An overview of our Christmas

This year when we put up our Christmas tree, the cats decided we had built a little private bed for them, and were frequently found underneath. As we started to get some presents under the tree, these became toys for them, and they would tear open the corners of the wrapping paper on the gifts. I became fed up with this behavior, so as soon as we had enough gifts under the tree, I piled them in the corner, preventing the cats from having their private bed.

Well, on the day we opened our gifts, the tree skirt was again empty, and lo and behold, I find Smokey "spread eagle" under the tree.



Pretty soon he was joined by Gillyflower and Susan. I think that was the best present for them.

Even though we were a bit sick, we decided to go to Salt Lake. Rich and Cora were the only people feeling well enough to go down and see the lights on Temple square, as has become our family tradition.

This is Cora with Rich's Niece's kids (what does that make them? 2nd Cousins?)
This is probably why she started getting sick and woke up with a sore throat and a fever on Christmas Day. We didn't take any pictures of Christmas, but we took some the next day at Everett's Blessing. We blessed him at my parents ward, and had a breakfast afterward because their Church time was 9:00 am.

Here he is in his Blessing outfit.

Here is Ian looking handsome in his Sunday clothes.

By the time we came home on Monday, everyone was sick.

Cedric had spots all over his face which we thought were chicken pox at first,


and everyone had swollen tonsils. Here are Eleanor's (she is the only one I could get to open her mouth wide enough) You can see how big her tonsils are in the back of her mouth to the right. Cora's are even more swollen than that, but I couldn't get a good picture of hers.

So we went to the doctor and we all have strep throat (except Everett) and Cedric has impetigo on his face. All the kids are on antibiotics, and we are just hanging out, trying to get better.

Nevertheless, we had a good Christmas, we are all safe at home, and we have nothing to complain about.