Christmas 2011 wrap up

I know many of you will proceed to roll your eyes when I say this, but....

It is over!!
Christmas was great, but I'm glad it is over for another year.  My house is a wreck, there are items that need a place in the kids' rooms and the kids' rooms are already too full(I get a nervous twitch in response to clutter and mess--I'm an organized neat freak, yes I am!).  But, back to the fun part. Christmas Eve was my mother's extended family annual get together.  They ate snacks and sang carols.  I'd asked Carter to take his guitar for the sing-a-long as I knew it would thrill my 95 year old grandparents to have Carter accompany the traditional singing.  However, the crowd didn't exaclty follow along with the music.  Carter texted me at one point saying "This family doesn't know how to sing!"  That is one of my yearly favorite traditions.  My uncle belts out "5 Goooold Reeeeings" and we all sing parts of the 12 Days of Christmas. I missed it due to working.  That night, we put the kids to bed at 9:30.  The little ones all wanted to sleep in together  in Abby's room.  At 11:07pm I went to make sure Carter's XBOX was off and his light was off.  In the hall I heard frantic whispering.  A peek in Abby's room revealed Hudson lying next to her in bed, telling her all about how "tomorrow will be Christmas and Santa is coming."  Funny thing is, she was fast asleep!  I was a bit tired and exasparated and told him to hurry up and go to sleep or Santa wouldn't come :)
No worries, Santa came.

 He brought Carter a punching bag and boxing gloves.  I am soooo sore from punching the bag a few times.  It seems I don't use those muscle groups often.

 Precious Dillon and I(when the HECK did I get so many wrinkles, especially on my neck???) on the couch while Abby's reads us the story of baby Jesus:  so simple and humbl, so unexpected, so completely unmerited!  Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice, love, and life.

 Shocker, Hudson is thrilled with more Thomas paraphnalia.  Side note here:  you can see the Operation Christmas Child shoebox behind him.  No, he wasn't a shoebox recipient and no, we didn't hijack a shoebox from the truck we helped load to go to the processing center back in November and then regift it to our kids.  I happened to have 4 extra empty boxes and they fit some of our gifts beautifully.

 Abby was thrilled to death with her iPod Touch.  No, it isn't new.  I'm a huge fan of the 3 Rs:  Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.  We bought it from a good friend whose daughter isn't using hers anymore.  Abby knows it was Faith's and is pleased as punch :)

We then loaded up and went to Mike's folks.  Nice and sweet little Christmas gathering with tons of delish homemade food.  The cousins played all day.  My mother-in-law spoiled me greatly!  Carter was sick with wheezing, fever, and coughing.  Thank you Jesus for our nebulizer that we don't leave home without. We spent the night and drove home today--minus the 3 younger ones--they stayed to play at Nana's another 2 days.  Carter just got 2 shots and should be better by tomorrow.  I'm painting our cheap and plain metal front door today...Hunter Green.  Can't wait to see the wow factor from the street!