Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all! Yes, I'm late...but we had 5 Christmas celebrations in 3 days...so I'm a little beat!


Let me rewind, and I'll start on Christmas Eve morning...Matt got off of work and headed home, and when we were ready to have our Christmas, I had him go and play with Kellen in Kellen's room while I set out all of the presents for he and Tatum. Then Matt came out to video Kellen's reaction to the gifts, and we called him out into the living room...it was GREAT! He was so surprised, because we hadn't told him that we were going to be opening any presents. Tatum just played and played with her LeapFrog table, and Kellen was a big helper to her, opening all of her presents for her. :) She just hasn't and didn't figure out the opening presents thing, so I guess it was good that she had some help, huh? Kellen played all morning with his LeapFrog reading writing system and his Sit N Spin, and begged and begged to watch Shrek the Third. Then we got ready to leave for Matt's aunt and uncle's house in Houston for our Christmas Eve celebration there, and were delayed slightly in our departure due to a lovely garbage disposal issue. Despite being told I can, my mantra is now, "I will not put potato skins down the disposal. I will not put potato skins down the disposal."

We got there for our annual venison chili and cold-cuts dinner (yes, it seemed strange to me, too...but I married into it and now it just seems normal), and Kellen played with his cousin's rugby wheelchair...he had a BLAST running into the curbs and flying down the driveway into the street. Wait, that sounds bad...it's a cul-de-sac and there were adults present, so it was supervised fun, really! The kids were really well behaved, save for Kellen's continual attempt to get the dog to let him pet her...we tried to tell Kellen that when she went into her crate, that was her telling him to LEAVE HER ALONE...and that the growling was her way of telling him that. I think he got it, but he continued to try to pet her (outside of the crate) all night long. I don't think it ever worked. Lots of fun was had by all there, then we loaded up and went to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's. We opened just a couple of gifts there from family friends, and the adults PJ's (Matt, Brenna and I all got new PJ's to wear for Christmas Eve...the kids had already worn theirs the night before because we had already started their celebrations), then called it a night.

Christmas morning was just lots of fun. Luckily for us, both of the kids slept in because it had been such a long day on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, they're BOTH doing the "catching up" sleep thing that they've NEVER done before. Let me just say that it's really nice...We opened up the presents, and Kellen's favorite - by far - was the pirate ship from the VeggieTales Pirates who Don't do Anything. Ohmygosh...He was so excited - thrilled - about that present it's almost indescribable. I got a new digital camera...that is SO nice! Now I just have to figure out how to use all of the various functions...It even has a manual fuction, which is something that I've really been wanting so that I can experiment more with pictures of the kids. Yay!! I get to play around with it now...Matt's big present he had already gotten - tires for his Trailblazer. He's thrilled about it - I guess it's a guy thing? LOL We then had a big lunch there, which was just wonderful, and then the kids went down for their naps.

Afterwards, we loaded everything up and went down into Houston for the other side of Matt's family...more family, more presents, both kids are STILL behaving remarkably well for having two full days of this intense action. Tatum just charmed everyone...and is walking better and better by the day (why am I encouraging this again? I forget...) We stayed down at Gary and Glenda's for quite a while, and didn't leave there until 10PM...got back home shortly before midnight, then got the kids down in bed, finished unpacking from that trip and getting things ready for the next and final Christmas celebration....for my side of the family on Wednesday.

I made two pot roasts in the crock pot (two crock pots, actually), with potatos, carrots, and mushrooms, and let that cook all night long. Wednesday morning we slept in until a little after 8AM (yay again for the kids sleeping in!) and Grandma and Grandpa got here shortly after 9. Most everything was ready for this group, so I finished up the last of the gifts, got lunch ready, and Michael, Jonathan, Tammy, Joey and Allyssa got here shortly after noon. Dad and Matt had run to finish up a couple of the gifts and get some things from the store (darn that missing sugar!) and made it here shortly after the rest of the gang arrived..It was almost perfect timing...I think they had to wait about 15 minutes on the green beans, corn and noodles to finish up before we were able to eat. We ate lunch...lots of lunch, and then opened presents. Kellen and Allyssa (and Joey - although he was more like a babysitter) played a LOT in their room. It eventually looked like a tornado had gone through there, but man...they were having fun!

So today has been a rest day...we ALL lounged in our PJ's until about noon...Tatum was the first to get changed out of hers just because she was getting frustrated while trying to crawl and/or walk in PJ's that were too long (18 month PJ's fit her really well except for being too long...12 month PJ's are getting too tight in her legs - my big girl...), Kellen stayed in his all the way through naptime, and I showered while they were both napping after lunch. It was a GREAT day today...both kids were well behaved, Kellen colored and played with his sticker books, played with his toys and Tatum, plus HER toys (they must be more fun for him now that he's older...dunno...). After we all woke up from naps (unfortunately, mine was just a short cat-nap on the chair), we ran errands in town. A trip to Once Upon a Child to sell some outgrown clothes and toys landed up just enough money to buy the large Shrek and Donkey stuffed toys and a Shrek 2 puzzle they had there for Kellen...I think I made 50 cents or something...but since Kellen is currently sleeping with the Shrek and Donkey and put the puzzle together all by himself almost as soon as we got home, I think it was well worth it.

Maybe tomorrow we'll get more done around the house, but it was really fun just to play with the kids today. Tatum decided that she wanted to walk - really walk. I think I lost count of the number of steps she took...if I had been counting, I guess. I was in shock that I couldn't really get my brain to count steps! Our highest outside of today had been 4 steps...I think this was at least 8...