We were scheduled to fly out on Monday to Texas. Amelia had started a fever the evening before, so we gave her all the meds we could to get her through the travel day. She was an amazing trooper. We made it to Grammie & Pappy's house where they had set up a space where she could be comfortably separate from everyone else. After we arrived, the family went out to dinner while Great Grammie, Amelia and myself stayed home. We made sure to give Great Grammie a lot of space, but Amelia was pleased to get to sit and talk with her from across the room.
We were all so excited to get to meet their cousin,"baby Wes", who is actually "toddler Wes" at 18 months.
The grand plan was to have all the kids sleep in a tent in the garage play area with rotating adults. We had to modify that plan with sick kids, but these two were THRILLED to get to sleep in the tent.
On Christmas Eve day, Colleen was up super early, so she helped Grammie prepare breakfast.
There was lots of sillyness while we played in the garage.
Art projects started - the kids decorated mason jars with nativity vinyl stickers
The kids soaked up the gorgeous temperatures outside.
Decorating mini-bundt cakes for everyone.
Amelia was invited to stay on the stairwell to watch the family activities and participate in some from afar.
We had a spinner game.
To everyone's surprise, Great Grammie came often during the holiday week and and spent a lot of time watching all of the chaos. Wes particularly loved to bring her books, and most times she was able to read to him.
Aunt Lori had made a belated birthday cake for Pappy, so we all sang to him. Colleen declared it was for both Pappy and Baby Jesus.
It was Amelia's year in the rotation of grandchildren to place the star on the Christmas tree. So we made her wear a glove to do so.
On Christmas morning, Amelia was set up over near her staircase. Each grandchild came downstairs to their personal snowman. Inside each box were their Christmas gifts. First we opened stockings and had breakfast. Then it was fun watching them open the snowmen together.
Austin immediately wanted to build his lego set.
These two had so much fun the entire holiday week together.
Great Grammie opened her Christmas gifts later in the morning since she had been sleeping for the first round.
Funny story - the pumpkin pies ended up with some finger prints poked into them through the plastic wrap. This kid never stopped eyeing the treats that were at his eye level.
Christmas morning fun outside. Yellow baby needed to come along for the ride.
Eli never wanted to drive the car. But he LOVED when Austin would drive and he could chase behind. Simple pleasures.
Using her new camera just like Grammie.
Late morning art project
Christmas lunch - Amelia had Daddy as her partner at their own special table.
After lunch, we set the kids up to watch Christmas movies. It was at this point that Grammie went to hug each child and let me know that Austin was really hot. Sure enough, he had a fever. Within a couple of hours, he started a severe croup bark. There were three 24 hour clinics in San Antonio that were open on Christmas day; Patrick and I spent the evening getting the croup meds he needed.
Amelia was SO excited to have company in the "den of disease". Austin was pretty thrilled to be with his sister too (at least at this point). Daddy spent most of the time up there, playing new Christmas games with them.
We were supposed to spend December 26th with Austin friends, but we had to cancel with 2 sick kids. Lori & Steel had planned on taking their boys to an indoor play area & coin-operated ride area in a local mall. The invited Colleen to come along for the day. She had so much fun!
A few videos from her fun day out
The invalids participating in that day's game.
This became quite the nightly ritual.
The next day had plans to go to another children's museum. It didn't open until later, so the morning was filled with books and playing with cups.
Patrick and myself stayed home to take care of the sick kids and Great Grammie. Pappy and Grammie had fun with everyone else and kept Colleen entertained at the museum.
Later that afternoon, Aunt Lori set up her hair salon outside. She cut all three Hanks' kids hair along with Pappy. Colleen thought it was funny to squawk the chicken while Aunt Lori was working.
Evening walk to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights. Austin was allowed to participate as long as he avoided the younger kids.
Amelia was BEYOND happy to be fever free for 24 hours and to get to come out and be with everyone. She spent the whole morning focused on Wes.
Showing off the puzzle completed. He's on my back so he can't infect anyone.
This day's big projects were decorating gingerbread houses and making button trees.
Colleen was very specific on the placement of candies.
Austin also worked on his for a long time!
Button trees
Zoning out at bedtime. But they had collected the books they wanted read to them.
Amelia spent this evening on a mattress outside of the tent.
The big surprise for this day was supposed to arrive mid-morning. So the kids spent a lot of time outside waiting on it.
We blindfolded Amelia to make it more fun.
A bounce house/slide combo! It was a lot of fun!
I spent much time inside the bounce house with Wes, helping him bounce and keeping him protected from the bigger kids. He loved it too! Grammie climbed in for a bit to see everyone's smiles.
So tired from all the hard work of bouncing!
To help alleviate Austin's disappointment, Patrick spent the day teaching him how to play Monopoly. Austin was beyond thrilled and actually won. Amelia saw what was going on and wanted to be part of for the rest of the day; so the bounce house was mostly used by the younger kids.
Reading to the babies
Satisfied with his winning streak in Monopoly.
In the late afternoon, once everyone was worn out from the bounce house, we allowed Austin go to out with me. He didn't last long since he was still pretty congested and winded from the flu. But it was good for his heart and his body to get to participate.
Sillyness with Uncle Patrick
On our last full day in Texas, the kids were able to enjoy the bounce house more! The rental company had even offered to let it stay through New Years so they wouldn't have to come pick it up. But Pappy arranged for it to leave on Dec 31 after we flew out. Also, Austin had been fever free for 24 hours, so he was allowed to join everyone. We had one day with all grandchildren "healthy" and playing together.
The planned big event for this day were afternoon family photos, particularly of Great Grammie and her family.
Dinner after photos was BBQ!
On the morning of our departure, Amelia started taking down the Christmas tree for Grammie.
After all we had been through during the week, we threw out our usual "1 hour of backpack activities before screen time" rule and let the kids rot their brains on 3.5 hours of Disney Jr. Everyone was pretty satisfied.
Our sweet neighbor, Shruthi, texted me as we were at the baggage claim, wanting to know when we would be home. She had doubled her dinner cooking and brought us dinner when we arrived. What a blessing!
