Let's talk Christmas

Who else is astounded that Christmas break is pretty much over? (I mean, the tree is down...has been for a week...)  Why didn't the 2 weeks leading up to the break go as quickly?

The good news is, I loved every day of the break.  There is just something magical about being home with family.  I love it.

A couple of days before Christmas, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Hart's house to decorate gingerbread cookies with our cousins.  Delicious.

Then of course on Christmas Eve we went to back to Grandpa and Grandma Hart's for the traditional Christmas Eve feast, program and visit from Santa.  Christmas Eve is always a highlight to the break!

Mulligan and Grandma playing a duet.  Sleighride

Gimme and her cousin playing a duet...I totally can't remember the name of the song.

Now, the rest of these pictures are a little out of order.  I'm not going to try to rearrange them because, well, I'm just lazy like that.

So, we'll start from Christmas night.  After dinner, we went over to the church and the kids took a few of their new toys and Ace showed Guy the golf simulator we gave each other.  Now, we can golf all year long.

After the opening of gifts and a little nap (or long nap for me...) we took our children sledding.  I hate going down the hill because you have to walk back up (yep, I'm lazy like that too..) so I stood at the top and shivered.  But, the kids had a blast!!  They would have stayed all day if we would have let them.

Christmas morning, as per tradition, the kids woke us up by banging on the celing downstairs. (They had a slumber party and all slept in one bedroom).  3:30 a.m. was their first signal they were ready to go.  I stomped on my bedroom floor twice indicating they were crazy and needed to go back to sleep.  At 5:30, we heard another pound.  I stomped 3 times letting them know they could come upstairs.  We met them in the living room and they were stoked that Santa made his deliveries.

They all got something they liked.  Double Bogey, like his father, didn't love opening new clothes, but forgot all about his disappointment when he opened a toy.    We've got some work to do with that one.  ;)  My favorite part was watching them open the gifts they got for each other.  We drew names and set a budget and Ace and I took them shopping to buy for each other.  It was so cute how excited they were for the person they bought for!

 I've  been questioning my parenting abilities ever since I saw this hoodie in the store.  I know that Mulligan likes the Warriors.  He likes Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.  When that one guy left the OKC Thunder for the Warriors, Mulligan was torn.  (I was not.  My loyalties lie with the Thunder).  Well, Mulligan has been quietly rooting for the Warriors despite my explanations about how one tiny thing can contaminate and ruin larger things.  (You know, like, who wants to drink a cold lemonade with a tiny chunk of manuere floating around in there?)  Ace talked me into buying this hoodie for Mulli and in my heart of hearts, I thought for sure Mulli would politely ask us to return it to the store.  The expression on his face clearly defines how he really felt about it.  He put the hoodie on and didn't take it off until bedtime.  Where did I go wrong as a mother?  I probably should have changed the analogy up and little bit and instead of lemonade, used Diet Coke.  He probably would have understood that better.  ;)

The day was perfect and we ended the late night by watching a movie (and I took down the tree...).