It has become a sort of tradition around this here blog to post Christmas By the Numbers.  The post is an attempt at a non-boring holiday recap that can be laughed at by my children once they are grown.

Regular readers will recall the when we do Christmas, we DO Christmas.  Months, weeks and days worth of Christmas.  It feels like it never ends and every year I wonder the same thing..."Why do I do this?"

Just when I become convinced that my mostly ungrateful children will soon expect a present from the waitress at the All-You-Can-Eat pancake buffet...it thankfully ends.


It's starts at my Aunt's house.  The gathering used to be much larger, but most of my cousins don't come anymore.  It's still a fun time.  We have a pot luck and we play cheesy holiday games for cheesy holiday prizes, which is always a hoot.

Of course, my kids end up with LOTs of random things.

I must admit, the kids are actually starting to look forward to going and I really have nothing to complain about.

This year we also attended my husband's holiday work party.  It was at a local hotel conference room and they had build-a-bear show up there.  They also had brunch and free Santa pics. 



My mom, her husband and my grandmother came to visit, bringing gifts on the 23rd.  They spent one night at the house.  We went to family church service.  My grandma was amazed by all the "new fangled gizmos"  What was the gizmo, you ask?  A glow stick.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale


Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. ~Carol Nelson


He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. ~Roy L. Smith


Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. ~Mary Ellen Chase

Friday started out a little crazy and the theme just carried over all throughout our weekend. I woke up to the phone ringing at 6:55 a.m. on Friday. It was the head cook I work for informing me she was sick and wouldn't be in. Something that doesn't happen very often as she has approximately 274 accumulated sick days and no I'm not making that up.

At 7:10 I realized that little G and Big G both have fevers again.

Hubby volunteered to stay home with them and take them to the doctors. They were fighting fevers on and off all week as well as coughs.

Oldest has pneumonia, youngest is getting better.

I had to figure out how to feed 200 + kids without enough pizza. I burnt my arm on the oven and our sub said the same thing over and over again. Fun times.

Kids are on the mend and my dog (who always looks so happy) loves my Santa hat. Thought I'd share this pic.



Saturday we had breakfast with Santa tickets at oldest's school. She begged to go and since we already paid for it and since you can't really "give" someone pneumonia we decided to go. I'm pretty sure this means we won't be winning that coveted parents of the year award. Though I'm doubtful we were still in the running anyway.

To further prove that my kids aren't even the slightest bit sick, we took them to my husband's work holiday party. It was specifically for the kids and at a local roller skating rink. Youngest and Middle have never been on skates so it was quite a work out holding them up. I told hubby not to get skates, but he didn't listen and took a couple of spills I wish I would have gotten on video.

And just to prove that you can't do too much stuff in one day, youngest was invited to a Cookie Baking party by a little girl in his kindergarten class. Her mom pulled out all the stops. The kids made four different kinds of cookies. They each took turns putting in different ingredients. It was a nice event. At the end, they took home a handful of each of the cookies.

It was much warmer at the cookie party than the skating rink that reached a comfortable -12 degrees by lunch time. Seriously, it was freezing in there.

Sunday I should have rested but alas I went to Sunday School, Church and shopping. The good news: I am pretty much done. Need a few stocking stuffers and I need to get busy wrapping, but most of the list is checked off.

What did you do this weekend?

We've been celebrating Christmas since the middle of the month starting with my dad's extended family and then celebrating with my mom and her husband last weekend, we topped things off by spending three days at my husband's parents house.

Here's a picture of me, the kids and my grandma. I just got my hair chopped off and can't decide if I like it or not. Below is a picture of my family with my dad and his wife.

Here are some photo's from this weekend. We celebrated Christmas at my mother's house in Virginia. Thankfully, the weather cooperated. Here is a picture of me with my new Webkinz, Mistletoe the hippo. LOL



Here's my husband, who hates getting his picture taken. Shhhh, don't tell him that I posted this one. His hair is looking a little count dracula-ish...