a very nichols christmas

My sister's family has had a tough time the last couple of weeks. My brother-in-law has been battling an infection in his knee since they operated on his ACL in March.  The infection has been resistant to antibiotics.  Last week he had a bad reaction to the bacteria and ended up in the hospital for several days.  They scheduled surgery to remove more of the infection and to start him on some more aggressive antibiotics.   That meant four more days in the hospital.  My sister called me on Thursday night stressed out.  She had finals to study for, a sick husband in the hospital and two little girls to care for.  I thought it would be a good time to offer some help. Chris and I took our nieces for the weekend. We had to miss Family Christmas with our friends in Louisville, which was a bummer, but we knew we needed to help out. 

We played games, recorded a Christmas album as a surprise gift for their parents, colored pictures (and "Get Well" cards for Daddy), watched the movies they brought with them (including the Polar Express about three times), went to church, and ate, and ate, and ate! It was so much fun! I got to say things like, "You need to pick up your mess," "Do you need help with that?" "Let's go brush our teeth," "Do you need to use the potty?" "Stop picking your nose," "Did you wash your hands?"  "Did you flush the toilet?"  "Chew with your mouth closed,"  and "Elbows off the table." It was great. We don't get to hang out often enough!

I had met my sister Friday night in Russellville, Ky, which is roughly halfway between Bowling Green and Clarksville, TN, to pick them up. The plan was to do the same to get them home again on Sunday night. With the weather being a bit snowy and icy, we decide to make the trade a little earlier while the weather was still decent, late afternoon, before dark.  Well, we should have made it early afternoon because by the time we were halfway to Russellville, 68-80 was completely covered with snow.  Luckily, the ice hadn't yet formed underneath.  However, by the time we got to the meeting place, it had.  We were having to creep along.  My sister, Melay didn't have a very easy drive either, she had more of a farm road to travel. Luckily, after sliding around at each stoplight and driving very, very slowly on the way back, we made it home safely.  I got a call from my sister saying they had made it home okay too.  Praise God!

Emberly explains how she was grounded once for throwing chalk on the roof.

Charis informs me that she is drawing a celebration.