A very belated Christmas

I realize that Christmas was more than a week ago. I apologize. I also realize that every other blogger has long posted their Christmas recap. Again, I apologize. But with kids home and Christopher's fascination with Kate's new Sims 2 game, I haven't been able to get on the computer. In fact, last night was the first time in a week. Wow! Christmas was a whirlwind as always. Other than our first Christmas that we celebrated on the 17th, our marathon of 6 Christmases in four days started on Christmas Eve.
Preston enjoying his computer from Granny and Pa. It was a hit!
Kate was thrilled to get Skittles in a puking Santa dispenser. Seriously. When you twist it to open, Santa's mouth opens wide and you shake the Skittles out. Lovely!
Every year since Seth and I were little, we've wrapped up this same roll of Christmas toilet paper for Pa. He loves it! He's come to expect it and it's one of our favorite traditions! As soon as Christmas is over, it goes back upstairs in their closet until next year!

We were all beyond excited several days before Christmas when they predicted a white Christmas. Snow began falling heavily Christmas eve afternoon, causing us to gather at mom's early so Seth and Diana could get home safely before it got too bad. Christmas morning we awoke to this...

Our front and back yard were nothing short of stunning. We only got about 3-4 inches, which isn't impressive, but it was more than enough to put us in true Christmas spirit! Driving through the country to Kent and Karen's was beautiful! White everywhere you looked, and the snow on the branches was even prettier!

The kids were up bright and early at 5:30 Christmas morning and I sent them back to bed. Bah humbug! They could wait no longer by 6, so we were all up and downstairs to see what Santa had brought. They had a lot of fun opening gifts and liked everything they got.


Then it was off to Kent and Karen's for Christmas with Christopher's family. The kids had a great time and got way too many gifts.
Sarah, Gracie, Kate, PReston, Abbie and Issie pose.
We then headed to my Me-maw's for our second Christmas of the day. Preston enjoyed playing with her cat, Simon.
Kate was just thrilled to play with Glen. I can't tell you how many good times I had as a kid playing in that same chair. Back then, it spun around really well and fast, and we'd have a blast spinning until the chair tipped.

The next day we got together with Christopher's parents and his sister, her husband and daughters. The kids had a good time and did a lot of playing. Preston got a basketball goal which I'm sure will be a lot of fun this spring and summer.
Monday rounded out our last of the celebrations. The kids got to see all of their cousins from Chicago and had too much fun! They begged not to leave, and then when we had to go back to help set up their Roku, they were beyond excited! Dee got all of the kids Sing-a-majigs and they had a blast playing with them! Kate and Madison chose matching ones.
Abbie and Issie were just as excited to play in a box than anything else!
As busy as we were for 4 straight days, I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was great. Probably one of the best in many years. It was really nice, though, to do absolutely nothing on Tuesday. Just this weekend, we finally got all of the CHristmas toys put away, which should tell you the amount of stuff they got. They did really well the other day weeding out old toys, too!

We had a quiet new years, with the exception of tornado sirens and a torrential downpour. With temps in the 60's it certainly felt like spring! Winter came back with a vengeance, though, and it's COLD! With 2010 gone, I'm looking forward to 2011 and all it offers.