A Glimpse Into Our Christmas

Here is a little peek at what my Mom and Dad's house looks like this time of year. Yep, that is 35 stockings hanging by the fireplace. Yep, all of our names are on them. My siblings and I, our spouses and all of the grandkids.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We drove down to Wichita late Christmas Eve afternoon. The first thing Reece asked Grandpa, was if he had a chimney at his house. Obviously, he didn't see it hiding behind all of the stockings. He was very concerned Santa would not come, if there was no chimney.

On Christmas morning, Riley was up at 4:30!! He is just like me. He said he was too excited to keep sleeping. I still have a hard time sleeping on this one night of the year. I didn't even have any presents to open. I get too excited just to give gifts. Santa brought them a new DS, a DS game and another Lightsaber, so they can feud. The 2nd DS made up for the Wii that we couldn't get. Now the boys can play against each other. They love it and the Wii never got brought up. A couple hours later, we opened up just our family's gifts, before the crowd came.

It was a very calm day at my parents. My mom didn't work too hard, preparing a big meal. Just some casual, delicious finger foods to snack on all day. When it came to exchanging gifts among the cousins, we had them sit in a line, youngest to oldest (youngest always gets to open first), and most of them are at an age where the line stayed put, for the most part. The weather was pretty cooperative too. It could have been a little warmer, but it was nice enough to get the kids outside to burn off some energy.

My gift from Jake, that I am super excited about, was a couple of center, orchestra seating tickets to "The Phantom of the Opera." It won't be until April 9th, and I can't wait.

The day after, we left to go back home about 10 in the morning. Overall, we had a great day with family, and it was one of our few trips to Wichita, that wasn't rushed. Now it is on the the New Year. I wish everyone a fabulous 2009!