Merry Christmas!

Did you all have a great Christmas? I hope you did!!

We had a great holiday season, I would say. Maddie, for the first time, was old enough to enjoy the Christmas lights and decorations, and made some ornaments and proudly hung them on the tree... she waved to Santa at the mall, got a candy cane from the Santa who drove by the fire truck and heard the true meaning of Christmas about a bazillion times. (Just for the record, we don't get really into Santa here... we don't think he's evil- we just enjoy him as we enjoy any make believe character). We all ate lots of cookies and drank lots of hot chocolate out of snowman shaped mugs. I refrained from stressing out over the details and kept my gift giving simple and within budget. A great Christmas season.

Christmas day, however, was a mixture of good, bad and ugly.

The good: We slept in a little bit... not as much as Seth and I could have used! The girls, whether from the excitement of dinner at husband's aunt's the night before or just a fluke, had a rough night and woke up with wet beds or some other issue four times during the night.

"T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house,

not a person was sleeping, not husband nor spouse!!"

After taking our time getting up and dressed, we read the Christmas story from the Bible. Actually, Seth read, while I whispered to Maddie that it was almost over and Eden fluttered about the room in her usual first thing in the morning cheerfulness. We had my mom over for a late breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bacon and fruit. Add coffee and orange Julius and we were stuffed and well on our way to stomach aches! Truthfully, the girls, who are always hungry straight out of bed, ate shredded mini wheats before my mom even came, so they mostly had fruit by the time breakfast was served. We opened gifts and was each spoiled rotten!

We then headed to my in laws to open gifts with them before one branch of the family departed. Again, lots of wonderful gifts. I have no idea where I am going to fit all the fun toys the girls got!! And I got a few great things myself!! I will shortly be strutting around the shopping mall, my arm adorned with a Coach purse from my brother and sister in law who swear they got it for cheap (crazy right? I'm a bit embarrassed to even wear it, it's so nice! Maybe I should just leave it home and pet the soft leather instead of actually use it!), and smelling fabulous thanks to my delicious bath set from my other brother and sister in law!

Maddie spend the afternoon playing with cousins (ie. stealing their new Nerf guns) while Seth and I took Eden home for a nap so that she'd hopefully be pleasant for the party that evening. I finished my contributions to the food spread for the party (best ever corn chowder recipe found here) and we went back up the in laws to relax and play board games and finish getting ready for the extended family to come over.

The bad: By the time 5:30 rolled around, Maddie was getting tired and whiny. Eden was also on the brink of being all "Christmas-ed out". The party was just getting started.

The ugly: By 7pm, Maddie was downright hysterical over everything from what kind of chips were on her plate to the pajamas I had packed for her to wear. After trying every trick we know, Seth and I left. Maddie cried the entire ride home, cried every step into the house, and continued until her eyelids closed in sleep on her bed. Eden perked up when we came up, remembering the tea set she had received earlier. But shortly, she too, let it be known that she. was. tired. So to bed she went. By 7:45, with both girls making Zzzz's, I convinced Seth that I really would like him to return to the party, eat, drink (coffee!) and be merry. No need for us both to be home. So I'm getting a head start on laundry and clean up... and enjoying the quiet. Seth is hopefully enjoying the company of his siblings and cousins and their families and will hopefully bring me back a sample of the dessert offerings!

Seems like I talk about dessert a lot on my blog. You probably all think I'm a glutten. Oh well. I do like sweets, there's no denying that, but really I don't eat them all day every day. Sometimes I eat other things... like chips. Okay okay, I really am joking. I'm going to write a post soon about my two cents on food and dieting and all that business, But for tonight... Christmas night... I'm gonna have me some dessert and I am not ashamed to say so! =)

For a minute or two, as we were gathering our bags and coats and shoes and whining girls and leaving the happy company of relatives, I felt like we surely are the worst parents ever. But really... we did what we could... we made nap time a priority, limited the sugar intake in the little ones, etc. But this is just life with toddlers sometimes. No big deal. I'm going to enjoy the time alone and look forward to shopping tomorrow. I much prefer shopping the day after Christmas than the day after Thanksgiving. I need to stock up a few Christmas items, like gift tags and ribbon, for next year, and can usually get a few gifts for the upcoming year for half price or less.

Thank you Jesus for coming to earth in such a humble way, to be treated so badly, to do so much good. Born to die. Thank you for coming!