Thursday, January 1, 2009

The Life & Times of the Holiday Haneline's

Well, sorry I've fallen off the blogwagon for a while. It's been a heck of a holiday for us. Some good... some not so good. Here's the rundown of our past couple weeks (I know it's long, but we've had lots going on & I've got a lot to say).


I have never been so relieved for the kids to be out of school (because that means I didn't have to work either :-) and to have a break. Carter asked for the first couple days "what are we going to do today mommy?" and my response was "absolutely nothing!". We lounged around in our pj's most of the day & played & took naps... great times. Sunday we were getting ready to leave church & one of the workers came & got us & said that Chandler was the in the bathroom not feeling well. Great! Just what we need... a sick kid. I swear, it never fails that someone in our family gets sick every Christmas... NEVER.FAILS! He had the stomach virus all day Sunday. But we quarantined him to his room & I prayed that no one else would get it. Monday comes & Carter says he doesn't feel good. (Sigh... I guess it's gotta make it's rounds). However, by lunch he was crying because he said his ear was hurting, not of a stomach ache. Ok, no big deal. I made a dr. appointment & we were in & out within 20 mins. That is a major record time at the children's clinic for any of you familiar with our dr here in Shelby! Got an antibiotic & some decongestant & we're good. Let's hope that Kensley stays on the mend. Tuesday rolls around... that was our big departure day for Christmas travels. Still, all is well so we headed to Statesville for Christmas with the Wyatt side of the family (Corby's mom's side) and then went to Granite to spend the night & the next couple days with my family. Unfortunately, Corby wasn't able to travel with us because he had to work, so we drove separately & he joined us Wednesday at my parents. Me & Mom cooked most of the day on Wed. and had a great time just getting ready to spend the evening with family. The kids had fun playing & had so much anticipation of opening presents. My aunt & cousin came over that night & we had our big feast & opened some presents. We let the kids sprinkle their reindeer food on the lawn & tried to convince the boys to go to sleep... that took a while... they were too excited (& scared) about Santa coming. Kensley was really restless when we put her to bed & I had one of those feelings that it wasn't going to be a good night. I was right. She was up about 10:30 throwing up. She didn't rest well the rest of the night... kept waking up feeling like she needed to throw up but couldn't.


Christmas morning rolls around & the boys were so ready for everyone to be up so they could open presents. It wasn't too early... about 7:45 that they got up. They were excited, but a little confused that there were so many presents for them together. That's because they got a Wii and all the fixins' to go with it. They were very excited about all their presents which included an iPod shuffle, games for the wii, games for their Nintendo DS, new boots, batman costumes, Legos and a lot more stuff (it was a combination of presents from Mimi & PawPaw & Santa & us). Kensley got a kitchen, some babydoll stuff, a new purse (which i believe was her fave), 4 sheep... go figure!...and lots more stuff too. They were definitely blessed this Christmas!


Me & Corby spent most of the day on the toilet and Kensley had diarrhea all day too and I had a lingering headache that wouldn't seem to go away. We managed a few games of Wii in between though :-) I was ready for bed that night since I had been up so much the night before with K. Friday, I woke up with the same headache but worse and Kensley woke up snotty & ill. I tried taking everything, but nothing seemed to make it go away. We had to pack up and head to Statesville for the rest of the weekend to spend with the Haneline's. Friday night was the Haneline extended family Christmas party and I wasn't much count at it. I just squinted at people all night & stayed kind of in the same spot. I really just wanted to go home & go to bed. When I did, I couldn't sleep. I froze the entire night & Kensley coughed the whole night. Finally about 6 am I couldn't take it any longer & I ran a tub of hot water in the big jacuzzi tub just to warm up. I should have known I had a fever. When I finally got up Sat morning I couldn't hardly open my eyes & decided I couldn't spend the rest of the weekend like this, so I went to the Urgent Care. I had to wait almost 2 hours, but I got a little relief. I had a fever, aches & pains & the annoying headache so the dr. thought I had the flu. The test was negative, but she said you have all the symptoms & she treated me for the flu anyway. I pretty much slept & laid around all weekend... which makes it not so much fun for me. Kensley was so snotty & her eyes were puffed up like marshmallows & gunking up, but she didn't seem to be bothered much by it except at night b/c she couldn't sleep. Corby came up Sat night to join us for the rest of the weekend. The kids had a great time playing with all their cousins. PapPaw even got the 4-wheeler working which was one of the highlights of my boys weekend!


They got to open stockings Saturday night and Sunday after church we all opened presents. Before the presents were opened, we started a new Haneline tradition (courtesy of MamMaw Wanda's fabulous ideas). Each year, one family has to create the nativity scene. This year started it & it started with the youngest, so it was Matthew & Erin's year to "host". They had to come up with everything except the costumes (they were provided). It was a hoot! They did a great job with the back drop & setting & all the kids had their designated "character" and lines to say...well most of them. They read the Christmas story from Luke 2...Kaitlyn was the narrator and the rest of the kids were Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wisemen, angels, etc. (It's pretty funny that one family can have enough kids to put on a play). We had a lighted baby Jesus (from an outside nativity) and it was most fascinating to Addison, Kensley & Lauren... they had a few quarrels over who was going to hold him. We had a few costume malfunctions... Preston couldn't (or wouldn't) keep his camel hat on, Kensley's angel halo kept falling off & Lauren was opposed to her angel wings & halo even coming near her. It was really sweet though & a great lesson for the kids. Next year will be Amanda & Aaron's turn... I wonder what it will be like then?


After the kids stripped their costumes, they got to dig into presents. The boys got a metal detector, more Legos, nerf guns and another Wii game and Kensley got some Tinkerbell stuff, babydolls, dress up clothes & a Barbie head for fixing her hair (and I'm sure more stuff in between... just too many kids to keep count & I'm still unpacking bags & boxes). I felt a little better on Sunday as long as I had meds in me so Sunday night we headed home. I was ready for my bed & I knew I would be making a trip to the dr. with Kensley on Monday.

I did have to take Kensley to the dr. on Monday & it wasn't as quick of a trip as the week before, but she did have a sinus infection so they gave her an antibiotic & some high power cough meds. The boys ended up staying in Statesville & played with their cousins a couple more days which gave me & Kensley some rest time. I'm still not feeling 100% & I've got this cough & congestion stuff going on now... I'm wondering if I haven't developed something different now.

Yesterday we headed to Lincolnton to spend New Year's with our friends The Stameys. This is a tradition for us that we've been doing for 8 years now. The weather was great (a little cold, but manageable) so the kids got to play outside & ride the 4 wheelers. It's crazy, but the boys are old enough now to drive the 4 wheelers themselves. The just rode around the yard while the men were outside playing corn hole...that's a bean bag toss game that I got Corby for birthday/Christmas. We rung in 2009 last night & watched the ball drop on the TV and then off to bed.

Overall, it was a good Christmas & holiday, I just wish I could have enjoyed it more and felt better. We got to spend great times with family & friends and got lots of great presents. I'm sad that it's all over. Seems like it comes in a flash & then it's done and you put up all your stuff...I'm dreading that part. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!

(i'm working on uploading a slide show, so check back soon!)

2 comments:

Heather said...

I am so sorry you were sick over the holidays! That stinks! It sounds like you made lemonade with your lemons though. :) Happy New Year!

Unknown said...

Here's what I have no idea what you are talking about.. care to explain what "I wasn't much count at it" means?

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