Saturday, December 29, 2007

A Chaotic Christmas


So this morning we did a quick head count, and found that the number of occupants in the triplet commune had risen to 14 over the holidays. Besides the five of us, there was Nana and Pop Pop, Great Grandma, Auntie Em and Uncle Eric, Aunt Heather, Uncle Tristan, and their two children. With their cousins visiting again, it was fun to have 4 five-month olds, and an almost-three year old running around the house, but it did add to the chaos.

We noticed the bottle of advil was being passed around more frequently than normal (which is saying something), and Great Grandma's cold was quickly passed to Betty and Coraline, who then shared it with the rest of the household. With too many cooks in the kitchen, we managed to burn a rising loaf of bread and an early dinner was finally ready by 8:30 at night (with the sweet potato casserole arriving an hour later). The triplets were over-stimulated with all the guests, and went into prolonged crying fits at the end of the day. Each evening we attempted to watch a video we rented from blockbuster, but with putting down all the various children, by the time we were ready it was always too late at night (and the adults were exhausted). The family portrait never was taken, as we could never get the 14 people awake and in the house at the same time.

With all the suitcases, baby toys, and Christmas gifts scattered about the house, the place became even more hectic at the end of the vacation. Auntie Em and Uncle Eric had to pack up their stuff for their return trip to Singapore. We were loading baby stuff into our car for the trip over to Richmond for a few days for the triplets' baptism. Uncle Tristan and Aunt Heather were following us, before heading up to DC to catch a plane back to California. And then Great Grandma was rushed to the hospital.

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