A Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We started the season with Mimi's Christmas on Sunday, Dec. 20th. This was the prettiest day of all, with the kids playing outside in shorts most of the day! We had a great lunch, and all-day grazing that kept our tummies full. The kids had fun opening their presents and playing with their cousins that they hadn't seen in a couple of months. Unfortunately, Jason got sick this day and would be down with a BAD case of Strep throat until Wednesday.


We spent the night with Jason's parents on the 23rd, and we woke up to snow all day of Christmas Eve! The original plan was to have brunch there with the whole family, but the weather kept Charles' kids from driving over. The kids had a blast playing with Kayli and Oakley, and the adults even snuck in a couple games of Farkle. Jason made Bonnell's grits to go along with a table full of other breakfast food! Who knew you could get full on grits, but I did!

Christmas day was spent at home. I believe this is the second year of our tradition to be at home, with our little family unit on Christmas day. It's a great thing, you just have to watch out for ticking off your extended family!! (just kidding) After the kids tore through their mound of gifts, I commented that I wish we had built this house with a playroom. (You know, a place to keep all these wonderful toys they have.) About 8 hours and two Aleve later, I had exactly what I asked for: a playroom! We took down the crib, moved the bunk beds across the hall, cleared out furniture, and did a lot of inventory reduction. What we have now is a room with beds, desks, and books; then, a room with toys, dolls, and balls! We ALL love it!

Ok, back to Christmas. We made a quick trip to Jason's aunt and uncle's house for some gifts they had gotten the kids. Jason's parents and sister came back to see our room transformation, and they stayed to watch Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I think that movie gets funnier every year! And talk about counting blessings... Thank goodness we don't have a cousin Eddy in the family!!

The day after Christmas was spent at Papa and Gram's house in Stephenville. Christine is a great cook, plus Dad smoked some Pork Loins, so the food was outstanding. I love the way we open gifts there: every kid has a spot around the foyer, Papa counts to three, and they all get busy ripping packages open! It's mayhem, but only for about 3 minutes! An aside to the package opening: If I have to undo one more twistie tie or unscrew one more toy from it's cardboard package, I think I'm gonna scream! Back to the story: Tripp decided to get in the fish pond at Papa's... Josh was paying attention outside and saved our little man from hypothermia!

That's about it, I think. We made lots of memories and took lots of pictures. I've shared a few!