Merry Christmas!

I know it is a little blurry, but at least with this one you can see everyone's gorgeous smiles! Christmas this year was amazing and wonderful...and quiet. This is the first year we've had as just our family since John and I's first Christmas after we were married. It was different, that is for sure. Different in a good way, that is. We invited everyone over for our traditional Christmas Eve feast (Christmas Eve pig out might be a better way to phrase it...), which was so wonderful. Thanks to everyone who came, it meant a lot (especially to Rachel, who is still hyper emotional after the baby and all the lovely hormones that come with...). After that, we mostly just got dinner cleaned up, dishes done, Christmas cartoons watched, Christmas stories read, Santa's milk and cookies (and of course carrots for the reindeer) put out, and kids put to bed. The next morning there was no mad dash to prep anything, so we just took it easy. At our house, Santa doesn't wrap any gift he just puts your stash in a pile with your stocking in front to identify who's whos and covers it all up with blankets. The next morning, the rule is that the kids can't wake us up before 7 am...little did I know that I was going to wake up at 6 and not be able to get back to sleep! Everyone finally woke up about 7:30, and after shuffling around to make sure their rooms were all clean we got to uncover everything. Oh, what joyous rapture, can you believe it? Santa came! He ate all the cookies, fed his reindeer, drank his milk, and even left stuff for everyone...everywhere! After managing to sort out who's stuff was who's, Rachel spent the morning helping to unpackage toys while John made breakfast (you know how the Who's down in Who'sville would "feast, feast, feast, feast"?). After that, the kids had so much fun playing we couldn't get them to get things completely cleaned up until about 4 pm. Then we finally got to the business of unwrapping all the gifts under the tree and we were off again! At least we didn't have to worry about cooking anything...

Anyway, since then we've had ever so much fun playing and watching and playing some more. Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts and thrills, not to mention all the goodies and treats. And that doesn't start to mention how much we've loved all the phone calls and e-mails and Christmas cards!!! We love you all, and give our thanks to God every day for all the wonderful people we have in our lives. We send our love out while wishing every good thing for you this next year, and since I'm feeling terribly original I'll just end by quoting Charles Dickens: "God bless us, everyone!"