nest, Terrain Twister, and PRIIINNNNNCEEEESSSSSESSSS!). Christmas Day with the whole family was a lot of fun too. I have to say (in my humble dad opinion), that this day, after the gifts are open and everyone together is the most fun part of the season. The pressure is off, the messes are gone, and everyone is just hanging out with each other. Good Times (pictures). And let me just say thank goodness for that good time because of what happened next.....

Dec 26 - Jan 11: Sick. Sick. SICK. Influenza B, Norovirus, 104 temps, vomit, diarrhea, hospital visits, Tamiflu...dear God the two weeks that followed the magic of Christmas really showed us the magic of Biology. It started with poor Grandma Kay getting wasted by the flu. She was staying with us at the time and had to stay a couple of weeks longer because she wasn’t healthy enough to fly. Katy got it from every direction the 24/7 care of her mom, she herself getting it and then both kids got it bad. Now this was actually positively ID’d Influenza B despite everyone having flu shots and it was just brutal. All the news reports about this season, for once the news did not blow it out of proportion. Tamiflu saved the day for most of us, made it a little less worse. But the damage was done and all of New Years and the rest of Christmas break was a loss. I guess the good news is that our immune systems are up to date now? I guess. Or something. Just one picture for this entry:

One of the highlights of the month, Dad’s birthday party...thanks to Katy!