Our Christmas Holiday

      Christmas came WAY too fast this year!  I was ready for it, shopping wise, but not in the decoration category.  We got our tree up and ornaments put on.  Our stockings were hung and a few decorations were set out, but our tree never got it's skirt on, no outdoor lights were hung up, and my beloved nativity was never displayed.  Nevertheless, Christmas still happened and memories were still made.

     Spencer had to work Christmas Eve, so it was just the boys and I who partook in our tradition of bowling with friends and lunch at Burgerville.

      Christmas Eve festivities are always held at Mom & Dad's.  Dinner consists of a smorgasbord of homemade soups, and of course Mom's homemade bologna & cheese sandwiches. My contribution this year was Zuppa Toscana.  After dinner Caylin read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible, and then we played carols on the chimes. 

      Christmas morning we had to wake the boys up at 7:00 a.m. to open gifts.  It was evident that the boys were up during the night because presents had been shuffled around and stockings had been rifled through, but at some point they retired back to bed and zonked out.  Santa Claus was good to everyone.  He didn't go overboard this year because we opted to go on a family vacation instead, which we are all very excited about!

      Unfortunately, I woke up sick Christmas morning so after breakfast at Marie's house I came home and slept for about 5 hours.  During that time Spencer took the boys to see the second Hobbit movie.  I continued to lounge on the couch while everyone congregated at our house for dinner.  The good news was it got me out of setting the table and cooking :-)  But it didn't get me out of clean-up :-(  After dinner we put on our new Duck Dynasty DVD and drank some Reindeer Milk.  A pretty good combination in my opinion!  Christmas this year was pretty simple, and I found that I really liked simple.