A week ago, we started our 3 day Christmas celebration extravaganza. It was 3 days full of family, food, and plenty of presents! We drove up to Dad and Susan's on Sunday to celebrate with them and my siblings' families. Olivia and Logan got reacquainted quickly with hugs and kisses. Andrew had a good time watching the floating train around the middle of their tree. The grown up boys all received cool helicopters and got a little flying practice in before dinner. As usual, there was no shortage of food on the dinner table and the same went for after dinner treats. We got the kids jammied up and after a little extra playtime with Papa John and Maga Suzi, we were on our way to spend the night at the Bingham's.
Christmas Eve started with Carl taking a little outing with Logan so that Logan would get to nap in the car before the festivities began. As everyone arrived, there was an air of anticipation, knowing that Santa was scheduled to make a visit. It was so fun to see Andrew's face light up as he heard Santa's bells and saw him coming down the stairs. He didn't want to give hugs at first, but was happy to sit on Santa's lap to get a present. Logan had a taste of Santa's beard and Olivia seemed to give Santa the once over before deciding he was ok. Nicky and Ken's other 2 nephews were there as well and while Alex played along (he's 10), Shawn (3) wasn't too sure of that Santa fellow. Probably the most memorable moment of Santa's visit was when he got up to leave and Andrew said to me, "Is that not Uncle Bubba?" I froze for a second, and Andrew said, "his shoes are the same as Uncle Bubba's." I assured Andrew that they had the same kind of shoes and it was not Uncle Bubba. Darn those boot covers for not completely covering the wearers shoes! As Auntie Amy said, I think some costume upgrades are in order before next year!
Present opening was pretty chaotic and I ended up opening several of Andrew's gifts as I think he was overwhelmed and also distracted once he opened a few really fun things. Olivia helped open some of her gifts, but was also distracted by the first couple of gifts. Highlights included a big fire truck and a big police car (the police car's lights kept flashing on the way home, freaking Carl out numerous times while he drove) for Andrew and a shopping cart and baby stroller for Olivia. We were all wiped out by the time we headed for home and thankfully, it was a pretty quiet ride.
We were happy to spend Christmas morning at home. We opened out gifts when Andrew and Olivia were both up and then Mimi arrived for breakfast and another round of presents. She worked really hard to put together the workbench she got for Andrew and shopping cart she got for Olivia. After some fun playtime, Mimi had to head home and we had a little downtime before going to Papa and Mamoo's for our final Christmas celebration. Olivia took to the stairs and I got a little exercise chasing her up, then helping her down. She also had fun chasing Ben the cat. Andrew wanted Papa to put together his new construction site toy right away.
After lots of package opening, tag removing, old toy purging, and organizing, we're finally settled back into our normal routine. I'm left feeling incredibly thankful for the close relationships we have with our family and friends and that our children are so well loved by so many.
