Christmas 2009

This year at Christmas was absolutely MAGICAL. There were 12 of us at Mom and Dad's house Christmas Eve into Christmas Morning and it was SO fun!! The parents filled the house with presents and food and the kids filled the house with giggling and fun! Here's my sweet baby with his Lolli and Chance before the festivities started! Isn't he just gorgeous? (If I do say so myself, ahem)

Once the rest of the kiddos came it was time to start making our Happy Birthday Jesus cake! It's tradition you know. However, for the life of us, we couldn't get a good picture of all of them!! This is the BEST we got! I'm serious.

Here they all are helping me put in the mix. Karter Lane is holding the bowl!

Yeah - we tried again. And, you'll probably notice a theme here. The ONLY kid who LOOKS at the camera during any of the pictures is Karter. EVERY TIME!

Malachi wanted ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the mixer. He was okay sitting there but had NO desire to actually touch it!

And then, they each got to look a beater/spatula/spoon!

Maybe I spoke too soon - Kadi Jo did a good job looking at the camera here! There's a first time for EVERYTHING right Aunt Kelly?

Here's the final masterpiece! And yes, the first "s" is an upside down 5. You can read about why we have that tradition here.

And, finally, I got my Happy Birthday Jesus plate that I've always wanted to remind Santa why we celebrate! I LOVE this plate and can't wait until my kiddos are old enough to understand it!!!

After we finished the cake, Lolli let all the grandkids open their pajamas for the evening! Here's Malachi's. I ask you, in all reality, are these not the CUTEST things you've EVER seen???

The kiddos played and played and played and finally, it was time to go to sleep. So, Malachi got his new pillow from Aunt Kelly - (Note, Monkey pillow case!!) We are ALL things monkey at our house!!
When the kiddos went to sleep, the adults stayed up and played Wits and Wagers, endorsed by our hero, Dave Ramsey. It is THE MOST FUN we've had in a VERY long time!! It's an awesome game and I TOTALLY recommend it!

After a couple hours of completely side-splitting laughter, it was time for us to get all the Santa stuff out go to sleep so Santa could visit. And, visit he did! Here's Malachi's stocking stuff. Of course he had to have his peppermint stick like he does every year. And I can't wait to watch the Curious George video with him!! Thanks Santa.

Here's his little Santa corner. (Hey, when Santa's putting out toys for 4 kids, you have to be creative!) He LOVES the munchkin bath toys and his pull behind puppy. And, of course, you see the guitar in the front. I'm telling you this kid LOVES music. Finally, the Veggie Tales videos were SUPER exciting for Mommy and Daddy to wake up to. We LOVE Tales from the Sock Drawer already!! However, let me just make a mental note to remind Santa of something next year. Dear Santa, "washable" bathtub crayons aren't supposed to take COMET to come off the bathtub. Just a tip. Thanks!

I have to be honest that Malachi wasn't completely into the opening of presents this year. There was WAY too much activity for him to be sitting down opening presents! BUT, he LOVED this "choo choo", AKA a John Deere Tractor from Aunt Net and Uncle Frankie!! He even knows where each little animal goes and puts them in their proper place while he's playing with it. Genius...I know!

He has also demonstrated an absolute LOVE of driving lately, so we got him this cute little steering wheel toy! He carries it around and really likes to honk the horn!

Here's Daddy playing with him and his new bathtub toys. And, of course, he's got his "buppy" and his guitar right there with him. Rarely do those two leave his side at home. Actually, strike that, I think the guitar has taken up residence in my car!

The adults got in on the action too! Here's daddy with his new 6 in 1 hoodie/scarf/mask/etc! He's wearing it today, actually.

And, though I don't have any pictures of me wearing my earrings, my wonderful husband got me some beautiful White Emerald Hoops and a brand new set of hot rollers! I'm growing my hair out and, though I've had to figure these new boogers out (i.e. - don't leave them in your hair longer than 5 minutes if you don't want to look like Shirley Temple) - I'm SUPER excited about using them in my quickly growing hair!! Thanks honey! I had a marvelous Christmas!

I didn't upload the 200+ pictures I have of Christmas and the AWESOME presents that everyone gave/got for two reasons. The first - I don't have the time. The second - the presents just DIDN'T matter this year! Honestly, this was THE BEST CHRISTMAS we've ever had as a family! Everyone got presents that MEANT something to them. And that, to me, is better than all the money and expensive presents in the world!!!

Wiping tears away - sorry. After 2.5 hours of opening gifts and 7 (55) gallon trashbags full of trash later, the kiddos wanted breakfast. So they ate at their new picnic table from Lolli!!

After this all the families went back to their respective homes to prepare for Christmas lunch. UNFORTUNATELY I was struck with a MASSIVE migraine right after we ate and I was forced to come home and take some medicine. Thomas stayed with me while the rest of my family watched Malachi and played and ate some more. So, Christmas morning was wonderful and magical and COMPLETELY unforgettable, but Christmas Day was somewhat of a bust. We didn't even get a family picture on Christmas. It's such a shame. Unfortunately I can't help but think that the migraine was related, in some way, to the TIA I had a few weeks ago. However, I have found out that I have several goiters on my thyroid so I've been started on some synthetic thyroid medicine to try to help regulate that. I'm trying to get into a neurologist still and now I'm also trying to get into an endocrinologist. Oh well - God knows what's going on and I trust my doctors to treat me well. We'll get it figured out.

New Years was spent at Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna's house playing, again, Wits and Wagers and, come 12:05, we were on our way home. It was quiet and fun and relaxing and we rang it in with our best friends. I'm so thankful for this year and the wonderful new start that we have. Thomas and I resolved to read our Bibles through this year, so please keep us accountable in this. Also, I'm GOING to lose at least 10 pounds by May for my 10 year reunion and for our cruise in July. So, I'm REALLY watching my weight and what I eat! (In other words, don't offer me chocolate between now and August) PLEASE!

I pray that your Christmas was as blessed as ours and I pray your new year will be fantastic and God-filled!