A Merry Christmas

 

Well, Christmas 2008 came and went quickly this year! I once again did not get a super cute family, or just kids formal "Christmas 2008" picture. I haven't done a good job of getting a formal "Christmas morning" picture since we had kids. I guess this is one area of motherhood I'm still trying to catch up on...no cute Christmas clothes and pictures in front of the tree. How about pajamas and a bunch of picutres where the kids aren't really looking? Okay, good I've got lots of those! We had a wonderful time together. Mike and I agree Christmas Day is a wonderful day to be a parent. We give our kids three gifts and I love the lack of pressure I feel about the lavishing of gifts upon our kids. Santa did a good job of stuffing their stockings full of stuff as well.

Andrew woke up (like he always does) at 6 a.m. sharp. Emma was already in our bed (for about an hour) and was still sound asleep. I got Andrew up and rushed him past the gifts into the playroom to watch JoJo. he didn't notice anything, including the playhouse. Well, Mike joined us around 7 a.m. and we all waited for Emma until we finally woke her up at almost 8! This girl NEVER sleeps in. I'm pretty sure this is the last Christmas we'll have to wait for a kid to get up. We wouldn't have woken her up except we needed to leave by 10 at the LATEST to make our 4 hour drive to Delaware for Christmas dinner at Mike's parents house, so we needed to get the show on the road. Quite literally!

Emma usually isn't very compliant when we have to wake her up. It's a little like "waking the beast." However on this morning a "let's see if you've got any presents" perked her right up! Shocking, right? Well, both of the kids were THRILLED to see their new playhouse which was technically for Emma, but we knew Andrew would just love it. I am so proud of this purchase. It's a Rose Petal Cottage and it's really a glorified tent for kids. It came in a pretty small box, has fabric walls and poles. There is a cute little magnetic door and came with a little stove. There are apparently many other appliances you can buy (sink, washer, dryer, etc) but I think we'll stick with the stove for now. This little cottage is usually $80+ and I thought it was cute, but no way would I spend $80 on it. So, I found it on Amazon for $32.99 plus free shipping! Sold! Andrew can usually found inside of it if he's awake. Emma has made us lots of pizza and cupcakes with her stove already and Andrew LOVES filling and emptying the stove. Mike even put a big flashlight in the chimney so they have a light. It is so far a great $32 spent! I highly reccomend this toy if anyone needs an inside playhouse. There were some very exciting treasures left by Santa in the kids stockings. Emma's favorite were her ducky slippers. For a kid who doesn't like socks, she surprises me with her love of slippers. They're cute. Andrew was very excited to find some books with planes, helicopters and his current favorite Leo from Little Einsteins inside. However, notthing was more exciting to Andrew than the tube of mini M&M's inside. Seriously exciting! It's not everyday your parents let you eat M&M's before 9 a.m.

So, that was the Merry part...then was the preparation for the trip which we didn't do very well and frankly weren't very Merry about....but we found the Christmas spirit again and sang our way up the peninsula to Delaware where Grandma and Grandpa sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" with their Santa hats on upon our arrival! They were cute. We had Christmas dinner with grandparents and Mike's sister and her family. It was nice to build another Christmas memory with family in it. I'm
grateful both Mike Sr. and Christine had their cameras because I didn't and I think they got some cute shots. When they email me the pics, I'll post them. Sad part of the day was when Mike lost his wedding ring outside while wrestling with his nephew. Oops. It's a bummer, but it's not really sad. It's not the first ring he's lost otherwise it would be really sad. The original wedding ring was a fatality of a waterfall at Fossil Creek in Arizona. That loss was sad. I'll have to get him a ring pretty quick though. Good looking pilots are a hot comodity and I don't want any poor girls misled into thinking he's uh...available. :)

We left that evening and headed for Washington D.C. to stay in an apartment near the temple to enjoy more family and maybe a little tourism.