A Wonderful Christmas Weekend!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope Santa was good to all of you, because he was certainly good to us here in the GFL!  Robbie and I finished putting the presents out at around 1 AM and then crept into bed ourselves.  The kids slept in until about 7:30 AM, which was about an hour more than my sister got with my nephew!  Lol!  We let the older two sleep in the same room together in their new pajamas.  Of course, there were the hours of excited whispering before sleep was actually attained.

They crept into our room, and Sandy woke me by speaking in a hurried, hushed whisper, "Mommy!  Wake up!  Santa's came!  Come on, come on!"  Robbie and I rolled out of bed, and tried our best to sound genuinely excited as we rubbed the last of the sleep our of our eyes.  I grabbed the camera and took pictures as the children squealed and gasped over their Christmas stash.  After the Santa presents had been thoroughly enjoyed, we moved onto the wrapped presents under the tree.  The rest of the morning was spent taking toys out of packages, the children rotating through their various toys and playing with each of them, Robbie snuck back into bed to grab a 2 hour nap, and I began the preparations for Christmas dinner.

We had a wonderful afternoon with my mother, my younger sister and nephew, my mother-in-law, and sister-in-law.  I cooked the ham and everyone else brought sides from homemade bread, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, mac n cheese, etc to peanut butter pie, pumpkin pie and an apple pie!  On a side note, my mother-in-law makes the BEST apple pie I have EVER eaten.  She only makes it twice a year, for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and always makes an extra one just for my husband.  I literally stuffed myself, and then we all sat around the table, chatting and laughing the afternoon into evening as the cousins all played in the rooms together.  Later, we moved into the living room, as Atticus finally woke from a very long afternoon nap, and Grandma Hemrick (M-I-L) played Christmas carols on the piano, with Robbie singing, sometimes seriously, sometimes silly, and the children running in and out just enjoying the excitement of Christmas.

Later that evening, when it was getting close to bedtime for the kids, the grandmas and aunts all said their good-byes, had rounds of hugs and kisses, and made their journeys home.  I gave the older two baths, where they each enjoyed some new bath "paints" they had gotten, brushed teeth, and climbed into Gideon's bed for a bedtime story with Daddy--a rare treat since he's usually still at work when they go to bed.  I love to watch my husband interacting with my children.  They have such a wonderful bond.  They absolutely adore their father, and he them.  He would make different voices for the different characters, and let Sandy pitch in on some of the short sentences that she could read, and Gideon would throw in his comment on the pictures.  They laughed and giggled as Robbie would change from one voice to the next, and eventually made it to the end of the story.  Then he put them to bed for me while I was busy with Atticus' nightly routine.

We tidied up the house for a while, then settled into the living room.  Robbie enjoyed his new PS3 game, while I worked on my cross stitching and occasionally got up to do some task with Atticus.  We switched over to a movie eventually, while I waited to give Atticus his last medicine in the wee hours of the AM.  Robbie would step outside to smoke a cigarette and we actually got to see the snow beginning to fall shortly before we went to bed.

We woke up to steady snowfall and the beginnings of a rarely seen beauty of a white yard.  The kids were excited and couldn't wait for enough accumulation to go outside to play in it.  Gideon even said, "NOW its Christmas, Mommy!  Its snowing!"  Robbie had to run out that morning and take one of his cooks to work, and the kids and I began our normal morning routine, minus the trip to Sunday school with Nana, of course.  Once Robbie returned, I finished getting the kids ready to go outside, donned in the new scarves and hats that Grandma Hemrick had made.  I was having trouble finding Gideon's mittens, so I told him we'd grab some socks and just use those for now so that he could go ahead and enjoy the snow while it lasted.  As he followed me into his room, he said, "Socks for mittens?!  How clever!"  I almost had to stop walking from laughing so hard! :)  (For those who might not know Gideon, he took FOREVER to talk.  It wasn't that he didn't know how; he was just more than happy to let Sandy do all his talking for him.  So when he breaks out with something like this, it always makes me smile.  Another time, Robbie had made him a monocle out of a fuzzy pipe cleaner.  When Robbie showed him, Gideon placed it over his eye and said, "Hmmmmm.  How mysterious!" He's too funny!)  They all spent about 45 minutes outside, throwing snowballs at each other, making snow angels, having Robbie swing them around by the arms, running, and laughing.  They all came in thoroughly cold, complete with rosy noses and cheeks, just in time for coffee, hot chocolate, and soup and sandwiches.  They're all three napping now, as Robbie gets ready to head into work.  All in all, it has been a wonderful Christmas weekend.  Atticus was home this year, the kids loved their presents, we had a wonderful time with family, and we even got snow!  :)