Parnell Christmas

We headed to Lake Charles this weekend to celebrate Christmas with David's parents. The kids were so excited to go to Emmy and Pop's, and I think the change of scenery was good for all of us.
Lila and Bennett had started coughing badly on Thursday night, but after getting a pretty clear report at the Dr. on Friday we decided we could go lay low just as easily in Lake Charles as we could at home...so we loaded up and headed out.
We took it easy Saturday, and after the kids went to bed we ate the best Chinese food ever. LOVE IT. So good....
On Sunday morning we all woke up and opened presents...

I think E's favorite was her new camera. In fact, she took so many pictures on Sunday that it needed a change of batteries!! Future photographer???

Lila loved her "Taylor Swifts" doll, which sings "you belong with me". I even heard Pop singing along by the time we left!

Bennett had fun playing with his transformer and train tracks...the kids were thrilled.

We gave Emmy and Pop a web cam so that they can skype with the kids. We have found that they much prefer skyping to talking on the phone....it is the way to go!

After that, since everyone seemed to be feeling ok, we went to the Parnell's Club to have lunch with Santa. It was pretty much a repeat of the breakfast with Santa we went to earlier in the season, where Lila remained on the verge of a breakdown, Bennett steered clear, and Elise ran right up, jumped on his lap, and recited her list.

After an afternoon of resting, the Parnells treated us to a horse carriage ride along the Lake to look at Christmas lights. The kids LOVED it. It was very, very pretty....

The way we are bundled up it looks like it was 40 below, but it really wasn't that cold...we just wanted to make sure we were all cozy. Afterwards, the horse (I think mule actually) owner let
Elise and Bennett (Lila passed) feed "Lucy" her snack of apples for taking us on our long ride. They loved it!!

We had a great trip, ate too much, had lots of fun, and relaxed.....

We got back late last night and unfortunately, when loading the sleeping kids from the car, realized that both Lila and Bennett had fever. Turns out that now it is Lila's turn for pneumonia and Bennett has a double ear infection. So, we are really thankful that we had such a great weekend because it looks like we'll be spending the next few days until Christmas inside trying to get well....

Let the countdown begin....