Christmas

Christmas week was a gloriously hectic time this year, so it's taken us quite a while to get this blogged.  Both my sisters came to town, so we were blessed with 16 more people than usual.

Laurie and Rafe arrived from South Carolina late on Sunday, a week before Christmas.  We had the pleasure of hosting them for the week.  Noah was excited to see his cousin Amelia again, and we were all happy to see Olivia, and how much she's grown.  There are some definite benefits to having a chef in the family, and the following day I came home from work to Laurie making gourmet pizzas being made in the kitchen, and Rafe making the best salsa I think we've ever had as an appetizer.

Our intent was for Noah and Amelia to sleep in the attic again, freeing up some room for Rafe and Laurie in Noah's room, but Amelia decided not to this year.  He was really disappointed.  Elliot slept with him that first night, so it was a big adventure for both of them, but after that, he didn't want to sleep up there alone, and neither of us wanted to sleep up there with him.  So, we put Noah in our bed, and because I was sick and having coughing fits in the night, I slept on the couch downstairs.  The Stuckeys, God bless 'em, all had to sleep in Noah's room, wherever there was room.  I don't think many of us got good sleep that week.

The rest of the week went fast.  Mandy finished her Christmas shopping the following day, as Laurie and Rafe visited with family in Kearney.   The following day, Mandy took Amelia and Noah to gymnastics, where they got one-on-one attention from the coaches due to it being very slow from the holidays.  On Thursday, Mandy and Laurie took the kids to Monkey Business to play, then she and her friend Stacey hosted a Christmas party that night for the boys in Noah and Murray's class.  On Friday, they all went to Science City with the Johnsons and Todd and Dylan.

Noah with his school buddies after cookie decorating party

Christmas Eve finally arrived, and we were hosting.  We thought we had everything ready, but somehow it required three more trips to the grocery store before the fun even got started.  My mom came over to make steak soup, while we got the appetizers ready.  Before Mass, we stopped in at Crown Center to play in Crayola Land again and some of the kids saw Santa one last time, and then went to Mass at Redemptorist Catholic Church in midtown.  It's a beautiful church, but I spent most of mass trying to keep Elliot from disrupting the service.

Afterwards, we all headed back to our house for food and presents.  There were several great gifts, but one of the highlights was when Zeke got a nerf gun, and promptly opened fire on the Marine and some of the other kids.  It quickly turned into a full-scale battle, with Rafe creating a weapon from a toy stethoscope and rubber bands.

Christmas Day saw some fabulous weather - sunny and in the high 50's.  We opened toys and stockings with the kids, who had gotten up at the butt-crack of dawn as expected.  Once Noah and Elliot saw the Pez dispensers in their stockings, all other gift opening stopped until they were gone.  We went to brunch at Karen and Dorans, and given the weather, all the boys had a great time playing in the woods and around the creek.  Even Elliot was enjoying himself, until he fell in the creek.  We got them cleaned up, loaded them up in the van, and they were asleep before we got on the highway.  They needed the sleep desperately, so rather than risk waking them up by trying to put them to bed, Mandy and I sat in the van in the garage while the boys slept.

That night, Laurie and Rafe joined us as we went to Anita and Rick's for dinner and more presents, and lots more chaos.  Noah and Elliot didn't want the day to end, and we couldn't blame them with all those presents.  Elliot got lots and lots of trucks and cars, Noah got lots of Legos and Hot Wheels, a pogo ball and Zoobs to put together.

Even with the busy week before, there was no down day on the day after Christmas.  We ended up with a house full of kids again as the older Thomas/Johnson families played laser tag.  We took the younger kids to Monkey Business to play while they did that.  In what has to be a record, Laurie lost her keys for the first and only time during the trip at MB.  Even better, it was Mandy who was responsible, grabbing them and putting them in her purse at some point (both drive Honda Odessey's so the keys look the same).

On the following day, most everyone went to Shatto Dairy for a tour, but our kids stayed home.  We did meet up at Lisa's in-laws that night for another food fest.

Laurie and Rafe left for the drive back to South Carolina on the 28th, and Mandy and I got to get out without kids for a while.  We took advantage of the gift certificates that Elliot won at the Prostate Cancer Walk earlier in the year, and went to Capital Grille.

It was only a mini-break, as the next day was Steve and Lisa's anniversary.  I went back to work, and Mandy watched Finn, Greta and Luci along with our two.  Steve and Lisa took full advantage of the day, and came back around 11:00 to wake up the kids and take them home.

We took way to many pictures to post.  As always, we had a great time seeing lots of family, and had a great Christmas in 2011.