Christmas was wonderful! We had such a great time visiting both my and Arthur's families. It was a lot of driving, but it was well worth it. :) We ended up having Christmas at my parents' house on the 23rd, in order for everyone to make it. What a day! We started opening presents among the 8 grandkids, 4 at-home kids, 6 married kids and my parents at 10:30 in the morning. We finished some time before 1pm! Everyone got so many more presents than they deserved, as usual. :) All of us kids surprised my parents with a 20x24 framed photo of all of the kids and grandkids, an 11x14 photo of the 8 original kids, and an 11x14 of the 8 grandkids. I think they loved it! We had to sneak around to get the picture taken after Thanksgiving, but we pulled it off and they were surprised, so I was happy to see my mom's reaction. I know she's been wanting to get a good picture of all of us together but someone's always taking a nap or crabby or absent.
We left my parents' house on Friday morning and came home to drop off the presents and relax for a few hours....or so we thought. We ended up opening all the toys just to get the garbage out of the house. What a mess! Kid toys are so difficult to open! But, the girls were happy to see everything out of the packaging.
Around 3, we headed over to my in-laws for dinner there. It was Italian-themed for the food. I brought an antipasto tray, and I am very proud of myself for going outside my little box to make a pretty decent dish. :) Addy opened her gifts shortly after 7 because she was exhausted and needed to go to bed. After putting her to sleep, we watched some TV and then all opened gifts around 9:30 or so. All 3 girls got (again) a TON of toys and clothes. They were very excited. Arthur got an iPad! He was super excited as well. I got some really great and useful kitchen items, so I was very happy. We got home around 11 and again decided to open the packaging of all the toys. What a chore! Of course, Polly Pocket's roller coaster playset had a ridiculous amount of pieces. We were up til 1 putting it all together and getting out the gifts from Santa....and eating the milk and cookies.
Christmas morning was awesome as well! The girls loved their presents and note from Santa. We opened gifts from each other and then ate a pancake, egg, and bacon breakfast made on my new electric griddle. :) Then, we were finally able to just lounge the rest of the day. Our friend Mike surprised us in the afternoon and stopped by to visit and with gifts for the girls.
It was a great couple of days. Now, we are headed to church this morning; Arthur headed off to work. Should be another great day. I'm already looking forward to a nap and starting laundry so we can get all these new clothes put away!!
Hope your Christmas was just as magical and special. We did review the real meaning of Christmas yesterday, and I was pleased when Iris didn't skip a beat in answering "Jesus was born" when asked what happened on the first Christmas morning. :) That's my girl!
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