Christmas Craziness

Ho, ho, ho! Isn't this the cutest Santa you've ever seen?

Once again, I have been delayed in posting. It isn't because I have nothing to say (yeah, right), but because by the time my day is done, I fall in bed exhausted. So this post is full of pictures from the past two weeks, with much less interesting descriptions of said pics. So, without further ado...Will's face describes how easy it is to get a picture of all 5 of us smiling. Moving right along...

A couple of weeks ago, our dear friends David & Cynthia came up to visit us with their three precious children. Their kids are the same age as ours, and even though we haven't lived in the same town for almost two years, Ben and Will still talk about their buddies all of the time.A few days later, Ben got to experience his first snow day. Ben loves to play in the snow. He loves snow angels and snow balls and snow men. I think Tim should take him skiing. Will enjoys playing in the snow, in theory, but after about 10 minutes he is cold and wants to go inside. His favorite part is throwing snow balls at his brother. Kate liked going down the slide into a big pile of snow. She did NOT like stepping into a pile that was deeper than she thought and getting stuck.
On Saturday we went to my aunt's house to celebrate with my Dad's family. I always love spending time with them, and I wish we could see them more often.My boys went home with Dad and Jee and stayed with them a few nights, which allowed me to get more than 5 hours of sleep in a row. (They are early risers, thanks to public school for Ben.) They came home on Tuesday, and as I listened to them play "Transformers meet the Planet Heroes to save the day" while I cooked and did piles of laundry, I realized how much I had missed them. My life my be chaotic and crazy, but I am so thankful for it!

Anyway, we opened presents with Dad and Jenn on Tuesday, but I failed to get pics of them...oh well. On Wednesday, my mom and Arlie came up to celebrate. My mom and I fixed an awesome meal (if I do say so myself) of turkey, dumplins (not dumplings), sweet potatoes, etc., and I really enjoyed having them over. I only wish that we could've had more time together. There is never enough time, is there?
We went to our church's Christmas Eve service, which was lovely, but chaotic with three children. They did calm down for the part where we all lit candles and sang "Silent Night". That is the best part, after all. We then came home and read the Christmas story.

Later that night I got to talk to my brother and his wife (who I miss like crazy). They are doing fine, spending Christmas with friends. Jacob and I reminisced a bit, which of course made me cry when we got done. I hope we get to see them soon! They need to meet Kate, and I just want to get on an airplane:)

Christmas morning came with much excitement from the boys. The night before they had speculated on Santa, when he would come, if he is real or not, and Will's theory that every country has its own Santa and that's how he makes it to all of the houses in one night.

Kate didn't really understand what was going on, but she liked opening gifts. He favorite gift was the Reese's cups in her stocking. She ate three of them "for breakfast" before we noticed and took them away. Bless her. It's all about the chocolate for this girl. Once that was gone, she really enjoyed her pots and pans.Ben and Will got Mickey Mouse stuff and Legos. They didn't actually ask for the Legos, but they turned out to be a big hit. They had the big Duplos, but it was time for big boy Legos.

We are now at Tim's parents, celebrating with his brothers and their families. (Photos to come in a future post.) I love to let the kids get together with their cousins. They play so well together. I grew up surrounded by extended family, so I hope that they will always enjoy being together, despite the distance.

But since this is all about Christmas craziness, you should be aware that Kate got a horrid ear infection and a cough for Christmas, and she was up all night crying, despite the antibiotics. We weren't alone though, my niece and nephew have a lovely stomach bug and were up all night with that. Ick. I told my nephew that if he would keep his yuck to himself, we would keep Kate's to ourselves. Nobody wants to share germs.

And now for some happy news to end with. Last night Kate asked me to "howlp" her open her presents. She didn't exactly put the ending on the "p" and the "l" was questionable, but she SAID it! A new word!! I got very excited, so she has said it about a million times. She only started using the sign last week, so she has figured this out pretty quickly. Yea Kate!!