Joy to the World

**I wrote this post piece by piece as I had time so it isn't the most fluid post I've ever written***

Well in the spirit of keeping the holidays interesting, Matthew spiked a fever the day before we were supposed to get together with my immediate family to celebrate Christmas. Of course I was worried about keeping Molly healthy and Matthew comfortable…not an easy task when I’m home alone with the kids. Luckily my mom was off of school and wrapping up her Christmas shopping so she said she would love to come over and hold someone for a few hours. Much appreciated!

Christmas Eve Eve

Matthew woke up fever free! We decided our Christmas celebration could go on! Drew took the day off of work, which was awesome. We got all the gifts wrapped with two “helpers”, hung out as a family and I grocery shopped before the festivities began. Then after naps we headed over to my parents for the celebration. Of course Andrew wanted to start opening presents immediately! But we had to wait for everyone to arrive and get settled. Once the opening began it was a frenzy. Andrew and Kiersten tore through their gifts in no time. Matthew was so funny this year. He had no interest in opening his presents. The one present I put under our tree before Christmas he tore into. I guess he didn’t get the concept because the few I helped him open he loved and wanted to play with. I decided to just leave his wrapped and take them home. The rest of the night we played with the new toys, ordered pizza, and hung out as a family. It was a great time.

Hide and seek was a popular game for the older kids. Matthew wanted to keep playing all night. At one point I was hiding and he was looking for me. He walked into the bathroom and looked in the toilet and said, “no”. Then he looked behind a pillow and said, “no”. Then he walked right past me as I was hiding on the side of the couch. It was so cute and funny.

Hiding

Thank you mom and dad for your extreme generosity and so the wonderful gifts. And thank you siblings for the perfect gifts for my family and me. You know us so well.

Andrew's favorite gift, his robe:)

Christmas Eve

Andrew was so excited to wake up and play with his new toys. I was beginning to wonder if he would be this excited on Christmas morning. Andrew could hardly wait for Matthew to roll out of bed and open his remaining presents (Matthew sleeps much later than Andrew). Matthew did much better without any pressure, just taking his time. The boys played and we had a fire going, it was the perfect relaxing morning. Then we baked and decorated cookies for Santa. After naps we loaded up and headed back to my parents for Christmas Eve dinner with family and friends. It was pouring down rain, luckily not snowing or we would have been snowed in for weeks. The food was delicious. Drew sat in front of the beef tenderloin all night, he couldn’t get enough. Finally Matthew had enough and just kept saying, “home”. He was worn out!

Once we got home we put out the cookies and chocolate milk (Andrew said that’s what Santa likes because he saw it on Max and Ruby). Andrew went right to bed because he wanted Santa to come so badly. It was so cute, his excitement was contagious. Once the boys were in bed Drew and I began wrapping, yes began. We took turns keeping Molly happy and wrapping gifts. Amazingly we finished wrapping about 11:30. Drew opened our bedroom door to take the gifts down and heard Matthew screaming. We went in there right away and he was very hoarse with the deep croup cough. Poor guy. Drew sat in the bathroom with him for a while and luckily the steam did the trick and he was back asleep by midnight. We got in bed and I looked over at Molly, who Drew was holding, and her eyes could not have been more wide open! This was going to be a long night!

Christmas Day

We managed to get a few hours of sleep and a very excited 4 year old woke us up bright and early. He patiently waited for Matthew to wake up who just happened to sleep in later than ever. Once Matthew was up we had the kids sit at the top of the stairs and wait for dad to give them the go ahead. Andrew tore down the steps and was pleasantly surprised with the array of gifts. It was so much fun watching him tear into his presents and look on each tag to see if it was for him. Matthew was REALLY excited by his stocking because it was full of Mickey Mouse and Toy Story fruit snacks…his favorite “snackie”. As we were opening presents it began to snow and actually started accumulating quickly. It turned out to be a white Christmas after all. Once all the presents were opened we quickly got ready for church and headed out. The boys got to wear their new snow boots and backpacks full of “quiet” toys.

To our surprise, the roads were in BAD shape! On our way to church we saw 8 multiple car accidents. Not what we expected considering the snow just started falling a few hours earlier. We came home for lunch and naps and then headed to my Uncle John’s for Christmas dinner. As we traveled back towards the city we noticed the roads were not near as bad and there was hardly any snow on the grass…guess the storm was worse out west. As we were getting out of the car to walk into their house, Matthew hit his lip getting out of his carseat and bit right into it. He recovered rather quickly…just in time for Molly to have the biggest poop of her life. She pooped all the way up her back to her neck. It was a MESS. But she recovered as well and was actually quite comfortable the rest of the night. Being at the Benoist’s was the perfect way to end Christmas day. They gave the kids perfect gifts and had bagel bites for the boys and just made the evening perfect for our family. We had to leave before the FEAST but we got a to go bag and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Playing new Leapster with Poppa