All I Want For Christmas ...

... is healthy kids. We're on a new round of kid sickness, a mild (thankfully mild) head cold, but it's now hit Lily with hurricane force. She is a snot factory. In fact, I am singing the praises of those ear tubes because we would already have her on antibiotics by now if she didn't have them. She may still require the antibiotic ear drops if this gets bad enough, but the drops are in our medicine cabinet, which means no trip to the clinic. Ahhhhhh.

And Molly ... well, I'm holding out hope she pushes through this without an ear infection. In typical style, she was the first to get this cold but the least affected of the twins. Her snot level is always 1/4 of what Lily's tends to be. We had one super awful night where both the twins were awake most of the night, but last night I convinced them to sleep in their beds without a bunch of coddling and everyone slept through the night. Mostly.

Claire is only mildly affected by this head cold. Sick five year olds are much easier than sick two year olds. But even with the mild nature of this virus, I'll still ask for healthy kids come Friday. Christmas will be much more fun without the ooze.

Claire has spent the last two afternoons at the "winter camp" doing gymnastics, and she loves it. She is a happier kid for it, so I'm glad I spent the money for her to enjoy the three days of camp. Her camp time has allowed me to get an oil change and my tires rotated (oh yipeee!) and to get all the Christmas presents ready for Christmas Eve (when "Santa" will set them up late that night). Tomorrow I've got to attend a work lunch (the nanny is still obviously on duty this week), one of those annoying required but officially not required events, so Claire will spend some time with the nanny and the twins before camp tomorrow afternoon. I hope to eke out at least an hour or two of tomorrow to do something just for ..... me. We'll see.

Unlike a lot of families, who have holiday visitors or take trips or go all out for the season, we take a very low-key approach to the holidays. I'm a firm believer that the holidays should be about close family, the kids' joy and excitement, the wonderful foods of the season, and not a bunch of stress and overly scheduled events. Kids get enough of that during the year. Moving at their pace, for once, seems just about right.