Christmas 2008

So Christmas was hectic as usual...My niece and nephew spent the night with us Tuesday night, so I had a 12, 11 and 8 year old running around the house while I was making all the cookies:) We had fun with them, did some crafts, painted, and they played outside in the snow. I even got them to decorate all the sugar cookies and help pack up all the goodie bags for the day. We headed out to my brothers around 3:00 Christmas eve to get together with my side of the family. Having 10 kids under 13 in the same house is always a trip (8 of my moms grand kids, +2 of Kim's nephews were over) it all went pretty smooth though. We changed things up a bit this year with the kids gift giving, instead of each family buying a gift for all the kids, we had the kids draw names and they each got one bigger gift from their cousin who drew their name. I liked this idea since I usually buy 7 ok, forgettable gifts for each of my niece's and nephews and this year I was able to get my nephew something I know he wanted and loves! (guitar hero) while of coarse still spending less then previous years...we'll see how it goes for next year. Dinner was good, dessert was great, and we relaxed around the fire most of the night.
Christmas Day, Erica got up at 3 but didn't wake us up until 5:30. We were at Justin's Moms at 10am for Breakfast. We teased Grandpa about changing the baby's name to James Obama if its a boy...(big McCain Fan) then headed out to Lake Orion for the rest of the day. We have 3 baby's on the way on Justin's side. His Cousin Chris and Lindsay are having a girl in May, us in June, and Cousin Angie in August. Its so exciting and the summer and holidays next year with 3 baby's is going to be fun. I think it would be cool for us all to have girls the same age but SHHH don't tell my hubby! ( I also have 3 more cousins on I my side all due before August, so we definitly have a baby boom going on in our family's) We played some Rock Band, and had a blast, did the fun white elephant gift exchange, ate some good food and called it a day.
Justin and Erica went to bed early and I stayed up a bit and snacked on some cereal and popcorn?!! lol (I couldn't pig out on my Mother in laws awesome Ham...I still can't stomach some of my favorite foods! damn it) and when I finally did get to bed, I was laying there almost asleep and then felt a little fluttering in my belly...it was the little person in there telling me Merry Christmas! so I yelled and woke Justin up and told him the baby was moving. It was the best ending, to a good day.