Christmas 2011

Christmas this year brought many new opportunities.

For the first time ever, not only were the children part of the Christmas decorating, they actually were the tree decorators.  I strung the lights, and then they did all of the rest.  The tree looked beautiful, and we were all so proud of them.

This year brought several Christmas celebrations.

We started celebrating with cousins before our crew left for Vermont:

Our second Christmas celebration came at CrossFit on Friday night.  Good food, good friends, and kids running around, chasing and laughing.  Monkey sat at a table and read the new book she’d gotten from Uncle Z and Aunt A.  The Buster expected the party to be like XFit Kids, so he had trouble realizing no one was going to organize a game for him.  After the pinata and his huge stash of kit kats, he declared the party second only to Halloween.

Yessa stood in line to do the pinata, but then the pushy and noise were too much, so she sat on my lap and we cheered from the side.  She was able to share in the ample candy, so everyone was happy.

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Then, on Saturday night, we planned to go to the 4:30 Christmas Eve Service at church, but Chip had a small seizure about 3:45, and we didn’t want to leave him, so we decided to have a lovely, relaxed night at home.  Because Buds and the children were leaving for Vermont at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning, Santa called to ask if he could make our house a practice house on Christmas Eve.  The children loved that idea, so after dinner, we all locked ourselves in our bedrooms, and Santa rang the front doorbell as our signal to come downstairs after he left the presents.

We spent the rest of the night packing up the van, playing with the new gifts, and bouncing on the trampoline Santa brought.  Then, bed so we could arise at 5:30 for the crew to hit the road.

A beautiful, peaceful Christmas.