CHRISTmas

Four Christmases...isn't there a movie by that title? I never saw it, but I think I wanted to at one point. Anyway, that's how many times we celebrated Christmas with family. First it was with J's family on Christmas Eve-church, then back to J's mom & dad's house for dinner and presents. A & C did a great job staying awake and relatively happy. Thanks for all of the great gifts Mamma & Papa and from all of our aunts and uncles, too! Cars can keep C happy for an unending amount of time, that's for sure!
Christmas day we opened Santa gifts. The kids liked that a lot-who wouldn't?! We had gifts in stockings and a few under the tree. They got big kid bikes, which was fun for them! They didn't even see them until they went back around to the tree after looking in their stockings!
After that we were off to my parents' house. We spent the day there with lunch, naps (for everyone!), presents and more food.We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had our birthday cake. Thanks for a great Christmas Day filled with everything we could have imagined and more! Saturday evening was spent with Mark, Patti, Laura & Kristin (aunt, uncle & cousins) at our house. We are so lucky to have so much family living so close to us! We opened presents and I made lasagna for the first time. It was really easy! The kids were very lucky to get more gifts geared to things they love-cars and art. Thanks for coming! Finally, today we celebrated with my mom's sister (my Aunt Jean) and her family (my uncle, cousins, and their kids). It was a no nap day for our kids and they did great! We opened presents first because with 6 kids under the age of 8, that's a little hard to resist. Again, lots of great gifts-especially some music I'm thrilled to listen to in the car-Go Fish!-because I'm a little sick of our current selection. Thanks Jen & Bob! The rest of the day was spent with lots of conversation, play, and cookie eating. Did I mention cookie eating? And more cookie eating. I'm pretty sure I ate all of the peanut butter cookies with the kisses in the middle. That might be why I feel so ill tonight. This shall pass, right?! We are completely blessed to have a Christmas season so full of giving as we have had this year. Not that it's anything new...we have a very giving, loving, and generous family and always have.