Finally A Christmas Update...

Nothing like a week after New Year's Day Christmas update...Let's just say, I've been busy and haven't had or felt like having much in the way of computer time. Darling Hubby was on vacation from Christmas 'til New Years and with the cold spell we've had all I really wanted to do was curl up in front of the fire. Plus I was feeling a little down in the dumps, but all that is past now.

Anyway, Christmas was the same as always...a total ZOO! Darling Hubby's brother and family were planning to come in to NY from New Mexico (we haven't seen them since June) and despite their visit, I was adamant that we were going to be home so Bug could have a proper Christmas eve, complete with leaving cookies out for Santa before going to bed, so we crammed a lot of Christmas into 2 days. Sunday before Christmas, we drove down to Darling Hubby's Grandfather's house. With the family growing exponentially the house seems to get smaller and smaller with each visit. Try dealing with too many cooks in the kitchen and then fitting 21 people into a small room for dinner...It's no easy task, let me tell you, and lots of toes get stepped on and people get annoyed...but hey, it's family...they are bound to be annoying, right.

Bug had a good time playing with his second cousin, Brynne. Here they are "napping" under the throw rugs. They're just weird.

After some QT with Grandpa and the various Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and whatnot, we ventured to our little hometown to spend a little time at DH's sister house with her, her 3 kids and his dad (who napped for much of the time we were there since he drove most of the trip from NM) before heading over to DH's mom's house for dinner and presents. Bug had a good time rough housing with his younger cousin, who is a little bruiser...lol He can hold his own with an older brother and sister, that's for sure.

After that, it was on to DH's mom's house. We dined on Grilled Cheese sandwiches and I have to say, it was the best possible meal to have on Christmas...Don't ask me why. Then it was time to "Bring on the Zoo!" When there are 6 small kids (ages 18months to 10 years) and 8 adults all attempting to open gifts at the same time, the noise in nearly unbearable and it's amazing that something doesn't get thrown out accidentally, broken, or opened and taken home by the wrong person. I just think we need to come up with a better way for everyone to go about the whole opening process. Right now someone hands out presents and one person may get 4 gifts before another gets any. To make matters worse, poor Bug kept getting toys that he couldn't play with right away because of space and mess factor and he was very upset about that...and the fact that none of his cousins would let him share in their new toy fun...Plus, I don't even know what people thought of the gifts that we gave because we didn't see if they opened them or not. I like to see the reaction people have to our presents because we do put some amount of thought into what we are buying...I'm digressing...Anyway, we came away with (for Bug) A couple play-doh kits with tons of molds and accessories, footie PJ's, tons of Matchbox cars and little Tonka trucks, and a firehouse Matchbox play set, The Wiggles Getting Strong DVD, a book and a box set of Curious George cartoons and other movies from Scholastic. I got a 7 quart crock pot, 2 crockpot books, an Eeyore sweater, a shirt with a cardinal on it. Darling Hubby got sheets for the bed, a hooded sweatshirt, and The Fantastic Four dvd. I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting...but you get the idea...we needed our big huge Santa bag to bring all the loot home in.

Here is a picture of the whole family after dinner has been eaten and the presents unwrapped.

Since we didn't get started with presents until nearly 8pm it was quite late when we left and despite Bug being obviously tired and only taking a 20 min nap in the car he didn't fall asleep on the way to my parents house like we'd hope. And, upon arrival, wouldn't sleep in the playpen like we'd planned...But that's all for part 2 of the update which will have to come later...So until then....