Our Christmas celebrating took a sharp turn when Ben got his tonsils out on December 22nd. We decided just a few days beforehand, after he finally saw an ENT about his never ending sore throat, to just do it. We’d met our deductible and he had some days off work for the holiday. So even though it greatly complicated our holiday plans, in the long term it made sense to just go ahead and do it. We were warned that the recovery would be terribly painful and slow, and that was absolutely true. So Ben really missed every Christmas activity that weekend and instead was in bed and terrible pain!
But we forged ahead without him. It was a little more chaotic and stressful and exhausting for me, but I think the kids all had a wonderful Christmas, which is what really matters anyway! We had a lovely Christmas Eve celebration with the Smiths, complete with the talent show, games, charcuterie dinner, so many presents for the kids, a heart-warming Christmas story from Papa and lots of hugs. The kids all had a blast and it was possibly our most chaotic Christmas Eve to date. So much noise and excitement from this crew!
Once we got home and I checked on Ben and got him dosed with more meds and stuff, I quickly got Lila down and asked the boys to set out milk and cookies for Santa. I came downstairs to find them setting out cookies, carrots for the reindeer, and they made Santa hot chocolate, complete with whipped cream! What sweet boys! I read them a few Christmas stories around our tree before tucking them into bed. They all sleep together in Davis’s room on Christmas Eve and they were all asleep in a matter of minutes!
Ben came downstairs to finish setting up Christmas with me. Luckily we didn’t have much to do because he was mostly just sitting on a chair in great amounts of pain. But we did enjoy a few peaceful moments by our lit tree- my favorite place to be in December!
The boys were up really early, but sweetly stayed in their room and waiting until 7:00 for me to wake up Lila to go downstairs.
The present opening was cute and fun and so chaotic. Ben sat in a chair and tried to enjoy himself watching the kids open all their gifts, but this surgery was no joke and he was in so much pain! I felt like I was torn in a million directions (mom! Open this one! Can you help me put batteries in! Help me cut this plastic!) Once everything was open I made up some gravy for our traditional Christmas breakfast. Ben made the biscuits before his surgery and we froze them, so that part was easy. After a delicious Christmas breakfast we all got ready and headed to church.
I loved attending church on Christmas morning. The spirit was so sweet. The kids got to sing the songs they’d worked on in Primary, including Davis’s favorite, “Prince of Peace”. During the closing hymn the choir and accompanying violin and piano were singing Silent Night and had the whole congregation join on the third verse. It was so beautiful and I felt so much peace, gratitude and the true Christmas spirit. Our morning had been chaotic (and the rest of the day would be crazy as well) but for those few minutes, it all stood still.
My dad was speaking in his ward, so I dropped the boys off at home and just took Lila for another round of church. She sat sweetly with Rosie while we got to listen to my dad deliver a beautiful Christmas message- also of peace. I’m glad we got to be there.
Then we headed off to dinner with the Hugo’s. Ben still stayed home. The turkey took a really long time to cook (like 3 hours longer than they thought it would) and I ended up running Lila home to bed at 7:00 before dinner was even served. I got her down, got Ben all settled again and was back to pick up the kids around 8:00. Once they were home and settled I finally got to eat a little Christmas dinner around 9:00 pm. What a crazy Christmas! It’s not necessarily one I’d like to repeat- neither would Ben- but the kids had a magical day and I was thankful for all the good, even if it was one really crazy, exhausting, painful Christmas!
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