Christmas in April

Okay, so I'm a little behind. Christmas was hard for me this year. I was SO TIRED. I was SO PREGNANT. Seriously though---I was exhausted. I was shipping gifts late. I was shopping last minute. So not like me. My house was under construction the whole month of December. Then, carpet was installed the day after Christmas. Yep. That's how we operate around here. Life isn't crazy enough for us...so we go and make it just a little more crazy. Why the heck not? Let's work full time, be 8 months pregnant, have a major renovation going on, ship gifts to everyone in other states, send out 75+ Christmas cards, pick out carpet on the 23rd of December, and have it installed on the 26th. We really know how to have a good time around here. Seriously. I don't know what we are thinking sometimes. It all seems well and fine at the time, but looking back on it--we really need to get a grip around here.

The saving grace of it all--Ryan was home the entire week of Christmas. On furlough. Again. No paycheck. Again. But heck--we love having him home because he works so much so the little detail of a paycheck is no biggie (until it arrives in the account and is only half as much :-). No seriously. We had a great time. The pics below prove it. Lots of sweets--decorating gingerbread houses, frosting cookies, Dylan ice skated for the first time, the kids had their Christmas sing a long, and we enjoyed it all. I just couldn't get it together to get these pics loaded up earlier. I didn't blog much. I didn't communicate with others much. I just kept telling everyone how tired I was. So, here I am now, enjoying the pics of a holiday I actually don't remember a whole lot about to be honest. I know the kids had fun. I know I slept alot. I know I cooked a ton of food (of course I did because then I ate a ton of food. I was pregnant remember? Calories don't count for those nine months dontcha know?). I complained a lot. I cuddled alot. We watched dang near ever Christmas movie/cartoon known to man. We decorated cookies three or four times at three or four different locations. Oh yeah--and Santa came. Boy is that a good story. Santa was a little "witty" this year in his comments while he was leaving gifts. I was hiding upstairs with the kids and got to hear Santa talking to daddy downstairs. Santa told daddy what a good daddy he in fact was and how proud he was of how daddy was raising this family. What? How daddy is raising this family? What about a shout out to mommy? I think next year mommy might have to help Santa put gifts out while D and E hide up stairs "pretending" to be asleep. Just sayin!

Enjoy the pics. And yes. I cooked all that food for just the four of us. I was pregnant, remember? :-)