Just Us: Christmas 2012

Okay, I'm way overdue with this post! It just gets so crazy around the holidays and I wanted to enjoy the time Michael had off from work, and so I was in no rush to get up to the computer to update the ol' blog. :) I had great intentions of getting everything done for Christmas. I even started my shopping early this year. Last year Maddie was still so little and still not sleeping so I didn't have the time or energy to really get into the Christmas activities. This year was going to be different! Was is the key word. While I did have great intentions, my health decided to make different plans for me. The week before Christmas we all came down with a nasty stomach bug-all on the same day. Probably the WORST day of our life. We managed somehow to get through it but the day I started feeling better I got a cold that turned into a sinus infection. I did not have the energy or motivation to do anything. It was enough just to hold down the fort everyday. So I made my m&m kiss pretzels and that's it. No other candy, no cookies, nothing. I didn't get my packages sent out on time and it's a good thing I started shopping early or that would have been last minute too. Kind of a big bummer because I was really looking forward to the baking and making crafts etc. But we did enjoy a few celebrations for the holidays with family and friends.

Christmas eve we always go down to Mitchell for a family reunion (Michael's mom's side of the family). We thought it started later and so by the time we got there it was basically ending. No biggie though because we continue the festivities at Michael's aunt's house. There we snack on treats and the kids open presents. She has a basement with tons of toys so they spent most of the time down there playing. We were able to visit with cousins and relatives upstairs, which was nice. We got home pretty late, so we put the kids to bed and put all the presents under the tree and headed to bed ourselves.

Christmas morning was so much fun. I had anticipated this for so long! Nate is at such a fun age for presents! He didn't really understand that Santa came and put presents under the tree until he got downstairs and saw them all. He ripped through the first one and didn't really get excited or pay much attention to the toy, just wanted to get to the next one. I was a little upset that he didn't care about the toys but he just wanted to open presents! Once they were all open he was so excited to go back through his pile of toys and play with them all. Maddie didn't care much about opening her presents and paid more attention to the toys that were already open. So Nate helped her out some since that was his thing. We played all morning long and time flew. We didn't even realize several hours had passed. That evening we went to Chinese buffet for dinner. We started the tradition last year and this year our friends joined us. In the words of Yao (their Chinese exchange student) "best tradition ever". We think so too. :) Afterwards we went back to the house to visit while the kids played with their toys. It's amazing how a new toy can be such a good babysitter. :)

We ended our Christmas celebration on Friday at the Toppe's. We opened presents, had our big holiday dinner, and played with toys and games (there was also some dancing involved with the xbox). We decided to spend the night-Maddie is old enough that she's not getting up every 2 hrs anymore, although she did sleep with us of course (there was no way she was going to sleep in the playpen right next to us). Nate was so excited to not only sleep in Lucas and Landon's room with them, but in the bunk bed too! I was nervous about him sleeping on the top bunk but he did fine. After breakfast the kids headed outside to play in the snow. Looking like fun, Jeremy rounded up a bunch of winter clothing for us adults and Maddie and we all headed out. We built a snowman, had a snowball fight, and went tubing down a small hill on the side of the house. Awesome. Definitely a memory I want to hold onto forever.