Christmas

Warning: this is going to be another long post that is going to span a whole month.

We left the beach on the Friday after Thanksgiving so that we would have the weekend at our house.  Mark had been working so much that he really just wanted to sit in our house and relax.  We spent that weekend getting ready for Christmas.  We actually put lights up outside for the first time, which made us so cool in Katie's eyes.  (Of course our bachelor neighbors showed us up by having a blowup Santa, Frosty and thousands of lights, some of which blinked.)

Mark was super busy with work most of the month of Dec so I wasn't able to drag him on all of our Christmas activities. 

Marcus and Addy had a Christmas party at their school.  They were supposed to sing a couple of songs for us.  Marcus ended up on my lap before his class got up on stage.  And Addy spent 1/2 the song looking at something and then all the sudden looked up and realized the song was going on without her.

On stage

Trying to talk Santa into bringing her candy

We went to the Billy Graham library where they had carriage rides and a live nativity.  They also had caroling and story time.  The kids were so excited about the horses.  They kept pointing out the ones they wanted to pull our carriage while we were waiting in line.   The ride was a little short for the money I paid for it, but the kids didn't seem to notice.  They were just upset that they weren't allowed to pet the horses.  After the carriage ride we headed to the live nativity.  Katie was so excited for this.  I'm not sure if she thought she was going to get to see the real Mary or not. She was really disappointed that they did not have a real baby in the manger in the 35/40 degree weather.  I was just proud of myself for handling three kids by myself in a relatively large crowd of people.

Katie took this picture of the nativity

My kids are obsessed with Baby Jesus, mostly Katie, so we finally got a child proof nativity.  The kids LOVE it.  They played with it everyday.  We want our kids to enjoy Santa and all the commercial stuff that comes with Christmas, but we try hard to make sure they understand the reason we celebrate Christmas.  Baby Jesus and his birthday came up everyday during the month of December.  Our set came with two angels, Marcus was really excited and always wanted to be an angel when he played.  He felt very justified in his claim when I told him that the Angel Gabriel was a boy.  (He put on the white tutu and angel wings a lot more after that.)

The week before Christmas, the kids and I met Mark at his work.  They have bears that sing Christmas carols.   Marcus fell asleep in the car on the (short) drive and that always puts him in an interesting mood for doing things.  He hung out in Mark's arms most the time, and watched from the side; but, Katie and Addy joined the line of kids on the fence front and center.

After we walked around and visited a child size gingerbread house.  It wasn't nearly as cool as it could have been.  It didn't have any candy or fun colors on it (it was made out of real 'organic' stuff) my kids could have done a better job, AND it got the kids all dirty when they leaned against it for a picture.

The weather was amazing so after getting some dinner we walked around outside and looked at all the lights.

After that the real fun started.  My sister Jenn and hubby Ryan and 4 kids were in FL for a medical rotation so they came to spend Christmas with us.  They arrived late Friday night.

Things got crazy fast with a 2-yr old and 3-3yr olds, not to mention the silly 5, 7 and 8 yr old girls.  Christmas Eve we all gathered at Sarah's house and my parents came down for a brunch.  The kids had a blast all running around crazy.

Marcus, Max, Will and Sam

Gabby, Talia and Addy

Katie was busy running around with the big girls so Addy got some alone time with Gabby and Talia.  As the youngest granddaughter she was thrilled to be fully included.  After food and play time, we opened some presents.

Katie had the bright idea to make Santa some cinnamon rolls this year.  She thought that he might be sick of cookies and like a change...I think she was right, because they were all gone in the morning.

Mark reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'

The next morning was pure craziness!

Addy really liked her present from Marcus

Katie made Addy this little nativity set from toilet paper rolls--all by herself.

My gift from Katie

 Christmas morning after presents and cinnamon rolls we went to church. 

Mark made us smoked pork for Christmas dinner, so other then some cooking we spent the day relaxing and trying to ignore the noise of 7 kids enjoying all their toys.

The Swapp family left Monday morning.  We were so sad to see them go, but for the kids the fun was not about to end...Grammy and Grandpa showed up Tuesday night.  I came down with a terrible cold, so for me most of their visit is a haze, but the kids had a blast.   Of course they were spoiled rotten; they opened more presents, they went to a movie-complete with popcorn and soda, they went out to eat, and they had someone to play with all day.