Christmas nevertheless

Thankfully, it seems like we are on the mend. I ate our Christmas meal. This made me glad. Sophia cried through dinner but I was able to eat and I enjoyed it. After a day or so of not even wanting to look at food, this was a welcome change.

My parents left around 6:oo and guess what happened as soon as they left? Sophia played contently for an hour or longer and did not whine or cry once. She didn't call for mama. She didn't provoke Samuel. She played, by herself. After three or so days of incredibly high maintenance behavior, I was shocked. Samuel sat calmly in front of the computer and played a game. I was able to clean the kitchen, mop all the floors and pick up all the clutter and no one said a word to me. I peaked in on them a few times to make sure they weren't dead, but no, playing quietly. My kids play nicely, actually quite often, just not these past few days. I know they have not been feeling well but why wait until grandpa and grandma leave? Some things I'll never understand.

Here are some pictures of the last few days. Please remember that not a lot of love were put into these photos. Taking pictures while wanting to puke, not a good mix.




Here's Sophia, I mean little Shelley, as she was called quite a few times by both mom and dad. She looks a lot like my dad, the curls, or used to be curls, the cheeks, the bottom lip.



Here are my two with my parents. They should be wearing oxygen masks. I can see the virus germs emitting from the little one's pores.



Wrestling with grandpa. What could be better?

Trying to get a cute picture of them in their Christmas pj's was really effective.

This was Christmas Eve. We did a bunch of appetizers that I didn't eat. Well, I did eat a poblano. I didn't enjoy it too much. It doesn't sit well with an upset stomach...

Here's our Christmas dinner. We had lamb, roasted vegetables, salad, sweet potato casserole and rolls. For dessert my brother's family, living in England, sent us Christmas pudding and crackers. Thanks guys. We enjoyed it!

We got to talk to both my brothers today through the computer. Both my kids were fascinated with seeing both themselves and others on the computer. We all couldn't be together but this sure brought us a bit closer.

Mom it's ok to look at the camera and smile, really it is.

Here we are. Wow, that's a great picture of me. I have no makeup and I don't think my hair had been brushed in days. Yes, George is growing a beard. People say he looks a bit like a terrorist. What do you think?

And Samuel's favorite present. He put his playhouse in his room and made his bed with his new Spiderman sheets. After I read him a book in his tent, he asked me, "Mom, did you get me this cool tent?"
I told him I did. "I knew it was you and not Santa. You know me much more than Santa. don't you?"

I didn't get many pictures of Gabrielle. She got her ears pierced yesterday and she looks great. I'll post a picture of her soon. Her mom paid for her to get her hair done, next week. Maybe she'll let me do a photo shoot of her after that. We can always hope...

So that was our Christmas. Loud, whiny, icky, rainy, but Christmas nevertheless. It won't go down in the Ibrahim family history as the best Christmas ever but we celebrated as best we could. Thanks for coming mom and dad and please forgive us if you get sick. I know my kids were a handful so thanks for putting up with us.