More Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Day

When Christmas morning rolled around, I was expecting the kids to do the normal kid-on-Christmas-morning thing and wake up super early, run into the living room to see what Santa brought, forcing everyone else in the house to get up. But, luckily for me and the other Christmas elf, who were both up late wrapping our gifts for the kids, my kids aren't normal! Reid woke up first and came to crawl into bed with us. He did eventually ask if Santa came, but I happen to say something at the same time he did. So I said, "What?" and he just said, "Can I watch cartoons?" Sure thing, kid--it let us sleep a little more! About 15 minutes later, Blair came in and crawled into bed too, never uttering a word about what could be waiting for them in the living room! She finally wised up and asked if Santa came, but I said, "I don't know, did you ever go to sleep?" She didn't answer and just laid there watching cartoons. What an unenthusiastic group of children! It wasn't until the brood of dogs escaped from our bedroom, eager for some breakfast, that the kids followed and finally saw the goods left under the tree. Reid tore open his transforming remote control car first, Blair changed into her new barbie dress, shoes and necklace immediately, and Sloane was excited to see a ball, this toddler's favorite toy. Jeremy was treated to an old, worn out pair of Patriots slippers thanks to his new ones being held up with UPS, and I got America's hottest As Seen On TV item, a Snuggie! And you can see from my photos below that the Snuggie truly does work in any situation one may encounter. :)

A few photos from the morning...

Couldn't even wait for the lights to get turned on!

Blair was super excited to unwrap this Shrek baby that she saw at the store a couple days earlier (and yes, already wearing her new barbie dress).

At one point, Reid opened a present and excitedly said, "I'm thankful for this, and I don't even know what it is!"

Sloane's trying to get IN her new car, ala Ginormica from Monsters vs. Aliens.

Early in the unwrapping frenzy, Reid said, "I didn't even get that building thing that I saw at the store, but I don't care because I'm still happy!" Well, here he is a few gifts later discovering that he DID get the "building thing" (an Erector Set) he saw at the store.

Jeremy showing off the ornament Reid made for him at school.

As usual, who needs these newfangled toys when you have a new box?







Playing "Mama" to her new baby.








Whether cheering for your favorite team...

getting some work done...

or sharing Christmas cheer, the Snuggie keeps you warm and cozy! :)

Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Day Snow Play!

Our Christmas Day afternoon was spent playing in the snow!

Reid's in knee-deep!

Sloane' reenactment of every local traveler that day. 

No snow day is complete without a snowball fight between Daddy and Reid.

Sled trips through the street were the highlight of the day. Jeremy liked to pull really fast, then let go on a curve and let the kids fly off.

Well, not much of a highlight for Jeremy.

Reid with his snowman.

Sloane liked riding when she was sitting with someone else. She always flew off when she was by herself.

I think the designated puller pulled a muscle pulling me!

Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Eve Snow

A little Christmas catch-up, mainly for me, since I'm sure no one else is interested in Christmas stuff 4 months after the fact. :)

It started off with snow. It started snowing Christmas Eve morning. It was light, but blowing pretty hard. Of course, the kids wanted to go play in it right away. I knew it would be miserable out there and had no interest going out there myself, but I bundled them up and out they went. (I came across Sloane's and Blair's snow suits at Goodwill for $1.50 each. Who doesn't love a great bargain like that!)

Sloane was out there all of about 2 seconds and she decided she wanted to come back in. Fifteen minutes to get her dressed, 10 seconds outside. She didn't care for the blowing snow. She didn't even want to get off the porch and she kept her head buried in my shoulder the whole time!

The snow was blowing so swiftly, it was even sticking to Reid's eyebrows and eyelashes!

When it was all said and done, we ended up with 14 inches! A new record for our city!! And it was determined to be an actual blizzard! Crazy! People were stranded overnight--on CHRISTMAS EVE--at the malls, on the highways. It was a mess in the city. Our good friend (who lives behind us) got stuck at work due to the weather and a 50-car pile-up that was blocking the interstate so Jer walked over to his house to bring his dog to stay with us for the night. So we had an extra house guest to celebrate Christmas with! :) This is looking out our front door.

Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Eve Traditions and Activities

In addition to playing in the snow, we upheld our usual Christmas Eve traditions: baking Santa's cookies! The kids are always so excited to make "sprinkle cookies" so that was a treat for them. And I got to open an early present--new Christmas cookie cutters that Reid picked out.

Then while Jeremy shoveled the driveway in preparation of us going to Christmas Eve mass, the kids and I put on our Christmas best. Even Tessie had a fancy number to wear for the evening (not to church, just at home).

Twin girls watching the snow.

After Jeremy was done with the driveway, he came in to get dressed too. Since we had on Christmas shows all day, we hadn't paid attention to the local news at all. We were completely surprised upon turning it on to find out that the snow was so serious, that every highway and interstate in the city was shut down! We called one of our church deacons who lives across the street from us, and he said he wasn't going to church that evening and that he wouldn't suggest we take the kids out on the roads. So we figured that if HE weren't going, then surely it would be acceptable for us to skip Christmas mass as well. So, since we were all dressed, we decided to take advantage of it and get our annual family picture in front of the Christmas tree. Ever tried taking a family picture, by using the camera's timer setting, of a family that includes 3 young kids and 2 dogs? It's not easy. We got a couple of Jeremy and the 5 youngins, and then one shot of me with 4 of the ankle-biters, but none of all 7. Guess we'll have to photoshop us all together this year!

So, here's all 7 of us, in one way or another. 

Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Eve Chaos

So, picking up where we left off with the family picture... this series of pictures made me laugh so much I felt it needed it's own post. ...We kept trying to get a picture of all of us. It finally ended when this happened. (By the way, I had my camera timer set up to take 6 pictures in a row, so that's how this series came about.)

I was trying to make Sloane sit in Reid's lap for the picture.

She wanted to stand, not sit down. So when I made her sit down, she got mad, threw her head back, and slammed into Reid's nose.

And all heck breaks loose.

The blood is flowing, spotting his white dress shirt. (It's a good thing we weren't going to mass at this point.)

Picture time is definitely over.

Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Eve Extras

So, due to the copious amounts of snow, we actually had a white Christmas this year! I'd say it was my first, but we had the miracle of all weather miracles when we were surprised by a white Christmas in South Texas in 2004. That is still unbelievable--South Texas barely gets down to 40 degrees, much less 6 inches of snow! But anyway, back to our beautiful and plentiful white Christmas this year.

Because of our necessary change of plans on Christmas Eve, we were unable to continue our usual tradition of mass, open one gift (which is generally new pjs), change into said pjs, and then go look at Christmas lights. So, after the bloody nose incident, we ate dinner, opened 2 gifts (new pjs and a game for each kid to fill the time before bedtime), and read Christmas stories (the kids like Daddy to do that job because he makes up silly words to go along with the story and they think it's hysterical) before heading off to bed to await Santa's arrival. Reid couldn't fall asleep; he was "just too excited," he kept telling me. And because I had earlier told Blair that she needed to clean her room in case Santa wanted to come tuck her in (to which she obliged and cleaned her room), she fretted the entire night about Santa coming in her room. She was NOT interested in that idea at all, and I had to assure her over and over again that I would give Santa

strict orders NOT to enter that room.