It's Christmas once again....

So are expected, our Christmas festivities were low key. It was fun to watch Evan open up his gifts and his stocking. Yes, his stocking b/c it was Evan's highlight filled with chocolate and lollipops... a kids dream.

No formal dinner was had. A make-shift dinner at Joel's (while he was medicated) is occur with leftovers and 'what's in the freezer'. Unfortunately, Dan had to stay home. And in the end, it just didn't feel much like Christmas.

But our big Christmas dinner did go off without a hitch on Saturday... And because it was at our house, Dan attended!! As you can see, Evan enjoyed having his daddy around. We had an informal dinner and the entire family (unfortunately, Joseph & Tanya didn't make it up). And we started our new family tradition... birthday cake!! The entire reason we celebrate this day is because it is the day that Christ was born... and so we have cake. And Evan blew out the candles during the first verse of the song!! He likes cake!!

And that was Christmas!

Christmas not going as planned

Happy Christmas Eve!!!! But it's not the typical Christmas for the Pereira/Bouges house (maybe more the Pereira than the Bouges :). It's never quite felt like the Christmas season was here. We put up our tree a week later than expected. And got the cards out a lot later than expected (used this family photo).

But our house hasn't been truly blessed with good healthy this holiday season. Breaking it down? Dan and I had bad colds since before Thanksgiving, which turned into chest colds for both of us in early Dec. Last week, Evan began running temps as high as 104.2 for days before being diagnosed with a double ear infection. But after day 2 of antibiotics, he's fever was gone and his energy was back... unfortunately we had 6+ inches of snow covering the ground.

Then last Friday as that snow began to blanket the area at a rate of an inch an hour, Joel was in a car accident. As Joel was stopped at a stop sign less than a mile from his house, he was hit by a car. He was taken to the ER during the storm and Abbie went to be with him. He was treated and released hours later with a mild concussion, staples in his head (almost 2" long), and short term memory loss (couldn't remember Thursday or Friday). Joel is A LOT better now. Most of his memory is back (except the accident and moments afterwards).

Unfortunately, Dan (in the height of the storm) and after leaving his job went to pick up Joel and Abbie from the ER. Dan didn't have his gloves, a hat and the zipper on his jacket broke. And by Saturday morning, his chest cold got a lot worse. Abbie and Joel stayed at our house over the weekend.

Saturday came and the dig out began. However, the healthiest to shovel and dig out the snow was Abbie (who's on antibiotics for bronchitis) and myself with a chest cold and pregnant. So what a scene... the ladies outside digging out the snow and the guys watching from the window... kinda of humorous. And poor Evan was ready to help but he's still recovering from his ear infections.

And when Monday came and Dan took himself to the doctor... he has pneumonia is both his lungs. So with all the ailments in our house, and the unusual circumstances, we have "rescheduled" the family Christmas dinner from Thursday to Saturday. Oh, and I'm on antibiotics now too. So I need time to disinfect the house, folks need time to heal, and Santa will still be here Christmas morning. Maybe he'll bring a Christmas miracle and we'll wake up healthy :)

So I looked back and this seems to be the worse Christmas ever. And I've had some doozies: (1) Dad in India when I was 7 or so, mom with the flu, major snow storms and no food in the house BUT Santa still came and so did neighbors when we didn't show up for Christmas mass (2) Parents in FL and mom sick over the Christmas holiday..... but this is the worse b/c this year we won't be together on Christmas :(

Time to go and begin the big cleaning (part 1). Evan had a sleep over at his grandparents so I have a couple hours. And part 2 will have to be when Evan is napping. But we all agree that I need to take it easy to take care of others.... that's what moms do? right?

Happy Christmas Eve.....

Lifes moves fast when you aren't looking

It's the Christmas season and I can't help but wonder where did the year go. I think about life a year ago... Evan wasn't walking yet and today he runs, jumps, climbs. Evan wasn't talking yet and today he's stringing together 3-4 word sentences. You only have to tell him something once and he remembers.
I look back at the year and think about the those many weddings and couples starting their life together. And the many babies born.

And Dan and I are now expecting child number 2!!! That's right.. Baby Bouges is due May 24th.... And yes, we will be finding out the gender and let you know!!! Hopefully we'll have that good news for Christmas.

Pregnancy hasn't been fun for me. Morning sickness all day since day one!!! I'm now 17 weeks and starting to feel better. And starting to show.

Evan is getting used to the idea of a baby inside mommy but I bet he has a lot of questions he hasn't asked yet.

And now we are all sick. I got sick first around Thanksgiving... Dan about a week later.. and Evan came home from daycare with a fever and ended up throwing up. It continued on this morning but he did sleep ok last night.