There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

Let me tell you - there truly is no place like home for Christmas. We stayed home for Christmas - unexpectedly. We were headed to Wisconsin, and then the snow came and came and came. The roads got icy, and we decided not to brave it. We had a traditional family Christmas, with just the five of us, and it was amazing. I swear this year, despite my p.m.s. and my lack of sleep, I could feel the magic. We went to Christmas Eve mass with the children's choir; we feasted after mass and the kids gave sweet kid toasts; we read The Night Before Christmas and No Room at the Inn; and then the kids fought sleep until about 9:30. Gannon woke up at 3:30 a.m. and announced that he had waited "long enough" to open presents, crawled into bed with us, and was snoring within seconds. Maguire did as she was told and waited until 6:00 to get out of bed. I think she was thinking that there was a slight possibility Santa hadn't come yet, and she didn't want to break a rule right before he showed up. She likes rules.

Then we opened gifts....for THREE hours. I couldn't believe it. Usually it lasts seconds. But because we were home, we took our time and opened every gift and played with it for a while before we opened another. Rojo preferred to eat the bows, but Maguire and Gan got that look on their face - the one that moms over the world seek - that look of pure joy. I even saw my husband crack a smile or two. (I spent most of the day patting myself on the back for nailing Christmas this year.)

Then, we had a traditional family brunch and spent the day playing with the toys and watching Christmas Vacation over and over and over again.

The one dark spot to the whole day was the snow fort fiasco.

Let me set the stage: Ryan built the kids a snow fort and then came inside after shoveling for about six hours. We were putzing around, when I heard, "Moooooooommmmmm!" coming from outside. I waited to hear it again, and, sure enough, there it was. We hustled to look outside (I wasn't actually putting on a coat and going out there unless it was a real emergency). And we saw this:

THEY WERE STUCK - NO KIDDING - SERIOUSLY STUCK.

Ryan had to dig them out.

After some hot cocoa and a candy cane, they recovered. I was still laughing when I put them to bed that night.

So, next year, we're staying home again. Merry Christmas to me.

t

So...we decorated our tree a few weeks ago. But the kids LOVED it so very much that they didn't want to stop decorating. So they kept decorating, and decorating, and decorating -- they even went so far as to create ornaments out of notebook paper and left over knitting yarn -- and then decorated some more.

Then the little buggers swiped my camera and took photos of

their decorations. I gotta admit, I'm actually quite impressed by the quality of some of the photos. Oneof the older ones has a real talent for lighting and color. Wonder which one....

Nanee and Papa Bill were in town for the first go-around on tree decorating. They got lazy, though, and didn't make their own out of notebook paper and yarn.

Slackers...

December 22, 2009 - I'm pretty sure the world is ending soon...

I had one of those days that I used to think was just a mommy daydream. No one tried to assassinate any one else. I got to take a 12 minute shower, instead of the usual 3-4. (As an aside, it is lovely to be so utterly and completely clean.) The big kids helped me shovel the snow, and when I say "helped," I mean it. The baby only puked on me twice, and both episodes were pre-shower. Gannon told me that I looked "weally pwetty" in my cookie dough and tomato soup stained apron. Maguire practiced reading and displayed confidence that far belies her years.

So, I did what any rational mother would do and I started to make a list of the possible deadly illnesses that I have. Then I realized that they've been watching Christmas movies for the past four days, so they probably are trying to make up for any recent nastiness before the Big Guy makes his appearance. I'm just gonna enjoy it while it lasts. Today, they were angels.