christmas

Christmas Eve we left Jeff's mom's house and headed for my parents for Christmas Eve service at church. The kids were really well behaved and Heather read and sang the songs while Charlie followed along. We managed to not set the church on fire and enjoyed a quiet moment with the lit candles and Cameron on the floor eating raisins. We got home, the kids made a last minute note to Santa, left cookies, milk and carrots and tried to settle down for bed. That was quite a challenge and Santa wasn't able to come until after 10:30 pm. Heather was up at 7:30 hoping that the DS was under the tree. We got everyone up and headed off to see the surprises. Not wanting to be held up by the Santa note (which was the most exciting part last year) Heather ran upstairs crying that she just wanted to see what was under the tree. After calming her down we headed down to check out the gifts. The kids were delighted with the barbies, bakugon, books, socks, and more that santa left unwrapped by the tree. We dove into the presents and the kids were delighted with all their presents (even no mention of no DS!--santa just didn't think it was necessary). Cameron had no interest in the present opening so he just roamed the room looking at everyone else's gifts. Cameron was most interested in the bear that Jeff sent, only after he heard Jeffs voice coming from the box ;-) After all the presents were opened by the kids the adults started in on theirs as well as opening the kids toys to play with. Mom fixed a nice Christmas dinner and we all relaxed. We were able to skype chat with jeff and despite the distance it was good to have him join in the christmas day festivities. The rest of the time my sister and brother were here we spent doing some shopping, some football cheering and I even had a sibling lunch with Kelly, Bryan and Christopher (heather was not happy to be left behind!!). It was sad for all of us to say goodbye to Kelly, Bryan and Christopher but thanks so much to them for their help with the kids and the time they were able to spend with us!