All I Wanted for Christmas was NOT the flu....

We started our vacation having a wonderful time, stayed at my in-laws home. One of my best friends came by with some Vietnamese Pork Egg Rolls. My husband helped with the family store and then we took the kids to see my parents and family had fun catching up and snacking. Christmas Eve was a blast, we had a delicious potluck dinner, and afterwards we all had fun with The Nativity Story/play, this year it was narrated by my husband, and our kids and their cousins who played all the characters, we had the white elephant gift exchange afterwards and said goodbye to everyone.

Christmas morning at my in-laws, Grandma and Grandpa let the kids tear open their gifts at the same time. They went a little crazy too, after all the waiting I guess that's what happens. Afterwards, we had brunch more like br-inner...because we had Turkey, with stuffing but of course we had the Samoan sides too, like Taro with coconut milk, Palusami (Taro leaves steamed w/ coconut milk inside), Corned beef and cabbage, rice, Oxtail stew, Spam Musubi, and Eggs. Dessert was a French Toast Casserole which my sister in law made. It was such a great meal but I couldn't really enjoy it because our 13 mo. old son was really moody. We took the kids to my parent’s home and they spent time there with the family while my husband and myself went out on a much-needed date. We picked up the kids later on that evening.

The next day I took our youngest child to urgent care and found out that he had an ear infection so I got the meds and went home. The next day I woke up feeling all those horrible flu symptoms, and so my husband took care of me with some Theraflu, lots of fluids and let me rest while he took care of the kids. The next day, sure enough my husband and kids were all feeling the same symptoms. It must have been a mix of the weather change and the bug going around. We all stayed indoors and rested for most of the week and I got a little better so I took the kids to a wedding, while my husband was getting some rest. Didn't really get to enjoy the wedding because my two sons were not being very cooperative, so we left early and went back to the house.

The rest of our time there we took our kids to see their Great-grandma and my parents and family and the next morning we headed back down south to our home in Arizona. We had a great time though we didn't get to do all that we planned, we are still getting over our coughs and sneezes. This was definitely a Christmas to be remembered. Next year I think we will plan for our family to come here instead, so they can enjoy a warmer Christmas season here in the good old state of Arizona.