A VERY Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it's already over? Wow, we had such a nice one. I am feeling extremely grateful. Christmas Eve was so nice, Brennan's brother came in from Reno to stay with us for the week. We don't get to see him very often and he's never been to our house so we're loving having him. The kids adore him and he's great with them. I spent most of the day making our special dinner and each of the kids helped with one of our dishes. Abby helped me with her favorite fruit salad, Anna helped with our traditional wassail, Nate helped me with the mashed potatoes (I think he managed to peel one and I did 19 :)) and Ben helped me with the rolls. I have long been really intimidated by anything with yeast (making it that is, I wish I had a fear of eating it). Anyway, I decided it was high time I attempted homemade rolls. They weren't perfect, but they were much better than I expected. Yay for me!


We all enjoyed our feast and then everyone pitched in for the clean-up so we could get on with opening the jammies. After everyone got settled into their pajamas we read Luke 2 and then watched "It's a Wonderful Life" My parents joined us which was a good thing, because me, Nate and they were the only ones that could appreciate that amazing movie. Anna was in tears, Abby was sad and grumpy and Brennan couldn't take it. In his words "it's 99% sad and hard and 1% happy which is too little too late." I know what he means, but totally disagree. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make that a tradition like it was for us growing up. Bummer.

Christmas morning started a little before 7:00 with great enthusiasm. The kids went down and woke Brett up so he could join in all the excitement. They were so rewarding as they reacted to all their gifts. It was a really fun morning. I forced myself to cook breakfast (I was running on pure adrenaline by that point) and told everyone "Merry Christmas" and went off for a long winter's nap. Perfection.


After my nap we headed to my parents' house for more fun and more gifts. My mom ordered 30 foam blocks which she sewed covers for for the kids to play with whenever we're at their house (which is a lot). They were a huge hit. They are a blast. Then she gave all us adults our gifts one of which was this:

It's a painting by my Mom of the house we grew up in, which is the same house me and my family live in now. (Brennan always hates when I say that because he worries that people will think we somehow mooched our house off my parents, so let me clarify that we bought our house from my parents.) Anyway, my Mom painted this and then had 6 copies made. Such an amazing gift. One of the sweetest moments and one of my new all-time favorite Christmas memories is when we opened our painting and I was watching my sister's reaction. I finally turned to get a closer look at ours which Brennan was holding and saw that Brennan was in tears. My sweet, funny husband was so touched and surprised by my parents' gift he literally burst into tears and was using the painting to shield himself from observation. It didn't work, and we (including Brennan) all burst into laughter, but it was sooooooo sweet. I love how tender he is.
We had a great mellow time with our family. The day after Christmas, Brennan's mom, drove up to be with her two boys and the rest of us. We had a great few days with her and Brett. She left New Year's Eve and Brett leaves tomorrow. We loved having them. It's especially been great getting to know Brett better.

The kids spent New Year's Eve with my parents and their cousins. Brennan, Brett, Joshy and me watched a movie. Today we went to my parents' for lunch (and dinner) and played some really fun games. It was the perfect way to end the holidays.