The Christmas post...

...you know, the one with all the obscene amounts of pictures. (Not to be confused, of course, with actual obscene pictures. This post has a most definite G-rating.)

Christmas Eve...

We drove through a massive snow storm to get down to Bryan's parents house for the family party. We were late. But we didn't slide off the road, so that's something.
Lilian got to play Mary in the annual Christmas Nativity. Her first time so she was very excited. And took the responsibility rather seriously...her face, the perfect definition of "serene." Throw in a wiseman and a couple of members of the holy angelic choir and you've got our family pegged.

My gift was wrapped in an enormous bow covered in music notes. My in-laws know me well...

Christmas Day....

Lilian woke up at 7:45...extremely early for her. And immediately made a beeline for the living room. Luckily the sound of her feet thumping to the floor woke me up and I was able to do a mad dash to head her off before she saw too much, too soon. This made her mad. A grumpy 5-year old was not what I had in mind when I had envisioned Christmas morning. Nor was an an early wake up call from a girl who normally sleeps till at least 9:00. (Last year we had to wake her up.) I stuck her in the TV room with a "Curious George" to calm her down a bit while I began the process of waking the teens. We didn't get out to see what Santa brought till about 9:00, over an hour after Lilian had awoken. This being, I'm sure, a severe test of her patience.

The kids happily sorting through their stockings and appeased for the time being...I began breakfast prep. Crepes. A hugely time consuming meal to prepare but the one that had been requested and was a bit of a Christmas morning tradition. By the time all was ready and on the table, Bryan had gone back to bed. So another wake up call was in order before we could begin. And I only detail this part of our morning to show how much time was passing. So that you can fully appreciate the amazement of the fact that we did not sit down to open the gifts under the tree until close to 1:00 in the afternoon!!  (And a few more !!! for emphasis!) This is a bit unheard of with kids. I knew that the great majority of families had long since unwrapped the contents of their tree long before we even started in on our stockings. But I tell you what...it was nice! We had nowhere to be, just us all day long. How relaxing to spread things out a bit (lot).

And as a friend so aptly and eloquently stated about her own living room..."It looks like the North Pole got sick in here!"

And the day after Christmas....

It snowed. Again. Christmas, the day we had nowhere to be and therefore nowhere to drive, was sunny and dry. But like Christmas Eve, the day after Christmas we drove through a massive snowstorm to get to my parents house. We were early...having left earlier to give ourselves more time. See how we learn from our lessons? And we didn't slide of the road, even when we saw numerous other cars doing exactly that. So that's something. Plus it helps to have a big truck with four-wheel drive.

Side note: we came home to 8 inces of snow. EIGHT INCHES!! You have no idea how giddy I was. Could not wipe the grin off my face. Well, you know...after I was finally able to unclench my fingers from the nerve-wracking drive home...

And not that this post isn't long enough as it is, but seeing as I've taken the time to document our first year with Chester, our elf on the shelf...it would be a shame not to post his final few days with us before he was whisked back to the the North Pole on Christmas Eve? (Ha!) 

The kids were a bit aghast when Chester removed the stockings and hung up their (clean from the laundry room) underwear. I have to admit, I had my reservations...Chester may have stepped over the line into inappropriate behavior a bit there. Lilian, however, thought it was hilarious....