We received so many gifts and so many cards, from so many different people: parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-grandparents, distant relatives, friends...even the dog for goodness sakes! I love how this time of year helps remind everyone how many people care about eachother. I do want to make a point to say that every gift, card and personal note was sincerely appreciated.
Since our family has many sides to it our children benefit greatly. When I told Josh we were going to have four Christmas' I thought his head was going to explode.
CHRISTMAS #1
Dad and Thomas came for the weekend. They sacrificed many hours in the car just to get here - due to the mass exodus from the city on Friday. Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast, threw the turkey in the oven and got to opening gifts.
Lauren was hysterical!! She and Mattie (the dog) can shred paper with the best of them!
However, when the last gift was opened she had a little meltdown.
Oh, come on. We've all had a moment like that! :-)
Then the storm hit. (See blog below) We pretty much hunkered down in the house and kept ourselves busy by playing Uncle Joel's Wii and making Christmas Monster Cookies for Santa. A bad storm is always a good excuse to not leave the house.
Sunday we all went to church together. The seven of us ended up making up half of the congregation. I didn't care, though. I love worshiping as a family.
After church it was time for Dad and Thomas to head back home and if they thought their 6 hour trip on Friday was bad....the 8 hour one on the way home was worse! We are all grateful that they came down and even more thankful that they made it home safe.
CHRISTMAS #2
After Dad and Thomas left we took a quick nap after playing in the snow and went over to Larry and Toni's for Christmas with them and Gretchen and Adam.
Lauren got her first "baby" and Josh got passes to the bowling alley. Josh was so excited that he didn't want the night to end...so we gladly left him there! Good ol' Aunt Gretchen is always game for a sleepover!
CHRISTMAS EVE
Dustin ended up having to go into work at UPS on Monday night. Obviously, this threw a wrench in the plans for the evening. And obviously, I was not happy. However, being the amazing wife that I am (ahem!) I didn't try to make Dustin feel any worse than I did about the whole thing. (You didn't think I'd let him off Scott free, did ya?)
In order to have any chance of attending service with Dustin, I decided to go to the later service. Right off the bat I knew it was going to be a disaster, so I don't know why I was shocked it didn't go smoothly. My main goal of the evening was to get the kids in their Christmas outfits even if that meant I came in sweats and a ripped t-shirt. After several serious discussions with my son I finally got every piece of his suit on his little body.
Lauren was a trooper and helped me out by not screaming at me. She whined a bit when I tried to get her dress on her but since her outfit cost as much as mine there wasn't a chance in hell she wasn't going to wear it.
I got us to church ON TIME, all while fighting with Josh. Our fighting continued through the first 30 minutes of the service, that is, until Dustin arrived and separated us. I was ready for a Tylenol and a stiff drink by the time pastor started the sermon.
Once we got home I got a few pictures of the kids. Josh wanted his suit off immediately but Lauren was more than willing to participate in a photo shoot.
We quickly set out everything for Santa and his reindeer and immediately went to bed.
CHRISTMAS #3
There was no sleeping in on Christmas morning this year! Josh came running down to find the presents from Santa and boy was he pleased!
His only request for next year...no ribbon!
Lauren had as much fun watching everyone else open their gifts as she did opening her own.
Then, of course, Dustin had a trick up his sleeve.
Every year he wraps a gift to me in such a way that opening it is nearly impossible. Last year was duct tape: this year packing tape. He just likes to sit and laugh at me, I swear. I gave up trying to get it open and left it be. He'll learn.
By the time all the gifts had been unwrapped we were all wiped out.
CHRISTMAS #4
Honestly, I have no photos from the last Christmas; partly because I was too exhausted to take any and partly because my camera had died from all the other Christmas'.
Let's just say that Josh got everything he wanted, Lauren got more than her little mind could ever imagine and Dustin and I got more than we deserved.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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