Christmas 2010

Christmas is now in our memories.

Jenni and Jeremy are flying back to Oregon today, while Scott and Britt are keeping all three boys busy in the stuffed back seat of the car on their 15 hour trip home to Jersey.

Ashleigh and I are both focusing on getting our houses back to "normal" but really wish the chaos and excitment were not over. I said good bye to the out of town kids, and immediately wanted to take my Christmas tree and house decorations down.

In a recap:
The big kids took the little kids sledding 2 times this holiday season. Jen was able to go cross country skiing while they were here, and also join us for a movie. We had a roasted chicken dinner all together, and crafted for a couple hours the night before Christmas eve. We also had 14 kids in the house for our re-visited Cousins Craft Day. Mike and Scott prepared a feast of fried chicken, salads, chips and veggies and alot of tired kiddo's went home with several homemade christmas ornaments. Britt and I were able to go shopping, and shopping a bit more! I had time to hug each of my baby grandson's and read stories to them. We fit in as much as we could in the week we had together, and I cherish each one.

We actually had ALL the gifts wrapped and ready for all 16 of our kids (the in-laws and the grands)BEFORE Christmas eve....an all time record for Mike and I. We have burned the candle at both ends, making as much as possible of the hours we had together.

We celebrated with my brothers families Christmas eve, with our traditional Taco Supper. Our house is not nearly big enough for everyone of the people we have here, but 40 people came and somehow we all had room to sit (or stand!) and visit! Good times of food and fun (I LOVE all the goodies!!) and mostly, another year with our loved ones all together.

Christmas morning we put the kids off from the time they got up (at 5:00 am) until we could drag ourselves downstairs (8:00 am) to open presents. The best part this year was having all three grandsons wake up in our house and have Christmas morning with us. Beautiful memories for this gramma!

The biggest of the kids all came over just as we finished our little kids Christmas, and Ash crafted t-shirts with the kids the rest of the morning. It was great to have her take all of them in the other room for a while and each shirt is as unique as the creator! Another special memory this year.

The frenzy of the holidays are over now, and as we all get our minds ready (or not) to accept a new year ahead, I am hoping for peace and joy to continue on for each of my loved ones in the days coming up. It was a beautiful Christmas for our family, one that will stand out in my heart as near perfect, since we were all together under one roof. Our African baby should be with us next year. So many, many blessings this year.

Peace.