Sickmas 2013

I hereby designate Christmas 2013 "Sickmas 2013" - so far, four of the eight members of our family have contracted some form of the stomach bug.  Riley's had it twice now.  Christmas morning, though, we were all feeling well and got up at 7AM for our Christmas morning traditions.

Santa took care of the girls - Riley got a Baby Einstein activity table and Alli got an easel with paints and a chalkboard and the rest of the stuffed Ninja Turtles (she already had Mikey).

Santa was also good to me - I got a new lens for my camera, one with a better zoom so that I can take closer pictures at the soccer games and the horse shows.  Then we gathered around the tree and opened presents.  We always go one at a time, and this year we opened from youngest to oldest.  Poor Nini.  Everyone had a wonderful Christmas - from John Patrick's new camera to Dad's Nest thermostat.  But no one had a bigger surprise than Mom, who was completely shocked by her new diamond solitaire ring!  I didn't get a super picture, but here she is showing it off.  She talks with her hands a whole lot more now, I'm just sayin'.

Not too long after that picture was taken, Mom went down with the stomach bug.  And she was down for the day.  Dad and I had to carry meal prep, which was made a little easier with one of my Christmas gifts...

You can't quite tell there, but it's a pale pink KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer.  Don't mind Leo ogling it.  It's purty.

Lindsey went down shortly after Mom, so Christmas Day was spent laying low.  Alli taught a little school, Ryan whooped up on everyone on the Wii and built Legos, and I blogged and took pictures of my pretties.

I had a wonderful Christmas - in addition to the stand mixer and the camera lens, I got a new Patagonia pullover, some socks and tights, a bracelet, a scarf, reindeer dish towels, money, giftcards, and a beautiful fish vase.

My aunt Karen gave Riley some handmade cross stitched bibs.  I am too afraid to even use them they're so pretty!!

The evening was about the same as the day - low key and spent recovering.  It certainly wasn't the Christmas we planned, but we were together, even if it was Sickmas.  Maybe this will be funny one day, right?

Hope you and yours had a very merry Christmas!!

Pre-Christmas Recap

We had a yet another wonderful Christmas with our families, but it didn't start out that way.  Friday kicked off great with Ugly Sweater Day at work, followed by Alli's Christmas party at school.

Friday night was a great Christmas party with the work crew at a historic house owned by our group VP on Washington Avenue.  If you've been reading this blog longer than a second, you know how much I loved that.  Saturday morning we sprang out of bed and starting bumping the Christmas music and packing the cars.  But then immediately following her first meal of the day, Riley threw up three times.  And thirty minutes later, three more times.  And thirty minutes after that, three more times.  The third time, we decided to call the trip to Little Rock for the day and spend our afternoon at the walk-in clinic where all we found out was that she wasn't dehydrated.  

The next morning she seemed to be feeling better, so we loaded up and headed down.  That evening my best friend since I was three turned the big 3-0 and we had dinner at Local Lime.

On Christmas Adam, Mom worked, so we went downtown to visit her at work and eat lunch with her at Flying Fish.  

That night, Lindsey came in and we played the Wii and had Alli's birthday party (again).  She decorated her own cake - can you tell?

Everyone had a great time.  That is, until the big guy went down with the stomach bug.  Christmas Eve, Ryan and Riley both were feeling much better.  We skipped the big Lowe family Christmas to avoid passing our disease on to any unsuspecting family members.  That evening we went out to Ryan's parents' house to do Christmas with them.  Ryan's sister and her husband came, so the only person missing was our nephew Rafe - we're hoping to see him later this week.  

Later that evening we went back to Mom and Dad's house to have Christmas Eve dinner followed by a rowdy rendition of The Christmas Game and a mini-version of our Christmas sing-a-long Jingle Holloway.

Alli and Lindsey won, and so all is right with the world - the grown ups still can't beat the kids when it comes to the Christmas Game!  After that, it was jump in bed and cover your head time - Santa was on his way!

Alli's Christmas Party

Last Friday Alli had a Christmas Party at her school and Ryan, Riley and I all got to go.  The party was "Minute to Win It" games with a Christmas theme.

One game involved a team of three wrapping one kiddo up to look like a snow man.  Guess whose kid volunteered to be the snowman?

The game I was in charge of was throwing marshmallows into a cup on your teammate's head.  More marshmallows ended up on the floor than anywhere else, but a good time was had by all.

 

Alli's favorite game was having a kleenex box attached to her back.  She had to jump up and down to get the jingle bells to fly out as fast as she could.

There was also a station where the kids made snowman ornaments out of popsicle sticks.  After a few years of pretty standard cupcake and coloring parties, it was so refreshing and fun to play games, even if it was total chaos.  The kids walked away happy, the parents walked away exhausted, and everyone was ready to get Christmas started.

Merry Christmas!

From us here at the Lowe Down, we wish you and yours a very merry Christmas.  Enjoy your time with the family, the presents, and try to stop eating the molasses cookies, please.  Okay, just one more.

Last Minute Christmas

I know we aren't exploiting Christmas like we did last year.  I had all of my shopping done, the presents were mostly wrapped, and I had pretty much whipped Christmas into shape.  But this year, not so.  This year, I am one of the poor saps still Christmas shopping on December 19th.  By the way, I really resent that they've been calling this "last minute Christmas shopping" for a week now.  Come on, it's not like it's Christmas Eve here, people.

So I'm not just neglecting Christmas at the Lowe Down, it's in every aspect except my decorating.  I'm sipping out of the Christmas coffee mugs and wine glasses, I'm eating off the reindeer plates, and I am plugging all four trees in at every opportunity.  We head down to Little Rock soon, and I am getting kind of sad that the Christmas season is winding down.  It's the most wonderful time of the year, right?

Here's a peek at some of the decor around here.  Outside we added some candy canes and a new deer.  Color me obsessed.

Inside we upgraded the mantle decor and ordered some new stockings.  How adorable are these?  I was really sad about the pretty Mudpie stockings going away, but these are beautiful!

I happened upon this little guy at Target.  Rest assured that I am trying to find him a full time spot here at Chateau Lowe.

 And finally, here's the Mama tree this year.  We added some ornaments and some swag.  Obsessed.

So even though we aren't ready for Christmas here at the Lowe casa, we are at least shrouded in it.  Wish me luck, I'm trying to get Christmas kicked by this weekend.  Tis the season!!

Weekend Recap

We had a jam-packed weekend planned last weekend, and I have to say - I was pretty concerned we wouldn't get it all done.

Here was the schedule:

Friday

• 5:30PM-8:00PM - 3rd Grade Girls Church Party

Saturday

• 10:30AM-12:30PM - Addie & Sam's Birthday Party
• 3:00PM - 5:00PM - Luke's Birthday Party
• 5:30PM - Dinner with Kyle, Lauren, Dave & Lindsey at the Carlyles' house

Sunday

• 12:00PM - Riding Lesson
• 5:30PM - Visit to Lights of the Ozarks to see the lights and Santa

I mean the last time I had a season-themed weekend planned, the stomach virus struck.  I knew something would come up and wreck these plans - they were too good to be true.  But Lowe and behold, a Christmas miracle happened, and we pulled it off.

First, Friday night I took Alli out to Goshen, which is much farther away from my house than I ever gave it credit for, to attend the 3rd grade girls church party.  They made scarves for kids, baked cookies and wrote cards for shut-ins, and played games.  She had a wonderful time.

Saturday morning, we had Addie and Sam's birthday party.  They've shared a party with Alli for the past few years, but this year we did them separate.  Their party was at their house, and Alli said they wrote a song with the girls' mom's friend.  I used the two hour window to get some Christmas shopping done.  The seven snow days we had in the first part of the month really screwed me up, and I am still behind!

When we got home, I started on the brownies we were taking to our friends' house later that night, and Ryan took Alli to FastLanes for another birthday party, this one for our neighbor Luke.  

After that Ryan and Alli came to get Riley and I, and we went to have dinner at Kyle and Lauren's house.  Dave and Lindsey were there too.  We had delicious tacos, played with the kids, and chatted.  Their house is so pretty, and Lauren and Lindsey are both due with babies in March.  Talk about baby fever!!!  They were so excited to see and play with Riley.

Sunday, Alli had a great riding lesson at the barn and then we came home and got ready to go to the Fayetteville Square to see the Lights of the Ozarks.  We usually go on Alli's birthday weekend, but the snow intervened again.  It was beautiful on Sunday night and not too cold.  We hit it right at 5:30, and completely avoided the crowds, so we walked right up to see Santa without the usual thirty minute wait.

Alli didn't even have to wait to hop on a camel!

Then we wandered around the Square, and Alli made me take a million pictures of her.  

Then I told her I was going to put the camera up and just look.  I think too often I spend too much time trying to take pictures of everything, and I don't ever step back and just "be in the moment."  I love having the pictures, but I need to remember to actually look too.  So we walked another lap around and just looked.  There's nothing that gets me more in the Christmas spirit than a visit to the Square.  Followed by stuffed avocados at La Hacienda.  Feliz Navidad!