On the Fast Track to Insanity

And now for the massive recap. This Christmas we experienced the joy of having all my siblings and my mom come and visit for the holiday. And since I'm the oldest of seven, that was a lot of people. One mom, 6 siblings, 2 other spouses, 7 grandchildren, me, and Scott equals a total of 18 people in the house at any given time. All the visits were slightly overlapping, but we still managed to pack in a whole lot of family togetherness. Starting with a little pageant on Christmas Eve.



The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

(Which is a book, yes I know. And also a movie. Which my children are currently obsessed with -- they've watched it 4 times already today and about 7 times yesterday. We just checked it out on Friday night from the library.)

The kids were so excited this year to have more people to participate in our program that they decided to really amp things up by adding musical numbers to go along with the narration and acting out of the story from the Book of Luke. Sophie was an angel for the 3rd year running, Ethan and Grace were Joseph and Mary respectively, Uncle Dodo (Freddie) was the donkey, and Eleanor and Jane were supposed to be sheep. Or maybe the shepherds -- I'm not sure which. The pageant also marked Ethan's debut as a budding pianist. I think we would all be happy to NEVER have to hear him plunking out "Away in a Manger" EVER again. Hahahaha. Bless his little heart. He was so excited to accompany our singing.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

And all through the house, my children were crazy and wouldn't go to bed. After the spiritual portion of the evening was over we quickly turned to the secular. Christmas jammies and new ornaments are a Christmas Eve tradition in our family, and it was fun to have Sarah and Andrew here with Eleanor and Penelope to join in as well. My kids liked the ornaments I made which was gratifying for me, and the jammies I picked out for them were a hit with all except for Grace. I know it's been documented before, but my children have a few issues. They're spirited, and wonderful, and great and all, but they have a few quirks that drive me nuts. For instance, Ethan and Grace refuse to wear socks even in sub-zero weather because it bugs them and makes their feet hot and itchy. Also, Sophie refuses to wear anything but dresses because as she says she "hates pants." Apparently THOSE make her hot and itchy. And while we're on the hot and itchy subject (which really seems to be a major reason for a lot of their irrational behavior) Grace refuses to wear pajamas most nights because they make her -- yep, you guessed it -- hot and itchy. I don't doubt them completely because they all have eczema and their temperaments are such that they often get overheated, but it is still a bit of an annoyance to ME.

So, Grace's big fit of the night was over the Christmas jammies I picked out for her. She finally caved and put them on for the pictures, but then changed right back into her nightgown when we were done. If you look closely at her face you should be able to see her true emotions.

In happier times, opening a present from Papi...


And putting on a brave face for the photo shoot.

A Christmas Carol

Christmas morning dawned bright and early. Despite the fact that Ethan, Grace, and Sophie were impossible the night before and didn't finally fall asleep until WAY too late, they were all up before 7 and ready to go down. A fit from Ethan then ensued when we told we had to wait until EVERYONE was awake. Luckily for all of us, the rest of the house woke up around 7. Unluckily for us, Ethan threw an even bigger fit when we told him they had to pose for the annual on-the-stairs-Christmas-morning photo before getting to the tree. Here are the results...

Grace so graciously changed into her gingerbread jammies once again for the pictures and then changed right back out before going down.

And then they were off and running. Santa was awfully good this year. I'm pretty sure each of my kids got at least one thing that they really, really loved. Always a success in my book. It was so fun having everyone there and between my kids' presents, the cousins' presents, and a few presents for Uncle Jacob, our Christmas tree has never SEEN so many presents underneath it!



Christmas this year was brought to you courtesy of Amazon (which was free thanks to some reward cards Scott won from work!), Costco (oh how I love Costco), and a super score at the local thrift store for Ethan's bike (although it had flat tires and no handle bar grips) and Jane's cozy coupe (which has some slightly wonky and wobbly wheels).

It was love at first sight...thank you Costco with your giant pillow chums for only $17.99.

And now for a little Christmas morning surprise -- Jane had a little announcement to make...


Wait. What was that you say? Oh don't feel too bad. Three out of four children didn't catch what this meant either. Of course, they were a bit sidetracked by all of their presents to truly focus on what was going on, but yes it's true. Jane is going to be a big sister. Sometime on or around August 19th. And, no she won't even be 2 yet. I found out the news a few days before Christmas and we managed to keep it a secret to our families for 5 whole days. I'm pretty sure that's a new record for us. I had my first doctor's appointment last week (and LOVED him) and I was able to have an ultrasound to determine the due date. Even though I was only about 9 1/2 weeks at the time, I was so surprised to see the little peanut moving all around! It was wiggling its tiny arms and legs all over the place and it was the cutest little thing I've ever seen. All of a sudden it all became completely real to me. I will be a mother of FIVE in just a few short months. So yes, my friends, we are on the fast track to insanity here in our household! I'll let you know how it goes. (Any suggestions for girls names are welcome -- we're kind of running out. And since I feel like this baby's a boy and I've been wrong every single time, we're kind of assuming another girl is on her way.)



The Gift of the Magi

On Christmas evening Emily, Jeremy and Pearce finally made it to town! Emily came bearing gifts for all the kids as well as an awesome present for me. Me and my siblings decided to do a name exchange this year and by some big coincidence (or perhaps not since Emily is the one who pulled names for everyone) me and Emily had each other's names. The super talented Emily made pillow cases for my kids, a family tree for my mom, and the COOLEST present I've ever received in the form of a watercolor painting of my favorite books. Seriously, so awesome. Scott was in on the conspiracy and provided Emily with pictures of some of my favorite books, and then she went right ahead and painted them. Amazing. Here are the pics:











And although my gift wasn't nearly as awesome as hers, here is what I got for Emily -- a recipe book with blank pages that I filled in with some of our family's favorite recipes for her to add to, and an acorn wreath that I made using a straw wreath, a lot of acorns, hot glue, and spray paint. I didn't take a picture of hers before they left, so I'm posting a picture of the one I made for us that is hanging on the front door. Hers is a little bigger and spray-painted Ivy Leaf green and has a white ribbon, but other than that they're pretty much the same.






And that's a wrap. The rest of the Christmas vacation was spent hanging out, playing games, getting frozen custard, catching a few movies, eating, talking, laughing, and having fun. We were sad to see everyone go. :(

Now that Christmas is over, I for one am ready for Spring. Unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating and to add insult to injury we've had TWO snow days in the past week and I'm afraid there are more to come. Wish me luck -- only two or three more weeks and then I should be feeling a little better and more able to care for my children. Not to mention keep the house clean. And POSSIBLY stay on top of the laundry. Until next time...