Life With The Shirleys: merry christmas 2012

Christmas is over and the kids are sad. We have had house guests since last Thursday and today is the first afternoon it has just been me and the kids. They are bored with me and sad their grandparents and cousins aren't here to entertain them.

We had a great Christmas this year. I know I will probably say it every single year, but this year was definitely the best. The kids really got it and were so excited to wake up and see if Santa arrived. And boy did he arrive! I loved seeing the kids run down the hall into the family room and seeing all their gifts. The look on their faces was absolutely priceless...they are just so innocent. They seriously could have opened empty boxes and they would have been thrilled. Every gift The Mayor opened, he said "oh look what I got!!" followed by an "Oh My!". Love Bug took her sweet time opening every gift. Savoring the moments...and she is such a girl. She got just as excited about the clothes as she did the toys. She had 4 wardrobe changes during the gift opening. She started in her footed PJs, then had to change into her new pink boots (she refused to put them on with her footed PJs - so it was a diaper with boots), then she had to put on her new coat and then she had to put on her new red top. She loves new clothes!

The kids loved having MeMe and Big Daddy here Christmas morning. Big Daddy and MeMe helped put toys together so it was just that much faster the kids could play with their new stuff. We had a great breakfast together and then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon playing and resting. After Love Bug woke up from her nap, we headed to PopPop and Mamie's house for Christmas part 2.

The 4 of us celebrated with Mamie, PopPop, J, Meega, Bennett and Walker (Uncle Sloan and Virginia arrived later). The kids had so much fun opening their presents and helping each other play. Bennett wanted to play with The Mayor's toys, The Mayor wanted to play with Bennett's toys and Love Bug wanted to try on her new clothes. Walker just enjoyed being cuddled by everyone until it was time for him to nap.

Mamie and PopPop prepared a delicious meal and the kids had a great time sitting at the kids table again. Seriously so genius putting them at a table covered in craft paper, letting them color, play with stickers and eat. It is nice actually sitting at a grownup table and enjoying a meal.

We came home and went straight to bed...the kids were exhausted. Plus, they needed energy so they would be ready to play with Luke and Trey when they arrived the next morning. We celebrated Christmas part 3 with Uncle Tom, Aunt Nat, Trey and Luke shortly after lunch and the kids spent the rest of the day playing. They were only here for 24 hours so there was a lot of playing to cram into a short window of time.

Today we met D downtown and ate lunch together and then all went our separate ways. I had such great plans of cleaning the house once we got home, but since we didn't get home until 3:00 and the kids were unusually needy...and I was so tired...I decided the mess can stay one more day. Now D is coming down with a stomach bug so he will be home tomorrow so who knows what will get done. Praying it is a quick 24 hour thing that avoids the rest of us! I don't want to spend the rest of our Christmas break with sick ones.