Well, my family is leaving tomorrow, Jacob has been throwing up every few minutes the last couple of hours, about ten loads of laundry has been done in that time, my house is in total self-destruct mode, and I have more ham in my fridge than I know what to do with.
But I'm sneaking in a few minutes to write a bit more about my Christmas. Believe me, there are still a couple more days of Christmas posts to come. Okay, so I probably just scared half you readers away.
(if you plan on snoring, please do it with discretion so as not to upset the other readers, thank you.)
We had planned to keep Christmas simple this year. A few homemade presents, a few stocking stuffers, and one or two bought toys for each kid. But it was not to be.
A few days before Christmas, a family from our ward, who seems to have taken a shine to my kids, stopped by and unloaded the back of their truck. Two huge boxes or bags for each of the kids. I was completely and utterly dumbfounded. They more or less just dropped them off under the tree and walked back out without saying much. I have no clue why they did it. But man, oh man were my kids excited!
On top of that, I received a huge box of clothes and later a box of gifts from a friend I've never met in person. Then my neighbor came over Christmas day also bearing a large bag of gifts for my family.
I truly felt so humbled I think I may have actually shrunk a couple inches. What can one say to such an incredibly generous group of people besides and mere "thank you". It just doesn't seem like enough.
But Christmas morning dawned late enough that I was able to sneak in a shower before the kids were dancing at the ants in their pants and itching to tear open the presents that swarmed the base of our small tree.
The very first presents to be grabbed happened to be the very ones that my neighbor and I spent hours upon hours making, staying up well past 2am two nights in a row right before Christmas trying to get done. Sewing is not a skill that I have acquired but thankfully, they are masters. I never could have done it without them.
Ta da!!
Fear not. No close-ups of the sewing were taken for fear that my handiwork would cause some of the skilled ladies to faint in pure horror.
I also made these tutu's for the girls. Gotta love Relief Society crafts!!
Okay seriously, have you ever seen anything so stinking cute!!! I think NOT!
This is what happens when you let a man get a hold of the camera. I tried to stop him, honest I did! But you know how dads can be sometimes. They seem to like taking those awkwardly close pictures. I think I can see my pores....
Oh man, now we are talking extreme cuteness!
WARNING: If you think you're done having kids, please, please do not view the next couple pictures. They have the tendency to change people's minds.
You can't say I didn't warn you!
Joseph with his new watch. He loves watches. I wonder if he'll be one of those men who seem to think that an expensive watch makes them look good. I wouldn't know the difference between a $5 and a $500 one if my life depended on it!
My dad's gift from my mom.
She made it. Just for him. Since he doesn't have a real one.
The rest of the day was spent assembling and playing.
Oh, and eating of course. Can't forget that part. It's very important!
Christmas evening my little sister, her hubby, and my nephew joined the party, bringing the total count to 12 people.
There was toy playing, a bit of toy stealing,
more toy playing,
and a whole lot of talking and laughing.
It had been a really fun day.
About 1:30am, my two other brothers roll in. But I was asleep.
Okay, so I heard them come in but we were all so tired that I didn't bother to get out of bed to say hi, and my brothers headed straight to the basement and crashed. We said hi the next morning.
That brought the total count to 14 people in our three bedroom house. But it actually worked out just great. We put the three older kids in the same room and my parents got the spare upstairs bedroom. We put everyone else down in the unfinished basement. And it worked, thanks again to my awesome neighbors and all their spare mattresses.
Huh. How did this picture find its way here? Oh well, I'll explain it.
My mom started a Christmas morning tradition many, many years ago. She buys each person in the family their favorite box of cereal to eat. That way Christmas morning breakfast is a no fuss deal. It's awesome.
And there you have it. Christmas day.
I hope yours was awesome too.
If you made it to the end of this post, I think you deserve a chocolate. If can actually think of something to comment on, you deserve two.
See? Permission to eats even MORE treats. After all, its not the new year yet!