Christmas

I have a sick little boy today, so it's been a day of kids watching cartoons and me getting stuff done. I usually don't let the kids watch tv during the week, only weekends- but when they're sick they get to do whatever makes them happy and less whiny! I've been downloading all of my pictures and videos from Christmas and the new year. I always try to get my home videos onto DVD soon after I take them so we can watch them. The kids love watching "family home bideos" on Sundays.

Our Christmas was really fantastic. My Mom, Dad, and 17 yr old bro Cordell flew out from Virginia and stayed over a week. My sister, her hubby and 3 kids came out from Utah as well and we had a full house! Each day we did something fun, like ice skate, go to the Jelly Belly Factory, and we also went to our newly renovated art museum, which was fabulous! It would have been a lot more enjoyable if the kids could handle it for more than an hour. :) The girls also were drawn to and grossed out by all of the naked people and just pointed them out to everyone with an "eeewww!!!". Oh well, I remember being shocked by the nudes as a kid. It's pretty surprising. Thankfully at the end of the museum, we hit the modern sculptures and paintings and the kids loved that, they were all very colorful. Cora and I loved the old renaissance paintings and people. It was great going there with my family, I really enjoy doing that kind of stuff when we are together, I feel like I could've spent all day there. Growing up with an artist father, we always made time for the art museum and went a few times a year. When Dave and I lived in North Carolina, we saw the Monet exhibit- wow. Beautiful.

Anyway, Christmas Eve was very special. Me and my Mom and sister spent the day cooking together in the kitchen, which is one of my favorite things we did. I love that time together and missed my other sis, lorel, badly! We had our feast around 3:30 which left plenty of time for walks, vegging out and leftovers the next day. That night my parents made cute little "hobo bags" (handkerchiefs on a stick) filled with the makings for s'mores. We went out to our firepit and enjoyed the s'mores by the fire. We sang Christmas songs and told the story of Christ's birth. The we went inside and watched "The Christmas Story" ("you'll shoot your eye out!")

Christmas morning was fantastic. The kids loved their gifts and were just happy and full of joy. They enjoyed giving eachother the gifts they had picked out from the Dollar Store a few days earlier. I was happy to have many of my family there, but missed my other sibs! My favorite times were after the kids were in bed and we'd stay up and talk and laugh and play games.