Three Christmases Down, One to Go

We're a week and a half into a two-week Christmas holiday, and all things considered, it's going pretty well. The biggest "considered" is that all four members of the immediate JoyFamily have been feeling less-than-healthy. JoyDad and I have had colds; Rose had an ongoing bout with abdominal pain that made us think "appendicitis" and also made us think "stressing out" but cleared up with a course of antacids; and Joy had fever & upchucks on the Tuesday before Christmas, followed by a week of -- well, let's call it "bowel disregulation." Merry, merry.

But, as I said, things haven't been too bad for all of that. We made it through a snowy drive on Christmas Eve to AuntieS' place for the first Christmas celebration: JoyDad family fun, and Chicago pizza from Lou Malnati's, and a big pile of gifts. Then we went home for a nice quiet Christmas Day. Here was the scene before we dug into the pile for Christmas #2:


We had been very careful not to bring out any presents before that morning, nor to even hang the stockings, because that living-room space is very much Joy's territory and we worried whether the stockings would survive. Funny enough, after the unwrapping was done, we hung the stockings back up just to be a little festive, and Joy let them hang. They're still up! as is our tree, which she's tall enough to bring down with one grab if she wanted to! as are the Christmas cards on the back doors which she can easily reach and hasn't even touched!

Christmas #3 came with Grandma Joy and GrandpaJ (my side of the family), who drove up from Kansas on Monday. The girls hadn't seen these grandparents since we went to Kansas for Easter, but Joy remembered, all right. She ran up and gave Grandma Joy a huge smiling unsolicited hug. Ahhh! We had yet another round of gifts on Tuesday morning, followed by a sledding outing. Both grandparents took their turns on the sleds going down the long hill, perhaps not surprising when you consider that Grandma Joy celebrated her 70th birthday earlier this year by going sky-diving...

Anyway, we've got a couple more days of visit from the Kansas grandparents, and then will have Christmas #4 just after New Year's with the grandparents on JoyDad's side. It will be hard to go back to the post-holiday existence after all these treats.

Here is Joy with a few of her treats -- a new Christmassy Joy-outfit, and a lovely stimmy fleece boa that I made her, and a set of mis-keys that I had carefully selected in hopes of coming "close enough" to my own car keys that they could serve as a substitute. (Who was I kidding? When is "close enough" ever good enough for our kids when they've got their obsession on?)


Another favorite gift with a Joy-tag on it came from AuntieS on Christmas Eve -- another stimmy delight, a pin-art toy. Joy has had to share that one, though. Here is Rose demonstrating some dramatic faces:

The Scream

The Grin


Even JoyMama got into the act, demonstrating here her dissatisfaction with a lip-enhancement surgery gone just a little too far:


(I kid, I kid!)