Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We celebrated 2 out of the 4 Christmases that we were supposed to this year and we really shouldn't have gone to any. Let me explain...Rachel woke up and threw up in her bed Thursday morning. This girl has a stomach of steel and NEVER usually has any stomach problems. She took a 4 hour nap later and woke up and was acting pretty happy. We were supposed to go to my brother's house to celebrate with all of the Crouches, but decided to cancel since we weren't sure what was going on with Rachel. She didn't want to really eat anything, but wasn't acting sick at all.

When she woke up Friday (Christmas Eve), she still wasn't really hungry, but was running around the house as happy as ever. We got to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ernies's house and she ran around and played. Still no signs of illness until about 4pm. She had a horribly runny diaper. This is when I realized that she was actually still sick.

When we left my Aunt and Uncle's house, as we were driving to Tim's parents house, I started to feel not great but just thought that I ate too much. As we were eating dinner, I started to realize that things weren't quite right. I spent Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day with the flu.

Rachel continued to have runny diapers and on Sunday morning she threw up again. The poor thing was so bad on Sunday, she couldn't move all day. She was completely lethargic, couldn't walk, and wouldn't let me leave her side all day. We were supposed to be celebrating Christmas at my moms house on Sunday and at this point, Rachel and I were still sick, Tim, my mom, and Tyler all had it too now, so Sunday was cancelled as well.

The last couple of days have been up and down for her. I finally called the doctor and they confirmed I am doing everything possible for her. If she is still not right on Thursday, I will bring her in.

As I am writing this, the current count of family members who got this bug is: twelve and counting! I feel so bad exposing everybody to this horrible bug!

Rachel, EJ, and Julia playing under the table. EJ came down with pink eye that morning and so he was wearing the patch to avoid exposure to everybody.

This year we did a white elephant gift exchange with things you already had around the house. Tyler got a make-up bag and accessories. You can see how happy he was.

Grandma got a Chargers jersey which later got stolen!

C0rinne was so desperately trying to get somebody to "steal" the pillow that she got. Once somebody finally stole it, she walked around and said, "I don't want any of these other things." She should have kept the pillow :)

Rachel wasn't really interested in opening gifts, all she really wanted to do was move them from one person to the other. You can see that the girls learned quickly to hold on tight to their gifts.

She really like her talking cleaning supplies from Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ernie! Her favorite is the trash can and the iron.

She really liked their dogs. The only time she wasn't sure about them is when they were jumping around and trying to play. She froze in her tracks and didn't know what to do when 150 pound dogs were pouncing near her.

We went to Tim's parents for dinner on Christmas Eve. My mom and David even joined us.

Tim's parents got them a photo of Rachel that Sam had taken on Thanksgiving.

On Christmas morning, it took everything that I had in me to open gifts because I was miserable. (And yes Brianne, Rachel is wearing a tutu, just for you!)

Bryce opening gifts.

I am opening my wonderful new jogging stroller that I hope to break in as soon as I feel better.

Tim isn't quite sure how to get his gift open.

Heather, Sam, and Matt (who is sporting his new shades)

Tim bought Rachel a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse couch, chair, and ottoman that she absolutely LOVED!

After spending Christmas Day at the Hodgson house, we came home and Rachel opened a few more gifts that we left at home. She had to stand, sit, and kneel on every single one of them to test them out.

It makes it really hard to open a gift when she is sitting on it. The Mickey Mouse gifts seemed to be the real winners. She spends all day playing with the characters and the clubhouse.

Merry Christmas everybody!