Ella and Bennett: December wrap-up

I'm back from my blogging hiatus. December was a busy month. Some good and fun stuff and some not so fun stuff.
The not so fun stuff:
1. Bennett sliced his thumb and ended up with stitches
2. 10 days later they were removed
3. Later that evening a red bump appeared on Ella's knee that appeared to be a bug bite
4. Two days later she can not bend it nor can she walk down the stairs so we go back to the doctor. She gets her knee (bug bite was infected) drained and has to wear a bandage and take antibiotics. Miserable weekend.
5. four days later nurse calls to tell me the culture came back and it is MRSA. Thank goodness she was already on the correct medication.
6. Day 9 of antibiotic Ella's legs break out in a rash. Back to the doctor on Monday and by Monday the rash is getting worse. She's allergic to Sulfa. Tuesday, poor thing is covered in hives on her face, too.
7. Just when I thought we'd been through enough in one month, a few days before Christmas my ear starts hurting. By Christmas Eve it was so painful I could barely sleep the night before, so I go to Care Now to find out I have an outer ear infection.
8. The day after Christmas Chris notices threads visible on his tires. We take his car to NTB a couple days later for new tires and get new tires, an alignment AND new brakes. Merry Christmas!

Whew! That wore me out just rethinking it all over again. The good news is that everyone has recovered nicely from everything! I'd heard stories of relapsing with the MRSA but so far her knee has healed up nicely and no relapse.

We did have a wonderful Christmas! Two FULL weeks of fun. My family out in California came out to spend Christmas with us. It was our first time to host and I loved every minute of it. My dad, stepmom, sister, brother and sister-in-law all flew out from southern Cali. My mom and stepdad came up for a couple days, too. I made my first turkey, well, my dad started it by taking everything out (it was all packaged nicely in a bag) and then stuck some oranges and apples back inside. I was so excited trying to figure out how to use the convection roast with the probe on my oven that I just let him to that part. I love this convection roast setting. I am going to have to start buying whole chickens or something. I made everything for Christmas dinner and I wasn't even stressed out. I just loved it. I was doing everything on my own time, not on a schedule, it was great. Chris carved the turkey and did a nice job. It was pretty funny watching him wait for it to cool though. He wanted to carve it the minute he took it out of the oven. He's so impatient. Then my dad was messing with him and would tell him, "just another minute" every few minutes just to watch him pace. I hope that everyone had a nice time. I loved having them all here and hope that one day they'll all come back and celebrate with us again. I love my family more than anything and wish that we lived closer. Of course the kids got everything and more for Christmas and of course they're already bored!

After Christmas our friends, the Doffings, were in town from Singapore for a few days. Ella was in friend heaven and Bennett learned a new word, "Ivy." I think he made her heart melt even though he was off playing and not as cuddly as he probably was a few months ago. He was running laps with the big kids trying to keep up. Our friends, the Cobb's came up for our New Year's Eve party, too.

I know if you're looking at the blog all you really want to see are the pictures. Here are some to wrap up the month.