Christmas 2016

I hope everyone has been enjoying a lovely holiday!  We have had a wonderful vacation, and I'm sad to see it end (although there's some weird part of me that's always excited to get back to my routine).  Craig's brother and his family all came up from Houston and we got to keep them at our house for several nights.  Usually they've stayed in Culpeper when they're in town, so that was quite thrilling for us!

The day that they arrived I was a bit of a stress case-- trying to get the house clean while all the kids are underfoot is nearly impossible.  And then on top of that, I had to get Ryder to a doctor's appointment (his 6-year check up) AND have some sort of dinner prepared for 15 people that could be kept hot, since we didn't know exactly what time they would arrive.  And it had to be gluten-free.  So, yeah, this was stretching my abilities to their limits.  But I'm pleased to say that we did it!  The house got cleaned!  And Ryder made it to his doctor's appointment!  I had soup, all ready and still hot when they arrived!  And hot rolls, too!  (Okay, those weren't gluten-free.  I can only do so much...)  It's a good thing I had Craig at home helping me all day (and working his tail off) or it would not have happened.

But the good news is that that was the most stressful day for me, and everything after that was a breeze!  So that's a good way to do things.

So, yes, Jason and Jeni arrived, with their four kids and puppy in tow!  We'd set up baby gates in the breakfast nook for their dog, since Camille is a little leery of dogs right now.  She loves the idea of dogs and gets excited every time she sees one, but as soon as it's close enough to touch, she gets scared and demands that I hold her.  So this way she could see the puppy (and make him crazy by staying just out of sniffing range), but not freak out.

Kids table!

And a puppy!

We had a nice dinner and hung out for a bit before everyone headed up to Culpeper.  The next day we were supposed to join them and spend the day there, but I was paying for everything else we'd been doing while I was fighting off a cold, and the cold came raging back at me.  I stayed in bed most of that day, finally allowing Craig to drag me out around 2pm, when we drove to Culpeper and I hung out in the bed in the guest room (with various children who would wander in to snuggle with me) for the rest of the evening.  I was totally lame, but I needed it.

Saturday, of course, was Christmas Eve, and it was busy!  Craig and Jeni were busy making pies, I was back to mashed potato duty.  We followed with my family tradition of ordering pizza and eating it off paper plates, and then went out to look at Christmas lights-- our favorite tacky house was up to 230 of those blow up statue things in their yard!  It's really impressive, in a very weird, completely tacky way. 

All the cousins with Santa!

Kendra and Maya are best friends

And Ryder, as always, is crazy

And before we knew it, we were at the very best part: the kids were opening up their Christmas jammies,

The Houston Smiths were all matchy

Us, not so much (this year)

And then came Christmas carols (with Jeni and Kamryn accompanying on piano and violin)...

Colton insisted that he get a chance to hold Kamryn's music for her

So of course, then Camille had to, too!

I love this picture

We read Luke 2 aloud together.  And then it was bedtime!  With so many people all buying presents for each other, our tree was packed with gifts.  We had to move furniture out of the way to make room for it all!

Reading "The Night Before Christmas"

Santa came!

 Actual Christmas Day went even better than I thought it might!  We let the kids get up at 7am and begin opening presents.  We'd warned them ahead of time that we would be opening things one at a time so we could see what everyone got.  And it actually worked!!!  And the kids were great about it!

We opened stuff until 9, and then had cinnamon rolls.  Then got dressed and headed to church.  (First time I've ever gone to church without showering first.  Weird.  But I didn't want to spend time right then doing my hair and I wasn't sure I'd get a hot shower with so many people using it...)

After church, we let everyone get comfy and grab some lunch (lots of leftover pizza!) while Craig got the turkey in the oven and I got my ham all ready.  Then it was back to opening presents!

Kendra & Maya loving their new stuffed animals

Camille (and Colton!) could not get enough of her new slide

Natalie sent us a Gryffindor scarf!  (I guess she forgot I got sorted into Slytherin!)

Someone got a new cape and mask for Christmas!

I loved Camille's new outfit.  (It's already stained now.  Of course.)

Ryder has been absolutely desperate to have a big stuffed animal pig-- so these made him VERY happy!

Here's a picture where you can see Peyton better

We finished in the afternoon and went back to cooking, eating dinner around 6pm.  We did the dishes before eating pie and then sent the kids to bed.  And then, my favorite thing of all, the grown-ups got to sit around chatting with absolutely NOTHING to stress about.  The only bad thing about this was that I'd lost my voice.  (But that might be a good thing, if I'm forced to actually listen to everyone else a bit more than I usually do...!)

It was a lovely day.  Christmas is the BEST.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful, too!