Our Christmas Adventures...

I'll start by confessing that this post could have been done earlier except today I spent a lot of the day stalking my children with my new I'm-in-above-my-head camera (I've got lots of fuzzy pictures so far), pretending not to be a soccer mom with some serious jamming on Guitar Hero (that is until I was shot in the eye - a direct hit - by a child who wanted to play and who received a bow-and-arrow set - soft arrows, luckily - from Santa), and trying to earn Webkins dollars by playing pre-school age computer games (for the past 3 hours!!) for my daughter so she can wake up in the morning able to purchase new virtual items for her new virtual pet horse. I think I have lost my mind.

So with a bad eye and sore fingers I am finally typing up our Christmas adventures, which really are not over yet since tomorrow my brother and his family come in from New Jersey for a few days.

Christmas Eve was the traditional fish dinner at my mom's, who cooked up a storm but was too sick with this stomach bug to eat. The dinner has been lobster and shrimp the past few years and it is always delicious! Nyah walked into my mom's house and looked shocked that all these people she knew were in one place. Brynn tried the lobster this year and gave it the thumbs up and Nyah ate her weight in cheesecake. While the boys played with Grandpa's toys and played football/tackle with Uncle Darryl and Josh, Brynn could not pull herself away from the Norad Santa tracker except to take a nap in my lap around 6pm... the excitement of Santa coming wore her out!

On Christmas morning Caleb was the first up at 6am, Price next at 6:30, Brynn and Nyah at 7 with Evan, typically our earliest riser, up shortly after that. Stocking were first, followed by the breakfast of champions... DONUTS! Once the grandparents arrived, the madness began. Let's just say our children are spoiled... big time!! They all have new bikes and the boys now enough video games to open an arcade. Brynn has not let go of her new, very large, stuffed unicorn she named Flower and Nyah's new watertable is a hit with all the kids except for her; she prefers her new $3 Magna-doodle.

We went to Doug's sister's for dinner on Christmas afternoon and that was a great way to end the day. I was worn out, though the kids were not... how does that keep happening?

I'm not sure what Nyah thought about her first Christmas; I just know we loved having Christmas with her home. Her spunk is so entertaining. We got a good giggle as she tried to put the paper back on the presents as Evan "helped" her rip it off. She seemed to love having so much going on around her. The more action and commotion the better (she never really gets overwhelmed) as long as I stay within shouting distance.

Tomorrow I am headed outside to take pictures of Doug and his dad's big project from earlier today... it's not exactly Southern Living landscaping but with all these kids around here, such landscaping probably wouldn't last long anyway.

*** Please note that we really do buy Evan pajamas that come with shirts. Between this post and Wednesday's you might think differently. Let's just say we waste our money doing so as he much prefers to wear just pajama bottoms, if even that much, to bed. He is not the only one but his brother realizes I take pictures that might show up on the blog and puts a shirt on for the camera. Evan prefers to show off his muscles.