This is a Public Service Announcement

The first group of family arrived safe and sound Christmas Eve night, followed by everyone else Christmas morning. We spent a glorious day enjoying being together. A big turkey dinner was cooked and consumed; Christmas carols were sang; presents carefully (and always one at a time) were unwrapped. Dirty Santa (for the adults) was a blast as always.

And then Micah, Becky, and Xavier spent several hours in the ER Christmas night, and they came home with a confirmed flu diagnosis. Christmas night was spent doing laundry, disinfecting the house, all kinds of fun stuff. By the time they got home from the ER, William was running a fever. Poor William and Xavier spent the next 24 hours quarantined up in Camden's room, but when Becky woke up sick this morning, they decided they better hit the road.

So. The lesson of Christmas 2012: Get. Your. Flu. Shot.

William, Xavier, Becky, my brother and my dad all did not get their flu shots this year. So far, three of the five are down and out. Of course, my family is panicking worried that I'll get sick, but I had the flu shot so I'm not concerned. I've put in my obligatory (they totally made me) call to the doctor, and Dr. W put me on Tamiflu as a preventative measure since my blood counts were super low last week.

We've declared today a Pajama Day, and we're going ahead with our appetizer night even though we'll be missing half of us. We've all shed a few tears today (my kids most of all). Camden was devastated as the Derby clan left, and Rory sobbed "this Christmas is just all messed up!" But I'm glad for the few days we got to spend together even though it was no fun for William and Xavier! Here's hoping the flu won't *really* last 10-14 days!

I only used my iphone for this holiday, and I have to say it was very freeing to let go of documenting the perfect event. Maybe I'll share more pics later or maybe I'll just stick my fuzzy iphone pics on a scrapbook page and call it done. ;)

The one and only picture of the four kiddos together. We didn't even attempt one with Addison and I'm glad we didn't since both boys had the flu (which we didn't know at this point).

A family picture (still in our p.j.'s) Christmas morning.

My parents have an XBox Kinnect, and the adults played after the kids went to bed. I was skeptical (because I'm pretty much a fuddy duddy when it comes to gaming systems), but it was a ton of fun. Here's a fuzzy picture of me and Micah to prove it.

And a little video of our Christmas caroling before opening presents. You can hear Rory's off-key voice over almost everyone.