Christmas in Review

Is it too late to be talking about Christmas?  Hopefully not because I have a lot to say.  I've been too hung over in post-holiday bliss to get around to cracking open Blogger to give you an adequate recap.  But here goes now.

We had a marvelous Christmas.  Probably our best -- for a few reasons.  First of all, Sambo is plenty old enough now to "get it" and anticipated the big day right along with the rest of us.  We've been working on trying to get him to say his own prayers for a good year and finally, finally... he uttered his first prayer without us prompting him.  And you'll never guess what he prayed for:  that Santa Claus would bring him presents.  Beggers can't be choosers, and we were elated that he finally prayed all by himself.  (Even if we are a little worried he'll be a jack Mormon.)

So anyway, celebrating the holiday with the boys was great.  Christmas morning surrounded by kids is about as good as life gets, in my opinion.  Plus, my sister and her family came to visit.  They arrived the evening of my birthday.  She has a newborn, so besides getting "peace and quiet" and lunch out with my best friends for my birthday, I also got to see my awesome nephew, Henry and hold his new brother, Finn.  Made for a perfect birthday!

Christmas Eve 2010.  The boys wearing their new jammies.

Christmas morning was great.  Santa did come and bring lots of presents.  Including an amazing slide he found on craigslist.  Santa is just soooo smart!

We hosted Christmas dinner, which was fun and crazy.  We had 25 people plus two babies.  Hosting made for a very long day, and I think we ought to definitely consider simplifying in the the future... but it was great having so much family here at our house.  And the food wasn't too shabby either.  This family can cook!

I got a new camera for Christmas, so the quality of my photos will hopefully be better from now on.  That is, if I ever learn how to use it. Here's my first attempt Christmas night:

And I apologize now for all the jealousy my darling children cause you when you read my blog.  Yes, I am aware they are STUNNING.  And now I have a good camera to prove it.

The rest of our Christmas vacation was fabulous too.  We had an extremely fun New Year's party with friends and my siblings and cousin.  Then the next day my sister woke up with a horrible case of the stomach flu and since then it's knocked most of the adults out, one at a time.  But that didn't stop the fun.

 6 of the 8 darlings at our New Year's Party

Greg got a little carried away ringing in the New Year.

My sister was supposed to leave to return home to Detroit the Monday after New Year's.  She was supposed to fly home, then fly back across the country to Utah a week and a half later for a wedding.  Rather than torture herself with several cross-country flights with restless little ones, we thought she should stay and torture herself at our house until the wedding.  And so she did!  And having her here was the cherry on top of an already great Christmas.  (More on that in another post.)

One of the best parts of having everybody around during Christmas was having all the cousins together.  Even if Sambo and cousin Henry COULD NOT get along for more than 3 seconds at a time (no exaggeration), and even if we spent the entire time trying to keep the two of them apart, it was still really fun having all five cousins together (all boys!).

Buddy loves the babies!

Baby Camden (11 months) was completely smitten by Baby Finn (9 weeks) -- and the other way around.  Finn would laugh hysterically watching his slightly older cousin. 

Buddy played so cute with Finn.  He would spend 20 minutes stimulating him, then Finn would need a monster nap.  (I feel the same way, Finn!)

Movie time.  An attempt to calm the masses.

Playing at the Children's Museum.  A rare moment of peace between these two.  

Yes, it's confirmed.  I want one of these SOON.

All five cousins before bed.