Our hard drive on the laptop crashed a couple days ago, so I can't load any pics. But as it so happens, we have no pics of Christmas. Jacob came down with (another!) stomach bug mid-morning on Sunday. The bug was worse than the one he had a week or two ago. WHEN WILL THIS END! We normally use only vinegar to clean in the kitchen and bathrooms, but I pulled out the bleach on Sunday. We have had kids throwing up for a couple weeks now. A couple hours after Jacob got sick, Rachael started having problems at the other end (kwim?). So our Christmas wasn't too jolly, but we survived, and tried to keep perspective. Deren and I kept asking each other "what are you thankful for?" throughout the day. We each had a couple hissy fits in the midsts of vomit and other stuff which I will not name, but we got through it.

Good news is Joshua is doing better. His nose is still running quite a bit, but his appetite is much, much better. He's been happy at mealtimes these past 2 days - yay! Rachael and Jacob, however, have really fickle tummies right now, and are not wanting to eat much. Their congestion has also picked up, so maybe this is the course of the bug (at least the current one).

I ended up going to Christmas Eve service at 4pm with Rachael and Abby. I helped Rachael hang an angel ornament on the tree during the service. I'll post pictures of the girls in their dresses when the laptop is fixed (hopefully next week).

Monday Deren's parents arrived from Canada, where they were visiting his brother, his wife and 2 sons. The weather has been beautiful (and quite a bit different from Canada!) here - in the 80's 2 days, in the upper 60's and 70's otherwise. Joshua is in heaven playing in the backyard. We are trying to potty train Rachael - no successes yet, and a lot of accidents. We put her in regular underwear - she will pee away in pull ups - so did the boys. How do you train kids in disposable pull-ups anyway? Wish Rachael success! She returns to mother's day out at church next Friday. Don't think they will appreciate Rachael having accidents left and right.