3 years 3 months 23 days

Day 1210. Sunday, yes! The day to sleep in, and after a night like the last, I sure needed it. Emmy pretty much spent the whole night in bed with me. I tried to get him to go to his bed, but he did not want to. Considering that he was sick and had a fever, I let him stay. Emmy then had the worst day today. He had a fever all day and did not feel like doing anything. Tammy is still coughing but is nearly over it all now. Sammy's cough is now the worst, but he doesn't have a fever. Besides my runny nose, I started coughing more and more in the course of this day.

Even sick, Emmy was the first one up this morning. He wanted to watch Kasperl, and once Tammy was up, I put it on for them. I was surprised that it was already 8:45 am. Just after 9 am we all got up, after opening the advent calendars. We had breakfast, though they hardly ate anything, then I cleaned them up and dressed them. I decided we'd continue decorating the tree even though I had never found the lights for it and had to reorder them. Originally I had planned to make Christmas cookies, but Emmy wasn't feeling well. He didn't even help with the tree, but lay down on the floor and stayed there. And so Tammy was the only one helping me.

When we went downstairs, it was only 16 degrees Celsius there. The heating downstairs is not working, and the house management is not fixing it. We can only hope and pray they'll do so soon. We all had lots of clothes on. Thankfully decorating the tree was enough movement to keep us warm. And Randy put the big carpet back on the floor, which also made a big difference.

 I started getting the decorations out and putthing them onto the tree. Tammy put the chocolate umbrellas and sugar canes on, and Randy tied knots and put the hooks on the chocolates for the tree, that I then put on the tree. It took us a while, but it turned out great. Now just the lights are still missing. It was just before noon, when we were done. We went upstairs, where I warmed up yesterday's leftovers for lunch. Emmy didn't want to eat anyway and went straight to bed. As for Tammy, it was a fight to get her to eat something and it was little at the end. Only Sammy ate without any drama. Tammy was eager to watch videos, and she then joined Emmy in his bed, while I put a Christmas movie on. They then ended up watching until 1:30, when it ended, but then it was nap time. I sat down by them until they were asleep.

It was already clear that  there was no way we could go to church. It was really a shame, as the kids were all gonna put on sheep costumes and be in the nativity play. And so we did not have to watch the clock. I had already started working on a project for Mali and continued doing so throughout the lunchbreak, instead of sleeping. Then Emmy came into the room and lay down in my bed and closed his eyes. Sammy also woke up, and I got him, as Randy was taking a nap as well. After a while Tammy also woke up. As being sick gives you special privileges, I let them continue watch videos. Randy went downstairs with Sammy for a little while, but not long. As for me, I had finished my project and started wrapping Christmas presents, which was quite a big job, and I was far from done by the time it was 6 pm and time to stop so I could go to the kitchen and make their dinner. Tammy was actually fed up watching videos a while before that, and so was Emmy who returned to my bed, where he fell asleep again. Tammy started playing simple games on the phone that are for small kids, and she was pretty good at it.

Just before 6:30 we sat down to eat - only Emmy stayed in my bed until it was bedtime. The kids ate some, then continued in the bathtub, then we got them ready for bed. We opened the advent calendars in our bed right by Emmy so he could be a part. Then they went to bed in their own beds, and I sat down by them. It was quite a bit earlier than usual, about 7:30 pm. The boys were soon asleep, but Tammy seemed very active, more than usual. She finally asked for Daddy to come take my place, and that was music to my ears. Randy took my place, while I went to the kitchen to start cutting my salad. However, she soon started calling my name, and I called back to her and came back a few times to comfort her, before she finally also fell asleep. At about 9:30 I sat down to eat, then I started working on today's pictures. Now it's not even midnight yet. I still need to clean up the kitchen, and then I can go to bed. About an hour ago Emmy climbed into bed with me and has been sleeping right next to me.