Our Christmas

Christmas this year was nothing less than chaos. It started Christmas eve. If you read my last post I noted that taking both babies to church at the same time is horrible, but I was stupid and tried it anyway. Evan is part of the choir Awesome Angels at school and they sang at the 4:30 Mass. I really wanted that picture perfect Christmas church experience so I insisted rather stubbornly that we all go to church to see him sing. Jeff reminded me that this was of course insane, but went along with my wishes. We had to get to church at 3:30 to get seats, (all of those C & E Catholics showing up) and they were very good for the hour we had to wait for church to start. Of course, once things got rolling they were out of patience and went nuts. Charlie spent the entire Mass with Jeff in my classroom playing with toys, and I walked the foyer with Sam, so it ended up NONE of us were together for church.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parent's house for the first time. This included 4 children under 3 opening gifts at break neck speed. At one point my sister Sarah was in tears, and my father was buried in wrapping paper. It was fun, but also exhausting and overwhelming.

Christmas morning was nice with just us, other than the video camera pooped out halfway through opening gifts (which came only a week after the digital camera broke! If anyone has suggestions on good buys, let me know). The boys all liked their gifts, and I was really excited that Jeff got me two Notre Dame t-shirts and a Packers t-shirt, making my transformation to a football fan complete. We went up to Harlan to celebrate with Jeff's family for the first time later in the day. They had prime rib (MY FAVORITE!!!!!) and they all spoiled the boys. It is so neat for me to watch Jeff's dad with the kids. He got them sleds for Christmas and took them sledding for about an hour in the backyard, which they loved. He is so in love with his grand children it is just amazing to watch.

We came home to a disaster in the living room so for the next three hours Jeff took toys out of boxes while I distributed toys to the right places, and cleaned up the mess. I still feel like we are recovering 3 days later, but I count the whole thing as a success. The kids were happy, we were all well fed, and we spent time together. What more could you ask for?