Being born not too long after Christmas has certain disadvantages: we usually spend so much on the holidays that I tell Chris to go cheap for my birthday–which suits him just fine, since he never has any idea what to get me. But a couple years ago we also stopped doing Christmas gifts for each other (we still buy for the kids, of course), so basically I end up getting the raw end of the deal. So this year I say: bring it on!

I dropped a couple subtle hints about what I’d like as a gift, but subtlety is not Chris’s strong suit, so a couple days ago I had to come right out and tell him (if it’s the thought that counts…I dunno.) So anyway, I got three seasons of the West Wing, which is cool, plus some truly adorable cards from Chris and the boys. Then we were off to Silver Star to catch some sun (!) and do some tubing. We managed to get about half a dozen runs in before it got super busy, so that wasn’t too shabby, and then we went for a nice lunch that I didn’t have to cook. Ahhh…

Be careful what you wish for, I guess. We had almost a full week of everyone being more or less healthy, so I guess my prayers were technically answered (note to self: be more specific next time). While we were in Saskatoon with relatives, Brayden’s benign-sounding cough turned nasty and he developed a scary high fever, but we got the latter under control and he seemed to perk up. When we flew home yesterday he was tired and coughing, but he never complained about pain — but it turns out he has bronchitis and a double ear infection. How does a five-year-old endure air travel with two infected ears and not say anything? What a trooper.

You could argue the family visit was sort of doomed from the start. Janette was back in the Philippines for a school reunion, leaving Rob with sole custody of a two-year-old and a baby who hardly sleeps. They were all staying at Grandma and Grandpa’s house just like we were, so you can guess how much fun that was. Then Brayden got sick and the baby followed shortly thereafter, so not only was the little one not sleeping, he was also screaming. Good times.

And so begins 2013…

The grandparents requested a “nice” family photo of us for Christmas, so we dutifully had them done. This is the actually the first time we’ve ever done a professional photo of all four of us, and the kids really enjoyed the session. It shows.

My parents are scheduled to arrive for a visit today,which is usually the signal for someone in our household to come down with an infectious disease. We were early this time, though: Brayden caught some sort of virus last weekend that had him feverish, coughing and vomiting for a couple days. (A full half of his kindergarten class was out sick this week…ugh.) At one point this week he fell asleep at 5:30 p.m. and slept right through until 7 a.m. — and woke up feeling much better. It’s amazing what 14 hours of sleep can do.

The rest of us also fell ill, naturally, but the worst appears to be over, and we’re ready for company. Plus the sun’s out today. Things are looking up.

We just said goodbye to Dave and Tanya after a very enjoyable visit. We hadn’t seen them in over two months and they hadn’t been here in much longer than that, so it was nice to play host. We took the kids bowling yesterday, which was fun (Justin got his first spare!); Brayden was super hyper and lost interest in the game pretty quickly, but he didn’t fuss or complain, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The boys were pretty excited to get early Christmas presents from our visitors, including a very cool dinosaur egg that should hatch by tomorrow. Awesome.

I made a Greek feast for supper that turned out pretty well, then the kids played some Wii and WENT TO BED EARLY. That last point deserves to be all caps because ever since the time change last weekend, Justin has been getting up right at 5:00 and still not going down until 8:00 or even 8:30. I realize he doesn’t need as much sleep as other kids his age, but the fatigue was starting to show — most nights he’s been yawning by 7:00 and most mornings he’s been super cranky and argumentative. So anyway, he went down at 7:30 last night and slept all the way to 5:30 this morning, so maybe he’s finally adjusting. (You know you’re in trouble when you’re excited that your son “slept in” until 5:30, but whatever.)

Halloween was a success around here. The boys LOVED their Star Wars costumes and didn’t seem to mind that they were hardly the only Darth Vader and storm trooper on the street. We still had their Mario and Luigi costumes from last year, so I figured we could put them to good use on the pumpkins. Every eight-year-old boy who came to our door told us they were the most awesome pumpkins they’d ever seen, which was cool. (We ran out of candy early and had to turn our lights off at 7:30 p.m., though…not so cool. Oops.)

We had some restaurant coupons and a hankering to get out of town, so we went to Vernon today for lunch and a tour of the “haunted house” exhibit at the science centre. Justin was a little anxious at first, but he warmed up eventually and we ended up circling the place three times so the kids could go back to their favorite stations. The biggest hit was the static wands, which used static electricity to keep a piece of tinsel airborne (as Brayden put it, “I’m using the force!”) The haunted house concept was a stretch, but whatever. It was fun.