Friday, December 24, 2010

A Parcel, Christmas Countdown and an Unwell William

Sorry, this post will be a mish-mash of bits and pieces! It's Christmas Eve and although I wanted to blog today I don't want to spend too long on it. ;)

I entered a giveaway on the beautiful Lovely Little Cottage blog a few weeks back, and won! :D My beautiful parcel from Elizabeth arrived this morning. What wonderful timing, the day before Christmas.

Thank you so much Elizabeth. Everything was so beautifully packaged! And the children thoroughly enjoyed threading their candy canes and decorating their angels. Please thank your children for me too for sending them!

We've had an awesome time counting down for Christmas this year. We've had several means of doing this. Our Jesse Tree.

Our felt advent calendar.

We've also been having treasure hunts most nights for wrapped Christmas stories. The children have taken turns. Over the past months I have purchased some little Christmas stories, as well as borrowing some titles from the library. This has provided the children with plenty of Christmas reading material!!

William has really got to know the Christmas story through all this reading. It's been great. He knows tomorrow is Jesus' birthday, he knows what the star on top of our tree symbolises, etc. And we can pull out all these books again next year!

We also try to break up the presents for the children a little, so they're not bombarded on Christmas Day. I want their focus to be on Jesus' birth, not just presents! So we break up the gifts with prayers for those the gifts are from, some singing, meals, and readings. Our Christmas gifts are usually given over 3 days, to give us time to enjoy and appreciate each one.

Today we also cut Christmas Cake number 2. I took so much of our first cake to gatherings, etc. (and we've clearly eaten too much...) that I decided to bake a second one so we had some for today and tomorrow!

And last but not least, we have a sick little boy this week. :( William started coughing last week, and after days of reading all I could get my hands on, I decided we had to get him looked at. To me all his symptoms were very characteristic of whooping cough, which happens to be going around this year. The doctor who examined him declared it to be viral, though gave us a script for antibiotics "just in case". Well. I know my boy, and I have seen viruses in my kids enough times to know this is different. He has the characteristic "whoop", and is coughing to the point of blue face and vomiting. So I got that script filled pronto, and am also dosing him up on some immune boosting probiotics, and lots of cuddles and lots of prayer.

Today, cuddling on the couch with his new little knitted cowboy and tin drum. And towel handy on his lap just in case....

He is responding well. Most nights he is coping better, though still wants to sleep with me and get lots of cuddles. :) I'm watching the other children closely for symptoms, but my reading suggests older children rarely get it to the point of it being diagnosable, just very mild forms. And adults very rarely contract it at all. Praying we all return to good health soon.

Merry Christmas my dear readers, I may not see you until the new year, so I pray you all have a safe and joyful holiday! xxx

6 comments:

Smilie girl said...

Poor sweet William! Praying for a speedy recovery.
Enjoy your Christmas celebrations!

Christy said...

Hi Saminda! Very Merry Christmas to you! The Christmas festivities look very inviting!! I too bought Annika's secret wish this Christmas which nearly moved me to tears on reading it to my kids ;)
I hope William is recovering quickly. We had our older two girls with it in October and unfortunately the dr didn't diagnose it quickly enough for the antibiotics to work and Ellie still has horrible coughing bouts.. They were both immunised too at 4 yrs - it's made me a lot more aware of how easily little babies could contract it! Hope his coughing is not too heartbreaking too watch... Go the probiotics!! They've made a big difference to our health in the last month or two!! xoxox

Anonymous said...

Poor little William! Praying for him here.

Jen's Busy Days said...

So sorry to hear that William was not well. I hope he has recovered some by now. I remember trying to sleep half propped up in a hospital bed with my then 2.5yo beside me when he had whooping cough. My first two never had it even after living in Tasmania. At the hospital they were able to give him some type of medicine, maybe an asthma medication?, to open his airways. It helped a lot. I hope the antibiotics work well and you don't need a hospital visit.

Best wishes
Jen in NSW

Renata said...

I hope you had a wonderful christmas with your precious family! Hope Will recovers soon - I had whopping cough as a teenager even though I'd been immunised - wasn't fun.
Have a very Happy New Year!
Renata:)

Elizabeth said...

Happy New Year, Saminda!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin