We wish you a Mer (oops, no, wait, watch out, I'm gonna puke!!)

Our Christmas celebrations started off great, with a fun filled night at Grandma & Grandpa Babycakes with the whole Hughes clan. We ate, we played, we opened lots of presents, and the kids were all happy and very excited. Joshua was especially excited, and asked no less than 100 times, if it was time to open presents yet. He was very happy to get his CARS racetrack from Jake, and he carefully guarded it all night long.

Bear, lovin on her new baby

Alex in Star Wars heaven

Hannah Montana

A very Happy Bear

Bruce making love to the camera.

And a little holiday nose picking, just for fun! (and unfortunately the gross doesn't end here)

After the fun party at Grandma's, we headed home, got everyone all tucked snug in their beds, and layed out the Santa gifts. Keep in mind that no one had showed even the slightest hint of any illness up until this point.

Santa gifts

Let me start this paragraph by stating that when 5 of the 6 people in your house have the badooks, 2 bathrooms are just not enough!! It all began at 3am when Alex sauntered into our room moaning and saying he didn't feel too well. Within 10 minutes he was in the bathroom barfing his guts out. 2 hours later, Joshua was crying because he had puked all over his new Diego pillow, and his PJ's. Shortly after that, I went in to get Bear up, and let's just say, it hit me as soon as I opened the door. Bear had puked all over her crib, and leaned over the side to puke into and all over the toy box at the side of her crib. She then continued to sleep and roll around in it, so as to get the maximum amount of it into her hair. It was FABULOUS!!!!

So instead of tearing into Santa gifts, we spent the morning bathing kids, and pulling chunks out of bedding, before it hit the washer. We didn't even start to open presents until 10am, and by then Bruce had started having tummy troubles (which have had him homesteading the Jon for 3 days). I know, I know, we have no secrets here. At least Bruce doesn't. :) But none the less, we managed to fake our way through present opening, even though Joshua was continuing to puke every 5-10 minutes, and looked near death all morning. The poor kid could barely keep his head up, and continued to be sick the whole day.

Bear was very happy to get her own Basketball. She is obsessed with Bruce's and will hold it, and talk to it for hours.

Bruce & Alex were excited to see their RC helicopters. Too bad they were not as easy to fly as the box said they would be. But cool anyway.

Hannah got lots of games this year, Connect four, Disney Yahtzee, & High School musical dance, to name a few.

Joshua looking GREEN, but putting on a happy face for the camera.

Love this picture of Bear, feeding her baby.

New Scooters for Alex & Hannah

The CHAOS of present opening

Happy, albeit sick kids, posing with their Christmas loot.

The really great part of my Christmas story is that I was hosting lunch for Bruce's family that day. We warned them that there had been some puking (but we were'nt as elaborate in the details as we probably should of been) but they chose to take their chances and come anyway (a choice that Bruce's dad is regretting today, as he has taken to his deathbed, thanks to us), sorry Sam. I was really glad they all came and we (meaning everyone other than Bruce & Joshua, who were getting worse by the minute) had a good visit, ate some good food, and opened some fun presents.

Bruce with his "Hot glow of electric sex" lamp

Bruce, Karen, Jeni, & Sam

Within an hour of the family leaving, I was in the bathroom puking my guts out, as Bear cheered me on, by saying, "oooh momma, yucky, bye bye, ooooohhhh". Later that night Hannah was complaining of a hurt tummy, but she was able to hold it together, unlike the rest of us. What we really wanted to be doing all day was lying around moaning in our blankets. And that is exactly what we did for the rest of the day.

Merry Freakin Christmas!!!

Luckily we kept ourselves quarrantined all day Friday, and the kids played hard like it was Christmas morning. The Badooks went, as quickly as it came, except for Bruce. But he was well enough to accompany me to see BodyWorlds on Friday night, which was way gross, but really cool, all at the same time. And today we had lunch with the whole Gines family at Chuck-a-Rama, and I'm happy to report that everyone has kept it down thus far. :)

Things that made this Christmas Season memorable, other than the puking of course:

The Fairly Odd Parents Christmas (the kids love this cartoon, and we have watched the Christmas episode, laughing the whole time, at least 50 times, per their request).

Changing all the Christmas carols to somehow include the word "Hotdog" in them somewhere. Not sure who started this (probably Hannah), but Joshua has kept it going. We wish you a Merry hotdog, etc, etc.

Watching Bear scream at Santa, & listening to Joshua tell us all month how Santa is "really scary".

Watching the kids excitedly open all the Christmas cards from our family & friends.

Discussing Boobies with Hannah everday, and trying to explain to her that they don't really come from the Northpole.

Spending time with Family & Friends.

FHE's focusing on the Savior