Christmas Break

Well, this post is long overdue. I apologize for that, but the reasons are perfectly...reasonable. You see, Paul and I went home for Christmas and while there, we obtained a parting gift from someone in the form of sickness. This seems to happen every time we go home: there is a new strand of sickness going around and we aren't immune to it yet, so we get it and bring it home with us. Huzzah. This sickness was probably the worst sickness that Paul and I have ever dealt with. Ever. This is no exaggeration. We got home on Jan. 1 and Paul was already sick. This was a weird cold/flu combo thing and he was pretty miserable. However, Paul didn't communicate just how sick he was, so like a good wife, I acted like a diligent nurse and promptly got sick myself. From Jan. 1 -  Jan. 7, Paul and I did nothing but lay on the couch and be completely miserable. Paul missed school for that whole week(!) and I luckily didn't start yet so I didn't feel as guilty, but man, were we feeling crappy! This sickness included: fevers everyday, nausea (for me), head congestion, runny/stuffy nose, cough, sore throat, aches EVERYWHERE, dizziness, and ear aches! To give you another idea of just how bad it was, in the last 2 years, we have gone through 2 boxes of tissues. This includes times during those 2 years when we were sick. This past week alone, we have gone through FOUR boxes of tissues and I am still sick right now and using up another one! It was insane. Paul has now mainly recovered and is back in action. The only lingering things for him is a bit of a runny nose and a sore throat. I, however, just cannot seem to beat this thing. I am on week 2 and I am still pretty miserable. Blegh. I am doing better enough now that I can finally post things, so here I am. I really hope that the next time we go home, we do not get THIS sick again. This has been a horrible start to our new year!

Anyway, Christmas break itself was wonderful. We spent the first five days of break seeing family on both sides. We got to spend as much time as possible with our three nephews and one niece. This made me pretty happy. :) Included in the activities was: making cookies with Quentin, playing hide and seek with Wes, snuggling with my newest nephew (who we got to see for the first time!), and having my niece Izzy fall asleep in my arms as well as sing with me. Life is grand for a while now that I got to fill up on lovin' my kiddos. :) We also saw some siblings, though Michael, Kt, Jim, and Becky were all out of state. I did some baking with my mom and we got plenty of hot-tubbing time in with Paul's parents. Good times! I also got to see my dearest friend Julie. Also, we got together with Rae, Dan, Rusty, and Staci, which hasn't happened in forever, so that was lots of fun as well. Overall, it was a wonderful holiday break with lots and lots of family time and some friend time as well (though one party with Kevin, Kyle, and Rick failed, which was a bummer). We ate lots of goodies and not enough water (always a problem for us when we visit home!). Oh, we got to see my grandparents (the Sjoerdsma side) for dinner one night as well, which was wonderful, since we haven't seen them in so long!

The only bummer (besides returning with the worst sickness ever) is that we don't know when we will be returning to see everyone again. In the past, we could always say "in the summer" and we could look forward to that. However, this summer, we are moving to South Carolina, and we currently do not think we will be visiting home due to the business connected with moving to a new state. We shall see how it goes. Even though SC is farther away from home, there is no big city in the way, which makes travelling seem nicer (I told Paul that when we move, I am never, ever driving through Chicago again!). Still, leaving home without the knowledge of knowing our next return made it extra hard to leave...

Here are some pictures of my darlings:

Not the best picture, but this is my eldest nephew Quentin. 3 years old, he likes to talk to me and Paul about his favorite toys and he likes to play toys with us. He is quite the extrovert and goes up to everyone and introduces himself! He is also a little smarty-pants. Example: we were making cookies and he picked his nose. I told him that he couldn't make more cookies until he washed his hands. "Why?" he asked me. I explained that his nose was full of germs that made his hands dirty and that would make the cookies dirty. "I will use this hand only then. I didn't put THAT one in my nose!" he explained. I had a hard time not laughing at that one. :)

This is my darling niece, Izzy. I think she is 9 months old. Though Izzy's mom doesn't like to hear it, Izzy looks A LOT like I did when I was her age. It creeps me out a bit. She is a really good baby. She doesn't cry unless she hurts herself, and even then, only rarely. She is inquisitive and tries to get into everything to figure it out (she gets that from my brother/her dad!). She loves smiling at people and she does this adorable thing where if you hum a song in her ear, she will hum it right back and does it almost perfectly! I was impressed. :)

Here is me and Paul and these two adorable kiddos. I love them to bits!

Here is me and Paul and our newest nephew Will. We were SO excited to finally meet him! He is 1 month old in this picture, so he is steadier than a newborn, which means I could hold him somewhat confidently. Newborns terrify me with their delicateness. Anyway, Will is a good baby and doesn't fuss much unless he is hungry. I held him a lot on Christmas, and he slept the entire time! He is snuggly and sweet, and I cannot wait to see what kind of personality he develops as he ages.

Wes is 1.5 years old and seemed to be going through a camera-shy stage while we were home, so I had to get a picture of him from Christy's camera. The amazing thing about Wes is that he communicates creepily well for such a young age! He can make 4-5 word long sentences and tells you exactly what he needs/is thinking/likes/etc. It made me shocked every single time he told me something. He loves books and letters, and goes around pointing at letters and saying not only the letter correctly, but the sound the letter makes! Ex: 'B! Buh!'  He is very intelligent and FULL of energy. It's exhausting but fun. We played a fun game where he would "hide" a toy and have me go find it. Good times. :)


I love these kids so much, and I look forward to the next time I get to see them and discover how they are growing and changing. Being an Aunt ROCKS! :)