Christmas break

Christmas night got sick and slept pretty much all the next day. The next two days I felt like maybe I had a cold, so I took some cold medicine and took some naps, and Jacob and the kids took care of meals and the house. We did manage to go out to the movie theater to see Frozen 2, thanks to the generousness of our neighbor, Shannon, who paid for our tickets and some treats.

Everyone enjoyed themselves. We also went to Todd and Savannah's to play games while the kids watched a movie. When I was still feeling sick and achy and feverish by Saturday night I started to think that maybe I had the flu. When I woke up Sunday morning to Megan complaining about body aches and a fever I took her straight in to the CVS minute clinic where it was confirmed that I had Influenza B. Megan didn't have to get tested because I was positive, so they gave her Tamiflu which really did severely limit how long she was sick. I was sick probably 6 days, hers only lasted 3.

Megan and I missed church that Sunday, but Rachel received her Young Womanhood Recognition award and medallion that day for finishing all of Personal Progress.

She just barely turned 12 in November, but has been working on it since January. It is very impressive that she was able to finish it in just a year, when the program was designed to be a 6-year program (though 4 years was pretty common to get through it). She decided at the beginning of the year that she wanted to finish it before the new program started this year and Personal Progress was done away with, and she worked to achieve it. I'm very proud of all the time and work she put into accomplishing it.

On New Year's Eve Megan and I were not completely recovered, but both of us felt a lot better. We didn't want to risk infecting McKenzie and Peyton who hadn't gotten their flu shot this year, so we didn't join the festivities at Todd and Savannah's house. Megan was upset about missing out, so we decided to get some pizza for dinner.

Pizza Hut was pretty deserted and Megan thought it was the coolest thing to get her very own personal pizza and root beer, and we enjoyed ourselves before heading home for an early bedtime.

The other kids got to sleep over at Grandma's house after a party involving a piñata at Todd and Savannah's house. I'm sure it was lots of fun.

By New Year's Day Megan and I were back to full speed. We all headed to the park to play with cousins and Megan was happy to finally get to see Peyton and McKenzie.

The pogo sticks that the Knights got for Christmas were a big hit. Rachel kept practicing and working at it until she got nearly 300 jumps in a row. She has since made it to 1000 jumps.

For Christmas Santa gave us tickets to a play at the Gaslight Theater. They're always a lot of fun. And half the fun is pictures out front beforehand:

We ate way more popcorn that should be healthy, and got milkshakes or ice cream sundaes. The kids really loved our seats up on the balcony, too.

One of the big hits at Christmas was that all who didn't have roller blades got them. There have been lots of rollerblade outings.

Cari came down to Phoenix/Mesa for New Year's and managed to find a ride down to Tucson for the day. We went to meet Jacob for lunch at a park. The kids and Cari also played on the playground for a while

Back home the kids taught Cari how to play Unstable Unicorns, Rachel's new game that has been a big hit with everyone.

We also managed to play some of the Minute to Win It games we got for Christmas from Mark and Ashley. Pictured here is cookie unicorn, trying to balance 10 cookies for at least 3 seconds.

We were glad Cari got to come visit, if only for a short time. It's always a fun time to see family we don't see much.

The last Saturday of break Savannah ran in the Run Around Tucson race, as well as some of our friends in our ward. Savannah and Rachel's friend Sara both had the leg that went right past our neighborhood, so we got out our pompoms and went to cheer them on.

For Christmas the kids each got a coupon for a late night movie night with Mom and Dad. Ryan cashed his in on Friday, and Annie and Megan both wanted to cash theirs in on Saturday, so Megan started downstairs with both of us, then halfway through her show Jacob went upstairs and he and Annie started their movie on the laptop.

After Megan's movie ended and she went to bed, Annie came down to watch the rest of her movie with both of us.

At Grandma's the next day after our family dinner the kids were playing outside and fighting over whose turn it was for the hammock. Megan had made herself so comfortable that she didn't want anyone else to take over.

I thought it looked so funny, like Megan was just a head and arms.

Our Christmas break was over, and aside from the sickness (and partly because of the sickness) it was a nice, relaxing break. We got lots of family time, not as many outings as we had planned, and therefore, lots of chill time at home and out front with the basketball hoop. Can't complain much about that.